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  "We, er, didn't hear anyone," Pearson said, flinching at the sideways glance he gave him, "And Mr. Croneygee knows to bang on the gate loudly, and that's hard to miss."

  The man had a point, the sound someone hammering on the door would echo around the tunnels for some time. Could he have missed the armorer again somehow?

  He stepped away from the door and further along the path that lead down to the dried out moat, to a place where he could see across to the Briddlesford Bridge.

  Moving out of the shadow of the fort, he shielded his eyes from the sun. He could see a few pedestrians on the bridge, impossible to make out who at this distance, while the pathways of the old moat were empty. Turning back towards the gate, a glint of something in the grass near his feet caught his eye.

  The object he could see was long, slender and dark bronze in color. It looked like an adder, hidden in the grass. The soulless creature seemed poised and ready to strike at an unsuspecting victim, its sharp, curled fangs about to dispense their poison. But the object was too still, even for a snake. It was inert. It had the teeth but not the venom.

  He reached down, picked it up and began to examine it. It was a small, finely crafted saw. Stepping off the path and into the nearby bushes he found a pile of tools, while further in and almost of sight, a bag. Tregarron could tell that the tools were part of the consignment he had been expecting. The quantity and variety of implements were exactly what the armorer had promised, and since they hadn't arrived here by themselves, he started searching the area with more urgency.

  Looking around him, Tregarron could see specks of blood. He saw blood on the path, on the bushes and even more on the grass. He followed the trail further into the undergrowth, until he found, lying in the long grass, the lifeless body of the master armorer.

  Chapter 7

  41

  When he pushed open the door, and saw the young apprentice having the life squeezed out of him, he didn't hesitate. He'd expected to see some kind of assault taking place. The sounds he'd heard from the room had been clear enough. Quietly spoken maybe, but that was what aroused his suspicions in the first place. He knew something was wrong just from the whispered conversation.

  From what Hayden had seen in the short time he'd been among the workshops of Serfacre, everyone shouted at each other. Almost every conversation seemed to take place at full volume. A few people spoke normally, it was true, but nobody whispered.

  He responded to the situation in the manner he thought most appropriate. And to any potential witnesses, it would have seemed the most ordinary sight imaginable. So much so, that he didn't even feel the need to look around to make sure he wasn't being watched. To the people of Serfacre, a man raising a large hammer above his head and bringing it down forcefully wasn't just a routine occurrence, it was expected.

  A few things were unusual though. The hammer was less a metalworking type and more of the long handled military style. The man wielding it didn't appear to be a workman but a visitor from the south. And the sound the hammer made when striking its target was less metallic clang and more of a dull thud.

  The man crumpled, firstly onto the boy he had been strangling, and then limply onto the coal dust covered floor. Freed from the choking grasp, the apprentice rolled away from his attacker, before turning to look at him in shock. His face a deep purple and his eyes bulging, both with fear and the effects of being strangled. Hayden looked at the unconscious man laying on the floor and then at the young apprentice.

  "A friend of yours?" he asked the young man now gasping for breath, but even as he did, he felt a sense of unease.

  His attempt at humor had been to disguise a feeling of growing dread. It wasn't because he'd just hit a man over the head with a hammer, the situation had called for it. Or because he thought Galvyn was hurt, he'd got there in time and the boy would be fine. His feeling of disquiet was because there was something about the man he'd just incapacitated. He knew this person. He could feel it.

  Hayden stepped inside the room and rolled the man onto his back, and his sense of foreboding only increased. He could tell from the tunic, the pugio dagger and the man's boots he was Coralainian. The red focale scarf that covered his face was a further indication, and before he'd even removed the mask he knew. There was just something about him, something he recognized. Not only his appearance but the raw anger and uncontrolled rage he had seen when he'd pushed open door.

  Removing the scarf only confirmed what he'd already suspected, even so, he couldn't help but look at the man with a sense of disbelief.

  "You won't believe this, but he's a friend of mine, or an acquaintance anyway." What's he doing here?

  "You know him?" Galvyn said, gasping for air, while expressing equal bewilderment, "Who is he, what does he want?" The young man spluttered between coughs.

  "You tell me what he wants, it was you he was after," he said, helping the apprentice to his feet and out of the bunker. The air was thick with coal dust and it was not helping the boy get his breath back.

  "He was asking about something a merchant brought in today, a necklace," Galvyn said, shaking and still breathless, "I told him Tregarron had taken it to the fort, it didn't seem to be the answer he wanted to hear."

  Hayden considered this. Why would Decarius be this side of the mountains looking for a necklace? And why risk attacking someone here in Serfacre?

  "I can't explain it but you're lucky I was here. His name is Decarius, he's the Kentarch of Coralai and he's dangerous, you don't want to get him angry—" a thought suddenly occurring to him, he walked toward the doorway and looked into the street outside, "and he's unlikely to be alone."

  "There are more?" Galvyn asked nervously.

  "If it's a personal matter, he might be on his own, but you should expect there to be others," he said, stepping away from the doorway.

