Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 7 of 619

They made the coast road by noon the next day. The trees thinned. Salt came up in the wind. Ajax rode point with Grayson a length back, Marco and Tucker behind, Chalam last with his staff across the saddle. Ajax needed hands for the walls and eyes for the ground. Five men would not raise a warhouse alone. A woman stood at a bend in the road beside a dead horse. Blonde hair, green shirt under a leather vest, boots planted wide. She was pulling a saddlebag free of the carcass and did not look up when they stopped. A small glow moved between her fingers as she worked a strap loose. Light magic. A healer's trick used on leather. "Horse is done," she said. "I'm not." Ajax swung down. "Where are you headed." "Coast. Same as you, by the look." She straightened. Green eyes went across the five of them without hurry. "Elara Brightwood. I set bones and I close cuts. I can throw light when I have to." "We could use a healer," Ajax said. "I heard you the first time you said nothing." Tucker slid off his horse. He pulled the vest open and hooked a thumb in his belt. The chains caught the sun. "Long road ahead. Be a shame to walk it." Marco was already down, rolling one sleeve up past the bicep. He lifted the saddlebag off the dead horse with one hand and set it on his shoulder. "I've got it." Grayson stayed mounted and watched. Elara looked at Tucker's chest. She looked at Marco's arm. She laughed once, short. "Put it away, boys." Tucker grinned. "Just offering." "I saw." She turned to Ajax. The smile was gone. "You the one they answer to?" "I am." "Then talk to me. Not around me. I'll ride with you to the coast. I'll heal your men when they need it. I don't swear to anyone and I don't fetch." Ajax felt Grayson's eyes on the back of his neck. His call, alone. "Ride with us to the coast," Ajax said. "Heal who needs healing. No oath. You leave when you want." "Agreed." Marco walked her saddlebag to his own horse and tied it on. Tucker buttoned the vest slow, still grinning at nothing. Chalam watched Elara the way a man watches weather. "Wizard," she said to him. "Keep your words off me." "I heard the terms at the crossroads," Chalam said. "They cover you." "Good." Ajax got back in the saddle. Six now. A healer who would not kneel, a wizard she already mistrusted, and two men who had just been told plain that their chests bought them nothing. He kicked the horse forward. The road bent toward salt air and the shape of a coast he had not yet seen.