The Hekamon (54 page)

Still no screams, or sounds of any kind, and no sign of
Kormak, either. What had happened?

Enough time had passed, Alyssa realized, not for Kormak
but for herself.

The paralyzing shock of her brothers sudden and
untimely appearance wearing off. The dawning realization of her own
thoughtless and panicked reaction to it. She would have been in
trouble, yes, but she had thrown Galvyn to the wolves. She had to
help him.

She immediately entered into the cave, walking quickly
at first and then running. The torch only illuminating a little way
ahead, but it was enough. She was agile and nimble, skipping past
fallen rocks and over the uneven ground. Her confidence growing, she
moved faster until she was at full sprint. Her heavy miner's boots
now protecting her feet from the sharp rock underfoot. So this is why
they wore them.

Within a minute she was already a long way into
the tunnel. Had they really come this far? There had been no other
passage leading off, not that she had seen. They must have come this
deep and she was terrified at what she might find ahead.

"Kormak," she screamed into the darkness desperately,
"Stop."

If there was a reply, she hadn't heard it, nor could she
have. Not over the sound of her own breathing and heavy, echoing
footsteps. She wasn't interested in a reply though, just making
herself heard and making her brother relent in his pursuit.

Her desperation mounted, heart pounding and tears
welling up. Galvyn must have run with such fear to have outrun Kormak
for this long. Her brother was fast, even faster than she, Galvyn
must have been terrified to have stayed ahead of him.

Alyssa was
about to scream out again, when she saw something ahead. A glowing
light and at the speed she was running she reached it in no time at
all. As she did, she could see by the light ahead of her, that the
tunnel widened and became a cavern. Could this be the end? What might
she find here?

Entering the cave, she slowed and could see
from where the light was emanating, a single burning log laying on
the ground. Why was it there? Which of them had dropped it and
why?

She had a feeling of foreboding, this was not a good sign,
this could not end well. None would give up their light in this all
pervading darkness without good reason.

Moving deeper inside, Alyssa saw, by the light of both
her own torch and the one on the ground, that this wasn't the end of
the tunnel. Instead, the passage veered left and continued further
into the hillside. Maybe even to the Hekamon itself, so deep were
they into the mountain.

Yet there was a torch on the ground, why was
it there? If the tunnel continued on, why drop it? Then she heard,
and understood.

"Alyssa." a voice called to her from the darkness.

The reverberating sound helped her make sense of her
surroundings. Half the cavern floor was rock, half was crevasse. A
long, deep scar in the rock opened up along the right side. The
meager light of the burning log and the uneven shadows making it hard
to distinguish.

"Kormak?!" she said, seeing fingertips on the
ledge, her voice a mixture of relief and confusion.

Her brother's voice, one of terror, "Help me."

Kneeling down and peering over the edge, Alyssa looked
at his predicament, and he looked back at her, his eyes fearful. His
attempt at a smile flickered only briefly, "Quickly, I can't
hold on much longer."

She nodded and looked along the ledge to weigh up her
options, gasping at what she saw there. Galvyn was hanging from the
ledge, as well, they had both run straight on and over.

Alyssa looked at him and held
his stare.

Galvyn's expression was one of fear but there was
something else too, a haunted look. She wanted to turn away but couldn't,
seconds past, it felt longer, it felt an eternity. His eyes conveyed a message, but she closed her mind to it, she understood too
well.

It took her brother's voice to drag her away.

"Alyssa, you need to move quickly," Kormak
pleaded.

He was right, she could help. She had to help.

Jumping
to her feet, Alyssa reached for some twine on her belt. Less than
rope but more than string, it was something that she could make many uses
of. She had been cutting lengths off for snares and could have done
with its full length now, but she hoped there was enough.

She placed a loop in one end, and the other she wrapped
several times around a two foot high stalagmite growing out of the
cavern floor. Water seeped in and the rock was slippery, with its
incisor shape rising to a point. The life line would not hold, she
realized, and she would have to support it herself.

