Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 441 of 619

The walls held. The builds were done. But thirty men needed leaders, and Ajax had none named below Grayson. He called four men to the inner ward at dawn. Grayson stood at his shoulder. He had been Ajax's lieutenant since the first ride north, sworn to the gate rather than to Ajax himself. He watched the yard the way a man watches a fire he built. "Twenty-eight fighters," he said. "One man can't hold that. You give them squads. You give the squads leaders." "Four groups," Ajax said. "Seven men each. Leaders answer to you. You answer to me." Kael came first, tall and dark-eyed, one hand already resting near his belt knife. He had guarded the sea watch, then trained the men who replaced him. Torren came behind him, broad and plain-faced, fourteen years a treasury guard before he swore to Black Oak. The two stood together the way men do who have shared a cliff post through winter. Chalam came last, robe open, staff in hand. He was no fighter, but Ajax wanted him to hear this. The wizard's hands still shook from cutting stone all week. Ajax named them. "Kael, you take the gate squad. Torren, the wall. Grayson holds the rest by the vault." He looked at the fourth man, one of the port fighters, steady and scarred. "You take the fourth group. Drill them under Grayson's count." Kael nodded once. "Done." Torren said, "I've stood a wall fourteen years. I can lead one." Grayson watched the naming without a word. When Ajax finished, he spoke flat. "Four leaders. Each knows his men. Each knows his post." He turned to Ajax. "This is a garrison now. Not a camp." Chalam studied the four men. "You've split your force," he said. "Good. But you've also made four men who could gather swords behind them." He did not soften it. "Loyalty to a squad leader can grow past loyalty to the wall." Ajax had thought of it. "That's why they answer to Grayson, not to me alone. And why the vault sits behind two walls with two keys." Chalam nodded. "Then it holds. For now." By midday the four leaders had their squads drilling in the yard. Kael's men worked the gate lane. Torren's climbed the wall slits. Grayson walked between them, correcting stance and grip. Ajax stood in the inner ward and watched his house become an army. He had wanted a brotherhood of men who answered only to him. Now he had a chain of command, and every link but the top belonged to another man's hand. Grayson came to his side. "They'll hold the walls without you now," he said.