Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 214 of 619

They reached the basin at dusk on the second day. A chalk ridge rose to the north. The floor was pale grass over dry clay, ringed by low stone that looked cut but wasn't. Ajax rode the edge once and then dismounted. Rowan swung down after him and knelt at the clay. He rubbed a pinch between his fingers and smelled it. "Salt already in the ground," Rowan said. "Old. Deep." Chalam walked the ring with his staff held low. He stopped three times. Each time the staff hummed against his palm. "Six points," he said. "Even spacing. This is where the names stand." Ajax counted the points with his eyes. "Six names. Me. You. Marco. Rowan. Two more." Marco stood at the reader's shoulder near the horses. He watched the man's mouth. The reader had not spoken since noon. Ajax had asked for that and gotten it. "Asher and Elara," Marco said. "They rode with us. They know the shape of this work." "Elara is at the shelf," Ajax said. "Asher is here. That is one." Asher stepped forward from the second horse line. He had ridden quiet for two days at the back. "Name me," he said. "I will stand where you point." "The sixth," Chalam said. "Must be present. Blood in the same air." Ajax looked at Rowan. Rowan had crossed the ward at the gate. Elara had named him. He belonged. "Rowan holds two points," Ajax said. "His bow at one. His name at another. Can that be done." Chalam frowned. He set the staff on the clay and watched the head of it. "No. One man, one point. The ring will read a gap and break." "Then we ride short," Ajax said. "One name missing." "Then it does not hold," the reader said. He kept his hands open at his sides. Marco tapped Ajax's arm twice. Truth. Ajax walked the ring again. The light was going. He did not have a sixth man on the grass and he would not ride two days back for one. He stopped at the north point and set his boot on it. "Chalam," he said. "The book. Read the ritual out loud. All of it. I want to hear what the six names have to do." Chalam opened the satchel and lifted the wrapped book. He set it on a flat stone and unfolded the cloth. He turned pages until he found the mark. He read for a long minute in a low voice. When he stopped he looked up. "The sixth stands at the south point. Speaks one word at my cue. Nothing more." "One word," Ajax said. "One word." Ajax looked at the reader. The reader looked back. Marco tapped once. Lie coming, or lie already in the man. "You will stand the sixth," Ajax said. "You speak the word Chalam gives you. Nothing else. Rowan's arrow on your back the whole time." The reader nodded once. Marco tapped twice. "At dawn," Ajax said.