Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 471 of 619

Ajax rode home hard and gave the order the same hour. Marcus would sail north as always, but this run carried Ajax and a small hunting crew instead of full cargo. They would break at the harbor mouth, turn from the trade lane, and reach the walled island before any merchant house set foot on it. Marcus met him at the dock with the map from the burned house folded in his vest. "Weather holds three days," Marcus said. "After that the water turns rough near those rocks. We anchor short and row in." "Then we don't waste the three days," Ajax said. They sailed at first light. Ajax took Tucker for his tongue, Chalam for his staff, and four sworn fighters. Marcus ran the ship north three days, then swung wide of the harbor where lamps burned along the quay. He held the deck through the night, reading the swells by feel, saying nothing. On the fourth dawn a gray shape rose from the sea. Walls. A town behind them, roofs whole, no smoke. "That's it," Marcus said. He dropped anchor in deep water off the rocks. "No other ship. We're first." They rowed in on a flat sea. Ajax stepped onto a stone quay slick with salt and old rope. The gate stood open. No guard, no voice, no track fresher than a season. Chalam walked the wall with his staff low, checking for workings. He shook his head. "No binding here. No trap. Just an empty town." Ajax went through the gate with his blade drawn anyway. The streets ran quiet between shuttered houses. Tucker tried a storehouse door and found it barred from outside. He lifted the bar and pulled it wide. Grain filled the room to the beams, dry and clean, sacks stacked in rows no one had touched. Tucker whistled low. "The boy told it straight. Nobody came back for this." "Because they think the water's cursed," Ajax said. "Somebody paid for that lie." He climbed to the wall walk and looked out. The harbor lamps sat far off on the mainland. From here he could count every ship that came near. A wall already built. Water at his door. Grain to feed men through a season. Land that answered to no lord. Marcus joined him on the wall, wind pulling at his open vest. "You want the town, it's yours to take. But the merchant house heard the same tale we did. They'll send a hull soon." Ajax set his hand on the cold stone. He had crossed the sea and reached the island first. The place was empty and standing, exactly as the drover's cousin had told it. "We hold it," Ajax said. "Chalam, mark the gate so I know it if I'm gone. Tucker, count the stores. Marcus, we sail home and bring men." He looked north to the far lamps. "Before the merchant house learns the water isn't cursed."