Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 170 of 619

Tucker, Chalam, and Marco reached the shelf by midday. Ajax met them at the gate. Tucker handed over Ajax's share of the silver and the report: the house was clean, the road empty. Ajax pocketed the coin and pointed at the half-built kitchen. "Then get to work." Ajax had spent the morning marking lines in the dirt. The kitchen came first. Then the well house, the arms shed, the stable. Bran already had a course of stone laid along the kitchen's south side. Cody's men mixed mortar in a shallow pit. The masons from Southern Oak were cutting block near the cliff face, bare-armed and sweating hard in the heat. Ajax put Tucker on the block line with the masons. He put Marco at the gate to read every hand that came through. Chalam he sent to the kitchen wall with Bran. "Cut what he needs cut," Ajax said. "No more." Chalam nodded and set his staff against the stone. Grayson came down from the cliff blind. He watched the yard fill with work. "You want the arms shed close to the barracks," he said. "Not the gate." Ajax looked at the line he'd scratched and moved it ten paces south. Grayson said nothing more and climbed back up. By afternoon the kitchen wall stood waist-high. Chalam's staff hummed low against each block, and the stone settled true without shim or wedge. Bran carried two blocks at once and did not slow. Asher worked beside him without a word, hauling mortar buckets. Elara set a table under the cliff and laid out bread, cheese, and water for the crew. Tucker took a pull from the water skin and wiped his mouth. "Faster than the port," he said. Ajax didn't answer. He walked the line and checked every course with his palm. At dusk Chalam sat down hard against the cliff. His staff was cool again. "Two more days like this and the kitchen is roofed," he said. "Then I need a night." Ajax gave him a nod and told Elara to feed him first. Marco came down from the gate as the sun dropped. "Six through today," he said. "All clean. One asked about a woman on the road three days back." Ajax stopped. "Which one?" Marco tipped his head at a lean mason drinking water by the table. "He heard it at the port. Not from her people. Just talk." Ajax watched the man a moment. "Keep him close. Read him again tomorrow." The crew ate together in the yard. Bran's shoulders ached and he didn't hide it. Tucker cuffed him lightly on the arm and told him to sleep in his room tonight, not the shed. Ajax grinned and considered it. The kitchen wall stood behind them, chest-high and straight. Tomorrow they would resume their work.