Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 435 of 619

Tucker rode out to Crossroads and came back with two men. Marco had left the Crossing gate to two of his sworn men for a day and met Tucker on the road to read the recruits. Now the two strangers stood in the yard while Marco walked behind them, quiet, listening. Ajax waited by the hall door with Aldric and Grayson. "Clean," Marco said at last. "No debts they hide. No masters they answer to. One fought at a coast fort. The other broke stone before he broke heads. Both want walls and pay." Tucker leaned on a post. "Told you. Crossroads men keep to themselves. Nobody at that camp asked who I served." Ajax looked the two over. Broad backs. Steady eyes. "Then they swear tonight," he said. "Twenty-three men." Aldric did not join the count. He stood at the table inside, a scrap of paper flat under his hand. Ajax followed him in. "You look like a man with bad math," Ajax said. "I did the math," Aldric said. He turned the paper. Marks ran down it in tight rows. "Every sworn sword and where he stands. Two men on the sea watch. Three at the Crossing with Marco. Nine hold the wall in rotation. Six drill and rest. Grayson at the gate. You." He tapped the last mark. "Twenty-one before tonight. Twenty-three after." "That's more than I've ever held." "It's not enough." Aldric said it plainly. "To fortify Black Oak the way you ordered, I count what we need. A full night watch on every wall. Two more at the sea path. Relief so no man drills tired." He drew a line under a number. "Thirty. You need seven more to hold what you own without cracks. Two men tonight leaves you five short." Grayson came to the table. He read the paper once. "He's right. Nine on the wall can't cover the dark side and the canal both. I've been thin every night this week." Ajax stared at the marks. He had chosen to fortify, not build. He had thought two men would close the gap. The paper said the gap was wider than his choice. "Five more," he said. "Five more," Aldric said. "And Crossroads gave up two." Tucker had come in behind them. "Wild lands past here," he said. "Men who want a wall and no lord over them. That's your kind. That's how you got Grayson." Ajax nodded slowly. The two Crossroads men would swear tonight. That much was done. But the count on the table changed the road ahead. "I swear the two tonight," Ajax said. "Then rest the wall as best you can, Grayson. At dawn Tucker and I ride the wild lands. Not the port. Not the Crossing." He set his palm on the paper. "We don't stop until I have five men who answer to me and no one else."