Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 442 of 619

Grayson said the walls would hold without Ajax now. That was the trouble. Four squad leaders drilled thirty men, and each man's sword hung on another man's word. Ajax woke that night thinking of blades. If one squad turned, or two leaders quarreled, brothers would face brothers in his own yard. He called Aldric and Chalam to the hall before dawn. Aldric came with his ledger under his arm. He was the scholar who read old bindings and counted every coin in the vault. He set the book down and did not open it. "You did not call me for numbers," he said. "No," Ajax said. "The silver chains. Every worker swore silence. But the fighters swore to the wall, not to peace between them. I want a working on their chains. So no sworn man can turn a weapon on another sworn man. Gold chain or silver." Chalam leaned on his staff. His hands still shook from the week's stone-cutting. "A binding that stops the arm," he said. "It can be done. But it takes their will from them. You make thirty men who cannot fight even when they must." He paused. "Then not that," Ajax said. "Charm the chains to warn me. If a sworn man plans treason, the chain tells me. If treachery moves in the yard, I know before the blade clears the sheath." Aldric spoke plainly. "That leaves the man his will. He can still choose. You only learn of the choice." He tapped the closed ledger. "The first binding takes the choice. The second guards it. A brotherhood is built on choice. Take that and you have slaves." Chalam nodded once. "He is right. The alert working I can lay tonight. It draws on the caller stones in my satchel. Each sworn chain hums to yours. Ill intent toward the house or a brother, and your chain grows cold against your chest." "And the cost?" Ajax asked. "None to them," Chalam said. "They keep their arms and their choice. You keep your warning." He was quiet a moment. "But once it is done, they cannot know it is there. A man who knows he is watched learns to hide." Ajax weighed it. He had wanted men who answered only to him. Now he saw the truth Aldric named: men who could not choose him were not his brothers. "Do the warning," Ajax said. "Not the leash." Chalam laid the working that night at the fire, chalk and lodestone spread across the stones, thirty chains humming faint against his staff. Ajax felt his own gold chain cool once, then settle warm. By morning it was done. Ajax stood in the inner ward and felt the whole house through the metal on his chest. He could not command their swords. But no treason would reach him blind.