Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 195 of 619

Ajax swung down from the saddle and looked at the three bodies. The two hired men lay where the arrows had taken them. The collared one slept in his saddle, head against the horse's neck. The cut iron lay in the dirt where Ajax had dropped it. "Strip them," Ajax said. "Purses, blades, papers, rings. Anything with a spiral. Then the horses." Grayson knelt at the lead man and worked fast. He pulled a knife from the belt, a purse from the shirt, and a folded scrap from the boot. He held the scrap up. "Names?" Ajax said. "Coin count. Wages owed." Grayson passed it over. "Nothing on him tied to the house." Marco crouched at the second man and turned out the pockets. He found a token stamped with a spiral and set it on the leaves beside the boots. He worked without hurry, hands steady, eyes moving to each pouch and seam. "One more token on the collared one," Marco said. "Sewn into the shirt. He was carrying it back." Ajax took the token and pocketed it. He looked at the sleeping man. "He wakes with nothing. No collar, no token, no horse. Chalam wipes him before we leave." Chalam nodded and set the wrapped knife aside. He drew chalk and a small vial from his satchel and knelt by the collared man's head. Ajax looked at Rowan. "You know this ground. Where do the bodies go?" "Sinkhole a hundred paces north," Rowan said. "Drops twenty feet into water. Nothing comes back up." "Show us." They carried the two dead men through the brush. Rowan led them to a split in the rock and lifted a mat of moss aside. Ajax looked down and saw dark water below. They dropped both bodies in. The water swallowed them without a splash that carried. Grayson kicked the moss back into place. Ajax walked back to the horses. Three good animals, saddled, fed, sound. He gathered the reins in one hand. "Tie them behind ours," he said. "They come to the shelf. New stock for the stable." Grayson looked at him. "Marked tack?" "Cut every strap that shows a spiral. Burn the saddle blankets at camp. Keep the leather that reads plain." They stripped the tack down on the trail. Marco cut a stamped buckle off one bridle and pocketed it with the tokens. Chalam finished with the sleeping man, closed the vial, and stood. "He wakes at dusk," Chalam said. "He walks south. He remembers riding out alone and losing his horse to a stumble." Ajax lifted the man from the saddle and laid him under a hazel far off the path. He left a copper in the man's hand. They mounted and rode east with three horses in tow. No bodies on the road. No collar. No word going back to the Keeper about the house, the ward, or the chest. The road behind them held only water on stone.