Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 397 of 619

The fifth day at sea broke hot and clear. The gold still rode low beneath the deck, bound for the red quay house eight days north. Ajax climbed up into the sun. Marcus had the crew working the lines. The captain worked shirtless now, his vest thrown over a barrel, sweat sliding down his chest as he hauled rope with his men. Ajax watched him and did not look away fast enough. Marco stood at the rail, doing the same. Marco had sailed as Ajax's reader, the man who heard lies and hostile thoughts on the crew. Now he watched the captain's shoulders roll under the sun, his mouth half open. He did not hear Marcus turn. "You're staring," Marcus said. He tied off the line and crossed the deck slow. He stopped close to Marco, close enough that Marco had to tip his chin up. Marcus did not smile. He rarely did. "Say what you want." Marco held his ground, but his face went red. "I want you." "Plain," Marcus said. "Good." He set one hand flat on Marco's chest, feeling the heart under it, and let it rest there. Then he took it away. "Not now. The gold sells first. Steel and grain in the hold, home to the vault, every bar counted." He nodded down at the deck, at the cargo beneath their boots. "After. When it's done and I've held my word to your Master. Then you find me." Marco's jaw tightened. He looked to Ajax. Ajax leaned on the rail and said nothing for a moment. He knew the captain's mind now. Marcus was the same man in this as in trade. He would not give a thing before the account was clear. Tucker had bought the captain that way, and it had bought the road north whole. Tucker came up from below then, chains bright in the sun. He caught the shape of it in one look. He stepped beside Marcus and set a hand on the captain's bare shoulder, easy, like a man claiming what was already his. "He learns fast," Tucker said to Marco. "After the quay. It's a good rule. Keeps a man honest and keeps him coming back." He looked at Marcus. "Ask me how I know." Marcus almost smiled. "I don't need to." Ajax turned to the north. The line held. Every man aboard now wanted something waiting at the end of the voyage, and every want pulled the same way, toward the vault at home and the gold sold clean. That was the whole engine of it. Desire bound the crew tighter than the silver chains at their necks. "Hold your course," Ajax said. Marcus held it. The ship ran north, and no man aboard would slow it now.