Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 83 of 619

They rode hard until the horses lathered, then walked them into a stand of pines an hour past dark. Ajax slid the scrying ring off his finger and held it up in the firelight. The metal was cool now. The working inside it had hours left, not days. "Chalam." Ajax held out the ring. "I need this to hold longer than a day. Make it permanent, or find someone who can." Chalam took the ring between two fingers and turned it. He pressed his thumb to the band. His mouth thinned. "The working is thin," he said. "Someone laid it fast. A day was all they wanted from it." "Can you set it deeper?" "Not with what I carry." Chalam opened his satchel and showed the five vials tied inside. "These are for opening seats and shrouding men. Not for anchoring a ring against a Keeper who is already looking." "Then who." Chalam handed the ring back. "The smith in the deep grove could set it into iron. The gnomes would carry the request. It would take days I don't think we have. The dryads won't touch a hiding working. It runs against them." "Days." Ajax closed his fist on the ring. "So it's a day, and then he sees me." "Yes." Ajax stood a long moment. Then he pushed the ring back onto his finger. "Then we use the day." Across the fire, Grayson was pulling his boots off. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Marco sat cleaning blood from his blade with a rag. "Valentino," Grayson said. "Field's flat past the trees. Come wrestle me." Marco looked up. "Now." "Now. Shirts off. I'm sick of sitting in the saddle." Marco set the blade down. "You lost to Tucker last week." "Tucker lost to you. I want a turn." Ajax watched them walk out past the horses. They stripped their shirts and stepped into the flat ground between the pines. Grayson's silver chain caught the moonlight. Marco's gold one swung against his chest. They locked up. Grayson drove low. Marco caught his shoulder and turned with it. They went down together in the grass and rolled once. Grayson came up on top. Marco hooked a leg and flipped him. They broke apart laughing, both breathing hard. "Draw," Marco said. "Draw," Grayson said. He clapped Marco on the shoulder and shoved him off. They walked back to the fire pulling grass out of their beards. Ajax nodded to them once. He was glad for it. His men were still his men, and the ring on his finger was still hiding him, and there was still a night before the Keeper's eyes swept the ground and found him standing on it. He sat down and drew the folded list from his belt. Seven names. He had one day to decide which one to ride toward first.