The Hekamon (44 page)

It was for this very reason that he'd brought Alyssa
into his plans in the first place.

His idea had been to allow his sister to become more
familiar with the area south of the river. That way she could conduct
their business here in Demedelei. She was not a ferguth, she was just
a girl. Harmless, anonymous and would be ignored.

Once their trade
with the merchant on the highway was generating some revenue, his
sister would come in useful. Once they had some some legal tender,
some hard currency, she could be dispatched to buy things that they
were not able to make for themselves.

That had been his plan.

Well if her first trip was anything to go by, she was
going to be more liability than asset. He would have to decide
whether he would ever take her with him again, once he'd got her home
form this journey that is. His search for her would begin at Tivitay
and he was getting close.

As he neared, the distant sounds of the mine workings and
workshops of Serfacre became louder, and a few hundred paces later,
the buildings that made up the village appeared through the trees.
This view was one that would normally indicate that he'd strayed too
far west, but since Tivitay was his destination, he stopped, and
planned how he would get closer still.

Could he simply walk the length of the street and see if
he could see any sign of her? Maybe talk with some of the vendors,
ask if they had seen anyone matching her description? It wasn't a bad
idea. The shopkeepers might not like Fennreans but they would
tolerate him for a short time, providing he didn't create a
disturbance. They would answer his questions for the sake of moving
him on without fuss if nothing else. The shopkeepers shouldn't be a
problem but any guards he encountered would be a different matter.

Walking through the trees, he approached from the east.

The village might be small but Kormak could see that it
had some impressive buildings, by Fennelbek's standards anyway. At
Ochre Hill they mostly had single story wooden huts but here there
were four story buildings with slate roofs and large windows. In some
of the houses the windows glimmered seductively with lamp and candle
light. There were more being lit as the last of the daylight
vanished. These homes looked warm, sheltered and comfortable.

As Kormak was deciding his next move, a thought came to
mind. The two guards that he'd followed this way, had seen him and the
rest of the Egret Patrol apprehending the Coralainian and doing so
in a forceful manner. Kormak wondered what they might do if they saw
him. Would they use it as a pretext to stop and search him? Or even
worse, take him to the fort for questioning? It was not something he
was willing to risk.

He wouldn't be much help to Alyssa in her
current predicament, if he was carted to the Demedelei prison like a
common thief. No, he would have to reconnoiter cautiously and see
what he could find out. A encounter with the guards was something to
be avoided at all costs.

Kormak decided the rear of the buildings would be a good
place to start his search.

He moved onto a strip of land separated the village from
the forest. Leaving the cover of the trees, he became visible to
anyone who might be nearby.

He moved cautiously, his head
turning quickly as he walked toward the first building. Once there,
he backed himself up against the wall and breathed easier. He was
confident he had not been seen, and his search could now begin in
earnest.

He moved to the corner of the house, or shop, or
whatever it was, and peered down the alleyway there. Nothing. Nobody
in the alley, or on the small stretch of the street the alley opened
out onto. He moved across the gap to the next building.

He noticed that there were no windows here that he could peer
into, at least, not at ground level. The buildings of the village set
their backs firmly against the forest. Walled up, bolted tight,
shuttered and closed off. Visitors from the direction of the forest
were not welcomed, that much was clear.

He reached the next
alleyway. Nothing again, neither to see or hear. With only the faint
smell of ale arousing his senses. He waited to see if there was any
movement visible on Tivitay Street and saw that there was not. He
moved to the next building, which had some crates of rotting
vegetables stacked up behind it, while the building further along was
larger and much more substantial.

He noticed the cobblestones swept around the side and
back here. The hard and uneven feeling underfoot. His soft boots made
very little sound but he made extra effort to pad quietly. His search
was uncovering very few clues, but if nothing else, he was ruling out
the possibility that Alyssa was here, or at least, not in
the village. Could she be inside a building? That would present a
whole new set of problems.

He
would search the surroundings first and decide what to do later.
After all, the Coralainian had said he'd seen her
near
Tivitay. She was not necessarily in the village itself. There was
still the question of how truthful the man been, but for now it was
all he had to go on. He continued along the rear of the large house.

Halfway along, Kormak noticed something. His own quiet
footsteps seemed to be growing louder, then louder still. The noise
increased until it sounded like he was wearing sturdy boots and
walking heavily on the cobblestones. He was doing no such thing.

He
stopped in his tracks but the sound of the footsteps continued and
were now very loud. A few yards ahead of him, Kormak could see the
entrance to the next alleyway. It separated the building he was next
to from the one beyond. Instinctively he threw himself against the
wall. His green and brown outfit doing little to conceal him against
the white, limewashed building beside him. Only the back door of the
abode was giving him any help, with its frame extruding a few inches from
the wall, obscuring him just enough to be inconspicuous, though not
completely hidden.

With his back to the wall, Kormak looked to his right
and saw that the footsteps belonged to a man. Not just any man, but
one wearing a heavy blue coat, iron helmet and carrying a six foot
long halberd. Thankfully, the guard didn't stop, or look to his left.
Instead he turned right, and walked on along the rear of the neighboring
house. Kormak watched him with one eye. If the guard stopped and looked
back, he would be seen, even in the falling light, since he was only
half covered.

The guard did stop.

Elidyr Tregarron stood beneath the lantern swinging from
the ceiling of the prison cell, watching as it swept gently to and
fro. His eyes following its movement, and his mind entranced with
the light and the shadows it cast. It brought forth recollections.
Memories of fables told around campfires. And of torch-lit mead halls
full of soldiers, enlivened with boisterous folk
songs and tales of legend.

