Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 383 of 619

The next night five captains slept in Ajax's rooms. The night after, only three. Tucker brought the count to Ajax at the bar. "Wine sells. Beds don't fill on their own," he said. "Men buy a cask and walk back to their ships." Ajax had bound every worker to silence. Now he needed those workers to earn their keep. He told Tucker to gather the lodge servers in an empty suite at dusk. Four young men waited when Ajax entered. They wore silver chains under silk shirts. Tucker leaned against the wall, arms crossed, chains bright on his bare chest. He ran the port and the bar for Ajax, and he had filled these rooms before with nothing but a look and a slow word. Ajax trusted him to teach what could not be ordered. "Take the shirts off," Ajax said. The four men glanced at Tucker. He nodded. They pulled the silk over their heads and stood chained and bare. "From now you serve like this," Ajax said. "You pour the wine. You carry the trays. And when a captain drinks, you sit close." One server frowned. "Sit close and do what?" Tucker pushed off the wall. "Watch," he said. He crossed to the server, close enough to touch, and stopped. He did not speak. He held the man's eyes and let the silence stretch. The server's face reddened. "That," Tucker said. "You don't chase. You stand still and let him come to you. A man drunk on plum wine wants a warm room and a reason to stay. You are the reason." He walked the four through it. Pour with two hands. Laugh at the captain's story before the end. Lean in when he lowers his voice. "You promise nothing with your mouth," Tucker said. "You promise with the lean." He fixed one man's chain to lie flat on his chest. He turned another to catch the lamplight on his shoulder. Ajax watched and said little. This was Tucker's craft, and he was good at it. "Any man lays a hand on you that you don't want, you step back and call me," Tucker added. "That rule holds." The servers nodded. Ajax sent them down to work the bar that night. He and Tucker watched from the stair. Two captains sat over a fresh cask. A server poured, sat close, held a gaze. Within the hour both captains asked for rooms. By midnight seven of the twelve rooms were filled. Tucker counted the keys on their hooks. "Seven," he said. "Word travels the docks faster than any ship." Ajax looked at the full board. Wine drew captains in. Now the rooms held them through the night, and satisfied men would carry his name up and down the coast. Every silver he earned went to the same end. He had bound his house, filled his beds, and now the coin would build the fleet that carried Black Oak north.