Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 271 of 619

Tarron had sworn to the craft, but the men had not yet touched him. Every sworn brother had bared his chest at the fire and taken their hands and the chain. Ajax knew the house watched for it. A man seated but not marked stood apart, and apart bred trouble. So at dusk he called Tarron to the fire. The old man came slow. Tucker walked beside him, one hand on his shoulder. Tarron stopped at the ring of light and looked at the others. Kael sat cross-legged, knife loose in his fingers. Aldric stood back from the flames, uneasy, still no fighter himself. All of them shirtless, chains catching the fire, chests bare in the cold. "Take your tunic off," Ajax said. "They put their hands on you. That's how a man joins here." Tarron's jaw set. "I'm gray and fairly thin. Not much to feel." "Doesn't matter," Ajax said. "You give cloth. They give you their hands. Fair trade." Tarron pulled the tunic over his head. His chest was lean and hairy but flawless. He did not cover himself. He stood and let them look. Tucker stepped in first. He pressed a palm flat to Tarron's chest and grinned. "Definitely hot," he said. "You'll last longer than the big ones." He gripped the old man's flexed bicep, felt the cord of muscle there, and nodded like a man judging a horse. Kael rose and set his hand on Tarron's hairy chest. He squeezed once, and grinned. Then he closed his palm around the hard bicep and held it a breath longer than needed. "Strong enough," he said, and stepped back. Aldric came last of the touchers, reluctant, mirroring his own night at the table. He laid his flat hand on Tarron's chest, quick, like the old man might break. "I know how this feels," Aldric said. "They did it to me. You don't have to be a fighter to belong. You look good.” Tarron met his eyes. "I keep the flock. That's my fight." The men struck the ground with their fists once, together. Tarron flinched, then held. He did not have a chain like the others "Come to my quarters," Ajax said. "We settle the shed and the flock before the others sleep." Tarron picked up his tunic but did not put it on. He followed Ajax across the yard, shirtless, the fire behind them. At the door of Ajax's chambers he stopped once and looked back at the ring of sworn men. "They meant it?" he said. "They did," Ajax said, and opened the door.