Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 250 of 619

At first light Ajax pulled the treasure map from the vault and spread it on the hall table. The hide was dry and cracked at the folds. Four coastal marks north, and one inland cross the old woman had drawn last of all, tucked in the woods a half day from the shelf. A cave, the note beside it said. Ajax tapped the cave first. "That one," Ajax said. "Before the north coast. We ride today." Chalam bent over the map. He set his staff against the bench and traced the ink with one finger. "Close ground. If it's marked, someone marked it for a reason." "Then we see the reason," Ajax said. He called for Rowan and Marco. Grayson would hold the gate. Aldric wanted to come and Ajax told him no, not this one. "Read what we bring back." They rode out with cold in the air and the horses breathing white. Rowan led. He read the ground the way Chalam read pages. By midmorning he cut east off the deer track and stopped at a stand of pine where a low ridge broke through the moss. "Here," Rowan said. He pointed with his chin. "Air moves." Ajax dismounted. He felt it too, a slow draw of cold against his bare chest. A slit in the rock, no wider than a man's shoulders, hidden behind a leaning slab. Marco stepped down from his horse and stood still. He closed his eyes for a moment. His gold chain caught the weak sun. "Nothing thinking in there," Marco said. "No man. Something else, maybe. Quiet." "Quiet how," Ajax said. "Quiet like the seats were quiet," Marco said. "Before we opened them." Chalam took a pinch of chalk from his satchel and touched it to the rock at the slit. The chalk went grey. He rubbed his thumb across it and frowned. "Binding," Chalam said. "Old. Not hers. Older." Ajax looked at the map, then at the slab. His father had never marked this place. The old woman had. That meant she had known and left it shut. "We don't open it today," Ajax said. "We mark the mouth and ride back. Chalam reads what he can from outside. Aldric checks the book tonight." Rowan cut a strip of bark and pinned it above the slit with an iron nail from his pouch. Chalam knelt and laid three grains of chalk on the sill in a line. He spoke one short word over them. The chalk held. "If it moves, we'll know," Chalam said. Ajax mounted. The cave sat behind them, closed and watched. One found. Four coastal marks still ahead, and now a binding older than the ones he had killed. "Home," Ajax said. "We come back with the book and the blade." They rode.