Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 196 of 619

They rode into the shelf near dusk. Ajax handed the three new horses off to Bran at the stable and walked straight to the yard. He sent Rell to the kitchen, told Cody to hold the gate, and gathered his sworn men in the barracks room where the vault door stood shut. Grayson came in first and set his blade on the table. Chalam followed with the satchel. Marco and Asher took the far bench. Tucker leaned against the wall. Elara sat by the hearth. Ajax stayed standing. "We rode out five days," Ajax said. "The gate held because Tucker held it. If the Keeper had come while I was north, no one here could have spoken for me at that door. That ends tonight." Grayson looked up. "You want a second." "I want a lieutenant. Sworn to the gate. Sworn to hold it in my name when I am not on the shelf. He speaks for me. He turns men away. He opens the vault if I am dead." Tucker set his cup down. "Say the name, Ajax." "I want to hear the room first." Chalam spoke without lifting his head. "Grayson. He rides beside you. The men already answer him when you are gone." Marco nodded once. "Same read from me. He held the gate last time without asking." Asher said, "Grayson." Tucker shrugged. "I run a house at the port. I hold a bar. I do not hold a gate for another man." Elara said nothing and watched Grayson. Ajax turned to him. "You would not kneel the day we met. I am not asking you to kneel now. I am asking you to swear to the gate. Not to me. To the shelf and the men inside it." Grayson looked at the vault door a long moment. "If I swear, I decide who passes when you are gone. Not you from a day's ride away. Me." "Yes." "If I turn a man away and you come back angry, you eat it." "Yes." "If you die on the road, I hold this ground until the crew votes a new man in. Then I go back to my own road." "Agreed." Grayson stood. He drew the silver chain from under his beard, closed his fist on it once, and let it fall. "Sworn to the gate. Not to you." "Sworn to the gate," Ajax said. Chalam opened the vault and set a second key on the table. Ajax pushed it across to Grayson. Grayson pocketed it without looking at it. Ajax turned to the room. "He speaks for me at the door when I am gone. You answer him the same as me. Any man who does not, rides out at dawn." No one spoke against it. Tucker lifted his cup. Marco leaned back. Asher watched the key in Grayson's pocket. Ajax had a lieutenant. The gate had a second name on it now, and it was not his.