Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 387 of 619

The next morning, Ajax counted his rooms with Aldric's ledger fresh in his mind. Seven of twelve filled the night before, but five sat cold. He wanted them all full. He called Tucker and Chalam to the empty suite over the bar. Tucker came up the stairs slow, two gold chains bright on his bare chest, a wine cup in his hand. He worked Ajax's bar and pulled truths from captains over drink. He leaned in the doorway and waited. Chalam followed, his blue robe open, satchel at his belt. The wizard had brewed Ajax's wine and knew what his charms could do to a body. "The rooms fill better when the men serving them draw the eye," Ajax said. "I want to give the room workers a potion. Make them fitter. Stronger. More appealing to look at. Tips climb. Rooms fill. Captains stay two nights and talk." He looked at Chalam. "You changed Bran with three cups. Can you do the same, softer, for the servers?" "I can," Chalam said. "But not without their word." Tucker sipped his wine. "They'll want it," he said. "A man who turns heads earns more silver in a week than a plain one earns in a month." He set the cup down. "But you offer it. You don't pour it in their cups." Ajax heard the warning under the flat words. Tucker had said the same about the ring, about the oil. Coercion was one of the four crimes nailed to his hall wall. "Then I offer it," Ajax said. "Every server. Their choice." They brought the four room workers up that afternoon. Ajax laid it out plain. A potion from the wizard. Broader shoulders, a fuller chest, bigger biceps, a stronger jaw. Permanent. No harm in it. More silver in their pockets. Any man could refuse and keep his place at the same wage. Three said yes before he finished. The fourth, a lean young man with a scar on his lip, held back. "I like my face," he said. "Then keep it," Ajax said. "You pour wine same as before." Chalam mixed the draught over three days. The three who drank it thickened. Their arms filled their silk sleeves. Their chests pressed against the open fronts. By the third dose the change held fast, and they walked the bar like men who knew they were watched. That night ten of twelve rooms filled. Captains lingered. The tip cup by the bar ran over with cut coin. Tucker stood at the rail and grinned. "Word will run the docks by the next tide," he said. "They'll come for the wine and stay for the view." Ajax watched his men move through the firelight, broad and easy, drawing captains up the stairs. His rooms were full. His silver climbed. But the change was cut into their bodies now, past unmaking, and one server still poured wine plain among the rest. His house drew coin like no port on the coast. When his ship returned from the north, Black Oak would stand rich enough to answer to no man but him.