Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 26 of 619

Ajax slid the wolf-paw blade into his belt beside the plain iron. The gnome and the prowler were already gone through the wall gap. One day out. Not three. The camp needed meat and water before the fight, and the pot of brew needed a colder place than the fire. "Asher. Marco. With me," Ajax said. "We walk the stream line for anything that runs. Chalam, mind the pot." Chalam nodded once and set his staff across his knees. "Keep to the tree side. The dryad may find you before you find a hare." They climbed the cliff path in single file. Ajax led. Asher walked easy behind him, gold chain flat against his chest, shirt open at the throat. Marco came last, tall and quiet, one hand loose near his knife. Above the shelf the ground softened into scrub and thin trees. A stream cut through it toward the sea. Ajax split them at a low bank. "Marco, work the far side. Asher, the near. Meet at the bent pine." Marco went. Ajax moved upstream alone, eyes on the mud for tracks. He was bent over a hoof print when the dryad stepped out of a trunk as if the bark had opened for her. Bark skin. A dress of broad leaves. Small flowers in the bundle at her hand. She had come before, with the flowers for the seal. "Mason's son," she said. Her voice was slow, kind. "There is a way to end the thing beneath the seat, and end the hunter with it." Ajax straightened. "Say it." "When the seal opens, the hunter will come to the mouth. He must. The blade your father left you takes the creature through the eye. The brew in the pot slows the arms. When the arms slow, drive the hunter into its reach. It will feed on him before it dies. One end for both." "You are sure." "I am sure. The grove is sure." She pressed a second small bundle of flowers into his hand. "For after. Burn these at the seam so nothing wakes in its place." She stepped back into the trunk and was gone. Ajax closed his fist on the flowers and turned downstream. At the bent pine he stopped short. Asher had Marco's face in both hands. He was kissing him. Hard. Marco's palm was flat against Asher's chest, not pushing. They had sworn to wait until the walls held. The walls did not hold yet. Ajax stepped back behind the trunk before either saw him. He counted three breaths. Then he cracked a branch under his boot and walked in loud. They were apart when he cleared the pine. Asher's mouth was tight. Marco's eyes were on the stream. "Dryad came," Ajax said. "We have a way to kill it and the hunter both. Back to camp." He walked past them. He did not look back to see who followed first.