Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 60 of 619

Marco's breath slowed. Ajax watched the pines and waited on his word. "He's moving," Marco said. "Coming up the slope. Blade drawn." Ajax looked to Elara behind the horses. She had told him at dusk that her wrist band was heavy with moonlight now, more than it had held before. She had also told him she could not blind men and shroud men in the same night. One or the other. "Elara," he said. "Hide us." She stepped out from the horses. Her hand went to the gold at her wrist. She closed her eyes and pushed the light down instead of out. The air over the camp thinned and went strange. Ajax looked at his own hand and saw nothing there. "Hold it," Ajax said. "Marco. Take him." Marco stayed sitting. His jaw worked again. "He's close. Twenty paces. He's afraid. He came for a look and stayed too long." "Use it," Ajax said. "Turn him." Marco's brow tightened. "He's alone now. The other one ran." "Then bring the other one back." A long quiet. The pines dripped. Somewhere down the slope a boot scraped stone. "I have him," Marco said. His voice had gone flat. "I'm calling his friend. His friend is coming back for him. He thinks he heard him shout." Ajax did not move. Elara's breath came shallow beside the horses. The shroud held. Boots on pine needles. Two sets now, converging in the dark below the camp. A man's voice, low, calling a name Ajax did not know. Another voice answering, wrong, wound tight. "Closer," Marco whispered. "I'm giving them each other's face. The one who came up thinks his friend is me. The other thinks the first man is Ajax." Steel rang against steel down the slope. A grunt. A second clash. Then a wet sound and a body going down through brush. One more strike. Another body. Silence. Marco opened his eyes. He was pale. Sweat ran at his temple. "Done," he said. "They killed each other." Elara let the shroud drop. She sank to one knee against a horse's flank. Ajax caught her elbow before she went further. "Water," he said over his shoulder. Chalam was already moving with the skin. Ajax sent Tucker and Asher down through the pines with lanterns. They came back inside the quarter hour. Two men. Spiral tokens on both. One purse, one folded paper. Tucker handed the paper to Ajax without opening it. Ajax read it by the low fire. A name and a place, in the same hand as the note from the town. Not a threat this time. A meeting. Three days south, at a crossing he knew. He folded the paper into his belt. Marco was drinking. Elara had color again. "They wanted us to run south," Ajax said. "Now we know where they wait." He put Grayson back on watch and sat down to think.