Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 252 of 619

Aldric pocketed the strange token and stepped back from the plinth. The chamber past it was dark. Ajax could see three doorways cut into the far wall. "Light," Ajax said. Chalam struck the butt of his staff on the stone floor. The head of the staff bloomed white. The room jumped into view. Ajax squinted against it, then stepped through the first doorway with the blade held low. The first room was a store. Shelves cut into the rock ran along both walls. On the shelves sat wooden chests bound in iron. Ajax counted six. Against the back wall, gold bars rested in a stack as tall as his knee. Cut coin filled a clay jar beside them. Silver ingots leaned in a row like books. Rowan stayed at the doorway with his bow. Marco stood beside him with his eyes half closed. "Nothing breathing," Marco said. "Not near, not far. This place is dead ground." Ajax opened the first chest with his blade tip. Coin. He opened the second. More coin. The third held cut plate, hammered thin, stamped with a mark he did not know. He left it and moved to the far shelf. Chalam followed him with the staff. The light lifted every shadow in the room. He paused at the fourth chest and put his hand flat above the lid without touching it. "Two workings in here," Chalam said. "Both quiet. Both old." "Open it," Ajax said. Chalam lifted the lid with the end of his staff. Inside lay a folded cloth of dark wool. Chalam pulled the cloth aside with two fingers. A short knife rested on the wood. Bone handle. Iron blade black with age. Beside it, a plain iron bracer, the width of a man's wrist, unmarked. Chalam bent close. He did not touch either. He read the air above them the way he read a page. "The knife cuts sound from a room," Chalam said. "Draw it, and nothing speaks past the walls. The bracer stops a working from reaching the wearer. Wrap a man in it and no ring, no call, no scry finds him." Ajax looked at him. "You are sure." "Sure of the knife. The bracer I read twice. It holds." Aldric came to the doorway with the strange token still in his hand. He looked at the knife and the bracer and drew a breath. "Both are in the book," Aldric said. "Named. Older than the seats. Whoever left this door left them for a hand that would come after." Ajax lifted the bracer and put it on Marco. “You can use this.” Marco smiled. Akax wrapped the knife and put it away. He stepped back and looked at the other two doorways cut in the rear wall. Both black. Both waiting. "One room done," Ajax said. "Two left. Chalam, bring the light. We move."