Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 541 of 619

The two hides sat salted in the small ship's hold, and Ajax knew the problem plainly. His trading vessel carried furs north. His hunting boat could take neither the crew nor the haul the bay demanded. He called Rowan, Chalam, Kael, and Elara to the dock at first light. "We split the work," he said. "The big ship hunts from now on. The small one trades. We stop cramming both into one hull." Elara stepped down the dock with her healer's satchel and a coil of clean linen. She had ridden with Ajax since the coast road, casting light when the fights ran long, but she never swore his oath. She answered to no one but herself. "If I ride the hunt," she said, "I shield the front man and blind what surfaces. Nothing more. My band charges by moonlight and drains fast. But both bands are full of moonlight so I’ll last much longer. Do not spend me on small game." Rowan loaded his bow and rope onto the larger ship. "The bay holds more than we counted," he said. "Past the falls I read tracks. Three sets, wider than any I've cut. Older beasts. Bigger hides." They sailed west two days past Silvermoor. The big ship rode deep and steady where the small boat had pitched. The crew put ashore into the claimed bay. Rowan found the wide tracks at the river bend and raised one hand. The first beast came down at dusk, taller than a man on its hind legs, mythic in its size. Chalam struck his staff to the ground and roots gripped its legs. Elara raised her band and light burst white across its eyes. It reeled, blind. Rowan's arrow took its throat. Ajax stepped in and drove his father's blade through its mouth. The second broke from the pines faster. "Hold," Kael snapped. He threw his knife into its eye, closed, and cut its throat before it could turn. The third came last, the largest, its hide thick as bark. Chalam rooted it. Elara's light flared again, then guttered. "That's the band spent," she said, breathing hard. "Finish it now." Ajax struck twice into the beast's mouth. It fell. Three mythic beasts lay dead by the river, each hide worth more than a season of common furs. "No man cut," Kael said. He wiped his blades flat. Elara knelt by Rowan and checked a gash on his arm. "Clean," she said. "It will hold." She looked at Ajax. "I gave you three castings. I have nothing left tonight." They skinned the three by lamplight and loaded the big ship's hold. The split had worked. The hunting ship carried the haul the bay demanded, and the trader would run north unburdened. Ajax stood at the rail and watched the falls fall behind. "We hunt from this hull now," he said. "The bay is ours to work. My house eats through the thaw, and no lord gave us one stone of it."