Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 199 of 619

At dawn Ajax found Bran already at the stone pile with a wedge and mallet. The ring would come in two days. The hall had to start now. "Chalam drew it last night," Ajax said. He held out a scrap of hide marked in chalk. "Long room. Hearth at the far end. Door facing the yard." Bran wiped his hands on his thigh and took the hide. He read it slow. His new shoulders filled the shirt Tucker had given him. He handed the hide back. "How wide?" "Wide enough for a table that seats six on each side with Ajax at the head. "I can cut for a week and not have enough stone." "Chalam and the others will help. It can be done in two days." Grayson came across the yard with two blades under his arm. He had been at the drill line since first light. He stopped at the stone pile and looked at the chalked hide. "A hall," Grayson said. "A hall." "Between the barracks and the kitchen." "Yes." Grayson set the blades down. He looked at the level ground Chalam had picked. He looked back at Ajax. "You want a smithery too." Ajax had not said it yet. He had thought it in the vault last night, standing over the collars and the salt tube. He had thought it again at the drill line when Bran's blade rang wrong against Rell's. "I do." "And an armory." "Behind the smithery. Locked. Chalam wards the door." Grayson nodded once. "Smithery first or hall first." "Hall first. Men eat before they fight." "Smithery after. Before winter." "Before winter." Grayson picked up the blades. "I will tell Cody to pull two men off the stable. Bran needs hands at the pile." "Do it." Grayson went. Ajax watched him cross the yard and stop at the drill line. Grayson spoke to Cody in three sentences and Cody moved. Ajax turned back to Bran. "After the hall, you cut for a smithery. Chalam will tell you what a forge floor needs. Stone thick enough to hold heat. A chimney the wind cannot pull." "I have not built a forge." "You have not built a hall either. You will build both." Bran set the wedge against the first block. He struck it clean. The stone split along the line he wanted. He looked up at Ajax and did not smile, but his shoulders sat straighter. By noon Bran had six blocks squared and stacked. Two of Cody's men worked the pile beside him. Chalam paced the level ground and drove pegs at the four corners of the hall. The rope between the pegs marked out a room longer than Ajax had pictured. Ajax stood at the corner peg and looked down the length of it. Table here. Hearth there. Smithery behind the west wall. Armory locked behind the smithery. The ring would come in two days. They could complete the all three builds by first frost. And by the thaw, his men would carry blades forged inside his own gate.