The Hekamon (45 page)

"If what you say is true, and there are no other
Coralainians here, then I need to know, have you been dealing with
Fennreans?"

"Fennreans?" The young man was incredulous,
"The savages from the swamp? What would we want with them? I've
never even seen a Fennrean, and have no wish to do so."

"You know, Aegis, I don't like being lied to, It's
just one of those things. I consider it no different to being
punched, kicked or spat at, and I retaliate in kind. Why are you
lying to me?" Tregarron said, getting close to the young man and
fixing him with a stare to convey his seriousness.

"Captain, I'm not lying. There has been no dealing
with Fennreans, nor will there be," Aegis said, returning the
stare, to emphasize his truthfulness.

"Then why did I find this," he said, taking
out the bag of clay vials, "on your companion's person,"
holding it up in the light of the lantern.

Seeing the pouch, the son of the saceress closed his
eyes. It was obvious that he both recognized it and knew it could
spell trouble. He sighed deeply, before answering quickly and,
Tregarron suspected, truthfully.

"When searching for the gauntlets, I found that bag
under a lose tile on the floor of the trading post. Gregario took it
for himself. He shouldn't have done so. It was not what we were there
for, I should have made him put it back."

"Why didn't you?"

"The men don't always do what I tell them, even
though I'm their superior, I don't think they like taking orders from
a younger man. I just let some things go."

Tregarron straightened, returned the bag to his coat
and, without speaking, took the lantern down from the hook and moved
toward the door.

"Captain, are you going to release me?"

"No."

"I demand to be released. We were on the highway,
the route of safe passage, and not in uniform."

"The rules of the Aquassent Treaty are not
complicated," Tregarron grew angry, "each of our militaries
keeps to its own territory. You may not have been in the guise of
your militia but you were conducting business as such."

"But—"

"There has been an assault here in Demedelei, in
the shadow of this very fort. I will investigate it until I'm
satisfied I have the answers," he said, his anger subsiding and
authority returning.

"But I haven't done anything wrong."

"You broke into a trading post, you assaulted and
stole from the merchant there and, if that wasn't enough, you were
found to be in possession of illicit herbs," he said, before
turning back toward the door.

"That was all Gregario's doing," Aegis said
plaintively.

As he opened the cell door, Cardell arrived with a bowl
of broth. Tregarron waited for him to hand it to the prisoner, before
they both left the cell and Cardell locked the door.

"Was he co-operative, Captain."

"Yes he was," he replied, as the two men moved
along the passageway, with the light cast by the lanterns causing
their shadows to dance on the walls around them. "And he is not
someone we can be heavy handed with anyway. Not unless we want to
resume hostilities with Coralai. Be gentle with him Cardell, it's not
an order I give very often I know, but that's how it is with that
one."

"As you wish, sir," Cardell said,
despondently.

"However, he has accused his fellow Coralainian of
breaking and entering, assault, false imprisonment, theft and
possession of hallucinogenic substances."

A huge grin spread across Cardell's face, and Tregarron
shared his smile this time.

"His he off limits too, sir."

"No Bailiff, he isn't and I think he will tell us
everything we want to know."

"I can guarantee it, sir."

"Is he ready to be interrogated?" he asked,
remembering that the man had been the more badly injured of the two
Coralainians.

"The last time I looked, he was still out cold,"
Cardell replied.

"Then it will have to wait. I will use the time to
speak with Lord Jephson. He is going to be very interested to know
who is residing in his prison."

The guard had reached the next alleyway.

With his back to Kormak, the man looked to his left and
into the forests of the glades, and then to his right, and down the
alley to which he was adjacent. Kormak moved his hand to the handle of
the blade on his belt, waiting for the man's next move. The guard
waited a few seconds and then turned to his right, walked into the
alleyway and out of sight. Kormak hadn't realized he was holding his
breath until that moment, he exhaled with relief and smiled at the
close call, but knew he couldn't dwell.

During
his time in the Egret Patrol, Kormak had spent many hours doing just
that, patrolling. Walking the paths and circling the perimeter of the
Egret Stockade.
That
guard hadn't been out for an evening stroll, he was patrolling the
village, and maybe even guarding this very building. The one between
the two alleyways he had just traversed. If he was, then he would be
back, and soon.

Kormak knew the monotony of walking the same route would
dull the man's senses and lower his alertness, but not to the extent
he would fail to spot him a second or a third time.

He tried to gauge
the size of the building and the time in would take the guard to make
is way back around again. The answer, he realized, was not very long
at all, a minute at most.

If Kormak wanted to continue searching Tivitay, he could
take the chance to get passed these alleyways now. The opportunity
was there, since the guard was probably around the front and on the
street, but nearly being caught had unnerved him. He tried to
understand what the guards were up to. Why was there a guard
patrolling here anyway? There was one here and two had even gone as
far as the bridge. It was rare for them to go that close to the
marshes, and for them to have followed the Coralainian that far,
suggested something serious must have happened.

He would have to think about it but he couldn't do it
here, he wanted to get away and into the cover of the trees and fast.
He felt exposed, vulnerable. Looking to his right and left, and
seeing the way clear, he broke away from the wall and ran across the
open ground to the tree line, before weaving through the first few
trees and throwing himself behind the wide trunk of a large tree.

Its
rough bark and reassuringly solid bulk obscuring him from view. He
peered around and back the way he'd come, but saw nothing and heard
no sounds that would suggest he'd been seen.

Staying close to the tree, he continued to watch.

