Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 124 of 619

Marco came down the stair before the sun cleared the roofs. He had his own face again. He set the ring on the bar in front of Ajax. "He's close," Marco said. "One rider. Alone. He's tired and he's cold and he keeps picturing the same man at the door." "Who," Ajax said. "A gray-bearded man in a long coat. Runs the house here for the woman we crossed off. The rider calls him Wick in his head. He expects Wick to open the door and take him to the back room for coffee." Tucker set down a cup. "Wick's real. Ran the front for years. He drank himself off the pier last winter. The rider doesn't know that." "Good," Ajax said. "Then Wick opens the door." Chalam came in from the back room, staff in hand. His robe hung open. He looked at the ring and then at Marco. "The ward holds as long as no one strikes inside the walls," Chalam said. "Blood breaks it. Keep the killing outside or wait until he's past the threshold and sitting." "He sits," Ajax said. "He drinks. He talks. Marco will read his thoughts. Then we take him." Marco slid the ring on. His shoulders thickened. Gray came into his beard. A long coat settled over him. He looked twenty years older and half a hand taller. He rolled the new shoulders once and nodded. "Voice," Ajax said. "Come in, boy, you're late." The voice was rough and low. Marco smiled with someone else's mouth. "Close enough?" "Close enough," Tucker said. "Wick never smiled. Drop that part." Marco dropped it. Ajax laid the plan flat on the bar with his hand. "Marco opens the door as Wick. Brings him to the corner table. Tucker pours. I sit behind the beam with the blade. Chalam waits by the back stair with a sleep vial. If the rider reaches for anything, Marco holds him in his head and I come around the beam. We take him alive. We ask him who sent him and what he was to carry back." "And if he carries a collar," Chalam said. "Then we cut it off him before he calls out. Marco holds his mouth shut from the inside." Marco pulled the ring off. His own face came back. He puts the ring in his pocket. "He'll be at the door within the hour," Marco said. "He turned onto this street a minute ago." Tucker moved to the back and drew a cup of hot water from the kettle for coffee. He set it on the corner table with a second cup beside it. Chalam took his place by the stair. Ajax slid behind the beam and settled his father's blade across his knee. Marco put the ring back on. Wick walked to the door and waited for the knock.