Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 268 of 619

Aldric wore his new chain the next morning. Ajax found him in the library with the scrolls spread wide. The scholar had already asked a hard question at the feast. Thirteen men, a full vault, and no work for spring. Ajax needed something to do with idle hands. Then Elara came to the door and told him the answer had arrived on its own. "Someone wants to see you," she said. Elara was the healer who rode with them. She swore no oath and took no orders, but she had saved every man in the house at least once. She led Ajax to the yard without another word. A woman stood past the gate. She wore a blue gown that caught light like water in the sun. Stones circled her wrist and held small sparks inside them. Ajax had met her kind before. This one came from Elara's order, the same power that filled the healer's band each night. "You closed the last door," the emissary said. Her voice was low and clear. "The seats are quiet. The groves rest. My order marks that. The reason does not change the debt," she said. "We pay it now." She raised one hand. Light moved from the stones on her wrist to Ajax's chest and sank in. He felt no pain, only a slow warmth, like sun on cold stone. Then it passed. "What did you do?" he asked. "You can make now," she said. "Thread from raw wool. Cloth from thread. Fine coats, boots, chains fit for lords. Your hands hold the craft that took me a hundred years to learn." Ajax flexed his fingers. Nothing looked changed. But he knew it was true the way a man knows his own strength. Elara watched him with a careful face. "That is no small gift," she said. "Gifts from her order come with weight." "The weight is mine to carry," the emissary said. "He carries only the skill." She looked at Ajax. "Winter is long. Use it." Then she turned and walked past the gate, and the light on her gown thinned into the morning until she was gone. Ajax stood a moment. Then he called for Bran to bring the raw wool from the storage shed, the sacks they could not spin. He sat at the hall table and took a handful. Under his fingers the wool drew out and twisted into an even thread, tight and true. He worked a length in one breath. The men gathered and watched. Ajax saw the whole shape of it at once. Fine goods sold high at the port. Cloaks and chains bought loyalty faster than silver. Come spring he would not send idle men to raid empty caves. He would send them to trade. He set the thread down and looked at Elara. "Now I have work for every hand," he said.