Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 507 of 619

The runner had given Ajax a room over a dye shop in the city east of the Crossing. Now Ajax rode there with Marco to find the man in the red coat. They left the horses at the city wall and walked in past the gate on foot. Marco kept his shirt open at the collar, gold bracelet loose on his wrist, and moved like a trader with time to spend. Ajax wore a plain cloak over his chain and blade. He looked like a big man come to buy dye. "Left," Marco said. He walked slow, head tilted. "He's up there. One man in the room. Awake. Counting coin in his head." He stopped near a low door under a shop sign smeared with color. "I can hear him from here." Ajax looked at the stairs beside the door. "You're sure it's him." "He's thinking of your keepers," Marco said. "Names. Which ones took his silver and which stayed quiet." His mouth went flat. "He knows one of them turned. He's afraid." They climbed the stairs together. Ajax pushed the door open without a knock. A lean man sat at a table, red coat over the back of his chair, coins stacked in neat rows. He came half out of his seat and reached for a cord at his neck. "Don't," Ajax said. He crossed the room in three steps and put a hand on the man's shoulder, pressing him down. The trader's eyes moved to Marco. "Who reads for you," he said. It was not a question. "He does," Ajax said. "So the truth is faster." Marco leaned on the door frame. He watched the man the way he watched all men, calm and unhurried. "He wants to lie," Marco said. "He's picking which one." He shook his head once. "No use." Ajax gathered the coins in his fist and spilled them off the table. "You buy my keepers," he said. "Who pays you to do it?" The trader's jaw tightened. He said nothing. "He hears the question," Marco said. "There's a name in him. A merchant house. The red quay's rivals in the northern city." He paused. "He's a hand, not a head. Same as your runner." Ajax crouched to the man's level. "Then you tell me the head, and you keep your coat and your neck." The trader swallowed. "The house pays for names," he said. "Who holds the sea road. Who feeds the islands. That's all I sell. A merchant house in the north wants your dock." Marco nodded slow. "True. He's spent." Ajax stood. He took the red coat off the chair and dropped it in the man's lap. "You work for me now," he said. "You send the house whatever I tell you. Marco reads you each time. Lie once and I'll know." The trader gripped the coat and nodded. Ajax turned for the stairs. The man who bought his keepers now answered to him, and the trail ran north, to a merchant house that wanted Black Oak's harbor.