Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 23 of 619

Ajax stood over the wet block and knew he could not open it blind. The hunter knew more about the thing beneath the stone than any man in his company. The dryads had sent vials once. They had sent a gnome with a warning. They wanted the hunter stopped. That meant they knew what was buried here, and they knew how it could be ended or freed. He turned to Chalam. "You told me the dryads reached you through the gnome. Can you reach them back?" Chalam leaned on his staff. His robe hung open at the chest. "Not with a message. With a call. The flute in my satchel carries into the groves. If any of them are near enough to hear, one may come. I cannot promise which one, or whether they will speak plainly." "Do it," Ajax said. Grayson stepped closer. "You confide in me first now. That was the deal." "I am telling you now," Ajax said. "I need what my father knew and never wrote. The forest people have it. I am asking for it." Grayson held his eyes a moment, then nodded once and stepped back to watch the cliff path. Chalam drew a short wooden flute from his satchel and set it to his mouth. The notes were thin and slow. They did not sound like music. They sounded like a name being said three ways. He played until his breath ran out, then lowered the flute and waited. She came from the tree line as if she had always been there. Bark-textured skin. A dress of broad green leaves. She carried a small bundle of pale flowers in one hand. She stopped at the edge of the wet stone and would come no farther. "You called," she said. Her voice was soft and even. "I need to know what my father buried here," Ajax said. "And how to end it." She looked at the block a long time. "A hunger with six arms. Your father did not kill it because he could not. He put it under sleep and sealed the lid with his own mark. The lid answers to his blood." Ajax touched the chain at his neck. "His blood." "Yours now." She held out the flowers. Chalam took them. "Steep these and pour the water across the seam before you lift the plate. It will keep the thing dull while you work. You will have one turn of the sun. No more." "How do I end it?" Ajax asked. "Iron through the throat while it still sleeps. If it wakes, no one here ends it." She looked at Chalam. "The hunter rides for men at the port. He will be back in three days with eight." She stepped back into the trees and was gone. Ajax closed his hand around the flowers. Three days. One turn of the sun once the seal broke. He had his answer, and he had his clock.