The Hekamon Read online

  He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, hear it in the echos of the tunnel. His grip on the torch tightening. It could become a club, a divine scepter delivering justice. A strike to the head, then another, the boy unbalanced, hands raised in protection. A well placed kick and over he would go, Pandolin avenged and order restored.

  His building rage brought on palpitations and dizziness, and it was the feeling of his own balance slipping away that brought him back from the brink. With his free hand, he searched for and quickly found a fissure in the rock, which he used to steady himself.

  It took him a few moments, but eventually his anger to subsided, his twitching abated and his breathing returned to normal.

  Decarius thought the depth of his agitation might not be so obvious. Yet when he looked at Aegis again, the smile on the boy's face was gone, replaced instead with a look of concern.

  With their progressed stalled, the man bringing up the rear spoke.

  "Let's get off this ledge, this is not the place to take a rest."

  Gregario was right. Decarius loosened his grip on the rock, before moving on again, with a more considered state of mind returning.

  If Aegis did fall to his death, order would not be restored to Coralai, since the boy's mother would still be the saceress. She would still control the levers of power and appoint her acolytes to high office. If anything, the death of her son might make her behavior even more unpredictable.

  Not only that, Saceress Volusia had entrusted her son to his care. Decarius had requested, and had been granted by Volusia, that Aegis be assigned to this mission. Launching him into the void would cause more than a few ripples in the mountain lakes a thousand feet below.

  No, it needed to be done with more subtly. The plans were in place and his was not a difficult part of the task. There were very few ways his mission could fail, and killing Aegis, accidentally or otherwise, was one of them.

  Decarius put the murderous thoughts to one side. His focus needed to be on the purpose of their mission and destination to which they were heading. The trading posts of the Regis Highway.

  3

  Kormak watched as Tansley drew the curtain.

  With Alyssa out of sight in the next room, but not entirely out of earshot, Tansley returned, and spoke to him in hushed tones.

  "The herbs and the necklace, in exchange for the gauntlets. No less."

  "She will never agree," Kormak said wearily, "ever, under any circumstances, to sell her necklace."

  Tansley looked puzzled, glancing toward the other room before turning back.

  "Then why…"

  "How much in herbs only?" Kormak demanded.

  "Five pouches."

  "Five? That will take three months to collect and refine."

  Tansley shrugged, "Or one pouch and the necklace."

  "Four. I can't offer more than that."

  "Four, and one vial of the empessence," Tansley responded, "I can't go lower than that."

  Kormak considered this offer. The idea that one particular herb was worth more than the others wasn't all that surprising, it was true for them, also. But Tansley seemed to be suggesting it was enough to split the difference, or worth half a pouch on its own. It was not even the hardest or most time consuming curative to make.

  "Let me think about it," he said, looking at the iron grippers. He could take them into his possession tonight. The thought was an alluring one. An idea came to him.

  He could agree to the merchant's offer, then see if he could work on getting more of the empessence. If he could, he might then be able to renegotiate a repayment that would be closer to three and a half pouches. At least, when measured by the amount of effort that was required to produce it.

  "That's a lot, but okay, we have a deal," Kormak said finally, before putting the iron grippers back in the bag and starting to pull it towards him.

  Just as he was about to take possession of his purchase, the merchant placed a firm hand on the eagle adorned, leather bag and stopped him.

  "You can take them when you can pay for them, do you have everything here with you to honor our agreement?"

  "It will be two months at least, maybe more."

  "Then I can't let you take them with you. I'm sorry my friend, but I'm sure you understand how business needs to be done in these parts."

  Kormak nodded, he had expected this to be the case. Such was the sensitivity to merchants here dealing with Fennreans and their powerful medicinal herbs, that it was necessary for him to enter the trading post at night and through a secret underground tunnel. No merchant here was going to be offering any buy now, pay later arrangements and he wouldn't be so naive to ask them to.

  Still, he knew he had to take them with him now, they wouldn't be here in two or three months. Tansley would angle for a better offer in the mean time, however much he might claim to put them to one side for him. Kormak's journey here was a risky one, he planned to return, but knew Tansley couldn't be sure that he would. This was why he'd sent his sister into the other room.

  "What if I let you take the necklace as a bond? Could I take them with me now?" Kormak whispered.

  Tansley looked at him for a few seconds, before smiling and nodding toward the next room, "Will she agree to that?"

  "No," he replied solemnly, "but I will make it up to her, and besides, it's only for a short time, and she will get it back again, right?"

  "Right," Tansley said, still looking puzzled but interested all the same.

  At that moment, the curtain opened and Alyssa walked in.

  "Is everything okay? Have you bought them?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "No."

  Alyssa laughed, "So which is it?"

  "Tansley has agreed to let me take them now and pay him as and when," he said, giving a merchant a look that said, play along.

  "That's kind of him," Alyssa said, smiling warmly at Tansley.

  The storekeeper remained impassive.

  After a few seconds Kormak broke the silence, "So, did you see anything you liked? I thought, with the colder weather coming, you might like a shawl perhaps, or a scarf."

  "What really? I can have something too? There are a few things I saw, if that's okay?"

