Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 325 of 619

Ajax drew four flat silver chains from his pocket. The four workers stood in a row in their new open-fronted clothes, arms bare, still warm from Ajax's inspection. Tarron watched from beside his bundle. Tucker leaned on the bar, thumb hooked in one gold chain, waiting to see what Ajax meant to do. Ajax held up the first chain. "You wear my clothes. You draw my baths. Rich men will offer you silver for company." He looked down the line. "A chain marks you as mine. It means you answer to me as long as you work for me." The first worker glanced at Tucker. Tucker gave a small nod. Ajax stepped close and put the chain over the man's head, one hand behind his neck. His face was near the worker's. "You keep your mouth shut about the gate, the canal, the men at this house. You do that, and you eat and sleep warm here through winter." He moved to the second man and did the same. Then the third. Each time he stood close, set the flat silver against the open chest, and held the look until the man agreed. The chains caught the lamplight the same way Tucker's gold did. At the fourth man, Ajax paused. "Say it," he said. "I answer to you," the worker said. "Until the thaw." Ajax dropped the chain over his head. Tucker pushed off the bar. "Cheaper than a wage they can't leave," he said. "A man in your chain thinks twice before he sells you at the port." He studied the four. "But a silver chain isn't an oath. They wear it. They don't swear it." "I know," Ajax said. "That's why the thaw matters." Tucker held his eye a moment. He knew Ajax's play. Ajax bound his sworn men in gold and a mark burned into the sole. These four got silver and a season. Enough to hold them while the ships came. "And when the thaw comes?" "They swear the Code or they return the chain and go," Ajax said. "Same as the rest." Aldric wrote in his ledger without looking up. "Four names," he said. "Hired, chained, not sworn. I'll mark them plain so no one mistakes them for brothers." Ajax turned to Tucker. "Put them upstairs when the next master comes. I want them seen and I want them silent." He looked back at the four in their silver and open cloth. "Tucker will teach you how to serve a rich man without earning his questions. Do what he says." The four men touched the chains at their throats. They were his now, for the winter. Tucker waved them toward the stairs to begin their training. Ajax watched them climb. He had the rooms, the goods, the look, and now four men bound to keep his secrets. The dock would fill by thaw. Whether these four stayed past it was a question for spring, not tonight.