Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 11 of 619

Marco was already walking. Ajax caught up to him at the edge of the wet rock. The surf pulled back and the worked stone showed again. A square block, cut clean, set flush with the shelf. Then the water came back and covered it. "Wait," Ajax said. Marco stopped. He kept his eyes on the stone. Ajax stared at the block. He did not know who cut it. He did not know when. If it was a claim marker for someone still alive, the shelf was not his to take. If he built a warhouse over another man's foundation, he would lose it the first time that man came back with sworn men of his own. He needed to see the whole thing before he decided anything. He turned back toward the fire. "Chalam." Chalam came down the shelf with his staff. He stopped at the tide line and looked at the water where the stone had been. "I need it dry," Ajax said. "Long enough to read it." "How long." "Until I know what it is." Chalam planted the staff. He opened the satchel at his belt and took out a pinch of gray powder. He spoke three words Ajax did not know and dropped the powder at the waterline. The next wave came in and split. It ran around the block on both sides and did not touch it. The water pulled back and did not return to that square of rock. A wet circle held around the stone, clear as a table. "Go," Chalam said. His jaw was tight. "Not long." Ajax stepped onto the dry stone. Marco followed. Elara came behind them with a lit brand from the fire. The block was carved. Ajax knelt and ran his hand across it. A paw. Four toes and a pad, cut deep into the stone. Same mark he had carved at the crossroads. Older. The edges worn soft by tide. Marco crouched beside him. He did not speak. He touched the paw with two fingers. "Someone was here," Elara said. "With your mark." "Before me," Ajax said. He looked past the block. The tide pulled back another foot under Chalam's working. More cut stone showed under the surf. A line of it. A foundation, running out under the water toward the sea. Chalam's staff creaked. "Ajax." "One more breath." "Now." Ajax stood. Marco stayed crouched a moment longer, then rose. They stepped back off the stone. Chalam pulled the staff up and the sea closed over the block again. Grayson had come down behind them. He had seen the paw. "That's your mark," Grayson said. "It's older than me." "Then it isn't your mark. It's someone else's, and you copied it." Ajax looked at the water covering the foundation. Someone had built here before him and used his sign to do it. He did not know if that someone was dead, watching, or coming back. He knew he could not raise walls until he found out.