Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 171 of 619

At dawn Ajax walked the yard alone. The kitchen wall stood chest-high where they had left it. He set his palm on the top course and felt the stone still cool from the night. He had driven his crew hard for weeks. Today he would ease his hand and see if the walls still rose. Marco came down from the gate with a water skin. He stopped beside Ajax and looked at the wall. "Straight," he said. "Straighter than the port ever gave us." Ajax grunted. He had known Marco long enough now to hear the weight under a plain word. Marco had ridden with him since the crossroads, sworn to find what a god had taken from his blood. He wore the same short gold chain and the same open blue shirt as the day he first came in. He read men for Ajax and lied about nothing. Ajax owed him more than he had ever said. "Get the mason from yesterday back on the block line," Ajax said. "The one who asked about the woman." "I read him again at the gate," Marco said. "Port gossip. No collar behind it." "Then work him. Pay him fair." Marco tipped his head and studied Ajax. "You are softer this morning." "I am tired of shouting." "The men will notice." "Let them." Bran arrived with Chalam and set to the north course. Tucker brought the masons down from the cliff face. Ajax walked the block line and did not check every stone with his palm. He clapped the lean mason on the shoulder and asked his name. The man gave it. Ajax told him the wage would rise a copper a day if the kitchen was roofed by dusk tomorrow. The mason nodded and picked up his chisel faster. Chalam set his staff against the stone and worked steady. By midday the north course was laid. By afternoon Bran and the masons had the west course up to match. Elara brought bread and cheese out under the cliff. Ajax ate with the crew instead of walking the line. Marco sat down beside him with a plate. He watched the yard a long moment. "He came in this morning clean," Marco said. "Fresh to the walls. Reads you like a man he has never met." "Who?" "The mason. He does not know what you were a month ago. Only what you are today." Ajax set his bread down. "Good." At dusk Bran laid the last block of the west wall. Tucker hauled the door frame into place and pinned it. Elara set a lamp inside on the new sill. The kitchen stood four walls high, roofed in fresh timber, a hearth cut against the cliff. A table went in. Stools went in. Salt and steel went on the shelf. Ajax stood in the doorway and looked at the room his men had built. He had a kitchen. He had a crew that read him fresh. The next fight would come, but tonight he ate under his own roof.