Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 200 of 619

By midmorning the hall's first course sat true. Bran struck clean. Chalam's staff hummed at each block before it went into place, checking the line. Two of Cody's men fetched stone from the pile. The work moved faster than Ajax had planned. Ajax walked the rope line and stopped at the south peg. Cody came across the yard with a rag in his hand and waited until Ajax looked up. "Ask," Ajax said. "The port men sleep on the ground behind the kitchen," Cody said. "Cold now. Colder in a week. If we lose them we lose the pace." "You want a bunkhouse." "Long room. Six bunk beds for twelve men. Hearth at one end. Behind the stable, out of the yard." Ajax looked at Bran's stack. He looked at the rope marking the hall. He had planned hall, smithery, armory before frost. A bunkhouse was a fourth build he had not counted. "How long to cut for it." "Three days if Bran gives me one hand. Less if the wizard walks the line." Ajax weighed it. Hired men who slept warm swung harder. Hired men who froze went home. "Do it after the hall. Bran cuts. You lay. Chalam checks the line when he can." Cody nodded and went. Chalam had heard. He came off the rope with his staff across his shoulder. "I can hold the pace on the hall and still walk Cody's course at dusk. Two hours a day." "Take them." Elara crossed from the kitchen with Rowan behind her. She had a folded cloth in her hand and a small clay pot. Rowan carried a bundle of cut roots wrapped in leaf. "We want a strip against the west wall," Elara said. "Between the kitchen and the stone. Herbs. Fever root, bind leaf, arcberry and more if the soil takes it." "How big." "Six paces long. Two wide. Sun most of the day." Rowan set the bundle down. "I know what to plant. I know what will hold through winter under straw. I need the ground turned once before frost." Ajax looked at the strip. It was ground he had meant for nothing. A healer with her own herbs did not have to ride out for them. A bowman who knew roots was worth the plow. "Grayson," Ajax called across the yard. Grayson came. Ajax pointed at the strip. "Plow it. Today. Six by four. You can grow more that way. Elara sets the corners." Grayson looked at the ground and at Elara. "I will pull the horse and the blade after drill. An hour before dark." "Good." He went. By dusk the hall stood knee-high on three sides. Cody had paced out the bunkhouse behind the stable and driven four pegs. Grayson walked the horse down the strip against the west wall, the blade turning dark earth in a straight line. Elara stood at the far corner with her cloth folded over her arm. Rowan knelt at the near end and worked the clods apart with his hands. Ajax stood at the corner peg of the hall and counted the builds again. Hall. Bunkhouse. Smithery. Armory. Garden. Five before frost, not three. He had said yes to all of it.