Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 135 of 619

Ajax came down from the cliff at first light. The mason's crew was already at the wall. Bran worked the north face, cutting stone with a steady hand. Ajax watched him a moment. The boy's arms had thickened since the first day. His shoulders filled the shirt he'd come in wearing. Ajax found Tucker by the fire pit, drinking from a tin cup. "Send Bran to me," Ajax said. "Alone. Behind the wall where no one hears." Tucker looked up. "That the boy with the sister." "That's him." "You firing him." "No." Tucker set the cup down. "Then what." "He told me two nights back he’s working to provide for his sick sister. Fever. She's been coughing blood." "And." "And if send Elara to heal her, he quits and goes home. His sister gets well and he stays there. I lose the best hand on the wall with six days to hang the gate." Tucker rubbed his mustache. "So don't do it." "Then he will grow with bitterness of heart." "Maybe." Tucker picked the cup back up. "You want my read, you've got a healer on the shelf already." Ajax looked at him. "Ask her," Tucker said. "She doesn't ride out. She rides nothing right now. One casting she's saving. But a fever's not a casting. A fever's herbs and a hand on a forehead." Ajax went to find Elara. She was at the stream filling a skin. He told her plain. A boy on his crew had a sister two days south with lung fever. He needed the boy on the wall. He would send silver and food, but he needed hands that knew the work. Elara capped the skin. "Send me." "I need you here when the gate hangs." "Two days down, one day with her, two days back. That's five. The gate comes in six." She looked at him. "I don't spend the band. I spend what I already know. Herbs and rest." "If she's past herbs." "Then I tell him plain and come back." Ajax called Bran behind the wall. The boy came with dust on his hands and his jaw set, expecting the worst. "The healer rides to your sister at noon with Tucker," Ajax said. "Draw a map for her. My silver for what she needs at the village. You stay and work with pay until your job here is done. Agreed?" Bran's mouth opened. Nothing came out. He nodded once, hard. Ajax said. "Swear it." "Sworn." Bran drew a map to his sister’s location. By noon Elara sat her horse next to Tucker’s with a satchel across her knee. Ajax watched them take the road south until the pines closed behind them. Six days to the gate. Seven to the dark moon. His healer and close friend on a journey to heal. Ajax and Grayson turned to the wall and began carrying stone themselves.