Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 260 of 619

By midmorning the riding party reached the second cave. It stood in the black rock above the tide line, sealed like the last one. Ajax pulled his father's blade from the saddle. Kael rode close beside him now, the new chain bright on his chest. Rowan tied the horses and strung his bow. Chalam walked ahead to the stone door and pressed his palm flat against it. Chalam is the wizard who has ridden with Ajax since the coast. He speaks little and softens nothing. His staff can read the old bindings left by trapped gods. He drew it now and held it near the seam. The wood hummed. His face changed. "There's a ward," Chalam said. "Older than the doors we cut. It's set to catch anyone who opens it." "Catch how?" Ajax asked. "I can't tell from outside. It's built to punish, not to warn." Chalam did not look away from the stone. "If I break it wrong, it takes the man holding the blade." Ajax weighed that. "Can you break it clean?" Chalam opened his satchel. He took out chalk and powdered lodestone. "I can. It costs me a vial. And it costs time. Keep everyone back from the door." Rowan pulled Kael away by the arm. Kael went, but his eyes stayed on Ajax and the door. Ajax stood alone at the seam with the blade. Chalam knelt and drew a line of chalk across the base of the stone. He scattered lodestone dust along it. Then he uncapped a vial and poured it slow into the chalk. The dust turned dark. The stone groaned. A red seam of light traced the door's edge, then flared white. "Now," Chalam said. "Cut it now, while the ward has nothing to hold." Ajax drove the blade into the seam. The stone split. The white light snapped out. The door swung inward on its own weight, and cold air poured from the dark inside. Chalam sat back on his heels, breathing hard. "It's broken. The ward is dead." He looked at his empty vial and his voice went flat. "But someone set that trap knowing an heir would come. Knowing the blade. This wasn't left for the old woman. It was left for you." Ajax stared into the open passage. The door was down. The cave lay open before him. He had come for treasure on a map. He had opened a door his father's enemy had baited for his son. "rowan, lights," Ajax said. "Kael, at my back. Chalam, rest and follow when you can." Kael drew his knife and stepped up. "I said I wanted to see the door," he said. "I meant inside." Ajax went in first with the blade.