Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 432 of 619

Ajax held both halves of the gatekeeper's debt now. He owned the road east to Black Oak. But the man still sat at the gate, taking his tax and thinking himself safe. Ajax rode back to the Crossing at dawn with Tucker, Marco, and Aldric to end that. He meant to show the gatekeeper the paper and take the gate for his own. The gatekeeper was a wide man with rings on every finger. He ruled the gate from a stone house beside it. When Ajax laid the two debt papers on his table, the man went gray. He knew both marks. He knew he was finished. "The road is mine now," Ajax said. "You keep your house and your name. But my goods pass free, and you answer to Black Oak." Marco leaned by the door, turning his bracelet. He tapped twice. The gatekeeper meant to agree. Fear had beaten him. He signed the paper Aldric slid across, ceding the gate rights to Ajax. Outside, the true question waited. Ajax had a gate at the Crossing, half a day from his own walls. Someone had to hold it. He could not ride here every week. He turned to his men in the market hall. "The gate needs a keeper," Ajax said. "Ours. A man who can count traders, read them, and turn away trouble." Tucker grinned. He knew what Ajax was circling. "You want a face that makes men talk and stay honest." "Asher," Ajax said. It was the first name he reached for. Asher had guarded gates and doors from the start. He was steady, he was sworn, and he answered only to Ajax. Aldric shook his head once. He spoke plain, the way he always did. "Asher watches the road at Black Oak. Pull him and your own gate goes thin. This post needs a man who reads what a trader hides." He looked at Marco. "You have one already." Ajax followed the look. Marco could hear a man's thoughts. He could catch a lie before it left the tongue. No collar, no bribe, no smuggled blade would pass him. A gatekeeper who read minds would hold the road tighter than any wall. Marco said nothing for a moment. Then he set his cup down. "I'd sit here alone, half a day from the house. Away from you." His eyes held Ajax. There was a thing between them now, unspoken, since the night at Black Oak. "Not alone," Ajax said. "Two sworn men under you. You keep the gate. You come home when I send for you." Marco weighed it. Then he nodded. "The road east stays clean, then. I'll know every man who crosses." So it was decided. Not Asher. Marco would keep the Crossing gate. Ajax had the road, and now he had the mind to guard it. But he had sent his best reader half a day away, and Black Oak would feel the gap he left behind.