Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 612 of 619

The camp held through the night. At first gray light, Ajax stood at the shelf's edge and studied the path up the cliff. Waiting for the beasts to tire in their dens meant chasing them. He wanted them here, in the open, where his men had room and clear sight. He turned to his crew. "We change the plan," he said. "We don't climb to them. We bring them down to us." Rowan crouched by the tide line and looked at the tracks again. "They feed here at night," he said. "They come to the water. If we make noise on this shelf, they come toward it." He pointed to the two cuts in the cliff where the path split. "Two ways down. They'll take both." Kael walked the shelf and marked the ground. "Open here," he said. "Backs to the surf. We fight in a line." Torren stood beside him and looked at the cliff overhead. "If more come than we count, we're pinned against the water," he said. "No retreat." He said it flat, no fear in it, just the fact. Ajax set his fighters. "Torren, Kael, hold the two cuts. Cut them as they come down." He looked at Rowan. "You take the high rock. Put arrows in their throats before they reach the shelf." Elara stood in the middle, her band bright on her wrist. "When they're in the open, blind them," Ajax told her. She nodded. "I have enough for one strong casting," she said. "Make it count." Chalam struck his staff on the stone. "They hunt by sound," he said. "So give them sound." He pulled iron rod from his satchel and drove it into a crack. Ajax struck it with his father's blade. The clang rang up the cliff. Nothing moved. Ajax struck again. Then rock shifted above. Two beasts poured down the cuts, wide bodies, four toes gripping the stone. Rowan's first arrow took the lead one in the throat. It stumbled onto the shelf, into the open. Elara raised her hand. White light burst across the shelf. Both beasts froze, blind, heads swinging. Kael drove his knife under the second one's jaw. Torren cut the first one's leg out. It dropped. Ajax stepped in and put his father's blade through its mouth. The beast shuddered and died. The second beast swung toward Elara's light. Rowan's arrow found its throat. Ajax turned and drove his blade home. It fell beside the first. Silence returned. Elara sagged, her band dark. "Spent," she said. Rowan checked the cuts and the path. "No more," he said. "Just the two." Ajax looked at the two bodies on the open shelf. The way up the cliff stood clear now. "We climb at first light," he said. "The path is ours. The seal waits above." He wiped his blade clean. The island's high ground lay open, and the door his father never touched sat at the top.