Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 64 of 619

They rode until the birch turned to open ground and made camp in a hollow off the road. Chalam slid from the saddle and sat against a stump before anyone spoke. Ajax watched him uncork the empty fourth vial and set it beside the fifth in his satchel. The wizard's hand shook once before he folded it in his lap. "Sleep," Ajax said. "I want you full by dawn." Chalam nodded. "The fifth fills slow. A night should do it." He said it plainly, without softening. "If it does not, you go in with a wizard who can light a candle and little else." "Then sleep hard." Ajax posted Grayson on the first watch and took the second himself. Marco listened outward from the second watch until Ajax told him to rest. No riders came. No hooves on the road. The pines held quiet. Ajax knelt beside Chalam once in the dark hour before dawn. The wizard's satchel was open across his chest. Ajax could see the vials by starlight. Four corked and empty. One lay on its side, and inside it a pale film had gathered along the glass, thicker than it had been at dusk. Ajax touched the cork with one finger and did not move it. He let Chalam sleep. At first light Chalam sat up on his own. He drew the fifth vial out and held it to the sky. The liquid moved slow and full against the glass. He corked it and set it back in the satchel with the others. "Full," he said. "You are sure." "I am sure." Ajax stood and whistled the horses up. Grayson was already saddling. Marco brought Chalam bread and water and did not speak. Elara checked the wizard's pulse at the wrist, held it, and let it go. "He will hold," she said. "A day's ride," Ajax told the group. "A stone mill north of here, half fallen. Renn is in a barn beside it with two men. One wears a collar. We ride now. We do not stop for noon." Asher swung up at the back of the line without a word. Tucker took the middle. Grayson rode beside Ajax at the front. Chalam rode behind Grayson where Ajax could see him. They climbed through the birch as the sun came up. The road dropped toward a shallow valley by mid-afternoon. Ajax reined in at the last rise and looked down. A broken stone wheel lay in a dry creek bed. Beside it, a barn with half its roof gone leaned against the slope. Smoke came from a fire behind it, thin and steady. "He is still there," Grayson said. Ajax loosened his father's blade in its sheath. Chalam pulled his staff across his saddle and gave one short nod. "Now," Ajax said.