Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 408 of 619

The dryad stayed through the night, watching the ground. At dawn she came to the hall where Ajax sat with Aldric and the copied marks. Chalam had read the creature's path each hour. It was close now. Ajax knew its name and where it came from. He did not know if his walls could hold it alone. "We meet it at the grove line," Ajax said. "But the grove is yours, not mine. I need to know we stand together, not at cross purposes." The dryad set her flowers on the table. Her wooden fingers rested beside Aldric's book. "My roots reach where your eyes do not," she said. "I will feel the creature move under the soil. I will turn the trees to slow its digging. But my kin cannot fight iron things. That is yours." Aldric closed the book. He looked at Ajax, then at the dryad. "Then set the terms plainly. Before the fight, not during it." He spoke without softening it. "A watch that answers to no one gets men killed." Ajax nodded. He faced the dryad. "You warn us where it burrows. We drive iron into its mouth. My men hold the wall. Your trees hold the ground." He set his hand flat on the wood. "An alliance. Protection for your grove. Assistance for my walls. Both ways." The dryad studied him a long moment. "You have paid many debts to me," she said. "Closed doors. Killed what escaped. I do not offer this as a debt. I offer it because you keep your word." She lifted her hand from the table. "No debt. Only a pact between us." "No debt," Ajax agreed. "You owe me nothing. I owe you nothing. We stand together because it serves us both." Aldric watched her closely. "And when the creature falls?" he asked. "Does the pact end there, or hold?" "It holds while the grove lives and the walls stand," the dryad said. "Your men pass my trees safely. My kin shelter behind your gate if fire comes." Ajax looked at Aldric. The scholar gave a short nod. The terms were clean. No hidden cost, no favor called in later. Ajax had spent a year binding men with silver and oaths. This was the first ally who asked for nothing but the same honesty he gave. "Then it is set," Ajax said. The dryad marked the hall table. She pressed her thumb to the wood and a small leaf shape rose from the grain, joining the vines already carved there. The pact was sealed in the wood itself. Chalam came in from the wall. His new staff glowed faint in his hand. "It has moved," he said. "Half a day out now. Coming fast." Ajax stood. He had his ally and his ground. Now the root-eater came, and the pact would be tested in blood before the sun set again.