Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 133 of 619

Ajax climbed the cliff path alone after the sun set. He wanted the road watched, but he also wanted one hour where no one asked him a question. He sat on the lip of the cliff with his back to a stone and let the sea talk under him. The moon was up. His father's blade lay across his knees. Elara came up the path behind him without hiding her steps. She sat two arm-lengths off and let the quiet hold. He knew her by now. She would not fill air she did not need to fill. She was the healer who rode with him but swore no oath, and she said hard things straight when she said them at all. "You should sleep," he said. "So should you." She lifted her wrist. The gold band on it caught the moon and held it, brighter than the moon itself. "It's full. More than full. It has been for days." Ajax looked at the band. "Meaning what." "Meaning I need to use it. I sense something is coming. I wanted you here when it did." He did not answer. He watched the water. The air over the shelf edge cooled, then went still. A woman stood on the rock where no woman had been a breath before. Blonde hair to her waist. A gown the color of deep water, stitched with points of light that moved when she moved. A bracelet on her wrist, stones inside it holding the same moon Elara's band held. She did not step. She was simply there. Ajax stood. He did not draw. "Sit," the woman said. Her voice was soft and even. "I came for her, not you. But you should hear it." He sat. She knelt in front of Elara and took her wrist. "You have carried more than the band was made to carry. That is why I came." She turned her own bracelet against Elara's band. Light passed between them, quiet, like water finding water. "The overflow is yours to spend now. One casting. Large. Whatever shape you need." Elara's jaw tightened. "And the cost." "Spent, it's spent. The band goes back to what it was. A night's fill, no more." "Why tell me tonight," Elara said. The woman looked at Ajax. "Because the one who hunts him rides out at the next dark moon. Seven days. She will not come alone, and she will not come slow." She let go of Elara's wrist and stood. "Spend it well." Then the rock was empty. Elara sat with her wrist in her lap. The band still glowed, but softer now, gathered. "Seven days," Ajax said. "One casting," Elara said. "Tell me when." He stood and looked at the empty gap where the gate would sit. "When she comes through it."