Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 43 of 619

The hammer worked steady up the slope through the night and into the next day. Ajax kept the men close to camp. Grayson patrolled the ridge. Elara sat by the creek with her wrist in the cold water. Chalam ground powder on a flat stone and did not speak of the oil business. By afternoon the second day Ajax needed the marrowroot poison in hand. The plan for the spiral hall depended on fouling the well before the blades were ready. He walked to Chalam and asked him to call the dryad. Chalam took the flute from his satchel and blew a low note toward the trees. Marco sat across the fire from Asher. He had been quiet all morning. Ajax caught him looking once at Asher's mouth, then away. Marco's face changed. He stood up too fast and walked toward the creek. Ajax followed him a few paces. "Speak." Marco kept his back turned. "I heard him." "Asher." "He wants me alone. Away from the fire. Now." Marco pressed his palm against his forehead. "I don't want it in my head. I can't shut it off when he's close." Ajax had forbidden Marco to use the power on him. He had said nothing about the others. That was his mistake, and he saw it now. "Sit apart from him tonight," Ajax said. "Take the far watch. When we ride out, you ride at the front and he rides at the back." "That's not a fix." "It's what I have. You knew what you were when you swore to me. Carry it." Marco lowered his hand. He looked at Ajax a long moment, then nodded once and walked upstream. The dryad came out of the pines while Ajax stood there. Bark skin, a dress of broad leaves, a bundle of cut stems in her arms. She crossed the clearing to Chalam without looking at the rest of them. "Marrowroot," she said. "Enough to sicken twelve men through one well. Steep it a full night. Pour at dawn." She set the bundle in Chalam's hands. "Thank you," Chalam said. "I will not waste it." "See you don't." She looked once at Ajax. "The hall knows more each day. Move soon." Then she walked back into the trees. Ajax took the bundle from Chalam and wrapped it in oilcloth. He had the poison. He had one day left before the blades were done. He had a sworn man who could not sit near another sworn man without hearing what the other wanted from him. He went back to the fire. Asher looked up from his blanket, easy, expecting Marco. Ajax sat down between them. "Marco takes the north watch," Ajax said. "You take the south. Starting now." Asher's face closed. He did not argue. He got up and walked south along the creek. Ajax set the wrapped bundle by his knee and watched both men move apart into the trees.