Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 497 of 619

The tide brought them home in stages. Four days, then four more. By the second week the whole council slept under one roof at Black Oak. Marco off the road east, JD from the bar, Chalam and Aldric from the sea, Tucker from Silvermoor's hall. Grayson met each ship at the dock. For the first time since the wild lands, every chair in the Council Hall would hold the man whose name was carved in it. Ajax meant to mark it. He rode Marcus's ship north once more, but not for silver. He filled the hold with wine from the cellar, plum and dark, and salt cod and fresh meat from Rowan's traps. He brought it all back through the canal at dusk and carried it to the hall himself. The men gathered at the round table. The wolf paw sat carved at its center. Ajax set the food down course by course. He poured the first cup and stood. "To all of you," he said. "Every wall you held. Every ship. Every gate. You built this from bare rock." He lifted the cup. "Drink." They drank. The hall filled with talk and firelight. Grayson leaned back easy. Tucker told a story about a captain who wept over a cask of plum wine. Chalam laughed with his staff propped against his chair. Aldric did not drink much. He sat with his ledger closed on his knee, watching. Grey streaked his hair, and his green tunic caught the gold thread's shine. When the noise settled, he set the book on the table. "You called them home," he said to Ajax. "Good. But the rings still hold three towns eight days out. Hired men, sworn keepers, my marks in Chalam's water." He tapped the ledger's cover. "Say the word and I read you the full count. Silvermoor, the island, the second island. All standing on trust and a piece of gnome bronze." "Not tonight," Ajax said. Aldric held his eye a moment. Then he nodded and opened his hands. "Then tonight the table is full. First time in a year." He lifted his cup at last. "That's worth the ink to write down." Ajax looked around the hall. Thirteen chairs. Thirteen men. Every name gold in the firelight, every mark on the wolf paw at the center. The brotherhood he swore he would build in the wild lands sat gathered in one room, sworn to him and to no lord. He drank with them until the fire burned low. But he heard Aldric's words under the noise. The towns held on rings and hired oaths. His brothers were home. His reach was not. When the cups emptied and the men went to their new beds, Ajax stayed at the table alone. The reunion was won. Now he had to hold what stretched beyond it.