Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 16 of 619

Tucker and Marco rode in at midday with a bundle of steel across the second horse. Ajax met them at the top of the path. Tucker swung down and dropped the bundle on the flat stone by the door. He cut the twine with his knife. Six plain blades. A whetstone. A short axe Marco had thrown in for the price. "No questions at the port," Tucker said. "The smith weighed the gold twice and asked what tavern we drank at. That was all." "Any sign of the man on the road?" Ajax said. "Nothing on the ride back," Marco said. "We took the long way in past the stream. No tracks but ours." Ajax picked up a blade and tested the edge with his thumb. It bit clean. He handed it to Asher, who had come up behind him. Asher took it without a word and slid it into his empty sheath. "Try them," Ajax said. "All of you. I want to see the steel move before I trust it." The men carried the blades out to the flat ground above the shelf. The sun was high and the wind had died. Tucker pulled off his vest and dropped it on a rock. He pulled his shirt over his head after it. Marco did the same, folding his blue shirt and setting it on top of Tucker's. Asher was already stripped to the waist, chain bright against his chest. They worked through the swings. Ajax watched the shoulders, not the blades. Tucker's arms were lean and quick. Marco was thicker across the chest, slower on the recovery. Asher held his guard high and steady. When they set the swords down, Marco stepped over to Ajax and lifted an arm to flex. "Better than what I rode in with," he said. He turned his forearm in the light. Tucker laughed and matched him, chain swinging. Asher joined without being asked. The three of them stood shirtless in a rough line, comparing arms and chests like boys at a fair. Ajax pulled his own shirt off and stepped in. He was the biggest of them by a hand. His chest hair was thick and his father's gold chain sat heavy on it. He said nothing. He did not need to. Chalam came out of the door with a vial in his hand and stopped when he saw them. "The second one is filling," he said. "One more day." "Good," Ajax said. He turned to the men. "We ride at dawn. Down the coast road, south, to the crossroads camp. If the man tracking us is coming from Southern Oak, I want to meet him on ground I know, not here." Marco nodded. Tucker picked up his vest. Asher was already sharpening his new blade on the stone.