Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 261 of 619

The passage ran straight into the rock. Ajax led with his father's blade, Kael at his back, Rowan holding light. The air was cold and dry. The tunnel opened into four dark doorways cut side by side. Ajax stopped at the first. He waved Rowan up. The light spilled inside, and the room lit up gold. Gold bars lay stacked against the far wall. Coin filled open chests. Silver plate leaned in rows. And on a low stone table sat a spread of small things—rings, a vial, a bracer, a cloth, a bundle of carved beads. Kael let out a low whistle. Chalam came in behind them, still pale from the ward. He is the wizard who has ridden with Ajax since the coast. He speaks plainly and never softens a fact. He set his staff against the wall and knelt at the table without touching anything. "Some of these are worked," he said. "Give me light and time." Marco stepped past him into the room. He is Ajax's sworn man, born with the gift to hear thoughts and press them onto others. He wore the iron bracer on his forearm that blocked a magic user’s sight. He touched nothing, only stood still and listened to the stone. "Nothing living in here," Marco said. "No mind but ours." Chalam lifted a bronze ring first. "This one warms the wearer. Cold nights. Cody should have this to work through winter.” He set it down and took a vial. "Sight working. One look through walls, then spent." He named each in turn—a healing cloth that closed one wound, beads that lit themselves, an iron ring that stopped one blade. His voice stayed flat until he reached a plain gray band at the table's edge. He held it near his staff. The wood hummed hard. "What is it?" Ajax asked. "A caller," Chalam said. “Wear it always to send a message to Tucker when he’s at port.” Ajax put the ring on. The gold was real, but so was the ring. It would be useful. Ajax looked back at the three dark doorways still waiting. He had cleared one room. He had gold enough to feed Black Oak for years and pay a dozen new men. "Load this room," Ajax said. "Then we open the next."