Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 193 of 619

Ajax set the chest on the table beside the map. He tipped the lid back so the others could see. Gold bars caught the light. Chalam whistled once, short, and set his staff against the wall. "Count it," Ajax said. "Then we take the rest of the house apart." Rowan lifted a gold bar and weighed it in his palm. "Twelve bars. Cut coin under. Silver in the tin on the shelf." He set the bar back. "She kept it small so it would not draw a thief." "Then it drew something worse," Chalam said. He crouched by the hearth and swept ash aside with the flat of his hand. A flat stone lifted out. Under it lay a small clay jar, sealed with wax. He broke the wax with his thumbnail and tipped the jar. A ring of dark wood rolled onto his palm. He held his staff over it. The staff hummed once and steadied. "Enchanted," Chalam said. "Yew. Old work." Rowan came to the hearth and took the ring between two fingers. He turned it to the light. "Yew holds power best. This one is bound to hearing. Wear it and you hear what is said of you at a distance. A day's ride, maybe two." He set it on the table. "It is clean. No leash on it." "Keep it," Ajax said. "You know the wood." Rowan looked at him. He did not answer. He slid the ring onto his smallest finger. Asher came down from the loft with a bundle wrapped in oiled cloth. He set it on the table and folded the cloth back. A short knife with a bone handle. The blade was gray, not steel. He picked it up and the room went quiet. Not silent. Quiet. The fire crackle dropped to nothing. Ajax could hear his own breath and no other sound. Asher set the knife down. The room came back. Wind at the window. Chalam's staff creaking against the wall. "Kills sound," Asher said. "Draw it and no one hears you." "Wrap it," Ajax said. "Chalam carries it until we know who made it." Chalam folded the oiled cloth back over the blade and tied it with cord from his satchel. Grayson stepped in from the door. "Riders on the creek road. Three. Coming slow." Ajax looked at the map on the table, the spiral hide, the ring on Rowan's finger, the wrapped knife in Chalam's hands. He shut the chest and lifted it under his arm. "Out the back," he said. "Rowan first, he knows the wood. Chalam behind him with the blade. Asher and Grayson at the rear. We take the creek down to the split pine and ride." Elara was already at the back door, pack on her shoulder. She pushed it open. Cold air came in. They went out one at a time. The old woman's house stood empty behind them, stripped clean, its cellar dark.