Taking the looped end, she went back to the edge of the
crevasse and showed it to Kormak, so he understood its purpose, before
lowering it down and finding she had measured it perfectly.

"Wait! Not until I say." She urged, going back
to the rock around which the other end was bound, and holding it
place so it wouldn't slide off the anchorage. "Now."

The lifeline went taught as Kormak placed his foot in
the loop and gave it his full weight. The tie held and so did the
twine itself. A break at that moment might have sent her brother
careering down, but instead he was able to leverage himself onto his
elbows, and from there, drag himself onto the ledge.

With her brother safe, Alyssa leapt up from where she
had been holding his lifeline and hugged him. He was shaking and
exhausted from the exertion of holding on.

"Sister, thank you," he said, between gasps.

"Quickly, we must help Galvyn. The twine won't
reach but together we can pull him up." She said, and tried to
move to Galvyn's location further along the ledge but couldn't,
Kormak's hug had turned to a restraint.

She looked at him but he shook his head.

"We must," feeling a rising panic. She would
need her brother's help, she wouldn't be able to pull Galvyn up
alone.

"We can't," he said, impassively.

"Kormak," she said, trying to calm herself and
find the right words. How could she say that Galvyn hadn't done
anything wrong. "It wasn't how it looked—"

"It's too late."

For a moment she wasn't sure what he meant. It couldn't
be undone? She couldn't talk their way out of it? But it was the look
of finality in his eyes. A look that said the matter was closed, and
there was nothing more that could be done, even if he wanted to.

She shook her head, with tears starting to well up and
looked to the ledge. It was hard to be certain in the faint light,
yet she knew. Alyssa pulled away from her brother's hold and stepped
to the edge of the crevasse.

Galvyn was gone.

She stood there,
looking into the darkness below, tears rolling down her cheeks and
falling into the abyss.

Kormak stood next to her. He seemed to exude some
sadness, also. Perhaps because it had nearly been his own fate, it
had brought him some sympathy for his foe.

Reaching down, he took a
small rock from the ground and dropped it over the ledge. It fell for
some time, before the sound came back of it hitting the hard rock of
an unseen floor in depths below.

Neither of them spoke, the long
silence of the rock's fall said it all.

The light of the candle extinguished, Tregarron placed
the lantern on the shelf along side the others, before removing his
coat and placing it on a hook. He acknowledged the guards leaving
for the night, before joining Kate and moving into the courtyard of
the fort.

They made their way to the keep, where he opened the door
for his wife and followed her into the corridor that lead to the
great hall. He had barely stepped inside and closed the door, when he
heard Lord Jephson's voice.

"Captain, Kate, are we making progress,"
Jephson said, striding from his chancery and meeting them halfway.

"I think the situation is now under control and
matters will shortly be resolved," he replied, before Kate gave
him a look indicating she thought that might be an optimistic
assessment.

"Good, good," Jephson said, before seeing
Kate's reaction and giving them both a look that suggested they
elaborate.

"There are still issues to iron out, it's true,"
he said, reassuringly, but Kate added her own take.

"We can't rule out a potential threat from
Fennreans," she said, causing Jephson eyes to narrow with
suspicion and Tregarron's to roll, despite his attempts to give
nothing away.

He had learned never to warn Jephson of threats. The man
was naturally suspicious and reticent at the same time and saw
potential plots everywhere.

If told things were calm he would think
it the calm before the storm. Told it was stormy, then would think he
was being rushed to action and say things would blow over.

If told there was a threat, would assume Tregarron was
angling for more resources, which he usually was.

This time, though,
Jephson seemed more willing to take the warning at face value,
looking to him for confirmation. He indicated that what his wife had
said was true, and, after a thoughtful pause, Jephson spoke again.

"I was worried that might be the case. Kate would
you be so kind as to check on Brigantia for me. Please ensure her
tower is secured, more so than normal. I will need you to be vigilant
until I'm satisfied the threat has passed," Jephson said, before
turning to him. "Captain, I need to be fully briefed."

