The Hekamon (49 page)

"Good," Vondern replied, showing equal relish.
"Let's take him to the pit and prepare him for the
interrogation."

"It sounds like we're close," Galvyn said, as
the tinkling notes of a stream filtered through the trees.

He found the melodic chimes of the running water
soothing, and after what had happened to him the last few hours, it
was a welcome feeling. The hill grew steep and rocky here, and he
held out a hand to help Alyssa up the hillside that was crumbling
underfoot. Alyssa hesitated before taking his hand. She didn't need
any help, but accepted it with the grace with which it had been
offered.

Alyssa had suggested to him that they take a detour on
their way to the caves, so she could refill her flask with some fresh
spring water. The stream they now arrived at reassured Galvyn that
Alyssa knew where she was leading him.

With the flask duly filled, they moved on again,
following the stream for a short way, before starting back down the
hill.

Galvyn marveled at how Alyssa moved with such ease and
sure-footedness, even in the large, over-sized boots she was wearing.
So enamored was he with her graceful movements, that he forgot to
watch his own steps and began to feel the ground slipping from under
him. Suddenly, he was sliding in a rush down the bank, taking Alyssa
with him.

Alyssa momentarily tried to stop them, but gave up when
she realized their momentum was too much, and the pair of them came
crashing to an undignified stop where the hillside plateaued. Galvyn
apologized profusely but Alyssa just laughed as she untangled herself
from the heap of arms and legs.

"That was clumsy of you," She said, with a
giggle in her voice, clearly not too upset.

"I'm so sorry, I slipped and couldn't stop myself,"
he said, standing and dusting himself down.

"Well," Alyssa said, "It wasn't the way I
expected us to get here, but we've arrived."

Galvyn looked around, and from the cave entrances
nearby, he could see that they had indeed arrived. The hill leveled
off here and the ground felt solid underfoot, unlike the loose gravel
of the bank they had slid down.

He could see that there were several caves emerging from
the hillside. The middle and largest one, faced due north. While the
smaller caves either side angled inward, making a crescent shape,
like a new moon. The trees of the forest around them grew close here,
and along with the overhang of rock above, it made for a sheltered
place.

There was a calmness and a stillness, a sanctuary of sorts.
Only the far off sound of an owl claiming its territory and the
trickle stream could be heard, if anything, adding to the serenity.

Alyssa spent a few moments walking around and looking
inside each cave, before declaring them clear.

"How deep do they go?" Galvyn asked, walking
over to the largest and peering into the darkness.

"Very deep, but we won't venture into them, we'll
stay here, on the plateau."

Galvyn stood and waited, listening for any sounds that
might be emanating from the mouth of the hillside, "There aren't
any bears in there, are there?" he asked.

Alyssa laughed, "No."

"How can you be sure? Do you come here often enough
to know?"

"Trust me, there are no monsters in there waiting
to crawl out and grab you."

He wanted to believe her, but his instincts told him
otherwise.

"Maybe we should light a fire," he suggested.
The light and warmth would be welcome and he'd heard bears didn't
like fire.

"What, to scare of the bears?" Alyssa said,
winking.

"No, for the light and warmth," he said,
trying to return the gesture but blinking instead.

"A fire isn't a bad idea," she said, looking
at the sky, "It's getting cold and by the time we've collected
the firewood, it should be dark enough for the smoke not to be
visible."

"Won't the light of the fire give us away, though?"

"We'll make the fire small and in the cave mouth.
The hillside and trees will do the rest. That way the firelight will
be hard to see."

"Let's gather the wood then," he said, easily
persuaded.

"You do the fire and I'll gather some nuts and
berries, if I can find some. I hardly eaten since yesterday."

Galvyn liked the sound of that idea, and set about
collected some suitable firewood.

