Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 246 of 619

Ajax woke before dawn to the sound of a chisel on wood. The dryad still worked the hall. She had moved from the benches to the door frame, cutting leaf and vine into the wood at eye height. She had not slept. He watched her for a moment, then went to wake Rowan and Chalam. The cave ride could wait a day. He wanted the library warded and stocked before he rode north. He found Aldric in the library with a lamp burning low. The scholar sat at a plank desk, three open books spread in front of him, a stack of loose maps to his right. Grey ran through his hair and beard. His green tunic was creased from the night. He looked up when Ajax came in and set his pen down. "You slept here," Ajax said. "I read here. Then I slept." Aldric closed the nearest book. "You brought a scholar into a house with a dryad carving your walls. I am not complaining. I am noting it." "She's marking the wood so the grove knows it's ours." "I understood the pact. I would like to learn from her while she is here. Grove work is not written down. It walks in and walks out." Ajax thought about it. The dryad had not asked to be alone. The men had watched her all night and she had not looked up once. "Sit with her. Ask what she'll tell you. Don't touch the blade. Don't touch her." "Understood." Elara came in behind him with a wooden tray. Two clay cups, a stoppered jar, and a small bundle of waxed cloth. She set them on Aldric's desk without ceremony. "Winter potions," she said. "Fever draught in the jar. Wound wash in the cups. The cloth is a paste for burns. None of it expires." She looked at her dull band. “I will refill it tonight as I rest in the moonlight.” Aldric picked up the jar and turned it in the lamp light. "Sealed with wax and marked. Good." Ajax nodded. "Do it. Ledger every one. I need you to keep inventory of Black Oak storage.” He walked back to the hall. The dryad had finished the door frame. She turned to the shutters. Ajax pulled a stool over and set Aldric's spot beside her. When Aldric came in with a fresh sheet of paper, she glanced at him, then at Ajax, and made the next cut without stopping. The cave would wait another day. The house would be ready when he left it.