Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 308 of 619

The hides were in the vault and the bunkhouse was full. Ajax sat at the hall table the next morning and remembered a promise he had made months back. Bran had earned a house of his own inside the walls, one with room for his sister to live beside him before the thaw. She would arrive soon, and the man had waited long enough. Ajax set his cup down and called for Bran. Bran came in still dusty from the pens. He had grown broad and tall from Chalam's draughts, but his eyes stayed the same worried gray. "You need me on the north line?" he asked. "No," Ajax said. "Today we build your house. Not after the thaw. By the herb strip, like I said. A loft for your sister." Bran stood still. He did not speak but smiled. He only nodded once, hard, and turned to fetch his tools. “Thank you. I mean it” Bran said. Grayson met them at the strip with the crew. He looked at the marked ground and spoke flat. "Two days for walls if Chalam cuts stone. One more for the roof and loft." He did not ask if it was worth pulling men off the hunting lines. He had already decided it was. "I'll hold the gate. Take who you need." Chalam raised his staff and split the blocks clean. Bran laid them faster than any mason. He worked without rest, sweat running down his chest, and no one drove him. By dusk the walls stood chest-high. The men saw what the house meant to him and worked harder for it. Tucker rode in from the port on the second day. He swung down and looked at the rising walls, then at Bran laying the loft beams. "So the boy gets his own roof," he said. He carried a bundle under his arm and set it inside the door. "Blankets. A chair. Cody's wife sent linens for the sister's bed." He said it plain, no fuss, but he stayed to help Bran hang the door. On the third day Aldric came with a ledger and a small crate. "Furniture," he said. "A table, two stools, a chest." He set them where they belonged and made his marks. "A house needs more than stone to be a home." He looked at Bran. "Your sister will want a window that faces the sun. I moved the loft opening east." Bran hung the last shutter at noon. The house stood finished. Table, bed, hearth, and a loft above with a window facing the morning. He stood in the doorway and could not find words. Ajax clasped his shoulder. "It's yours," he said. "Bring your sister through the gate one at a time. Elara will name her to the ward." Bran nodded, and his eyes were wet. The house was done. Bran had roots now, and a reason to stay past any season. Ajax had built one more thing his men could not walk away from.