Some fallen branches from a nearby crab apple tree
seemed a good choice. That wood burned slowly and produced little
flame, so should last the night without giving away their
presence. He found some dry twigs for kindling, along with a few
larger sticks and logs, which he brought back and assembled in to a
small heap. He then placed a few lose stones in a circle around it,
and it was ready to be lit.

Taking two of the driest sticks, Galvyn began working
one against the other to produce some embers, but he wasn't very
practiced at it. Even after a few minutes of trying, he still hadn't
made much progress. At the workshops, there was usually a flame to be
found somewhere, so lighting a fire was easy.

"Try this," Alyssa said, arriving and kneeling
down, with her jacket folded up from the waist and full of
hazelnuts, which she promptly deposited on the ground.

With her hands free, she took a small leather pouch from
her belt and threw it to him.

Galvyn looked at the bag suspiciously.
It was tied with a drawstring and he could only guess at its
contents.

"Open it," Alyssa told him, while she scooped
the nuts into a tidier pile.

He opened the bag. Inside he could see there was a
piece of flint and a small iron bar. It was a fire-starting kit.

"This will be perfect," he said, showering the
kindling with sparks.

"This should be enough hazelnuts," Alyssa
said, standing and leaving him to it. "I'll see if I can find
some fruit. Most of the pears have gone but I think
there might be a few on the higher branches."

Despite his best efforts, the kindling didn't take right
away, but within a minute or two it was alight. And, after some careful
positioning of the firewood, he got it burning properly. The wood
crackled and the sweet aroma of apples rose up, whetting his
appetite.

Galvyn looked up and was about to tell Alyssa they had a
fire, when he realized she wasn't there. Getting up from his crouched
position he started walking around the plateau, but the Fennrean girl
was nowhere to be seen.

How far might she have gone? The fall of
night, along with the few minutes he'd spent staring into the burning
fire, had diminished his night vision. Perhaps allowing his eyes to
adjust again would help. Suddenly, feeling lost and alone, Galvyn
decided he couldn't wait and quietly called out to her.

"Alyssa?"

"Yes?" Her reply came from much closer than he
had anticipated and it startled him.

"Where are you?" he said, looking around.

"Up here."

He looked up and, sure enough, there she was, partly
visible from the glow of the fire and partly silhouetted against the
stars, high in the branches of a tree. Galvyn doubted whether he
would want, or be able, to climb that high.

"Catch," she said, and dropped something
which bounced off his head.

He juggled it a few times, before
grabbing it at the third attempt.

"Got it," he said, triumphantly, "What is
it?"

"Bite into it and find out," came the reply
from the branches above.

He didn't need to, her talk of pear trees and the shape
of the object was more than enough of a clue. Anticipating the taste
he took a bite. Galvyn thought it to be succulent and tasty but
Alyssa was more discerning.

"They've ripened on the tree, that's never a good
thing, but at least there were a few that evaded the passerby."

"The who?"

"Whoever cleared the trees of them, Coralainians
most likely, we're near to their tunnels here."

"Might they return, do you think?" He asked,
looking at the dark forest all around them.

"The best of the fruit has been harvested, the nuts
as well, so it's unlikely," Alyssa said, climbing back down.

"What if they do? I hear they can be—"
Galvyn hesitated, did he have to be polite about Coralainians now?

"What, ruthless?" Alyssa said, back on the
ground beside him."

"Well one did try to kill me earlier."

"And another one saved you, or so you said, so they
are not all bad," she said, putting her boots back on. "Although
that one did steal my dagger, the swine."

"Well you were holding it to my throat."

"You're not going to let me forget that are you,"
she said, as the pair of them walked back to the fire.

"I'm just saying, it may not have been stolen as
such, more taken so you didn't do anything rash."

"Hmm, that's one way of looking at it. As for what
we'll do if any Coralainians show up, we'll retreat into the cave."

The gatehouse of the Demedelei Fort was in the midst of
a shift change, when Tregarron arrived from the prison.

