Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 466 of 619

The doubled vault held more silver than Ajax could ever spend on grain and steel. He stood at the iron door one morning and felt the weight of it. He had wealth and nowhere to put it. A man with coin and no comfort was just a miser guarding rock. He called Aldric, Tucker, and Chalam to the yard. "We build," he said. "A castle. Onto the Council hall, in the inner ward. Stone towers. Fine rooms. A place a master lives, not a camp." Aldric set his ledger on the wall. He did not open it. "You have thirty men and three winters of grain. A castle feeds no one and stops no beast." "It shows them what I built," Ajax said. "It shows the coast a great roof rising over the trees," Aldric said. "Ships will see it. Captains will talk. The gate you spent a year hiding will draw every eye to the cliff." Tucker leaned on a post, chains catching the light. He chewed his grass stem and said nothing for a moment. Then he spoke. "He's right about the roof. But you're not wrong to want it." He pointed his stem at the inner wall. "Build low. Build inside. Cut your grand rooms down, not up. No captain sees stone he can't spot from the water." Ajax looked at the inner ward. The Council hall sat squat against the hill. He had wanted towers. Towers would be seen. Chalam crouched and pressed his palm to the ground. "The hill is dry here, away from the spring. I can cut down into it. Chambers under the ward. A hall of stone with a warm hearth, hidden under the roofline you already have." He stood. "No new shape against the sky." Ajax weighed it. A castle above would name him to the whole coast. A hall below would name him only to the men who ate at his table. He had chased secrecy for a year. He would not throw it away for a view. "Cut down," he said. "Under the ward. Make it where my men will stand, and blind from the sea. Thirteen large stone bedrooms against the inner wall for the Council members with a hearth in each. the Council Hall stays at the center.” Seven days and it would be complete.