Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 293 of 619

Ships would come before the thaw, but Black Oak had no one to work the dock. Ajax found Tucker in the yard the next morning, loading the empty cart. "Three masters land here soon," Ajax said. "We need hands at the water. Men to catch lines, haul goods, keep the path. Ride to port and hire two." Tucker leaned on the cart rail, gold chains bright in the cold light. "Deckhands are cheap," he said. "Cheap men talk. You want the kind who keep quiet." He grinned. "I know a few. Ride down with me and let Marco read them. Then no surprises." Ajax agreed. Tucker rode to the port and came back at dusk with two men on foot behind the cart. Both were broad in the shoulder and rope-scarred at the hands. One had a limp. The other kept glancing at the walls like a man counting exits. Ajax met them outside the gate. Marco stood at his side, silent, one hand loose. Ajax asked the men their names and where they had worked. They answered plain. He watched Marco while they spoke. When the men finished, Marco gave a small nod. "Clean," he said low. "They want wages and a dry bed. No collar. No marks. The one with the limp is thinking of a woman he owes coin. Nothing for the port. Nothing for her." Ajax turned back to the two. "You work the dock and the path," he said. "You answer to me and to Grayson. You never speak of this place at the port. Break that and you leave with nothing." The men agreed. Ajax paid the first month up front, and Tucker walked them through the sea path to show them the water. Bran came up the shelf then, dust on his arms. He had heard the plan from Grayson. "Two dock men need somewhere to sleep," he said. "Not the barracks. Not with the sworn." He looked at the ground near the sea gate. "I can raise a small house there. One room, a hearth, two bunks. Two days." Ajax nodded. "Do it. Keep them by the water, away from the hall." Bran squared stone the next morning and had walls chest-high by dusk. On the second day he set the roof and hung a door. The dock men moved in with their sacks. From the shelf, the little house sat low against the rock, apart from the sworn men's ground. Tucker watched from the wall beside Ajax. "Now you've got hands for the ships," he said. "And a place to keep them where they can't hear too much." Ajax looked at the dock below, the breakwater holding the surf. Two men now waited to catch the first line. Black Oak was ready to receive trade.