The night
watch were arriving and the day watch were leaving. There was a
general murmuring of greetings and farewells as the men mingled,
before those departing for the night took their leave. Not all the
voices he could hear belonged to men. The lone female voice in the
gatehouse belonged to Kathryn Tregarron.

He walked over to his wife, who was bringing two of the
guards destined for gate duty up to speed on some of the day's events.

"Kate, is there a lantern I can take?" He
asked, before accepting the lantern his wife took from a shelf behind
her.

"Why do you need it?"

It was not an unreasonable question. The fort was well
illuminated by torches and lanterns, while Demedelei Town had enough
lampposts to ensure someone could move around without having to carry
a light. The reason he needed one, was because he would be walking
along Priory Road, which had a stretch of a few hundred yards that
was not well lit, and he would prefer some light to travel by.

"I'm going to the priory."

"Alone?"

"You're welcome to join me."

"With an assailant on the loose, and more reports
of victims, we should not be traveling alone." Kate took a
lantern for herself, before joining him as he left the gatehouse.

"You're right of course," he said, as the two
of them walked through the barbican, before turning right and
beginning the short walk to the hospital. As they did, he spoke with
his wife. She would've been in the gatehouse when the latest report
came in and he was interested in what she knew.

"What more can you tell me about the latest
victim?"

"Only that he was found wandering, dazed and
bleeding but seemingly not drunk. Who he is, or what happened to
him, I don't know."

Kate was, strictly speaking, not a guard, and when she
was first recruited by Lord Jephson the distinction was more obvious.
She had been hired as a personal protector, teacher and companion for
Jephson's daughter, Brigantia, who lived in the keep with her widower
father. That had been ten years ago, when Brigantia was just a child
of six or seven.

Kate herself had been widowed when her husband had been
killed at the battle of Tetten Wood. Once she began living in the
fort, along with himself, they had become close and married shortly
thereafter.

When Brigantia grew older, and the manning of the fort
decreased due to retirements, Kate's role grew into something closer
to that of a guard, and she could usually be found in uniform now.
Despite this, she remained close to Bree and was still officially her
personal bodyguard.

As
the pair of them walked, Elidyr told his wife something of what he
had found out but withheld a few details. He would need to talk with
Jephson about some things first, but the fact that one of the
prisoners was the son of Saceress Volusia, that he
had
told her, and it was a detail that seemed to both intrigue and worry
his wife.

"How long do you plan on keeping him here?"

"I don't know. The man has been forthcoming with
information so far, but I'm sure there's more going on. His partner
in crime might be able to tell us more, so not until I've spoken with
him at least. If the pair of them are responsible for the assault on
Croneygee, then it will be for considerably longer. Jephson and
Croneygee go back a long way, he will want vengeance."

"What do you think the saceress is going to do?
Does she even know her son is our prisoner?"

"That I don't know. If she is unaware that her son
is here, then it potential gives us some time to decide what to do
with him, and at the moment, I'm assuming that to be the case."

"Would Coralai attempt to force our hand do you
think? Make good his release if we didn't relent and let him go
first."

"What a jailbreak? I don't think so, although I
wouldn't discount the idea completely. We've had so little contact
with then since the succession, that I can't be sure what the
leadership there is thinking."

"The fort, and Demedelei itself for that matter, is
not as well defended as it could be," Kate reasoned. "We
shouldn't provoke anything."

Tregarron smiled, "I'll pass you advice on to Lord
Jephson," he said, and his wife smiled, too. Jephson was not one
for taking advice. If he was, they wouldn't be undermanned and
potentially over-matched.

After a few minutes, they drew closer to the lights of
the priory and the impressive stone buildings, set among the well
kept grounds. It included an orchard, a fishery and a herb garden.
The building was now entirely self sufficient, and not just for food,
It was no longer dependent on Lord Jephson's patronage, a fact that
had increasingly caused Tregarron problems.

Approaching the priory's door, he knocked a few times
and waited.