Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 396 of 619

The ship had sailed three days ago. Ajax slept aboard it in the captain's cabin, riding the swell north. He shared the run this time, not to steer but to watch the gold. Marcus commanded the deck. Tucker slept in the bunk across the small room. And on the fourth night at sea, Marcus came below to collect what Tucker had promised him. Ajax woke to the sound of the door. He lay still in the dark. Marcus stood over Tucker's bunk, one hand braced on the frame, the silver oath chain hanging from his neck. He did not know Ajax was awake. "Ship's steady," Marcus said. His voice was low and plain. "Wind's holding. I've got two men on deck." He paused. "You said after the voyage." Tucker sat up. His gold chains caught the swinging lamplight. "I said after you sold the gold." "We're four days out. The gold sells clean or it doesn't. I want to know the man I'm counting on before I set my name to it." Marcus stated it flat, the way he stated everything. "I've burned contacts before. Cost me a ship's worth of trust. I don't sail eight more days wondering." Ajax understood then. This was not want alone. Marcus was buying certainty. He would not carry the gold to the red quay house for a man who kept only riddles. Tucker glanced once at Ajax's bunk. He knew the Master was awake. Ajax gave no signal. Tucker turned back to the captain. "You want the promise made good," Tucker said. "Not the trade. Me." "Both." Marcus did not soften it. "A man who keeps his word at sea keeps it at the quay." Tucker took the chain at Marcus's neck in two fingers. "Then you'll have it." He pulled him down. Marcus went. In the dark of the small room they settled onto the bunk together, and Ajax turned his face to the hull and let them have it. By morning the thing was done and could not be undone. Ajax stood on deck with the wind hard off the north. Marcus worked the tiller. Tucker leaned beside him, close, easy, and Marcus's shoulders had lost their guard. "Steel and grain," Marcus said when Ajax came near. "Red quay house first. Sell the bars, buy the goods, sail home. You'll have it counted in your vault inside a fortnight." He said it like a man who meant to be there at the end of it. Ajax set his hand on the rail. The captain was his now, not by silver alone but by the man beside him. Tucker had spent the last of his leverage, and it had bought the road north whole. "Then hold your course," Ajax said. Marcus held it. The gold rode low and dry beneath their feet, bound for a city that asked no names, and the brotherhood's reach had left the coast for the open sea.