Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 575 of 619

The next morning, Chalam finished a full round of drills and set his staff against the wall. The eight wizards worked in pairs without his eye now. Ajax watched them from the hearth and turned the question over. His line was strong. His line was hidden. But eight makers penned in one cliff was a waste. He called Chalam over. "They're ready," Ajax said. "You've drilled them a season. They hold wards. They strike clean. Corin steadies the young ones. What more can this floor give them?" Chalam wiped his hands on his robe. "Little. They practice the same three holds. I have nothing new here. They need real ground. Real bindings under real stone." He paused. "If they stay, they slow. Men rot when the work stops." Ajax nodded. That matched his own read. But sending wizards past the wall meant risk. Any one of them could talk. "You want to expand. Spread them across the sites. Two here, two hunting the old doors, two at the Crossing under Marco." "That's the choice," Chalam said. "Keep them safe and dull. Or use them and grow." Grayson came in from the passage then. He rarely climbed to the cliff floor, and Ajax read weight in it. Grayson stopped and looked at the robed wizards, then at Ajax. "Marco called through the ring," he said. "A house at the Crossing is sniffing after gifted men again. Same as the tall one you took. Marco can't watch the gate and read every trader alone." Ajax felt the pieces lock. The question answered itself. "Then we don't hold them here," he said. "We use them. Chalam, pick two of your strongest. They ride to the Crossing and stand with Marco. Two more train under you for the old doors. The rest hold this floor and take turns." Grayson gave a short nod. "They pass through Black Oak first. JD reads them. Same as the keepers." "Same as the keepers," Ajax agreed. He turned to Chalam. "Blood-locked and chained. They answer to me across the sea, or they don't ride out at all." "They're already chained to your gold," Chalam said. "The lock holds. I'll name the two by dusk." He looked over the line once more. "The tall one. And Corin." Ajax found Corin among the pairs, broad now, holding a younger man's eyes steady through a drill. The boy had wanted men to stop stepping past him. Now Ajax would send him to a gate to make traders stop. "Corin," Ajax called. The wizard came, chin up, no flinch. "You ride to the Crossing at the next tide. You'll guard the road and read the stones no one else feels." Corin held his gaze. "I'm ready." Ajax believed him. The floor emptied of its purpose that day and became a launching post instead. His makers would spread from it now, not sit in it. The line was his, and it moved.