Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 231 of 619

They rode in at dusk with the horses loaded heavy. Ajax swung down at the hall and told Bran to see to the tack. Grayson met him at the door with a short nod. Elara and Asher came in from the yard. Tucker leaned in the frame with his arms crossed. Ajax pulled the hide map from his belt and set it on the long table. Then he called for Marco to bring in the chests. Marco and Rowan carried the two iron-bound chests through the door and set them at the head of the table. Chalam laid the chain, the ring, and the rod on a folded cloth beside the map. Ajax unlatched the first chest and tipped it. Gold bars slid out in a dull row. He tipped the second. Cut coin spilled across the wood, and the silver bars from the inner room went down beside them in a squared stack. "That's more than the last two hauls put together," Tucker said. He whistled once, low. "You could pay a company on that." "I mean to," Ajax said. He tapped the coin. "Winter wages. Bran's house at first thaw. Two more men on the gate. The rest goes to the vault." Grayson set a hand on the silver. "Split shares first. Same as before. Seven ways on the loose coin. The bars stay with the shelf." "Agreed," Ajax said. He looked at each of them. No one spoke against it. Marco counted out a stack and pushed it toward Elara. She took her share without a word and sat. Chalam laid his palm over the three workings on the cloth. "The chain hides its wearer from every scrying I know. The ring opens iron doors without a key. The rod I still can't read. I'll need a night with it, alone." "You get the night," Ajax said. "The chain and the ring go to the vault until we choose who wears them." Rowan drew the worn hide map closer and turned it under the lamp. Four new marks sat along the coast north of the shelf. He touched the nearest. "Half a day up," Rowan said. "The next is a day past that. Same hand as the old woman's. She was mapping her way north before she died." Ajax looked at the marks a long moment. Four more doors. Four more chances the Keeper's kind had left something behind that another hand could pick up. "We rest three days," he said. "Then Rowan and I ride to the first mark with Chalam and Marco. Grayson holds the gate. Tucker keeps the port quiet. Elara stays with the hall." Grayson took the map, folded it, and pocketed it. "Three days." Ajax swept the gold back into the chest and closed the lid. The shelf had a warhouse, a brotherhood, and coin enough to run through winter. It also had four new doors waiting on the coast, and a dead man's map that named them.