Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 122 of 619

Ajax woke Tucker with a hand on his shoulder. Tucker sat up on the bench, wiped his mouth, and reached for his vest. Ajax pointed at the stair. They went up to the small room at the end of the hall and shut the door. "Talk," Ajax said. "You've held out on me before. If you have anything else in this house that could help against the rider, I want it now." Tucker pulled his vest closed and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked at the floor a while. Then he looked up. "There's a ring," he said. "In the wall behind the bar. Under a loose stone." "What ring." "Old. Plain band. You put it on and you wear another man's face. Whoever you picture. Voice too. Chalam looked at one like it years back and told me the working can't be broken while it's on the finger. Can't be scried through either." Ajax kept his face still. "How long have you had it." "Since long before I met you. I’ve never used it." "Why didn't you say." Tucker gave a small shrug. "I’m already a looker. I'm giving it up now because the rider will knock on my door and I'd rather he saw someone familiar to him. Marco can use this." Ajax watched him. Tucker did not look away. He had lied by leaving things out before. The oil. The brothel men. But the ring was his to keep, and he was setting it on the table to help them. "Get it," Ajax said. They went down. Tucker moved a keg, pried a stone from the wall behind the bar, and came up with a cloth bundle. He unwrapped it in his palm. The band was gray and dull. Nothing to look at. "Try it," Ajax said. Tucker slid it onto his finger. His hair pulled back and darkened. His mustache thinned to nothing. His jaw went square. His muscles and body shaped to an average man in different clothes. A stranger stood in front of Ajax. "Say something," Ajax said. "Like what you see?" the stranger said. The voice was low and flat, nothing like Tucker's dry drawl. Ajax reached out and took the ring off his finger. Tucker returned. He rolled his shoulder like a man shaking off cold water. "I'll give this to Marco. He’ll meet the rider and read his thoughts. You and I will hide behind the bar. Chalam will listen ready from the other room.” "It's yours," Tucker said. "For as long as you need it." Ajax closed his fist around the band and thanked him. The house was warded. The windows were empty. And now, when the Keeper's man came looking for Huge Ajax, he would find a stranger holding the door.