"Of course," he replied, and while Kate moved
to the west tower, and Brigantia's quarters, he followed Lord Jephson
to his chancery.

Once the two of them were inside, Jephson made a
point of ensuring Kate was through the door of the west tower, before
closing the chancery door and turning to him.

"Does Kate know?"

"About?"

"The prophecy I was given, about the tattooed woman and the destruction she would bring?"

"No. At least, I don't think so. She hasn't learned
anything from me anyway."

Jephson walked over toward his desk, "Just now, she gave the impression she was aware of the
situation. She seemed to understand the potential dangers and the
connection with the necklace."

"Kate heard how the fugitive suspected of stealing
the necklace was treated, and the violence he was subjected to, once
on the Fennelbek side of the bridge. Since that man is likely to know
the Fennrean necklace was given to me, she is wary for that reason,"
he said, watching as Lord Jephson started opening and closing desk
drawers.

"Yes, and you gave it to me," Jephson said,
distractedly. "Kate is right to be alert to the dangers, even if
she doesn't know why," now looking under papers laying on his
desk.

"The matter concerning the prophecy of the tattooed
woman was dealt with many years ago," Tregarron said. "If
there was ever any truth in it, it was over long ago. The necklace is
probably just a coincidence, such patterns are common amongst
Fennreans."

"We can't be too careful, the warning I was given
came from no ordinary woman," Jephson said, giving up searching
his desk. "What did I do with it? You didn't take it with you
again, did you?"

"No, it must be here somewhere, I saw you put it in
your desk drawer," he replied, glancing around the chancery
briefly, then watching as Jephson started to search a wooden cabinet.

"I hear there was another man taken to priory, who
is he and what is his condition?" Jephson's asked, his voice
muffled and accompanied by the sound of things being moved around
inside the cabinet.

"Jervay wouldn't tell me, or even let me speak with
the man for that matter, saying something about confidentiality."

This caused Jephson to stop his search and face him with
a look of disgust.

"What? The pryor has ideas above his station. What
if the injured man is involved in some way, Croneygee might well have
put up a fight. He is getting on in years but was a scrapper in his
day," Jephson said, moving to search a cupboard.

"I did consider that possibility and was
contemplating a forced entry to the priory so that I could establish
the facts for myself, when I received a report from two of my men.
It's more likely that the person responsible for the attacks is a
Coralainian who has crossed the Rhavenbrook Bridge into Fennelbek.
The man taken to Jervay is almost certainly another of his victims."

Jephson, finding no sign of the necklace in the
cupboard, went back to his desk and sat down. His focus turning to
the Coralainian.

"Tell me what you have found out about the
fugitive."

With his lordship seated, Tregarron sat down, too.

"It's my understanding, that he is a thief called
Hayden. Not only did he steal the Fennrean necklace, he may even have
stolen the Plautius Gauntlets from the Halvyon Temple vaults."

"Then he is no ordinary thief. Stealing those
gauntlets would not only be extremely difficult, but also an act of
sedition, a capital offense in Coralai. They would take that crime
very seriously."

"They would take it seriously, and I know for a
fact that they are."

"How?"

"One of the Coralainian prisoners is the son of the
saceress, recovery of the relic is clearly a priority."

"We have the son of the saceress in our prison?"
Jephson said, incredulous at the revelation and slowly getting to his
feet. "Do they know, do you think?"

"I don't know yet."

Tregarron watched as Jephson started to pace the room,
thinking about the implications, "Might they try to release him,
by force I mean?"

"Their behavior is unpredictable on this matter, we
don't have much by way of diplomatic ties."

"It's lucky I have ordered in more guards from the
villages," Jephson said, deep in thought. "They will start
arriving tomorrow."

"I'm sure the authorities at the Halvyon Temple
will seek a settlement on the matter first," he said, and it was
and idea that seemed to get Jephson's attention.