The Hekamon (22 page)

Galvyn took some deep breaths, the sound of echoing
footsteps and voices told him the guards were now inside the mine.

As he neared the High Gate, Tansley paid close attention
in the hope that he might see some guards there. There was a chance
he might, since the gate was still manned from time to time, although
there was no pattern to it as far as he could tell.

During the
bewailings, the gate had been permanently and heavily defended the
whole time. A fact that had helped ensure that Demedelei Town had
remained unscathed. Today, there was no sign of anyone.

If said to their faces, his opinion of the guards would
normally have brought Tansley a cosh to the head or, at the very
least, a few nights in the fort's prison. If he was lucky, that is.
Yet just at this moment he wouldn't have minded seeing a few of them.
Doing so might even have elicited a friendly wave and a warm greeting
from him. Their absence brought some choice words instead.

After turning onto the highway, Tansley proceeded toward
the trading posts, stopping at his nearest neighbor for an, 'Hello,
how's business,' greeting.

What his neighbor had told him was
disconcerting to say the least. According to Cawney, it had been very
quiet and nobody had stopped by at all today. Nobody? What had
happened to the two men he had seen? Cawney didn't know, he hadn't
seen anyone.

Tansley left his neighbor's hut and considered the
implications. From what he had been able to make out, the two men had
been working their way up the trading posts, which meant his neighbor
should have been the next place they visited. Maybe he hadn't watched
them for long enough to gauge their direction of movement, or perhaps
they were looking for a certain kind of merchandise, something they
knew only a few shops sold. The thought didn't exactly put his mind
at ease.

Returning to his own house, Tansley approached
cautiously. There didn't seem to be any sign of the two men. The
front door hadn't been forced and the windows were intact. Since the
blinds were closed and it would be hard for him to see inside, he
decided to go around the back.

Rounding the hut, he looked for signs of disturbance and
gave a cursory glance into the forest beyond as he did so. On both
counts he saw nothing out of the ordinary. The door to the woodshed
was, just like the front, locked and unforced. Taking his key he went
inside, before closing and locking the door behind him.

Tansley moved from the woodshed to the store room, it
was dark and reassuringly quiet. The half eaten cob was lying on the
counter where he'd left it and the stove in the kitchen was still
burning. He'd been gone about and hour. Relaxing a little, he placed
the cob in the stove to toast and warm it, he wasn't going to let
good food go to waste.

He went back into the store room, walked through the curtain
and into the shop front. He took one step inside and stopped.

It hadn't be so easy to spot from outside but from here
it was clearly visible. A partially opened blind. The wooden slats
were open, only a fraction, but the difference was noticeable. He had
not left it like that.

Tansley remained perfectly still and listened. After
several seconds, and hearing nothing, he slowly started breathing
again, before walking around the room and looking for signs of
disturbance. From what he could tell, nothing was missing and
everything was how he'd left it.

Could he have opened the blind himself? He had
considered opening the shop at one point. Now he came to think about
it, he wasn't certain either way. He moved back through the curtain
and into the store room once more, but did so quietly, remaining alert to
anything out of the ordinary. With seemingly nothing out of place, he
relaxed again.

His hasty exit from Serfacre, meant that he'd returned
with a clay vial. It was one that he'd intended to sell to another of
the craftsman there and it was a trade he would now have to complete
some other time. For now, he would place the vial with the rest for
safe keeping. Moving behind the counter, he crouched down and remove
the tile covering the hole in the floor.

He
froze.
The pouch was
gone
.

They had been
inside, that much was certain. The only question now, were they still
here? If they were, they could only be upstairs.

Very slowly, he started to turn, looking behind him and
through the open doorway and into the hall. From his position, he
couldn't see the stairs, but if he moved out from behind the counter,
he would get a clearer view. He began to stand and reach for a
weapon.

Just at that moment, there came the sound of creaking wood
from the hallway. It was a familiar sound, he even knew which stair
it was.

