Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 347 of 619

The sea watch was set. But that night, walking the wall, Ajax stopped at the gate and felt the old worry return. The blind watched the water. Nothing watched the road. Grayson held the gate by day, but no man could stand there through every hour and still lead the house. Ajax had filled one post and left another bare. He found Grayson at the gatehouse at dawn. Grayson leaned against the iron, arms crossed, chain flat on his chest. He had held this ground since the first stone. He said nothing, waiting for Ajax to speak first. "Who guards the gate when you ride out?" Ajax asked. "When you sleep? One man can't hold it every hour." "No," Grayson said. "He can't." "Do we need two more men?" Grayson thought. "Sworn men. Not hired. A hired hand opens the gate for coin." Ajax nodded. That was the trouble. He had thirteen sworn brothers, each with a post already. The blind took Kael and Torren. The forge held Vello. He had no spare men to name. Aldric came across the yard with the ledger under his arm. Ajax had brought the scholar into the house for old texts, not gate duty, but the man saw more than most. He read a problem the way he read a torn map. "You look for two men who don't exist," Aldric said. He set the ledger on the wall. "You have them. You just call them by other names." "Speak plain," Grayson said. "The hired workers swore the silver chain," Aldric said. "They guard the goods store. They watch the dock path. Two of them stood the sea watch before Kael took it." He tapped the ledger. "Rotate them onto the gate under Grayson. He judges each one. Any man who slips, he pulls." Grayson frowned. "Silver chain, not the Code." "Then bind the gate to two you trust most," Aldric said. "A sworn man commands each shift. The chained men stand under him. The gate never opens on a hired hand's word alone." Ajax turned it over. It held. He did not need two new mouths at his table. He needed to spend the men he had. "Grayson runs the gate," Ajax said. "You pick two sworn to split the shifts under you. Each takes chained men to fill the hours. No gate opens without a sworn man's word." Grayson pushed off the iron. "I'll name them today." "Do it," Ajax said. "And write it into the roster," he told Aldric. "So it holds when I'm gone." Aldric opened the ledger and set his pen to the page. Ajax climbed the wall and looked down the road. The gate had its watch now, day and night, sworn hands over chained ones. He had answered the question without adding a stranger to his house. Black Oak held tighter, and the men who held it all wore his mark.