Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 403 of 619

The ship slid into the canal at dusk. Ajax stepped onto his own dock and felt the ground steady under his boots. The silver was home. The route was proven. But a proven route meant more ships and more cargo, and cargo drew men who wanted to take it. He climbed the path to the hall with one thought fixed in his mind. He needed more armed men at Black Oak before the next voyage. Aldric met him at the gate with the ledger under his arm. The grey in his hair caught the lamplight. He did not waste words. "Thirteen sworn men," Aldric said. "Thirteen chained workers. Six on wages. Enough to hold the wall against a raiding party. Not enough to hold it if a merchant house sends soldiers." Ajax spread the maps across the hall table. "Then we need fighters. Not weavers. Not coopers. Men who can hold steel." He looked at Aldric. "Where do we find them without word reaching the port?" Tucker leaned against the doorframe, chains bright on his bare chest. He had spent years working rooms and reading men, and he answered before Aldric could. "Not the port," Tucker said. "Too many ears. Sailors talk." He crossed to the table and tapped the eastern mark. "The crossing. Traders, no king. Fighting men pass through looking for pay. Nobody asks where you take them." He shrugged. "I can ride out. Come back with six who know how to swing a blade." Ajax weighed it. The crossing lay half a day inland from the harbor. It was already his escape road. Now it could arm him too. "Take Marco," Ajax said. "He reads their thoughts. No collared men, no spies. Only clean steel." Before Tucker could answer, Rowan came through the door with his bow across his back. Mud caked his boots. He had ridden hard from the north woods, and his face was flat and grim. He set three long teeth on the table with a knock of bone on wood. "Three Verath," Rowan said. "Half a day north. I killed them." He pushed the teeth toward Aldric. "Full grown. Hides worth two ships. But they were feeding on a fresh kill. Deer, and a man's horse." The hall went quiet. Aldric picked up a tooth and turned it in the lamplight. "Three at once," he said. "They do not gather. Something moved them south." Ajax stared at the teeth. He had wanted men for the wall. Now the north sent a new threat toward it. He made the call in a breath. "Tucker rides to the crossing at dawn. Marco with him. Six fighters, no fewer." He turned to Rowan. "You and I take the hides while they're fresh. Then we learn what pushed three Verath toward my gate." Rowan nodded once. The threat had a direction now, and it pointed home.