Suddenly he was moving, standing, dropping the tile and
colliding with some shelves in his haste.

His store was full of
weapons, yet he was proficient with none of them, and even if he was,
he couldn't fight off two Coralainian militia. Because that's what they
were, he was certain of it and what they were after, too.

Instinct
took him in the direction of the woodshed tunnel. It would be quicker
to open the hatch than unlock the back door, and he was
confident he could scurry along it faster than anyone. The tunnel
would not only get him outside but also buy him precious seconds.

Passing the doorway to the hall and stealing a glance, Tansley saw the caligae boots, the hems of tunics, the leather scabbards.
It
was them
.

Now aware that their presence was known, the intruders
were moving fast, too. The subtle creaks of the stairs were
transformed into a roll of thundering boots. Tansley lunged at the
door, but in his uncoordinated haste, was slower getting through than
he'd ever been. Leaping into the dark woodshed, he could
feel the movement behind him. With the floor shaking with heavy steps of
the pursuers chasing him down.

He dived toward the escape hatch, his
fingers finding the catch and opening it in an instant. No sooner had
he done so than the weight of the intruder landed on him, slamming
the partially open hatch shut, and driving him head first into the
corner.

The eruption of noise and fury abated. The dust filled
air stilled. While the gasps of breath being caught, and the creaks
and groans of the trading post settling, were the only sounds that
remained.

Why was he protecting Hayden? Because Hayden had
protected him.

Galvyn reached down to the coal tub and unhooked the
chain. There came with it the sharp clink of metal, followed by the sound creaking wood as he started up the stairs. It
couldn't be helped. The guards might hear him, but he would have to
risk it. He had no choice. He'd made a promise and his word was his
bond, he wouldn't break it.

Taking the steps two at a time, he found it to be both
quicker and quieter. He could shift his weight more precisely,
leveraging himself up in big steady strides. The stairwell still
creaked and groaned, but not too loudly. He knew from the time he'd
spent down here that the low reverberating sounds would be hard to
locate. They could be easily lost among the more distant thuds and
vibrations from further along the seam. He doubted if the searching
guards would know what they were hearing, and for the most part, he
was being quieter than they were.

Worse than the sound of the creaking stairs, was the
rattle of chain he was furling up as his he went. The settling
timbers sounded natural, ambient almost, but the sharp, tinkling
sound of the rattling metal links was distinctive and jarring. He
minimized it as best he could, but the gathering ball of chain would
grow bigger and heavier as he climbed, it was going to test his
strength.

Onto the third flight of stairs, he was becoming
increasingly hidden by the beams and ropes of the roof support
structure. The darkness was helping to conceal him but otherwise
hindering his progress. With no way to use the handrail and with the
stairs hard to see, he could trip or lose his footing at any moment.

If he stumbled he might be heard and if he dropped the chain he would
be heard and caught without question. Galvyn suddenly realized that
the chain was now the most important thing. He must protect it and
hold it to close to him whatever he did. He slowed his assent and
focused on the bundle he was carrying.

Below him the sounds of the searching guards was
becoming louder. They were spreading out, and as they did, they
raised their voices to converse. He could hear snippets of the
conversation.

"Can you see anything?" He heard one guard
say.

"Bugger all," came the reply.

Galvyn almost had to stifle a laugh despite the
precarious of his situation. He could hear the guards stumbling
around and cursing their assignment. The dark, unfamiliar place would
be disorientating and hard to navigate for them, he had an advantage
over them for that reason.

Feeling heady with the danger, he tried to dispel it.
Just because the guards were stumbling, didn't mean they couldn't
stumble upon him. If he got careless and was caught, he could fall
back on the truth and mitigate his troubles. It seemed Hayden's
situation was more complicated and it was Hayden who he was trying to
help.

Despite moving more slowly, his steady progress had
brought him to the wooden gantry and the ladder that lead up from
it. Looking into the room above, he could see Hayden peering down,
urging him to hurry. He managed to hoist the ball of chain onto his
shoulder. It was heavy now and near the limit of what he could carry.

