Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 45 of 619

Ajax stayed by the creek after Marco walked back to the fire. He wanted to see what Asher would do with his last hour in camp. He heard boots on gravel before he saw him. Asher came down the bank with his horse's lead in one hand and stopped ten paces off. "I'm not going," Asher said. "Not until I say it plain." Ajax kept his hand near his belt. "Say it, then get on the horse." Asher dropped the lead. He looked past Ajax to the fire, where Marco sat with Tucker. "I dosed his cup because I couldn't stand him choosing you over me every day. I've been pushing thoughts into his head since the coast. I knew it. I did it anyway. That was mine to own and I didn't." He looked at Ajax now. "I'm sorry. To him. To you. I broke the oath before the new moon and I know it." Ajax did not answer. He waited. "Call him down here," Asher said. "Let him say it to my face. Then I'll ride." Ajax weighed it. A man who ran in the dark would come back in the dark. A man who spoke it out loud was easier to track. He whistled once, short. Marco came down the bank alone. Marco stopped beside Ajax. He looked at Asher the way a man looks at a snake he has already stepped on. "He wants to say it to you," Ajax said. Asher said it again, shorter. "I put something in your cup. I put thoughts in your head. I wanted you and I took the short road. I'm sorry." Marco was quiet a long moment. "I wanted you too," he said. "That part was mine. The rest was you." He drew a slow breath. "I don't want you dead. I don't want you near me either." "I know," Asher said. Marco turned to Ajax. "Let him ride south at first light. Not before dawn. I want to see him leave in daylight, on a road, not slipping off in the dark." Ajax looked at Asher. "You sleep on the far side of the creek tonight. No fire. No pack near Marco's. You ride at sunup. You do not come near this company again. If I hear your name in the port, I come for you." "Agreed," Asher said. "You still ride with me," Ajax told Marco. "Front of the line tomorrow. Same as I said." Marco nodded once. He walked back toward the fire without looking at Asher again. Ajax watched Asher lead the horse across the shallow ford and tie him in the trees. Six blades were still on the smith's bench. The hall waited two days southeast. He had lost a sworn man and kept the one who mattered more. He walked back to the fire to tell Grayson before the night was out.