Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 425 of 619

At dawn Grayson drilled the fighters in the yard. Ajax watched the swords rise and fall, then he saw the two empty posts on the cliff blind. Kael and Torren had held that watch since he built it. Now both men led groups of the new fighters under Grayson's command. The sea watch sat unmanned. Ajax called Tucker to the gate. "I need two watchers," he said. "Kael and Torren command now. Their post is bare." Tucker leaned on the gate frame, gold chains catching the light. He had hired most of Black Oak's men from the port over the past year, reading a room by buying drinks and listening. "You want eyes on the sea road," he said. "Men who watch and don't talk." He straightened. "I'll ride to the port. Marco vets them at the gate, same as always." "Two," Ajax said. "Steady men. Not brawlers." Tucker nodded and rode out that morning. He returned two days later with two riders behind him. Marco met them at the gate and read each man before he crossed the ward line. Both came back clean, no marks, no false names. Ajax stood in the yard as they dismounted. Kael and Torren came down from the drill to stand beside him. Kael studied the two hires with flat, dark eyes. "They'll do the blind?" he asked. "They'll do your old post," Ajax said. Torren crossed his arms. He had guarded the port treasury fourteen years before Ajax swore him in. He watched the new men the way he once watched crates come off the docks. "They watch judgment, not just ships," he said. "A drunk misses a warship among the traders." "Then train them," Ajax said. "One day each. Show them what you looked for. Then they hold the blind while you hold your men." Kael and Torren took the two watchers up the cliff path that afternoon. Torren pointed out the sight lines. Kael showed them the signal—one whistle for a trader, two for a stranger's hull. The two hires learned fast. By dusk they knew the rocks and the road. Ajax swore them at the fire that night. He inspected each man's build, then set a silver chain on each neck. They spoke the oath of silence about the gate and the canal, their voices steady. He gave them their post. Grayson met Ajax by the hall door as the fire burned low. "Blind's covered," he said. "Kael and Torren keep their groups." Ajax gripped his father's chain. His force stood at twenty-one men now, two on the sea watch, the rest drilling under sworn commanders. His house grew a rank taller. But a thought pressed him. Two new mouths knew the canal and the ships. Two more men to feed, to hold, to trust across a winter. The brotherhood grew.