Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 150 of 619

Bran woke before the horn. Ajax heard the pallet creak and the slow breath of a man testing a new body. Then Bran stepped out into the gray light, and Ajax set down his cup. The stoneworker who had come to the gate three weeks ago was gone. In his place stood a man built like Tucker on a taller frame. Chest hair thick and dark from throat to belt. Shoulders wider than the doorway he had just cleared. His jaw had squared. His nose sat straight where it had been crooked. His eyes were the same, but the face around them had settled into something the port women would follow down the street. "How do I look," Bran said. "Look at yourself." Bran raised his arm and made a fist. The bicep rose in a clean round ball. He held it there and grinned. "Incredible." Ajax said. "It is." Bran flexed the other arm and held it squaring his chest and pushing it out. The slabs stood clear under the hair. He looked at Ajax. "Feel it," Bran said. Ajax stepped over and put a hand flat on Bran's chest. The muscle sat hard under warm skin. He moved his hand to the bicep and Bran held the flex. It did not give. Ajax pressed the forearm. Solid rope. "Chalam did the work," Ajax said. "He said it would settle by morning. It has settled." Chalam came around the fire with his staff in one hand and the empty horn in the other. He looked at Bran and set the horn down on the stone. "Done," Chalam said. "No more doses. No side effects. What you are now is what you stay. You look incredible.” "My sister will not know me." "She will know your voice. Tell her your name at the gate." Bran nodded. He looked at his hands and turned them over. "Put a shirt on before the port men wake," Ajax said. "I want the team to see you at dinner, together, when the work is done. Not in pieces across the yard." "Yes." "Work the wall today the way you worked it yesterday. Do not show off. Do not lift what needs two men just because you can lift it alone." "Understood." Bran pulled his shirt down over the new chest. The linen strained at the shoulders. He went up the course and Cody looked once and looked again and then bent back to the mortar without a word. Ajax turned to Chalam. "He holds a section on his own now." "He holds two." "Then we are ready for her." Chalam tapped the staff on the stone. "One day." Ajax walked the wall. Seven men. The gate hung. The ward set. Tonight at the table the crew would see what he had bought, and late tomorrow afternoon the road would bring the woman.