Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 152 of 619

The fire had burned down to coals when the cart rolled through the gate. Ajax heard the wheels before he saw them. No horse pulled it. No man walked beside it. The cart came up the shelf on its own and stopped inside the wall. A wrenleaf gnome sat on the driver's board. Round glasses. Green vest. Small hands folded on his knees. He climbed down and tipped his head to Ajax. "Provisions," the gnome said. "For the vault. Salt pork, hard cheese, two casks of ale, dried apples, oats. Enough to hold seven men through the woman's visit and after." Ajax walked to the cart. He lifted a corner of sackcloth. Salt pork stacked in cold cloth. Under it, wax rounds of cheese. Under that, sealed jars he did not know. Ajax stepped back. "You crossed my ward." "The gate knows me," the gnome said. "The grove built it." Grayson came out from the wall shadow with his hand on his hilt. Chalam followed with the staff. Marco stopped at the fire and closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them and nodded once at Ajax. "Clean," Marco said. "No collar. No mark. He came to give, not take." Ajax looked down at the gnome. "Why do you help me. What do you want." The gnome adjusted his glasses. "You killed the thing under the coast. You killed five more after it. You closed the seats my kind could not reach. The grove eats better because of you. The dryads sleep because of you." "That is what I did," Ajax said. "Not what you want." The gnome nodded. "Fair. Two things. First, the sixth seat. You crossed the last name off, but the seat itself was never opened. Iron sits under a floor two valleys north. When the woman is dead, ride there. End it. We will guide you." Ajax waited. "Second," the gnome said. "When your wall is a house, and your house is a hold, remember who fed you tonight. When men come asking who owns this shelf, say the grove has passage through your gate. That is all. No tax. No oath. A road." Elara stepped up beside Chalam. She looked at the cart and then at the gnome. "A road," she said. "Written or spoken." "Spoken," the gnome said. "Between him and me. Broken only by him." Ajax thought about it. A sixth seat still shut. A grove that had fed him blades, vials, a gate, and now bread. A hold that would need friends when the woman's people came looking. "Done," Ajax said. "Passage through my gate for the grove. I ride north for the last seat after the woman falls." Asher and Tucker began unloading the cart. The gnome climbed back onto the board. The cart turned itself and rolled out through the gate and down the road until the dark took it. Ajax watched it go. He had one more debt now, and one more fight after tomorrow's.