Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 84 of 619

Ajax folded the list and pushed it back into his belt. The ring on his finger held its warmth for now, but Chalam had been clear. A day. Then the Keeper's eyes would find him wherever he stood. He needed a better ring, and he needed it before dawn broke twice. He crossed the fire and crouched by Chalam. "The flute. Call the gnome." Chalam looked up from his satchel. "For what." "A ring that lasts. Better than this one. The smith in the grove sets iron. You said the gnomes carry the requests." "I said days." "Then start the days now." Chalam nodded once. He drew the flute from his belt and walked out past the picket line. Ajax followed. The notes were thin and quick, no tune Ajax could hold in his head. Chalam played twice and lowered the flute. They waited. The horses shifted. An owl called once and did not call again. The gnome stepped from between two pines as if he had walked a long road and only now arrived. He was small and round-shouldered, brown fur under a green vest, round glasses catching the firelight. A leaf was pinned to his sleeve. He looked at Chalam first, then at Ajax, and touched the brim of nothing. "Wizard," the gnome said. "Mason's son." Ajax pulled the scrying ring from his finger and held it out on his palm. "This hides me for one day. I need one that hides me longer. Weeks. Longer if the smith can set it." The gnome took the ring. He turned it in his small fingers and held it close to his glasses. He sniffed it once. "Fast work," he said. "Cheap iron under the silver. The smith would spit on it." "Can he make one that holds." "He can. Iron he chooses. His mark inside the band. A working that does not thin in rain." The gnome's eyes moved to Ajax's belt. "Silver." Ajax loosened a small sack from his belt and set it in the gnome's palm. The gnome weighed it, opened it, counted with a finger, and closed it again. "Enough," he said. "He will not want more from the mason's son. He will want the old ring back to break for the metal." "Take it." The gnome tucked the ring and the silver into his vest. "Four days. I meet you on the coast road at the split pine. Do not send word. Do not scry the road. He will feel you if you do." "Four days." The gnome looked once more at Chalam, nodded, and stepped back between the pines. He was gone before Ajax could count to three. Chalam lowered the flute. "Four days without the ring." Ajax looked at his bare finger. "Then we ride where the Keeper won't look for me. And we don't stop moving until the split pine."