Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 176 of 619

Bran crossed the yard slow, the way Tucker had shown him. He held his shoulders back. He did not look at the men who looked at him. The gold chain across his exposed chest caught the sun. The boots made a heavier sound than his old ones. Ajax was at the kitchen wall with Chalam when Bran came around the corner. Chalam set down his staff. He looked at Bran and did not look away. "Well," Chalam said. "That worked." Grayson came out of the arms shed with a bundle of arrows. He stopped. He looked Bran over once, top to bottom, and grunted. "Shirt fits really well," Grayson said. He set the arrows against the wall and kept looking. Asher walked in from the gate with Marco a step behind him. Asher saw Bran and slowed. Marco stopped and stared. "Tucker dressed you," Marco said. "He did," Bran said. He held Marco's eyes the way he had been taught. He did not look away first. Marco's mouth moved at one corner. "He did a job." "He's going to draw eyes at the gate like that," Asher said to Ajax. He did not take his eyes off Bran while he said it. "Every man who rides up is going to look at him first." "Good," Tucker said. He had come up behind them from the barracks. He leaned on the doorframe and let his chains catch the light. Ajax set his hands on his hips. He looked at Bran. Bran held the look. The chain on his chest moved with his breath. "He needs the hair long," Ajax said. "Down to the shoulder. Frames the jaw.“ The other agreed. Ajax looked at Bran a beat longer. He thought about the gate, and the men who would come to it, and where a man's eye went first.