  He watched as Alyssa headed back into the other room before returning with a few pieces of clothing and fabric.

  "This piece I especially liked, it's a find," she said, holding up a white piece of linen embroidered with gold inscriptions.

  "And you can throw this in, too," he said, taking the shapeless and torn piece of fabric that could passably be called a shawl.

  Tansley raised an eyebrow and nodded but kept his hand on the leather bag and its much coveted contents. His sister took the merchant's response as a yes and smiled appreciatively, first at Tansley and then at him, as he stepped toward her.

  In one impulsive movement, he turned Alyssa away from him, and swept the garment around her shoulders, tucking it inside her jacket, and while one hand straightened a few creases, the other emerged with the silver necklace. Discretely placing it on the rabbit skin pouch, resting on the store's counter. Equally surreptitiously, the tradesman closed the pouch and slid it across to his side.

  Alyssa turned back, "Well?" she asked hopefully.

  "Very nice," Tansley said, pushing the leather bag across the counter and moving the fur pouch onto a shelf underneath, "be sure your brother treats you to more gifts, I'm sure you deserve it."

  Kormak lifted the leather bag by the strap, placed it over one shoulder and turned to his sister, "We need to be heading home, we have a long way to go and it would better to be back across the Rhavenbrook before sunrise."

  He looked to Tansley, who nodded in acknowledgment that the deal was concluded, before leading them over to the woodshed door at the back of the store room. The man opened the door and beyond it, the small hatch, low down and in the far corner, that lead into the hillside that buttressed hut.

  He looked at Alyssa, "Ready?"

  "Yes," sh
e smiled back, touching her shawl appreciatively.

  Kormak entered the tunnel first and his sister followed behind. The bag he was now dragging beside him, made the passage back through the tunnel even more difficult. Forcing him crawl and slide in a snakelike fashion, before he made it to the point where he could stand and open the trapdoor above him.

  He lifted the bag out first, and did so carefully. It contained something far better than he ever could have hoped to bring back from this trip. They were the apparel of a leader and a commander, and were just what he was looking for.

  Kormak made use of some wooden steps built into the wall at the end of the tunnel, climbing up and heaving himself out, before holding the door open for his sister to join him above ground. Once there, the two of them waited while their eyes to adjusted to the darkness once more.

  He knew his sister would be upset when assuming her necklace to be lost, but he would get it back before long, and when he did, she would be eternally grateful. Until then, he had put the otherwise useless object to a far nobler use. It had helped him acquire something important, he could feel it.

  Kormak swept some leaves over the exposed trapdoor and Alyssa helped as well. Once the door was concealed, they both remained silent, listening for any sign of movement from the forest around them. Before deciding the way was clear for them to head north, down the wooded hillside, toward the Rhavenbrook Bridge and safety.

  4

  Having progressed a few dozen paces further along the ledge, it started to widen again. They weren't safely through yet, but even Decarius found himself breathing a little easier. He was familiar with these tunnels from the time of the bewailing wars, when they were a vital strategic route. Yet there was something about being a few inches away from thousand foot drop that he could never quite get used to.

  "That wasn't so bad, was it?" He said, finding himself fully three feet away from the edge.

  "We're going back a different way, right?" Aegis asked, his face visibly ashen, even by torch's warm light.

  "Right," he replied, watching to make sure Gregario made it across safely, before the trio continued on their way. Once again, Decarius moved a few paces ahead, leaving Gregario to talk with Aegis, as he seemed to have more patience with the boy.

  As the crevasse running alongside the path grew narrow, the risk of a fall diminished, until eventually, the far wall joined with the ledge to form an enclosed tunnel once more. Even as it did so, the sound of the wind outside their sheltered place was becoming more noticeable. It only increased as they rounded the final bend where the tunnel opened into a cave, a place of special importance.

  "This is the Eyrie." Gregario said to Aegis, who responded with a low whistle that seemed to find the resonance of the rock, and the cave reverberated to the sound.

  Decarius walked into the cave and began to circle it, allowing the flickering torchlight to illuminate the walls around them. He saw names carved in the rock, names he recognized. His own was there too, but he didn't point it out, he wasn't the same man anyway.

  The idealistic young soldier who carved it was gone. The war might have been the making of him but the way it ended had changed him. Victory had been within their grasp.

  "This was an important vantage point," he heard Gregario telling Aegis, "a place to watch over all the lands to the north."

  The three moved to the center of the cave while Gregario continued to hold forth, "For years it had been permanently manned. Four men on duty at a time, with two keeping watch. I was here myself a few times. You too, Decarius?"

  He nodded but didn't expand on it, lookout duty had been easy, it wasn't anything to boast about.

  "You can see the fire pit, Aegis." Gregario said, pointing out the hollow in the cave floor, before looking up at the ceiling and the blackened, stalactite covered roof, fifteen feet above. "I can still smell the smoke."

  With the pair of them continuing to talk, Decarius started making his way to the cave mouth, holding the torch back, allowing his cohorts to look around the Eyrie, while protecting the torch from the gusting wind outside. The cold turbulent air was fighting the flame and winning.