Climbing up the first two rungs brought him closer to
Hayden, who reached down and lifted the weight from him and heaved it
into the bunker. Lightened of his load, Galvyn took the opportunity
to look down again.

Through the wooden beams he could just make out the
three guards. They were well into the cavern now, less well
illuminated and harder to see. As they widened their search, one of
them began heading his way. He could just about see the man, whose
eyes were perhaps still unadjusted to the dark, making slow careful
steps and getting very close.

Just then, and though the trapdoor above him, came the
clinking sound of the settling chain, as Hayden placed it down on the
bunker floor. It was the loudest either of them had been since they'd
seen the guards. Galvyn willed the man to be quiet but when he got to
the top rung of the ladder, he could see Hayden was helping in other
ways. Having placed his coat against the door to the workshop,
blocking the direct sunlight that had been coming through there,
making the coal bunker as dim as possible.

Climbing over the last rung and into the room, he turned
and looked down into the dark mine beneath him. The wooden structure
of the staircase was blocking some of his view and he couldn't see
the guard anymore.

Might the man be directly below? There was every chance.
Galvyn brought the trapdoor down as quietly as possible and closed
it, then leaned down and placed his ear against it. Listening for any
noise the guard might make; a shout for him to halt, a call for
assistance, or heavy footsteps on the wooden stairs. Anything
suggesting a pursuit was in progress.

There were no shouts, nor
sounds of any kind, the mine below was quiet.

They were out of the mine, they hadn't been seen and
they were in the clear.

"Close one," he said, exhaling with relief.

He
looked at Hayden, and by the dim light of the dust covered window
they exchanged a rueful smile. Hayden gave him a pat on the back, he
reached out and they shook hands, "Too close."

The moment of relief was all too brief. Their problems
were only just beginning.

"Can this trapdoor be bolted?" Hayden asked.

"No," he said, taking some deep breaths and
wiping sweat from his brow. "The coal tub is sometimes rested on
the trapdoor as a dead weight, but that's below, maybe we can use the
chain instead. It won't stop the door opening but it will give us
some warning."

Hayden obliged, carefully lifting the chain onto the
trapdoor, before standing and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Galvyn, I need to be going," he said, heading
towards the door and taking his coat.

"I'll let you out," he said, as the two of
them left the bunker and walked into the workshop.

"Just to be on the safe side, I'll lock this door,
too," he said, taking his key and securing the workshop from
access via the mine. He hesitated, what if Croneygee returns that
way? He's unlikely to, but if does, he has his own key.

With that done, Galvyn moved to the front of the
building and looked through the window. Hayden did likewise and the
two of them surveyed the street outside. There didn't seem to be
anything unusual. At least, nothing he could see that would qualify
as such, just the normal bustle of the streets of Serfacre.

"Can you see any of the others?" He asked.

"No, nobody I recognize." Hayden replied, but
they both continued to look out through the protective bars. While
recovering from the exertion, firstly of hiding Decarius and then
hurrying out of the mine.

After a few more minutes, with calmness
restored and with no sign of any guards, Galvyn took the key and
unlocked the front door. Hayden stepped outside and was about to
leave when Galvyn stopped him.

"Wait, what should I do now?" he asked, unable
to keep his trepidation from his voice.

"Stay vigilante, are you here on your own?"

He nodded, "Mr. Croneygee will be back in an hour, maybe sooner."

"Let me think," Hayden said, placing a hand to
his head. After some contemplation, he spoke again.

"Tell your boss, you saw someone hanging around and
acting suspiciously. If you do that, he will be aware of the possible
dangers should Decarius come back. He won't though, he's not the
vengeful type," Hayden said, seeming to twitch as he did so,
before continuing, "I'm heading to the Tivitay inn. Once
there, I'll get my things together and go, good luck, Galvyn."