Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 606 of 619

The passage narrowed as they went down. Elara led with her band bright at her wrist. Behind her walked Ajax with his father's blade, then Kael and Torren, then Rowan with an arrow already nocked. Chalam came last, his staff pressed to the wall as he moved. "It's close," Chalam said. His voice went flat and clipped. "Below us. Big. Awake." He stopped. "The rock is thin here. When it comes, it comes fast." The floor opened into a wide black chamber. Ajax stepped in and stopped. Something moved in the dark ahead, too large for the space. Six limbs. A wet, low sound came from it, like breath drawn through water. "That's not a tool," Chalam said. "That's the maker." The god came at them. It crossed the floor in one lunge. Kael shoved Torren aside and threw his knife. It struck and bounced off. "Won't cut," Kael said. "Elara," Ajax said. "Now." She raised her wrist. Light burst from the band, white and hard, filling the whole chamber. The god reared back and howled. It struck blind at the wall, missing them by an arm's length. The band held. Her feet stayed under her. "Hold it there," Ajax said. Rowan drew and loosed. The arrow took the god below the jaw and buried deep. The head snapped up. Its mouth gaped, dark and wide. Ajax ran at it. Kael and Torren went with him, one on each side, driving blades into its flanks to keep it turned. The wounds did not slow it. But they held it in place, and the light held it blind. Ajax jumped. He drove his father's blade up through the open mouth, into the roof of it, and shoved the whole length home. The god shuddered. Its limbs curled inward. It fell, and the floor shook under the weight. The light died. Elara sank to one knee, but she stayed awake. "I have more," she said. "I saved it. Like she told me." Chalam pressed his staff to the dead thing. He waited a long moment. "Gone," he said. "No binding left. Nothing wakes it. It was never sealed. Now it's just dead." Ajax pulled his blade free and wiped it on his arm. He looked at the great still shape on the floor. His father had sealed the sleeping gods, one after another. This one no one had ever caught. It had built its cages and taken men into the dark for three hundred years. "We didn't seal it," Rowan said. "We killed it." "Aye," Ajax said. Kael retrieved his knife from the floor. Torren checked the passage behind them, blade ready. It stayed empty. "Nothing else down here," Chalam said. "It hunted alone." Ajax turned toward the stairs. Above them the freed men waited in the grass, and past them, the sea and the road home. "Then we're done here," he said. "Bring the hide. Aldric will want the teeth. We ride at first light."