  Picking his way through the boulders at the entrance, he made sure there had been no rock falls, or anything else which might hamper them, and, seeing the way clear, he climbed out onto the lip.

  Without the cave's protection from the elements, he could feel the cold northerly wind biting at his exposed flesh and stinging his eyes. Their descent was going to be difficult. He had forgotten how different the weather could be this side of the mountains. It was his first miscalculation, and hopefully his last.

  Decarius was joined on the ledge by the other two. There was very little else to be seen inside the Eyrie, especially without torchlight. Besides, it was the view this high mountain position gave of the lands below that made it important. It was a view worth seeing, even at night.

  As the three of them squinted into the wind and the darkness, the torch finally gave up the fight and went out. Decarius discarded the smoking stick. Not that it mattered, he wouldn't have been able to climb down holding it anyway. The clear skies meant there was enough star and moonlight to go by, once they'd given their eyes time to adjust.

  "You spent time at this lookout, Gregario?" Aegis asked.

  "Yes, a few months in total."

  Months? He had assumed Gregario had seen more action.

  "Can we see much at night?"

  "We can make out some of the main features yes. Look down, whoa, careful." Gregario grabbed hold of Aegis, who had stepped too close to the edge and the long drop below. The young man swayed dizzily, his cloak flapping in the stiff breeze. "On second thoughts, don't look down," Gregario suggested, "there are forests, glades, mountain streams, and not much else, you can take my word for it."

  "I will," Aegis said, stepping back.

  "Northwest from here you can see the lights of Demedelei town and, just beyond it, Demedelei Fort."

  "Yes, I can see." Aegis said, looking to his left and at the town, no more than two miles away.

  Decarius looked too, but it was the fort that he focused on. A stone structure built on a rocky motte, looming menacingly over the timber framed buildings of the town.

  "And just to the east of the fort," Gregario continued, "Serfacre."

  "Is it on fire?" Aegis asked, not unreasonably. The red glow that emanated from it contrasting with the inky blackness of the surrounding countryside.

  "Yes, in a manner of speaking. It's where the forges, foundries and workshops are located. They make all manner of things there, like…"

  "Weapons," Decarius interrupted, "and lots of them."

  It still rankled with him that they allowed Demedelei to manufacture weapons like they did. Coralai even facilitated it by channeling water away to stop the mines flooding. It was written in the peace treaty and something he would change, given the chance.

  With the torchlight out, and Decarius growing more accustomed to the darkness, he thought it time they advanced. "Let's go," he said, satisfied that Aegis had seen enough. There remained some difficult obstacles to navigate.

  He started to make his way down to the ledge below. Sitting down on the hexagonal stone column he was on, and taking his weight on his hands, he swung his body over before turning and lowering himself down and letting go, dropping the last couple of feet to the ledge beneath. Aegis followed, slowly and cautiously, but making it eventually, with Gregario following without difficulty.

  As Decarius looked for the next suitable step, something caught his eye. It seemed that Aegis had not seen everything of interest that the lookout post had to offer.

  "There, see that?" he said, pointing to a few specks of light amongst the trees about a mile and half from their position.

  Aegis looked where he was pointing, almost due west, along the ridge of the mountains, "The trading posts?"

  "Yes," he replied, and just at that moment, one the points lights he could see, dimmed and went out. It was wel
l past midnight, and despite the late hour, a few of the other huts remained lit.

  Decarius began moving again, they needed to press on. Judging by the pace of their progress, he could tell they were still a few hours journey away. Still, things were going to plan, they should be there by morning, and will have recovered the Plautius Gauntlets by midday at the latest.

  5

  Kormak lead his sister through the trees and into a clearing, a few hundred yards north east of Tansley's hut. There wasn't much of a path to speak of, but a series of rocks, stumps, bushes and distinctive trees provided some familiar waypoints for them to follow.

  While he had only been on this journey a few of times over the summer months, he now felt confident enough of the way. Alyssa though, had never been this far south of Rhavenbrook Bridge and was dependent on him to guide her home. He would teach her the route as they went. And though the darkness was making things more difficult, they would always need to make this journey at night, so it was unavoidable.

  "Which way now?" he asked.

  "This way," Alyssa said confidently.

  "Almost," he corrected her, "it's better to follow the hillside here and stay on level ground for longer."

  "Okay."

  Kormak was pleased his sister was accepting his advice. She didn't always do so and could be headstrong and willful. She would be wise to follow his directions here, though, there were times when the darkness was even move pervasive and the fog had a tendency to settle in these dales. The lay of the land would be an invaluable guide in such circumstances.

  After passing by a few more readily locatable boulders, hailstones as they were known in these parts, dropped by a giant or so the legend went, they arrived at rocky escarpment.

  "Now?" He asked again.

  "Now we head due east, along a path we should be able to see right here." She said, the way out of the clearing becoming visible as they approached it.

  "Right, this is the longer way but we avoid Tivitay and Serfacre this way, so it's safer."

  Alyssa grinned, her bright smile shone even by the faint light of the stars, Kormak could see her demeanor was becoming more assured. She had been nervous coming this far south into unfamiliar woods, but the journey had been more straightforward than they'd expected.