Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 224 of 619

The Keeper sat her gray horse and looked at the iron in the road. Behind her, eight riders drew up in a loose line. One of them slumped forward, a wet stain down his sleeve. She had cut him on the way here. Marco had said so. She was older than Ajax expected. Gray hair pulled back tight. A plain wool coat. Her hands rested on the pommel like she had all day. "You are the mason's son," she said. Her voice carried down the road without effort. "You have my things." "I have them," Ajax said. "Bring them to me and ride out. Keep the walls. Keep your men. I want the iron and the rod and the caller. Nothing else." Marco stood at Ajax's shoulder. He tapped the back of Ajax's hand once. A lie. "You want me," Ajax said. "The iron is the reason." She smiled without warmth. "A clever boy." "He was clever," Chalam said beside them. His staff was already in his grip. "The father. He put six creatures under stone with his own blood. You spent three hundred years walking over his work." Her eyes moved to Chalam. "You read from a book you should not have." "I read what I found." She turned back to Ajax. "Last offer. The iron. Then I ride away." Marco tapped twice. Truth this time, or close to it. She would ride away. She would come back. Ajax did not answer her. He raised his hand and dropped it. Chalam brought the staff down on the stone at his feet. A crack of white light ran out the gate along the road. It struck the pile of iron. The collars went dull and split. The rod bent in the middle. The brass caller collapsed to slag. The salt tube burst and its salt scattered. The bone knife blackened and broke. The Keeper's horse shied. Her men swore. She did not move. When the light was gone, only ruined metal lay in the dirt. Nothing she could use. Nothing she could carry to another seat and try again. For the first time her face changed. Not fear. Something colder. She had counted on those tools for three centuries and now they were slag. "You will die for that," she said. "Not today," Ajax said. Her hand lifted. Her riders started forward. Asher's arrow took the lead rider in the throat from the wall slit. Bran's took the next through the chest. Rowan's third dropped a horse. The line broke before it reached the ward. The Keeper charged forward with her remaining men. Ajax, Marco, and Chalam retreated behind the gate and wards and grabbed their weapons.