Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 163 of 619

They rode north along the valley floor with the seat closed behind them. Marco kept his eyes half shut, listening ahead. The old Keeper woman was already forgotten in her hut. The road stayed empty. Ajax wanted distance before he pulled the brass disc from the pouch, and he wanted a roof for the night. By midday Marco raised a hand. "House ahead. Off the track. No one in it. No one near." Ajax took them off the road through a stand of thin birches. The house sat in a clearing with a barn behind it. The door hung open on one hinge. The garden had gone to weeds. A crow lifted off the barn roof and did not come back. "How long empty?" Ajax said. "Season at least," Grayson said. He walked the yard with his bow low. "No tracks. No smoke stain." Marco stepped inside and stopped. "Clean. Nothing waiting." Ajax went in after him. A table stood under dust. A cold hearth. A chest at the foot of a rope bed. He knelt and worked the latch with his knife. It gave. Inside lay folded cloth, a purse, and a small wooden box. Ajax tipped the purse into his palm. Silver coin, more than a handful. He set it aside and opened the box. Two rings. A thin gold band and a heavier one set with a milky stone. Under the box lay a folded paper, brittle at the crease. Chalam came to the doorway. Ajax held up the rings. "Read them." Chalam took the stone ring and turned it in the light. He held it a long moment. "Warmth. Nothing that speaks to a collar. A finding ring. It points to the wearer's kin while they live." "And the band?" "Plain gold. No working." Ajax pocketed both. He passed the purse to Grayson. "Split it at the walls." Asher was in the barn. He came back with a bundle wrapped in oiled cloth. He set it on the table and drew the cloth aside. A short knife with a bone grip. A stoppered jar of dark oil. A folded map, cracked at the folds. Chalam bent over the map. "Coast. Our coast. The shelf is marked." Ajax leaned in. A small circle sat where his walls now stood. Beside it, a spiral, faint but clear. "Someone kept watch on us from here," Grayson said. "Before we came." "Before I came," Ajax said. He folded the map and slid it into his belt. Elara stood in the doorway with light dim at her fingers. "We should not sleep here." "We won't," Ajax said. He looked at the ring, the map, the silver on the table. The house had belonged to one of them. The Keeper knew this ground before he did. "Load up," he said. "We ride until dark."