Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 422 of 619

The six new fighters filled the bunkhouse floor by floor, until there was no floor left to fill. Ajax stood in the doorway and counted men on straw beds crammed too close. He had swords now, and no room to house them. Winter grain sat in sacks along the wall, one bad leak away from rot. He called Grayson, Chalam, and Aldric to the bunkhouse to fix both at once. Grayson looked at the crowded beds and said what Ajax already knew. "Too many men, one floor. Put a second floor over this. Same number of beds as below." He measured the wall with his eyes. "Stone holds it. Bran cuts the blocks. Not hard." Aldric had come with his ledger, the dark green tunic dusty from the vault. He did not waste words. "You have grain for winter and more coming from the Crossing every week. It cannot stay in sacks. Rot takes it, or mice do." He tapped the page. "Build a grain house. Dry stone, raised floor, tight roof. Store what you eat and sell the rest north." Ajax weighed it. A second floor doubled his beds. A grain house turned a lack into coin. "Both," he said. "Start today." Chalam set his satchel down and drew his staff. He said it plain, the way he said everything. "Bran and the masons cut stone in days. I cut it in one." He did not soften the cost. "The staff holds now." They worked the second floor first. Chalam sheared blocks from the cliff stone while Bran and the port masons set them. The new fighters carried and lifted, glad of work that was not waiting. By dusk the second floor stood roofed, a row of beds ready under it. Grayson tested a frame with his weight and grunted once. That was his approval. The next day they raised the grain house against the north wall. Aldric marked the floor line high off the ground so damp would not creep in. Chalam cut the walls square. Bran laid the roof tight, no gap for rain. By the third day the house stood dry and sealed. Ajax's men carried the grain sacks in and stacked them off the floor, safe until spring. Aldric walked the finished grain house and ran a hand along the stone. "This holds three winters of feed," he said. "And a hold of grain to sell north each run." Ajax stood in the doorway and looked at both buildings. He had beds for every man he owned and room for more. He had grain that would keep, and grain to trade. His house could feed twice its number now.