Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 181 of 619

Ajax woke before the crew and walked the closed wall alone. Wind came off the sea. The stone held. Inside the ring stood barracks, kitchen, well house, and the vault beneath. What he did not have was tools enough to build what came next, or salt and iron for winter, or the small things a settled crew needed to stay. He found Tucker at the kitchen bench, drinking hot water with a strip of dried meat in his fist. Tucker's chains lay clean on his chest again. He had washed the dust off. "Sit," Ajax said. Tucker sat. "Your oath ended yesterday." "It did." "I need a run to port. Cart and two horses. Tools, salt, steel, cloth, cord, lamp oil, nails. Enough to hold us through winter and build the stable and the arms shed proper." Ajax set a purse on the bench. It rang short and heavy. "Silver from the woman's kin. Spend it clean." Tucker looked at the purse but did not touch it. "You want me to go because I know the port." "I want you to go because you know who not to buy from." Tucker's mouth moved under the mustache. "That's a compliment from you." "Take Chalam. His staff cuts a day off the road and his eye reads a mark on a barrel before you pay for it." "And after the run?" "After the run we talk about what you stay for." Tucker picked up the purse. He weighed it in his palm and set it down again. "I'll go. But I want the list from you, not from Cody. What we need is what you say we need." Ajax pulled a scrap of hide from his belt and a stub of charcoal. He wrote as he spoke. Iron nails, four kegs. Salt, two sacks. Steel bar for the smith at the grove to draw. Lamp oil, six jugs. Rope, heavy and light. Wool for cloaks. A whetstone. Two axes. A plow blade. Ajax stopped at the plow blade and looked up. Tucker's eyes were on the word. "Plow," Tucker said. "We eat off the shelf next spring or we don't hold it." Tucker nodded once. Ajax found Chalam at the well and told him. Chalam took the flute from his belt, then dropped his hand. "I'll ride. Two days there, two back, if the cart holds." "Hold it," Ajax said. By midmorning the cart was harnessed at the gate. Marco stood at the post and read the two of them as they passed. He looked at Ajax and gave a single nod. Clean. Ajax laid his hand on the top rail of the cart. "Bring it all back. And bring yourself back." Tucker met his eyes. "That was already the plan." The cart rolled through the gate. Ajax watched the dust rise on the coast road and turned to the shelf. The next build waited on what came back in that cart.