Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 568 of 619

The seer stayed a season, and her sight served Ajax well. But now she wanted a stronger house of makers around her, one that could reach what she saw. Chalam brought the count to Ajax at the cliff hearth. "Two young wizards. One boy. One grown man off the Crossing. The seer." He set his bone staff against the wall. "Five in the line. Not enough to hold a ward and hunt the sites both." Ajax knew the number. His maker who kept reaching the doors first traveled by mirror and worked alone. To beat him, Ajax needed wizards to spare. "How many," he said. "Three more," Chalam said. "Then I can teach in pairs and still send men out. Fewer, and I run dry." Marco came through the portal that evening with dust on his jeans. He had ridden the Crossing gate all week, reading every trader who passed. "Slow going," he said. He pulled a stool to the fire. "Most men have no gift. The ones who do, half are bought already. A house finds them before I do." He rubbed the gold bracelet on his wrist, the one he never took off. "I flagged one. A cart hand with a real spark. But he lied about where he slept last winter. I let him ride on." "You were right to," Ajax said. JD came next, boots loud on the stone. He worked the bar at the harbor and listened for gifted men in the drink talk. He and Marco split the same work between two rooms, the way they split everything. "Two at the docks," JD said. He dropped onto the bench beside his brother. "One's a drunk with a charm around his neck. Nothing under it. The other's clean." He looked at Ajax flat. "Wants coin. No house. Marco should read him before he swears." "Bring him," Ajax said. Marco went north with JD on the next tide. Three days later they came back with the dock man between them, hands loose, eyes moving over the walls the same way the seer's had. Marco stood close and read him at the gate. "Clean," he said. "Gift's small but real. He came for the wage and nothing else." Chalam blood-locked the man to the mirror and mirror-marked him for the cliffs. Then Ajax laid a charmed silver chain on his neck and heard the oath. That made six. "Two short," Ajax told Chalam. "I can start with six," Chalam said. "Teach the two young ones, hold the seer, work the new man on wards." He picked up his staff. "Find me two more before thaw. Then the line stands on its own." Ajax touched the cold chain on his chest. The seer was sworn. The line held six makers now, not enough to hunt his enemy yet, but enough to build on. He would ride the Crossing himself for the last two.