Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 423 of 619

The grain house stood dry and the bunkhouse held every man Ajax owned. But six new fighters filled beds without knowing his law. They had sworn the Code by day. Ajax wanted them bound deeper, at the fire, where the older brothers could see them and take their measure. He set the swearing for midnight and told Grayson to bring the six. The fire burned low in the yard when they came. Ajax stood shirtless in his fur, his father's gold chain on his chest. The six recruits lined up before him. They were young and hard from the road, but soft in ways he could not yet name. He needed to know what he had bought. "Strip to the waist," Ajax said. "A man swears to this house with his own hide bare." They pulled off their shirts. Ajax walked the line. He gripped the first man's arm above the elbow as he flexed and felt the muscle there. He pressed a flat hand to the man's chest, slow, weighing the frame under it. He moved to the next who flexed and felt the hair on his hard chest. He took his time. He wanted them to feel his hand and know it judged them. Grayson stood at the fire's edge, arms crossed, silver chain catching the light. He had ridden beside Ajax since the first dawn, an equal, never a man who knelt. Ajax reached the fourth recruit, a broad one with a broken tooth. He squeezed the shoulder, then the chest. Ajax held the sixth man's gaze a moment, then dropped his hand. The touch was for Ajax, not for them. He wanted proof of their bodies and proof of their word. Ajax stepped back so all six could hear. "You've felt my hand. Now I want your voice. Each man says the oath alone, out loud, with the brothers watching. If your voice shakes, you say it again." One by one they swore as Ajax placed a silver chain around his neck. When the last recruit finished, Ajax gripped his own chain and named them brothers of Black Oak. Ajax nodded. He had six more swords sworn by voice and by touch. His house held nineteen men now under one law.