Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 75 of 619

The laughter died down as the road bent toward a low rise. Ajax pulled his shirt back over his shoulders and slowed his horse until Marco came up beside him. The cart creaked behind them with the two collared prisoners still asleep under the dryad's potion. Ajax had one target left he could reach before dark, a name pulled from Renn under torture. He needed a count of the men waiting there before he rode in. "Ride with me," Ajax said. "I need your ears." Marco buttoned one button of his shirt and let the rest hang. He walked his horse up until their knees nearly touched. "How far," he said. "Chalam put the house past that rise. Stone walls, one roof. He couldn't count inside." "I can try from here." "Try." Marco closed his eyes. He kept the reins loose in his fingers and let his horse follow Ajax's. His jaw set. The gold bracelet on his wrist caught the sun as his hand tightened once and eased. Ajax watched him and said nothing. He had forbidden Marco to use the power on him. He had never forbidden this. A long minute passed. Then another. Marco's eyes moved under the lids. His lips pressed thin. He opened his eyes. "Four in the house," he said. "One at the back door with a bow. Two more in a shed to the west. That's seven." "Thoughts." "The one at the back is bored. He's thinking about a woman in a town I don't know. The two in the shed are counting coin from a purse. They think Renn is coming with silver by tomorrow." Marco paused. "One inside is angry. He's waiting on a rider from the south. He keeps thinking a name. Same name over and over." "Whose." "Not on your list. New one." Marco met his eye. "He's the one you want." Ajax reined in. The cart stopped behind him. Chalam walked his horse up and waited. "Seven," Ajax said. "One captain inside, angry, waiting on a rider. Six others soft. None looking north." "Then we come from the north," Grayson said from the front. Ajax nodded. He turned in the saddle and looked at Marco. "The name he keeps thinking. Hold it. I want Chalam to scry it after this is done." "I have it," Marco said. Ajax pointed Grayson off the road into the pines. The company followed. The cart rolled after them, its wheels quiet in the needles. Ajax rode last and watched the rise until the trees hid it. He had gone in blind at the coast. He had gone in blind at the hall. He would not go blind again. Seven men, one captain, a fresh name behind them. He had what he needed to plan the kill.