Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 566 of 619

The new wizard was bound and clean, but he could not stand or shape a ward. Ajax needed him trained, and the boy Corin too. So at first light he brought both to the cliffs, through the mirror portal to the island passage. Chalam came with his staff. The wide training floor waited, its hearth cold, the stone smelling of salt and lodestone. Ajax set the two before Chalam. "Teach them to hold a ward," he said. "Both. Start today." Chalam struck faint marks into the floor with lodestone dust. The boy Corin swayed at once, his face pale. The new wizard set his feet and endured it. "They feel it," Chalam said. "Now they learn to shield instead of drown." He guided their hands to the staff, one at a time, showing how to push the pull away. Corin gasped, then steadied. The new wizard held longer. By midday both could stand near the marks without buckling. It was a beginning. While they worked, a caller ring warmed against Ajax's chest. JD's voice reached him through it, flat and short. "Trouble at the Crossing. Marco sent word. Come to the bar first." Ajax left the wizards to Chalam and crossed back through the portal to Black Oak. JD stood at the bar, green shirt half open, a gold bracelet on his wrist that matched his brother Marco's. JD read men for lies the way Marco did, and he did not waste words. He looked up when Ajax entered. "Marco found a woman at the Crossing," JD said. "She tells fortunes for coin. She scries." He set both hands flat on the bar. "Marco says she reached farther than Chalam can. Saw a ship two days out that no one had seen yet. She was right." Ajax leaned in. "A seer." "A seer," JD said. "Marco read her clean. No charm, no house behind her. Just the gift." He paused. "She sees past the reach of your wizards. That's worth more than a sword." Ajax thought of Chalam, who cracked his staff reading distant bindings, who could never see the maker who reached each sealed door first. A seer who scried farther would close that gap. "Does she know what she is?" Ajax asked. "She knows she's hunted for it," JD said. "Same as your last wizard. Marco says she'll come for refuge if you offer it." Ajax set his cold chain against his chest and decided. "Ride to the Crossing with Marco. Offer her a place. Wages, a room, and my wall against whoever hunts her." He held JD's eyes. "Bind her only if she chooses it." JD nodded once and left without another word. The two wizards trained on the cliffs, learning to hold. Now a seer waited at the Crossing who could see farther than any of them. Ajax's line of makers grew, and with it, the eyes to find the maker who kept reaching his doors first.