Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 270 of 619

The loom sat in the smithery corner, but the man who built it had no place at Ajax's table. Fourteen men lived inside the walls now, and thirteen had sworn to the house. Tarron had sworn nothing. Ajax could not leave a man unbound in his own walls. So he called the crew to the hall and had Tarron brought last. Ajax took the seat at the head of the long table. Six chairs stood on each side. His sworn men filled them one by one. Grayson sat at his right hand. Chalam, Marco, Tucker, Asher, Rowan, Kael, Torren, Aldric, and the rest took their places. Elara stood by the wall, near the hearth, watching. Eleven seats filled. One chair remained empty. Bran had no place as part of the team at the table as Cody did not. He was the lead worker and would stay on as such. Grayson leaned toward Ajax. "You mean to seat him with us?" "I mean to decide it here," Ajax said. "In front of all of them." Tucker brought Tarron in. The old man stopped at the door and looked at the table, at the gold chains hanging on the men's bare chests, at the empty chair. He did not move toward it. "Sit," Ajax said, and pointed the last seat at the table. Tarron walked the length of the room and sat. He kept his hands flat on the wood. He looked at Ajax down the whole run of the table. "You didn't call me here to weave," he said. "No," Ajax said. "Every man at this table swore to the gate. I need to know what I'm swearing you to, and what you'll give." Tarron looked at the men on either side of him. He was thin and gray among them, no muscle for the wall, no blade at his belt. He did not flinch from it. "I am not a fighter," he said. "I won't hold a slit or ride a raid. That's not what I am but I will defend this place if needed.” The hall went quiet. Marco caught Ajax's eye and gave a small nod. Truth. "Then what do you give?" Ajax asked. "Cloth," Tarron said. "Wool from the animal to the bolt. Fish and rabbit through the lean months. I keep the flock. I keep the beam." He tapped the table once, flat, done. "I stay if the shed's mine and no one crowds it. That's my oath." Ajax weighed it. Every other man had bared his chest for the touch and the chain. This one had not done so yet. But the house needed cloth as much as blades, and a man who lied about what he was would break later. He stood. "You swear to the craft, not the wall," Ajax said. "You keep the wool and the flock. You answer to me and no other. Fair?" "Fair," Tarron said. "Then you're seated. The house makes cloth now, not just steel." The last seat was filled. Ajax's brotherhood had become something wider than fighting men.