Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 59 of 619

They rode out of the town under a thin moon and did not stop until the road climbed into pine. Ajax picked a hollow off the track and set the watch himself. The note sat folded against his chest. Whoever wrote it had stood close enough to count them at the bar. Ajax pulled Marco aside from the picket line. Marco was still buckling his belt. He looked at Ajax and waited. "You hear men in their heads," Ajax said. "How far." "Close," Marco said. "A room. Sometimes further if they're loud." "I need further tonight. I need to know if anyone's walking up on this camp before they clear the trees." Marco rubbed the gold bracelet at his wrist. "I've never tried to reach out. It comes to me." "Then learn," Ajax said. He looked past Marco to where Chalam sat against his satchel, awake now, staff across his knees. "Chalam. Come teach him." Chalam rose and crossed to them. He set the staff down and studied Marco a moment. "Your gift is a door that opens inward," Chalam said. "Men walk through it to you. You want to walk out of it instead. Different work." "Show me," Marco said. Chalam took a pinch of powder from his satchel and rubbed it between his fingers. He held the fingers under Marco's nose. Marco flinched, then steadied. "Sit," Chalam said. "Close your eyes. Feel the ground your horse is on. Then the ground past it. Then the trees. Push your listening out the way you'd cast a line. Not hard. Slow. If you snap it, you get nothing." Marco sat. His hands rested on his knees. Ajax watched his jaw work and then loosen. A long minute. Then another. Marco's eyes opened. "There's someone," he said. "Two of them. Down the slope. Past the second stand of pine." "How far," Ajax said. "Bowshot and a half. They're walking. One is thinking about his boot. The other is counting our horses in his head." "Armed?" "Yes. And the counter has the same word in his head as the note. Collar." Ajax felt the cold of it settle in his gut. He turned to Chalam. "He can do it." "He did it," Chalam said. "He'll tire fast. Give him water when he stops." Ajax was already moving. He woke Grayson with a hand on the shoulder. He sent Tucker and Asher wide through the pines with blades drawn. He put Elara behind the horses with Chalam. He kept Marco beside him at the center of the camp, eyes closed, listening. "Talk to me," Ajax said quietly. "They stopped," Marco said. "They know we're not asleep. One is turning back. The other is staying." Ajax drew his father's blade. "Tell me when he moves," he said. Marco nodded, eyes still shut. The camp went silent around them and waited on his voice.