Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 71 of 619

They rode hard for an hour before Ajax called the halt. The land rose into scrub and broken pine. He picked a hollow ringed by rock, with one way in and a stream running down the far side. Grayson brought the two collared men down off the spare horses and set them against a boulder. Both were awake now. The first watched Ajax with flat eyes. The second worked his jaw, testing the iron at his throat. Ajax crouched in front of Marco. "Their mouths I can gag. The iron I can't. Chalam says the collar carries what they think." "It does," Marco said. He looked at the two men against the rock. "I can hold them." "Hold them how." "Sit on their thoughts. Push mine over theirs so nothing of theirs gets out. It's like putting a hand over a horn." "How long." Marco was quiet a moment. "As long as I stay awake." Ajax stood. "Then you don't sleep tonight." Chalam had already unrolled his satchel on a flat stone. Three empty vials lay in the cloth, corks beside them. He set the fourth and fifth beside the first three and uncorked all of them. He set the staff across his knees. "They fill on their own," he said. "Slow. All five by dawn if I sit with them and don't speak." "All five," Ajax said. "All five. Full." Chalam looked up. "I've never held them all at once in the field. If we camp the night, I'll have every vial I own." Ajax looked at Grayson. Grayson gave a short nod. "We camp," Ajax said. "No fire. Tucker on the ridge. Asher on the stream. Elara sleeps first, then me." Marco knelt in front of the two men against the boulder. He put a hand on each of their foreheads. The first man went slack. The second bared his teeth, then his jaw loosened and his eyes went empty. Marco stayed there on his knees, breathing slow through his nose. "They're quiet," Marco said. "Nothing goes out." Ajax sat down across from him with his father's blade across his lap. The night came in cold. Chalam did not move on his stone. The vials caught starlight and began, one by one, to hold it. By the fourth hour Ajax could see the first vial glowing steady blue at the neck. By the sixth, three of them. Marco's hands stayed on the two men. His head dipped once and Ajax spoke his name and it came up again. Dawn found Chalam still on the stone. All five vials burned full and even. He corked them one at a time and put them in the satchel and only then did he close his eyes. Ajax stood. He had a wizard at full strength, two silenced men on ropes, and a whole day's ride ahead to reach the next name on the list before it heard they were coming.