Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 434 of 619

Marco held the eastern road now. But the Crossing needed swords Ajax could trust, and he had none to spare there. So he sent Tucker to the port for two more sworn men. Tucker returned by dusk the next day, alone, and found Ajax at the hall table with Aldric and Chalam. "No good men," Tucker said. He dropped into a chair. "Two came sniffing. One had a debt he lied about. The other asked twice who I answered to." He shrugged. "I left them at the bar." Ajax leaned back. "Then I have twenty-one men and two gates. The Crossing thins my wall." Aldric spread a map across the table. His finger tapped Black Oak, then the road east. "You're stretched. The real question isn't more men. It's whether you build outward or hold what you have." "Say it plain," Ajax said. "Fortify or build." Aldric did not soften it. "Fortify means you send your best swords to hold two gates and stop growing. Build means you push east, take the trade, and grow the house to fill both." He looked up. "You can't do both with the men you own." Grayson came in from the yard, sweat on his chest, his silver chain swinging. He had heard the last of it. "Fortify," he said. He set his hands on the table. "We're spread too thin already. Marco's gate takes three men. The sea watch takes two. Push east and you'll have a road you can't defend." Chalam turned his cracked staff in his hands. "The gatekeeper's men counted traders on that road. If Black Oak grows loud, the merchant houses hear it. And the Crossing council too." He set the staff down. "Growth draws eyes." Ajax looked at the map. The road east ran through the Crossing to a city he had not yet touched. Wealth sat at its end. But wealth meant more strangers, more oaths, more gates to guard with swords he did not have. "If I build now, I break myself," Ajax said. "A road held by too few is a road anyone takes." Tucker poured himself wine. "You could keep the Crossing quiet. Trade small. Let it feed us without shouting." "No." Ajax stood. "Half a road is worse than none. It leaks. It tempts." He pressed his palm flat on the map, over Black Oak. "We fortify. Marco holds the Crossing as a checkpoint, not a market. No expansion east until I have swords to spare. We deepen the wall we own." Grayson nodded once. Aldric rolled the map and made no argument. Chalam picked up his staff. "Then find your two men at Crossroads," Aldric said. "That's the order," Ajax said. "Tucker, leave have Marco help you read the men." He turned for the door. The choice was made.