Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 185 of 619

The cart rolled through the gate at midmorning. Ajax stood on the wall and watched Rell walk in beside the near horse, one hand on the trace, eyes on the ground. Tucker rode point. Chalam sat the bench with his staff. The oilcloth was still lashed tight. Nothing had been touched on the road. Ajax came down the ladder as Tucker drew the horses up in the yard. Grayson met him at the wheel. "Clean run?" Grayson said. "Clean," Tucker said. He swung down and stretched his back. "Road was empty. Rell held his end." Grayson looked at Rell. Rell held the look and did not drop it. Grayson nodded once and turned to Ajax. "Put him on the wall or the stable?" "Stable," Ajax said. "Bran's short a pair of hands there. Wall crew is full." Ajax stepped to the cart and pulled the oilcloth back. Tools, sacks of nails, coils of tar rope, the whetstone, salt, two barrels of oil, cut lumber lashed along the side. Enough to start the stable and hold the plow work through the week. "Rell," Ajax said. Rell came around the horse. "You met the crew last night at port. You'll meet them again here as sworn ground. My rules stand at this gate. You work where I put you. You eat what Tucker sets. You sleep in the room he gave you. You cross me, you go out the way you came in. Clear." "Clear." "Stable goes up behind the barracks. Bran runs the stone. You run the timber and the hauling with him. Start now." Rell went to the back of the cart and started pulling lumber. He worked without asking a second question. Ajax watched him for a count of ten, then turned away. Tucker leaned on the wheel. "Where do you want the plow?" "South strip along the stream. Chalam marked the ground last week. Two furrows to start. We put oats in before frost." "I'll take the team down after we unload." "Take Cody. He's plowed before." Grayson stepped in closer, voice low. "Rell keeps his eyes down." "He's tired," Ajax said. "Marco read him twice. Chalam looked. He's clean." "Then he's clean." Grayson did not soften it. He walked off to open the arms shed. By noon the cart was empty. The stable posts were laid out on the ground in the shape of the walls to come. Rell drove the first stake with a maul while Bran set the corner stone. Down at the stream, Tucker walked behind the plow with Cody at the horses' heads. The blade bit and turned the first line of black earth up to the sun. Ajax stood by the gate and watched both crews move at once. The walls were closed. The gate held. Now the ground inside them started to work.