  He couldn't see anyone he recognized on the street outside, and now he came to think about it, he wouldn't want to be seen by them, either.

  Galvyn moved to the window and looked out apprehensively.

  "What should we do? Should I get Tregarron?"

  "Whoa, not so fast," Hayden had never met Tregarron and want to keep it that way, "I can't be here, I can't be questioned about battering someone with a hammer," Hayden said, before realizing he was still holding the weapon and rested it against a wall.

  "But you helped. I can tell the captain that you defended me, you won't be in any trouble." The apprentice said, brushing off coal dust and wiping away some tears.

  "Won't be in any trouble?" he said, taking off the chainmail vest he was wearing and putting his own tunic back on. "I've just assaulted the kentarch. Imagine if you were in Coralai and had just hit Tregarron over the head with a hammer. What then?" He watched as Galvyn considered this.

  "I would be as good as dead," the boy said, and, after more thought added, "unless nobody knew I'd done it, and it was Tregarron who was dead."

  They both looked at each other.

  Hayden walked back into the coal bunker and over to the motionless body of Decarius, crouched beside the kentarch and took a closer look.

  He could see the man was still breathing and not bleeding too heavily. Neither detail was surprising to him. He knew he hadn't landed a fatal blow, nor had he intended to. He had tried to stop the assault on the boy, not kill the man, and besides, Decarius wasn't the type to die so easily.

  "He's alive," he said, standing up.

  "What are you going to do?" Galvyn asked.

  Hayden looked at the unconscious kentarch. "Leave, that's what. I was planning on going to….north, and that's what I'll do. Only now, instead of tomorrow." I told him my name.

  "Leave? But what should I do? And how can I repay you for helping me?"

  "You can repay me by not saying I was here," he put his hand on Galvyn's shoulder, "will you do that for me?"

  "You helped me, so I will help you. You can trust me not to mention you, if that's what you want. But how else I can explain what happened he
re, what should I say?"

  "Just say you were attacked and defended yourself," he realized the implausibility of it even as he said it. Galvyn could not have overpowered Decarius. The boy could handle a lump hammer, but not a war hammer.

  "And what happens when he regains consciousness?"

  That was a good question. Hayden thought for a moment, while looking through the doorway at the street outside. It would be difficult to move Decarius out that way in his current state without attracting suspicion, even if he was wrapped up in blankets. Lifeless bodies had a habit of looking just that, lifeless bodies, no matter what was done to disguise them.

  "Is there a back way out of here?"

  "Only the coalmine, we go out that way sometimes, it can be a short-cut to the fort." The boy's shaking was subsiding now and he had composed himself again.

  "Is it an active mine? How do we reach it?" he asked, putting his coat back on and making sure he had everything he came in with. He wanted to leave no sign that he'd been here.

  "It's mostly disused now, and we're not likely see anyone. We get into it through the trapdoor your friend is lying on."

  "He's not my friend, believe me. Let's try that way."

  42

  "Guards." Tregarron called.

  In response, the two guardsmen standing at the east gate, ran down the path and into the bushes to inspect the scene.

  "What's happened here, captain?" Holcroft asked, crouching by the side of Croneygee, determining the nature of the armorer's injuries, "has the old man had a fall?"

  Tregarron looked at the scattered tools, the empty bag and a bloodied rock that lay near them, "Look for another body," he said, ignoring the guards question.

  Pearson immediately started scouring the undergrowth, while Tregarron looked again across the open ground of the dry moat toward the opposite bank, watching for any sign of movement. As he did so, a voice called to him.

  "Captain, he's not dead," Holcroft said, looking up from the injured man.

  Walking over and into the long grass, he knelt next to Croneygee and felt for a pulse. It was true. Pallid, unconscious and hardly breathing, but the man was alive. Tregarron stepped out of the bushes and looked up, craning his neck, "Hey," he shouted.

  There was the sound of a bolt sliding, followed by a door opening and guard appeared in a gap on the bailey wall.

  "Yes, Captain?" Groucutt shouted down.

  "We need help down here. Send everyone who's available."

  "Yes, sir."

  "And winch down a stretcher, too."

  "Right away, Captain," The guard replied, disappearing from view. There followed the sound of instructions being shouted across the courtyard above.

  With further help on its way, Tregarron turned his attention back to the whereabouts of the second man, "Anything?" he asked Pearson, who was searching the undergrowth near the fort's rocky motte.

  "No, sir. What makes you think there is a second body?"

  "Croneygee was with someone when he was last seen, they may have both been attacked."

  "You think it was an assault?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, if he was attacked, the motive wasn't robbery," the guard attending to Croneygee said, "his money belt wasn't taken."

  Tregarron looked first at Croneygee then at the upturned bag of tools, "It might be that the assailants were disturbed." Or were looking for something else.

  He started looking through the pile of tools. What could they have hoped to find among these? And whatever it was, did they find it? He went back to where the armorer lay and looked him over. Not only was his money belt still in place but his keys were, too. He took possession of both for safe keeping.

