Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 198 of 619

After the noon drill, Ajax pulled Chalam aside at the vault door. The yard rang with wood on wood behind them. Grayson was already correcting Bran's grip. "The Keeper knows my ring is dead," Ajax said. "She lost three riders on the creek road. She will try scrying next." Chalam set his staff against the wall. "Your ring hid you for one season. That season is gone." "I want another. Stronger. Something that holds through the winter and does not thin." "The grove made the last one. They will make this one." "Call them." Chalam took the flute from his satchel and walked out past the gate. Ajax followed. Rowan watched from the north wall and did not lift his bow. Chalam played three notes into the wind and lowered the flute. The gnome came out of the treeline within the hour, round glasses catching the sun, green vest dusted with pollen. He crossed the ward at Ajax's word and stopped in the yard. "You need something," the gnome said. "A ring like the last. Better. One that holds against a Keeper who is looking hard." The gnome pushed his glasses up his nose. "Darker stone. Bone core. It will cost you double the last." "How long does it last?" "Two seasons if you do not break it. Three if you keep it out of salt water." "How long to make it?" "Two days. I bring it to the gate." Ajax went to the vault and came back with a heavy purse. He set it in the gnome's small hand. The gnome weighed it, nodded once, and tucked it under his vest. "The old ring," the gnome said. Ajax pulled the green-stoned ring off his finger and passed it over. "Melt it." "Always do." The gnome turned for the trees. "Two days." When the gnome was gone, Ajax stood in the yard and looked at what he had. Barracks. Kitchen. Well house half up. Stable begun. Men swinging blades in a rough line. It was enough to sleep in. It was not enough to sit down together. He found Chalam still at the vault. "I want a hall," Ajax said. "Long table. Hearth at the end. Room for all seven of us and any man I bring in after. Somewhere we eat and speak plain without a workman at the door." Chalam thought about it. "Between the barracks and the kitchen. The ground is level there." "Draw it tonight. Bran cuts stone in the morning." Chalam picked up his staff. "A hall changes the shelf. Men see a hall and they know who leads it." "That is why I want it." Ajax walked back to the drill line. Grayson had Bran on his heels now, blade up. The ring was ordered. The hall was chosen. In two days he would be hidden again, and by winter his men would eat under one roof.