Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 534 of 619

The Seraphine came back to Silvermoor on the third tide. Ajax loaded her light, no cargo, only men and water and salt meat for four days. Marcus took the helm. Ajax stood at the bow with Rowan and Chalam and Kael as the ship turned west, past the burned house, into water no chart had ever held. Rowan rode the bow rail and read the shore. He pointed at gaps in the cliffs where dark streaks ran down the rock. "Fresh water," he said. "Comes off the hills. Beasts drink where it meets the sand." He watched the tree line above the beach. "Cover there too. Thick. Good ground for game." Chalam stood beside the mast with his hand on his staff, the one bound from bone and grove wood. "Rocks below," he said. "I feel them. Marcus, hold off the point. Deeper water past the reef." Marcus turned the wheel. The hull scraped nothing. Chalam did not soften it. "That was close. Two boat-lengths and we open the belly." By midday the coast bent into a wide bay. A river ran out of the hills and cut a channel through the sand. Rowan leaned forward. "Tracks," he said. "On the far bank. Four-toed. Wet still." He looked at Ajax. "Something big came down to drink not an hour past. This ground is not hunted. No fear in the prints." Ajax felt the season turn under his feet. New ground. Full holds. The house fed through the thaw. "Anchor here," he said. "We row in at dusk and read the bank close." Marcus dropped anchor past the reef where Chalam marked it safe. They lowered the boat. Kael went first over the side, knife already loose at his belt. "Two beasts," he said, flat, eyes on the bank. "Tracks cross twice. They come as a pair." He said nothing more. When the subject was set, Kael let it lie. They rowed to the sand as the light went red. Rowan crouched over the prints and pressed his fingers into them. Chalam uncorked his scent oil and passed it down the line. Each man rubbed it on wrists and throat to mask the heat and smell from beasts that hunted by both. Ajax drew his father's blade and set his back to the cliff. "This bay has never seen a hunter," Rowan said. "The grounds run east from here for a day, maybe two. Game the whole way." Ajax looked at the river, the tracks, the trees behind. The southern coast was spent. This water was not. He had gambled the ship on empty rock and found it full of life. "We hunt at first light," Ajax said. "Rowan finds the ground. Chalam keeps us hidden. Kael takes the second beast when it comes." He sheathed the blade. "Send word to Marcus. Tell him we found new ground. The house will not starve."