  At that moment, he saw three guards come out of the east gate. Seeing them arrive, Tregarron started to plan ahead, he was going to have to organize a search. Whoever was responsible could not have gotten far, and while he had a prime suspect in mind and the direction he would have gone in, he needed to cover other possibilities.

  The most senior of the three guards was called Phelan, and Tregarron knew him to be a dependable man, so put him in charge of the most important search party.

  "Phelan. I want you to take these two men to search the Old Moat Road and the coalmine for anyone acting suspiciously. Start now, move quickly and when you reach the mines, search them thoroughly."

  "Yes, sir," Phelan replied, signaling to Gage and Mountfield to follow him, as he started down the path to begin the search.

  Two more guards, Collis and Hackett, emerged from the east gate, and he gave them their orders. "You two, head north along the road and search the trees north of the fort. Keep a look out for anyone who shouldn't be there and keep your wit's about you, you're looking for at least one man, and violent at that."

  The two guards exchanged a glance, before nodding and moving north. He understood their apprehension, he had given them a big area to cover, an area that needed twenty men to search properly, but he had to make do with what he had at his disposal.

  Over the next few minutes a further four guards made their way down, while Groucutt winched down a stretcher from the wall above.

  It looked like everyone was now here, even Teague. Meaning the fort's main gate was now being manned by a guard called Kathryn Tregarron.

  He had far fewer men under is command than in previous years, this was going to take everyone he had.

  With all of his men now involved, Tregarron began by helping to place the injured armorer on the stretcher. Once done, the stretcher was ready for winching up.

  When the moat had been filled with water, deliveries had sometimes been made by boat. And with the tunnels under the fort flooded, anything brought that way needed to hoisted up. It was done using a rope that descend from a wooden scaffold on the east bailey wall. It was still used from time to time for heavy or large items that could not easily be carried up the tower and Tregarron made use of it now. It would be quicker this way, since the narrow spiral staircase of the east tower would be a difficult route to take a stretcher.

  "Take him to Pryor Jervay, he will do what he can for him," he instructed the three guards who, along with Groucutt, would be the stretcher bearers once Croneygee had been lifted up and over the wall, "and when you've done that go up to the High Gate, we'll need to put a watch on there."

  Tregarron looked up at Groucutt on the wall, and indicated for him to start raising up the stretcher, then he turned to the remaining guards.

  "You three, come with me," he said, before leading them down the path and turning toward the Briddlesford Bridge, scanning the ground nearby for any tracks.

  "Can I ask where we're going, sir?" Teague asked. The man was one of the longest serving guards at the fort, and one of his most trusted lieutenants.

  "We'll search here first, then head to the tavern," he replied, continuing along the path while looking into the bushes and trees that grew alongside as he went. The guards with him did likewise. And as they did, there was a noticeable silence, and he could tell Teague wanted to ask him something.

  "No," Tregarron said, anticipating the question, "we're not going for a drink." After twenty years he knew his erstwhile companion all too well.

  "Oh," Teague said, hiding his disappointment well.

  "We're going to the favorite haunt of a certain highway merchant."

  As he continued along the path toward the stone bridge, Tregarron thought about the information he had, and what he should make of it.

  If Tansley had left the mine with Croneygee, but had not gone with the armorer to the east gate, then he must have come this way. Or at the very least crossed the bridge and gone into town. Why else leave the workshop by that route, if not to visit the town?

  Reaching the bridge, Tregarron climbed the steps that lead up the bank and on to the road above. Once there, he took the opportunity to look back at the wide, dry lake bed from this high vantage point.

  There didn't seem to be anything unusual, nothing he would consider suspici
ous or out of place. Looking to his right, he could see Phelan and the two other guards he'd sent searching that way. He watched them as they picked their way through the knee high grass, moving in the direction of the mines. The coal mine was a good place to start and he knew he could trust Phelan to do so competently.

  Satisfied the search was progressing and in the manner that he would have expected, Tregarron motioned to Teague, Holcroft and Pearson to follow him.

  It was time for them to conduct their own search.

  43

  Galvyn walked to the entrance of the workshop and closed the door, took a key ring from his belt and locked it, too. The last thing he needed now was for someone to come into the shop. Customers would be bad enough but Tregarron would be even worse, and the captain did have a habit for turning up at the most inopportune moments.

  No sooner had he locked the door than he hesitated. Would the arrival of Tregarron be such a bad thing? A man had just attacked him, a Coralainian man at that, and another was in his shop. It seemed he two men knew each other.

  Galvyn moved to the window and looked out. If Tregarron did arrive now it would take the decision of what to do out of his hands. While he'd promised Hayden he would not reveal his involvement, it was a promise that he might find difficult to keep. How could he explain what had happened and not mention him? He didn't know, and was having a hard time thinking straight. He had just nearly had the life strangled out of him and was feeling unnerved to say the least.

  "Are you ready?"

  He turned and looked at Hayden, standing in the doorway to the coal bunker. If that man had not been here, what would have happened? If Hayden not not stepped in and disabled his attacker, what fate would have befallen him?

  "Ready," he replied, walking over to join Hayden in the coal bunker.

  With the door closed there was just enough light from the grimy window for them to see what they were doing.