Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 191 of 619

Ajax set the watch and let the horses graze. The clearing sat quiet. The house did not change. Rowan drank at the creek, then stood and walked to a low bush at the edge of the trees. Ajax followed him with his eyes. The bush was waist high, thick with leaves. Red berries and blue berries hung in clusters on the same branches. The blue ones caught the dim light and gave it back. Ajax had not seen a plant like it. "Arcberry," Rowan said without turning. "Red feeds a wizard. Blue steadies a shot. Both grow only where the ground is still clean." He pulled a small square of cloth from his belt and began to pick. He took the red first, then the blue, keeping them apart. Chalam came up behind him. "I have used the red. I did not know the bush." "Most don't." Rowan kept picking. "They die when the rot comes in. This one is still fed." He glanced at the house. "Which means the rot didn't reach here yet. Whatever killed the groves, it didn't come from that door." Ajax filed it. "Save half for Chalam. Keep the rest." Rowan nodded once and kept his hands moving. A branch snapped soft behind Ajax. He turned. The wrenleaf gnome stood at the edge of the creek in his tidy vest, spectacles pushed high on his snout, a satchel at his hip. He looked at the men, then at Rowan bent over the bush. "You are early," Ajax said. "I am on time." The gnome walked past Ajax without waiting. He stopped a pace from Rowan and studied his back. "Fisk." Rowan straightened. His hand went still on a red berry. He turned slow. "You know me," Rowan said. Flat. "I know your grove." The gnome's voice stayed even. "I know who cut your bows before you cut your own. You have been walking dead ground for three moons and you did not come to us." "I came when the trail led here." Rowan said nothing to his old friend, the gnome. He grinned. Ajax watched the muscle in his jaw work once and settle. The gnome turned to Ajax. "He is what he says. Raised in the low grove. His bows are known to us." He adjusted his spectacles. "Good enough," Ajax said. Rowan tied the cloth around the berries and hung it at his belt. He did not look at the gnome again. The gnome faced the house. "The ward is gone. The old woman is dead inside. What she killed is under the floor. Go inside.” He stepped toward the low stone wall. The gnome walked at his hip. Rowan fell in behind, bow across his palm, one hand near the berries.