Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 3 of 619

They made camp at dusk in a clearing where two game trails crossed. Ajax picked the spot because any traveler headed north would pass through it. He meant to be found. If Southern Oak would not send him men, the road would. He walked the clearing at first light and chose a flat slab of granite beside the path. He knelt with his hatchet and cut a mark into the stone: a wolf's paw, four claws deep, a fifth stroke pointing north toward the coast where he meant to raise his walls. Under it he cut a single word. AJAX. "Sign your name in stone," Grayson said from the fire. "Bold." "Men need a thing to follow. A mark. A direction." "A mark's fine. You still have to be here when they come." "I'll be here." Ajax stripped his shirt and set to the boulders at the tree line. He picked the heaviest he could shift, hauled it to the trailhead, and stacked it beside the marked slab. Then another. Sweat cut lines through the dust on his chest. The gold chain at his neck swung and caught the sun. Grayson watched from the log by the fire. He was shirtless too in the heat, silver chain flat against his chest, leather loincloth dark with sweat at the waist. He whetted his knife and did not look away. "You building a wall or a shrine?" Grayson said. "Muscle." "You've got muscle." "More of it." Grayson smiled without showing teeth. "Lift the next one slower. In case someone's watching." Ajax lifted the next one slower. He heard Grayson laugh once, short. By midday a rider came up the south trail. He swung down at the marked stone and read it. He was blonde, dress shirt open at the throat, gold chain against chest hair, jeans tight at the boot. He looked like no one who belonged this far past the last town. He led his horse into the clearing and stopped ten paces from Ajax. "Your stone says Ajax," the man said. "You him?" Grayson did not move from the log. He did not look up from his knife. Ajax set the rock down and stood square. His shirt stayed off. "I'm Huge Ajax. I'm building a warhouse on the coast. Pay at the end. Land after. You ride under me or you ride on." The man studied him. He glanced once at Grayson. Grayson kept whetting. "Asher Converse," the man said. "I'm not staying long. I've got somewhere to be by the new moon." "Ride with me until then." Asher looked at the marked stone. He looked at the stacked boulders. He looked at Ajax's hand, which had not reached for Grayson's endorsement. "Until the new moon," Asher said. "Then we talk again." Ajax had his first sworn man. He had three weeks to make him stay.