Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 96 of 619

They made camp at dusk in a hollow ringed by scrub pine. Ajax set the watch and walked the perimeter twice. When he came back to the fire, Tucker was waiting for him at the edge of the light, hat in his hand. "A word," Tucker said. He tipped his head toward the trees. Ajax followed him out past the horses. Tucker leaned against a pine and worked a splinter out of his palm before he spoke. "You made a rule about camp and consent," Tucker said. "I kept to it." "You did." "Now I'm asking for something inside the rule." Tucker looked up. "Chalam. Time alone with him. Off from the fire. You said men could pair off with a yes on both sides. He said yes when I asked him this morning." Ajax watched him. "Then take it." "Not with six pairs of eyes on us and Grayson listening for a snapped twig. You agreed to the rule. I'm calling on it." Tucker's mouth twitched. "An hour. Somewhere the watch isn't looking." Ajax weighed it. Tucker had turned in the ring. He had ridden point three days without complaint. Chalam had asked nothing for himself since the coast. The rule was Ajax's own. Bending it now would gut it. "There's a creek half a mile north," Ajax said. "I need snowtail sprig for Elara's kit. Grows along the water. Take Chalam. Bring back a handful." Tucker's grin was small and real. "An errand." "An errand." Ajax walked back to the fire alone. Chalam was seated on a log, sorting his vials by the light. Ajax crouched beside him and kept his voice under the crackle of the wood. "Tucker asked." "He said he would." Chalam did not look up. "I told him yes." "Go with him to the creek. Bring back sprig for the kit. Take your staff. If anything walks in on the working around us, you feel it first." "I will." Chalam closed the satchel. He met Ajax's eyes. "Thank you." "Don't thank me. It's the rule." They went. Ajax watched their shapes cross the ring of firelight and dissolve into the pines. He told Grayson the two were out for herbs and to ignore any sound from the north until they came back. Grayson looked at him a long moment. "Herbs." "Herbs." Grayson nodded once and turned back to the fire. They came in near midnight. Chalam had a fistful of pale green sprig tied with a strip of cloth. Tucker's hair was wet at the ends. Neither of them spoke. Chalam set the sprig on Elara's saddlebag and lay down on his blanket. Tucker took the second watch without being asked. Ajax sat with the ledger open on his knee. Five names crossed. Two left. He had held the rule and kept two men steady inside it. In the morning they would ride for the woman two days south who was already waiting for him.