Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 63 of 619

Ajax read the note twice by the light of a torch Grayson held over the dead. New writing. A stone barn a day north, past a broken mill. No name signed. Ajax folded the paper into his belt and looked up the dark slope where Chalam waited with the horses. "He moved," Ajax said. "He knew we would take the ford. He was gone before the snakes came." Grayson wiped his blade on a dead man's cloak. "Then he will move again when these five do not come home." "Not if we reach him first." They climbed back to the pines. Chalam sat against a trunk with his staff across his knees. His satchel lay open beside him. Ajax knelt so their eyes were level and held out the folded note. "I need him found. Tonight. Before he hears his ford men are dead." Chalam took the paper. He did not open it. "You want a reveal. Blood and a name." "I have no name." "Then his hand." Chalam turned the paper in his fingers. "He wrote this. His hand is on it. That will serve if the writing is fresh." "Cost." "The fourth vial." Ajax did not answer at once. Chalam kept three vials only days ago. The gnome had given him two more. He opened them in order and would not skip. Ajax knew what the fourth would leave him: one, and a wizard who needed sleep. "Take it," Ajax said. Chalam drew the fourth vial from his satchel. He pulled the cork with his teeth. He set the note flat on a stone and cut Ajax's thumb with a small knife from his belt. A bead of blood fell on the paper. Chalam poured the vial over both and spoke three words. The paper darkened. The ink lifted for a breath, then settled. Chalam closed his eyes. "Stone barn," he said. "Half fallen. A mill wheel in a dry creek beside it. He sits at a table with two men. One wears a spiral collar. The other is writing." "Where." "North. A day's ride if you push. The road climbs through birch, then drops to a shallow valley." Chalam opened his eyes. "He is called Renn by the collar man. That is all he was called while I watched." "Renn," Ajax said. He tested it. A short name. A man, not a title. "He knows our faces?" "He knows the ford failed. He does not know it failed yet. He is drinking." Ajax stood. Grayson was already whistling the horses down. "Rest in the saddle," Ajax told Chalam. "You have one vial left. I want it full when we open his door." Chalam corked the empty and set it in his satchel with the others. "Then ride fast. He will not sit long." Ajax swung up. He had a name now, a place, and a day to reach it before the man called Renn moved again.