Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 165 of 619

They rode through the night and reached the shelf at first light. Ajax pulled up short of the gate. The road climbed clean to the wall, and above it a second line of stone stood where none had stood when he left. Tucker met them inside with Bran at his shoulder. Tucker had his vest open and dust on his boots. He grinned at Ajax like a man who had been waiting to be caught at something. "You built," Ajax said. "We built." Tucker jerked his chin at the shelf. "Cody kept the mason. Bran kept the crew. I paid them." Ajax walked past him. Behind the main wall, two long stone rooms ran along the cliff face, roofed in fresh timber. Barracks. Six bunks in the first room, framed in and bedded with straw. In the second, smaller doors opened off a hall. Ajax counted them. Six. "One for each of you for now," Tucker said behind him. "Yours is at the end. It has a window." Ajax stopped at the last door. A short bed. A chest. A slot in the stone that looked east over the sea. He put his hand on the frame. The stone was cold and true. "How." "Silver from the woman's purse," Tucker said. "And the mason worked fast once he had men under him. Chalam's cut stone held the courses. We only had to lay them." Chalam came up beside Ajax and ran his palm along the doorframe. He nodded once. "Clean work. No workings in it. Just stone." Marco walked the hall behind them. He touched each door as he passed. He stopped at the third and looked back at Asher without saying anything. Asher stepped into that room and set his saddlebag on the bed. Ajax turned to the crew. "Sleep inside tonight. All of you. First time under my roof." Elara went to the second room. Marco took the fourth. Chalam took the first, nearest the gate. Ajax stayed in the yard with Tucker. "The Keeper still comes," Ajax said. "She does." Tucker touched one of his chains. "But now she comes to a house. Not a shelf." Ajax looked up at the new roof. His warhouse had a roof. His men had beds. Each team member had his own bedroom. It was not a brotherhood yet. It was the shape of one.