Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 53 of 619

They rode out of the stone hall before first light and put the place behind them by noon. Ajax pushed west along a game trail until the ground softened into pine and moss. He wanted trees around him before he stopped. He wanted Asher back in the line where he could see him work. They made camp by a shallow creek. Ajax posted Grayson at the trail mouth and Tucker at the water. He kept Asher near the fire, cleaning blades with him. Marco stayed on the far side of camp without being told. Ajax let that be. "Second door," Ajax said. He wiped grease along the flat of his knife. "You called the axeman before he swung. Twice on the approach you called the guards right." "I watched their feet," Asher said. "Sick men shift weight wrong." "That was your eyes. Not the other thing." "No." Asher set his cloth down. "I gave you my word at the creek. I have kept it since." Ajax looked at him. The gold chain caught the fire. Asher held the look and did not soften it. "You ride middle tomorrow," Ajax said. "Not back. Middle." "I heard you the first time you promoted me." "Hear it again." Asher almost smiled. He picked up the cloth and went back to the blade. Ajax felt the last knot in his chest slip loose. He had been carrying it since the wine cup. Now it was gone. He slept clean for the first time in a week. At dawn Chalam was already up, staff across his knees, satchel open. Elara knelt beside him at the edge of a small glade off the creek. Mist sat low in the grass. Ajax walked down with a water skin and watched them from the trees. Elara cut a pale sprig at the root and laid it in Chalam's palm. "Snowtail. For fever bleed." "Wrap it dry." Chalam slid it into a cloth square in the satchel. "The next one is under the birch. Red vein on the leaf." She found it and brought it. Then a knotted stem with black berries. Then a curl of moss from the north face of a stone. She named each one as she cut it. Chalam named what it did. He tied each in its own cloth and laid them in order. "Enough," he said at last. "We have what we need for the road." Elara stood and brushed the wet from her knees. She saw Ajax at the tree line and lifted the satchel. "Fever, wound rot, sleep, and one for the wells if we find another," she said. Ajax nodded. "Load up. West by the hour." He walked back to the horses with the satchel weight settled behind him and Asher already tightening his own girth in the middle of the line. The next mark on the map was two days out. He had his men. He had his healer. He had what would keep them standing when the next seat opened.