Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 406 of 619

Ajax rode home at dusk with the trail fixed in his mind. A creature twice the width of any Verath moved south, a day out and closing. He would not fight it blind, and he would not fight it with a watch that failed. He found Grayson at the gate and told him what Rowan had tracked. "We need eyes on the wall, night and day, until this thing shows," Ajax said. "And Chalam needs a stronger staff. His will crack if he reads this one." Grayson stood with his arms crossed, his father's silver chain flat on his chest. He did not waste words. "Two men on the wall each shift. Kael and Torren rotate the blind. I take the rest." He looked north into the dark. "What comes?" "Something that drove the Verath out of the deep woods," Ajax said. Grayson nodded once and went to set the watch. He did not ask again. That was why Ajax trusted the gate to him. Inside the hall, Chalam set his staff on the table. A hairline seam ran along the wood near the grip. "This one held for two readings past what it should," he said. "It will not hold a third. If I read the binding on that creature, it breaks, and I lose weeks." He said it plainly, as a man reads a ledger. "I need a staff cut for stronger work. I cannot make one myself." Ajax turned to Aldric. "What's in the armory? And where do we get Chalam a staff that holds?" Aldric set his book on the table and opened it to the arms page. His finger moved down the lines. "Twelve steel blades. Six bone knives from the Verath. Four bows, one hundred shafts, sixty of them yew-dusted. Two iron rods." He closed the book. "No staff. Nothing that holds a binding." "Then where?" Ajax said. Aldric met his eyes. He never softened a hard fact. "The grove gave Chalam his last staff. A dryad cut it and took the old one." He tapped the table. "They cut wood for this. No one else can. You send the flute call, or you go without magic against a creature you cannot see." Ajax weighed it. He knew the cost. Each grove favor bought him a new debt. But a wizard with a broken staff was no wizard at all, and the thing was a day out. He took the flute from Chalam's satchel and set it in his palm. "Grayson holds the wall," Ajax said. "Chalam gets a staff strong enough to read what's coming, tonight, from the grove." He walked to the door and raised the flute to his lips. "We meet it knowing its name, not guessing." The watch was set. The armory was counted. He would protect Black Oak and the grove.