Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 46 of 619

Ajax found Grayson by the fire and told him what had passed at the creek. Grayson listened without cutting in. When Ajax finished, Grayson stared at the coals a long moment before he spoke. "You told me after again," Grayson said. "But you told me before he rides. I'll take that." "He asked to speak his piece to Marco. I let him." "Because a spoken man is a tracked man." Grayson nodded once. "Sunup, then. South road. If he turns back, we handle it." Before dawn Ajax walked to the far side of the creek. Asher sat against a pine with his horse tied close, the gold chain at his throat catching the low fire from the far bank. He did not stand when Ajax came up. He looked at Ajax the way a man looks at a judge. "I want to finish the ride," Asher said. "You swore until the new moon." "I did." "You broke it once already." "I know what I did." Asher waited. "I want to finish what I swore. Until the new moon. Then I ride south and you don't see me again." Ajax crouched so they were level. He thought about the six blades still on the smith's bench, and the hall two days southeast with twelve men behind iron doors. He thought about Marco riding at the front and Asher riding anywhere near him. He thought about a man who admitted the whole ugly thing out loud when he could have run in the dark. "Conditions," Ajax said. "You do not use your power on any man in this company. Not once. If Chalam feels a pull, I hear it before the hour is out and you ride that night." "Agreed." "You do not sleep within twenty paces of Marco. You do not share his watch. You do not pour his cup, hand him his food, or touch his gear." "Agreed." "You ride at the back of the line until the new moon. Grayson gives your orders, not me. When we breach the hall, you go through the door I point at and no other." "Agreed." "New moon comes, you take your share and ride south. If I hear you have crossed back north, I come for you." "Agreed." Asher let out a breath he had been holding since the creek. "Thank you." "Don't thank me. Earn the ride." Ajax walked back across the ford. Marco was already up, saddling. Ajax told him plain. Marco's jaw set, then loosened. "Back of the line," Marco said. "Grayson holds his leash." "Yes." "Then I can ride." Ajax told Grayson next, then Chalam, then the rest at the fire. No one argued. Six blades were coming off the bench by dusk. He had seven men again for the hall. He had also handed himself a knife to sleep beside for the next twenty nights, and he knew it.