Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 245 of 619

Rowan returned at midday on the second day. His cart came in slow, stacked with capped jars, bark bundles, and cloth sacks. Ajax met him at the gate and helped unload. The shed filled fast. Yew bark went to the west wall. Ash bud beside it. Snowtail sprig in sealed jars on the top shelf. Aldric marked each jar in the ledger as it landed. While they worked, the dryad walked in through the open gate. She carried no basket, no gift. Bark skin, green leaves stitched into a dress, hair long down her back. Elara had named her on the ward the week the pact was set. She passed the threshold without a spark and went straight to the hall. Ajax followed her inside. She was already at the long table, one hand flat on the wood. Bran had built new benches along the wall the week before. She turned to those next. "You have more wood since I last came," she said. "It should be marked." "Marked how?" "The way the table is marked. Leaf and vine. So the grove knows the piece belongs to this house." Ajax thought of the carved leaf she had cut into the table when the pact was struck. He nodded once. "Do it." She drew a thin blade from her belt and set to work on the nearest bench. The cuts came fast and clean. Leaves ran the length of the seat. Vines wrapped the legs. She moved to the next bench without a word. By dusk she had done four benches, two stools, and the shelf above the hearth. She did not eat or drink. She did not rest. Grayson found Ajax in the yard as the light went. "She'll be at it all night." "Let her." "The men are watching." "Let them watch." Grayson looked at the hall door and then back at Ajax. "Rowan's back. Cart's empty. Shelves are half full." "Aldric?" "Ledger's current. He's in the library." Ajax called the four of them to the hall after supper. The dryad worked in the corner, cutting a vine into the arm of a chair. Ajax laid the old hide map on the cleared end of the table. Four coastal marks north of the shelf. The first mark sat a day and a half up the coast. "First cave," Ajax said. "Rowan, Chalam, Marco, and me. Grayson holds the gate." Aldric bent over the map. "The mark sits at a cave hidden in the woods.” "When?" Rowan said. “At dawn." Rowan nodded. Grayson said nothing, which was his yes. The dryad finished the chair and moved to the next. Ajax rolled the map and put it back in his coat.