Once
again heard the sound of footsteps, muffled this time by distance and
the trees of the forest. A few seconds later, the guard reappeared,
emerging from the same alley he had a minute earlier. Stopping, the
man turned and looked to his left. If
the guard had done that last time, he would have been seen.
What would have happened then? Before he had a chance to tell himself
he would have escaped the situation without difficulty, the guard
spoke loudly.

"Any plans for this evening?"

Kormak drew back, hiding behind the tree completely.
Could he have been spotted? Not in this light, surely, with only his
face visible and from a distance of fifty yards. His tattoo was not
only a badge of honor, it served to camouflage him, the irregular
dark blue, almost black patterns disguising the features of his face.
But what if he had been seen? Might he be a match for them with just
a dagger? He started to doubt it. In that case he was
limited to one option.

If he'd been seen he would need to run, and if he was
going to run, the sooner the better. Go, while he had a head start.
Run and follow a circuitous path back to the bridge, his plans for
bringing Alyssa tonight back evaporating before him. As he readied
himself to burst out from his hiding place. Another voice stopped
him, and not a moment too soon. He hadn't been seen after all.

"Nothing I couldn't cancel," another guard
said, from the side of the village closer to the marshes.

There
were two of them
.
They were calling to each other, and not to him. He wasn't about to
get caught, not yet anyway, but his situation was still precarious.
He pressed himself close to the tree but the sounds that followed
told him that the danger was receding. Footsteps, reverberating on
the cobblestones and
diminishing into the alleyways.

Kormak wondered how close he had come to being to being
seen by the other guard. Maybe some alleys were not paved. Or maybe
that man was just lighter on his feet, his footsteps harder to hear.
Or he'd walked a longer route. Whatever it was, he knew it had been a
close call.

Getting arrested by the guards was looking a real
possibility. Especially if there were going to be a number of them
prowling the alleyways. But why were they even in the village? Who or
what were they looking for?

From what he could see they were
patrolling rather than searching the properties, which suggested they
were either looking for someone, or guarding against someone.

Could the focus of their interest be the Coralainian
that crossed the bridge earlier? If that was the case, why continue
to patrol the village? The two returning guards would have seen the
man was in Fennrean custody, there would be no point searching for
him here now. Perhaps the accomplice the two guards spoke of was the
object of their attention. This seemed more likely.

Satisfied the patrolling guards were now gone, Kormak
put more distance between himself and the village. Since a direct
route back to the bridge was risky, he thought it would be better to
head toward Tivitayall first. He started walking in that direction,
and fifty yards further into the woods, the village behind him was
already out of sight. It gave him the opportunity to consider things
and make sense of the guards behavior.

There were two explanations he could think of. The first
was that their actions were not unusual. He didn't know the movements
of the guards well enough to judge whether their patrolling of
Tivitay was normal or not. This might just be how they do things
here. He and his fellow ferguths kept watch along the Fennelbek Way.
The guards here might do the same, along their stretch of the route
of safe passage, this seemed entirely possible.

The second thought worried him more, much more. Could it
be something to do with Alyssa? Might she have been suspected of
being a Fennrean up to no good and reported? Or worse still, might
something have been done to her? Something that got the attention of
the guards. Her dagger had been taken from her, that much he knew. A
scenario presented itself to him.

She had been searching the woods for her necklace and
had made it as far as Tansley's trading post. Either there, or
somewhere near there, she encountered some men looking for the iron
grippers. She was just a girl and so would have been easily disarmed.
Once threatened, she would probably have told them where to look.

Perhaps they discovered that she was looking for
something, too. They tricked her into revealing to them how they
could find the grippers, promising to tell her in return how she
could recover her necklace. She valued that necklace more than
anything.

But would she have betrayed him? Revealed what she knew
just to get her necklace back? Yes, she would. Kormak was sure of it.
It was why he had been so quick to pawn it to Tansley. Alyssa's
loyalties should be with him, Tolle and the ferguths, not to a shiny
bauble. Her priorities were wrong. Kormak kicked out at a rotten log
at the realization that his logic was sound.

That, or something very close to it, is what must have
happened.

He was now well out of sight of Tivitay and in much more
familiar territory, not only that, night was falling. It was his
favorite time and place. The woods at night. Being on the wrong side
of the river brought some danger, too, even better. Walking and
letting his mind wander, he thought more about his sister.

He wouldn't be too hard on her. She was young. He would
forgive her. She would forgive him any mistakes he might have made,
too. Not that he needed or wanted to be forgiven for anything. Being
rid of the necklace was good for her, he'd done her a favor.

It often
seemed to Kormak, the necklace gave his sister strange ideas, she even talked
to it, claiming it had special powers or something. That could not be
healthy. She was better off without it. Maybe now she would be less
willful and more accepting of what was truly important. Her mind
would be free of distractions.

He might even let Tansley keep it and take some more
weapons in place of it. Or maybe just call the deal closed. Yes,
that's what he would do. The herbs and the necklace had bought him
the iron grippers, without doubt a priceless artifact. In the process
he had freed Alyssa of what held her back, chained her down and kept
her in perpetual grief. It had all worked out perfectly. At least, it
will have done, once he'd brought her safely back to the marshes. He
was still working on that.

He gave some thought on how best to achieve it. Should
he return to the stockade and talk to the others? He could tell them
about the patrolling guards and then discuss the best course of
action. It would mean returning without Alyssa and asking for help.
He didn't want to do either, not if he could avoid it. It would be an
admission of failure. He should be capable of bringing his sister
home by himself. It was his duty.

Perhaps he should wait until he got to Tivitayall before
deciding what to do. He would rest and contemplate things at the
stones there. He found the stone circle gave him some solace and
inspiration. Not that the stones spoke to him or anything. His mind
was sound. Curiously though, just the thought of Tivitayall seemed to
give him an idea.