Free The Hekamon by Leo T Aire

said.
     

Chapter 3
16
    The Regis Highway nestled between the foothills and
followed the contours of the land much like a river. Flowing down
toward the village of Tivitay and the neighboring workshops of
Serfacre.
    It had occurred to Tansley, that it may once have
been such a water course, before. The mountains could have easily channeled
their capacious reservoirs of water this way quite naturally, if it
were not for human intervention. The water was useful, valuable,
powerful and thanks to the massive construction rumored to exist
within the mountains, controllable.
    Tansley had only heard of its existence through hearsay.
The drunken boasting of travelers from the south, of the things they
had seen when in the deepest chambers of the Halvyon Temple.
Coralainians had a word for the mechanism, an unusual word.
    Tansley
had doubted its existence, yet the people who controlled the temple,
did seem capable of controlling the rivers.
    What Tansley did know, was that the dry river bed, if
that's what the Regis Highway really was, meandered to the left, a
few hundred paces downhill of his trading post. It was a point that
would give him a good view back up the road, and he would be able to see
where the two visitors had got to without the need to break cover.
    He'd traveled this far by staying fifty paces off the road, in the
forest and a little up the hillside. Now that he'd reached the bend
in the road, he stopped and looked back to see if they had moved on
from his hut.
    He couldn't tell if they had or not, since he
couldn't see hide nor hair of them.
    In the time it had taken him to get this far, he imagined
they would have moved on to the next trading post. At least, that's
what he'd expected to see, yet the road was clear. Maybe they had
entered the neighboring hut and were speaking with Cawney, the
proprietor there.
    Tansley waited a further minute to see if they
would emerge, and when they didn't, his attention moved back to what
he could see of his own tradehouse.
    He could see no movement outside, at least, not around
the side facing the highway, which was the only area visible to him.
But he knew it was well locked and secured. Even the tunnel had a
locking mechanism and could only be opened by someone who knew how.
    Perhaps he should have stayed there, not answered the
door to them but just holed up and waited for them to leave. He then
remembered why he hadn't, one of the reasons anyway, he was late for
a meeting with Croneygee as it was.
    He grew impatient. Not only that, being alone in the
woods was beginning to unnerve him.
    It was obvious where the men had got to, they were in
Cawney's store and browsing his merchandise. They had to be, there
was no need for him to hang around. He would press on, but would be
careful all the same. Staying off the road until completely out of
sight. Tansley knew that when he got closer to Demedelei Town, and
the Serfacre workshops further along, he would feel a lot more at
ease.
    He had managed to move quietly up until this point, but
as he started off again, and with his attention still on trading
posts, he stepped on a rotten branch hidden beneath some fallen
leaves.
    It cracked, not too loudly, but enough to startle a brace of
birds in the trees above. Large wood pigeons, their wings beating
powerfully as they shot out of the branches and away into the forest.
He cursed his clumsiness, before deciding it was his turn to take
flight, too, and set off again.

17
    The dead leaves crunched loudly and his footsteps landed
heavier than he would have liked. Silently stalking his quarry it
wasn't, but he felt he had no choice. Decarius had decided his
priority was to catch up with the fleeing merchant, even if it meant
the man realizing he was onto him.
    The simple act of the man running had sent his plans
awry. The most important thing now was to recover the stolen
gauntlets and return to Coralai. The possibility that they would not
be recovered had never occurred to him. To lose the