One such story told of a Coralainian called Plautius,
who, centuries earlier, had worn a pair of mythical gauntlets. It was
said the gloves had given him the strength to move a huge stone that
had been blocking a tunnel into the mountains. And by opening the
caverns below the Halvyon Temple, he gave access to the treasures and
power that lay therein.

To Tregarron it was just that, a story, a myth.

To Coralainians it was history. It was how their
forebears established the temple. It was the founding act, that the
Greavus family claimed cemented their authority, and the gauntlets had
played an important role ever since.

The ceremonial rites that would
take place at various times would usually involve the sacerdos, or
their ennobled choice of kentarch, wearing the gauntlets as a symbol
of their power. They were their equivalent of the robes of state,
seal of office, crown of kingship.

Tregarron knew that since Aegis was the son of the
saceress, and presumably lined up for kentarch, and eventually the
role sacerdos himself. Then the gauntlets were the symbol of his
status, they were his birthright. The man might be youthful, but if
the gauntlets really had been stolen, then it would fall to him, more
than anyone else, to get them back again. He had a vested interest in
their recovery.

Tregarron ended his reverie and started moving back
toward the Coralainian, finding it hard to keep the smile from his lips.

"You say something valuable was stolen, what
exactly?"

"Something valuable, that's all you need to know,"
Aegis said, sullenly.

"It would be careless to lose the Plautius
Gauntlets, very careless."

Aegis looked at him, his eyes wide, faced puzzled
and indignant.

"You know about them? Do you have them?"

"Alas, no."

Oh, to have possession of them, that would be something.
It had long been rumored in Demedelei that they were not the relic of
Plautius at all, but rather those of Caeradac. An ancient pair of
carapaces once worn by the revered leader of Demedelei. The
Coralainians had stolen them when they took control of the water
source in the mountains. Thinking of this, Tregarron's mind started
to wander at the possibilities.

What if he was able to secure the carapaces for himself?
They would be a powerful bargaining chip if nothing else. Yet, he
knew that if he were to secure possession of them, then he would not
want to give them up again. Not in some shady political horse
trading, or to barter them away cheaply. Once he held them, he could not
imagine he would allow them to become lost again, or fall back into the
wrong hands, or—

He stopped himself.

Just the thought of the Caeradac Carapaces was effecting
his judgment. They were well out of reach and even if they weren't,
the risks were too great. The theft of what they called the Eagle
Standard, was likely to be causing ructions in Coralai. And with
Aegis in his custody the stakes were high. As much as he would like
to seize the opportunity, Tregarron knew Demedelei must not be seen
to be involved in any way. Still, there was nothing wrong with trying
to determine their location. He would start by placating Aegis and
finding out what he could.

"I don't have them," he said gently, turning
to the boy, "nor do I know where they are, all I know is that
you are looking for them. What made you think the merchant Tansley
had them."

The young Coralainian seemed reluctant to answer, but
after a moments thought, explained his reasoning.

"We think we know who stole them, a man called
Hayden. He left the Halvyon Temple shortly before they were
discovered missing. We knew he was traveling this way and so…Gregario
and I traveled to the Regis Highway to investigate the trading posts,
while a larger search party was organized."

"In case the thief sold them on quickly?"
Tregarron said, familiar with the common practice of those handling
stolen goods.

"Yes."

"And did he?"

"Gregario seemed more certain than I. Hayden had
certainly visited that trading post, so the possibility existed."

"How do you know he had been there?"

"I found his dagger among the wares, I'd seen it
before and recognized it, and the merchant said that a man had traded
it for a coat and boots for a journey north."

Tregarron recalled that the merchant had told him that
too, "What else did Tansley tell you?"

"I don't know, I went into the woodshed to get some
wood and that's the last thing I remember."

"Tansley made no mention of the gauntlets?"

"No, he would have done though."

"How can you be sure of that?" Tregarron
asked, a little perplexed by the prisoners certainty.

It was Aegis's silence that gave him away, and Tregarron
put the details together.

"You had Tansley tied up and were getting wood to
stoke the fire, crude but effective."

"That was more Gregario's idea."

"Blaming your partner in crime, crude and
effective, also."

"He
just seemed more certain that the merchant was hiding something. The
man's behavior
had
been suspicious, I just wasn't so convinced."

"Why not? From what you've told me, it seems your
suspicions were confirmed."

"I knew Hayden from his time at the Halvyon Temple
these last few months. It didn't seem like the kind of thing he would
do, but everything did point in his direction. It's just…he
knew the gauntlets were very important, the merchant could never have
given a fair price for them, so why would he do that?"

Tregarron conceded the young man's reasoning, he
considered it further. Maybe this Hayden fellow had stolen them but
hadn't yet sold them. If so, it would probably mean they were still
in his possession. He ran the idea past Aegis.

"If he stopped by the store but didn't sell them,
then do you think he would he still have them with him?"

"That's possible," Aegis said, before becoming assertive once more. "I've told you what you want to know,
and our reason for being on the highway, now let me go."

"Not so fast, there's something I still need to
establish. If you and Gregario tied Tansley up, who tied you two up?"

This seemed to puzzle Aegis, "Wasn't it your men?"

"No, we found you like that. I was investigating
another incident that took me to Tansley's hut. I ordered you brought
here for questioning. Are there any other Coralainians this side of
the mountains, anyone you know of."

Aegis hesitated before shaking his head, "Only
Hayden. It must be Hayden, there is nobody else it could be."

Tregarron
considered the timing of events as best he could ascertain them. From
the information he had gathered, it seemed that it would be difficult
for one man to be responsible for all the assaults. Difficult or
impossible? He was inclined more towards the latter, and feeling the
rabbit skin bag inside his coat, realized he had to find out how
they
fitted in. The prisoner had been co-operative up until now, but
Tregarron would watch his reaction to the next question carefully.