Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 374 of 619

The crew was sworn. The ship waited at the dock. Ajax could send it north whenever he chose. That night he sat with Marcus and Tucker at the bar to settle when the ship would sail. Marcus was the captain Ajax had hired to run his goods to the merchant city eight days up the coast. Tucker ran the port and the bar, and Marcus had not stopped looking at him since the inspection. "Three days," Marcus said. "Wind's turning. I'll want it behind me for open water." Ajax nodded. Three days was time enough for one more hunt. He could fill the hold fuller before it left. He weighed it and agreed. "Three days," he said. "You wait here at the lodge until then." Marcus did not argue about the wait. He poured himself another cup and leaned toward Tucker. "Suits me," he said. "I like the company." Tucker slid the bottle closer to him. Gold caught the lamplight on his wrist. "Careful," Tucker said. "Master hears you talk like that, he'll charge you for the room." "I'll pay it," Marcus said. Ajax watched the two of them. Marcus wanted Tucker and hid nothing. Tucker leaned in and let it warm him. This was the thing Ajax had counted on. A captain sailing eight days across open sea, with no reader aboard to watch him, needed a reason to come back. Fear would not do it. But a man leaving something he wanted at the dock would push hard for home. "Take the first suite," Ajax told Marcus. "Rest three days. Eat what you want. When you sail, you sail knowing what's waiting." Marcus set down his cup. He looked at Ajax, then at Tucker. "I'll come back," he said. "Count on it." "I do," Ajax said. Tucker stood and tipped his head toward the stairs. "Come on, then," he said to Marcus. "I'll show you the room." Marcus rose and followed him. At the foot of the stairs he glanced back at Ajax and gave a short nod, captain to master, the bargain understood. Then he went up after Tucker. Ajax stayed at the bar alone. The wait was set. Three days, one more hunt, then his ship sailed north for the merchant city with a captain who had every reason to return. He had spent months binding men with silver and oaths. This last thread was not iron or magic. It was desire, and it held tighter than either. When the ship came home with northern silver, his house would reach past this coast at last. Black Oak would trade where no king could touch it.