Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 244 of 619

At dawn Ajax found Elara still asleep in his bed, the gold band dull on her wrist. He shut the door and crossed the yard to the storage shed. Bran had finished the shelves the day before. Three walls of them, cut from clean pine, ran floor to roof. They stood empty. First frost was a month out. Ajax needed them filled before the road closed. He called Aldric, Chalam, Rowan, and Grayson to the shed after breakfast. Aldric came with a slate and chalk. He looked at the shelves and set the slate on a barrel. "Only things that hold," Aldric said. "No fresh brew. No cut root. Anything that spoils in a month goes to the kitchen, not here." Grayson leaned on the doorframe. "What do we have that holds?" Chalam counted on his fingers. "Gland oil from the Verath, sealed in wax. Bone dust for the ground wards. Dried flowers from the grove. Salt tube. Healing cloth. The draught from the keeper's cache." "Aldric, write it," Ajax said. Aldric wrote. Rowan spoke next. He had been quiet by the door. "Yew bark keeps a year if it's dry," Rowan said. "Ash bud, the same. Snowtail sprig holds two winters if you cap the jar. I have all three in the grove. I can bring enough to fill one wall." "How long?" Ajax said. "Two days." "Go tomorrow. Take a cart." Aldric tapped the slate. "Verath teeth. I ground six into needles. They keep as long as bone. That's the second shelf. Gland oil in wax fills the top. Bone dust below." Chalam frowned. "The healing cloth stays in the vault. Not the shed. One use only. Too easy to steal." "Agreed," Ajax said. "Draught the same. Vault." Grayson spoke up. "Winter meat. Salt cod, dried venison, hard cheese. That fills a wall on its own. Cody's wife knows the count for twelve men through frost." "Kitchen list," Aldric said. "Different shed. This one is for the workings." Ajax nodded. "Workings on the north wall. Herbs and bark on the west. Bone and tooth on the east. Nothing on the door wall. Aldric keeps the ledger. Nobody takes a jar without a mark. Write on each what the item is. Easier to find.” Aldric drew three lines on the slate and wrote a header on each. He passed it to Chalam, who read it and gave it back. "Clean," Chalam said. By dusk they had labeled every shelf with chalk. Rowan left at first light with the cart. Aldric started the ledger that night in the library, the fixed stars steady above him. Ajax stood in the shed alone before bed and looked at the empty wood. The plan was set. The month was his to fill it.