Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 10 of 619

Ajax led them down onto the shelf. The wind hit harder here. Salt spray reached them from the surf below. No trees. No walls. No roof. Just flat rock, the stream cutting across it, and the cliff at their backs. Elara pulled her vest tight. "We'll freeze by dark." Ajax looked at the cliff. Loose stone at its base. Enough of it, if they moved fast. "We build a windbreak. Against the rock. Waist-high tonight. Higher tomorrow." Grayson swung down. "Then start lifting." Ajax pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on his saddle. The gold chain swung against his chest. He walked to the cliff base and picked up the first stone. It came to his waist. He carried it ten paces and set it against the rock face. Asher stripped his shirt off next. He caught Elara watching from the stream, where she was filling a skin. He grinned and lifted a stone bigger than his head. "Count them for me." "One," she called back. Marco unbuttoned his shirt without hurry. He folded it on his saddle. His gold bracelet caught the light as he bent for a stone. He carried two at once, one under each arm, and stacked them clean against Ajax's first. Tucker took his vest off last. He kept the two chains on. He picked a flat stone and walked it over slow, chest out. "Tell me if I'm doing it right, healer." "You're doing it slow," Elara said. "Deliberate." Chalam did not lift. He stood by the horses with his staff and watched the sea. Ajax let him. The sun dropped. Sweat ran down Ajax's back. His arms burned. Asher's shoulders shone. Marco worked with his jaw set, saying nothing, stacking clean. Tucker made a show of every third stone and lifted the rest without comment. Elara counted out loud for a while, then stopped counting and started passing water. The wall rose. Waist-high along ten paces of cliff. Enough to break the wind off the water. Ajax set the last stone himself and stepped back. "That holds tonight," Grayson said. "It holds," Ajax said. They built a fire in the lee of it. The men pulled their shirts back on against the cold. Elara sat closest to the flame and looked at the four bare-chested men now covering up, and laughed once, quietly, to herself. Marco stayed standing. He was looking past the fire, down the shelf toward the surf. Ajax followed his eyes. Something was set into the rock at the tide line. Square. Worked stone, not natural. The waves washed over it and pulled back. "That wasn't there an hour ago," Marco said. "The tide dropped," Grayson said. Marco did not answer. He started walking toward it. Ajax stood. The shelter held. The night was covered. But whatever Marco had ridden all this way to find was down there in the surf, and Marco was already going.