Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 251 of 619

Ajax laid the map on the hall table and set the strip of bark beside it. The four-toed track was another matter. This was the cave. Aldric bent over the bark strip and the map with a lamp pulled close. Chalam stood at his shoulder, the cracked staff propped against the bench. "Read," Ajax said. Aldric turned pages in the copied book until he found what he wanted. He tapped a line. "Older binding. Not a seat. A door." He looked up. "Doors are made to be opened." "By who," Ajax said. "By someone with the words and a clean blade," Aldric said. "Iron your father worked. Salt from the tube would foul it." Chalam frowned. "I read the sill. Three grains held. Whatever sits behind that slab is asleep, not gone. If we crack it wrong, it walks out." Aldric touched the page. "The words are here. Six lines. Spoken at the threshold before the blade goes in. You speak them, Chalam. Ajax cuts." Ajax looked at him. Aldric held his eyes without shifting. Ajax nodded once. They rode at first light. Rowan led. Marco rode behind Chalam. Aldric rode at Ajax's flank with the book wrapped in oilskin under his arm. Grayson held the gate. The slit in the rock was as they had left it. The bark still pinned. The three grains of chalk still in their line. "Nothing moved," Chalam said. He knelt at the sill and swept the chalk aside with his thumb. He opened the book on a flat stone and read the six lines in a low voice. His breath showed white. Ajax stood at his shoulder with his father's blade drawn. Rowan crouched ten paces back with an arrow nocked. Marco stood with his eyes closed. Chalam finished. He looked at Ajax. "Now." Ajax set the blade against the seam and pushed. The slab gave with a dry sound. Cold air poured out. Behind the slab was a low chamber of three rooms cut into rock including a stone plinth. On the plinth, a bundle of black cloth around something the size of a man's fist. No creature. No breath. No pull on the chain at Ajax's neck. Marco opened his eyes. "Empty. Whatever slept here is gone." Aldric stepped past Ajax and lifted the cloth. Under it lay an iron token, larger than the spirals, stamped with a mark none of them had seen before. He held it up to the light. "This was left for someone," Aldric said. "Not sealed in. Placed." Chalam lights his staff for light and they enter the first room and find a lot of treasure and two enchanted items.