Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 508 of 619

The trader in the red coat now answered to Ajax. He held a room over a dye shop, but his true master lay north, past eight days of sea. A merchant house wanted Black Oak's harbor. Ajax rode home with Marco and gathered his sea captain to reach the rival before the rival reached him. Marcus Tidewater met them at the dock. He captained the ship that ran Ajax's goods north, bound by a silver oath he would sooner drown than break. He stood on the deck with his vest open, arms crossed, and did not smile. "You want the northern city," he said. "Which house." "The one that pays my keepers," Ajax said. "The red quay's rival. I want to know where they sit and who leads them." Marcus spat over the rail. "Five houses hold that city. One wants your dock." He looked at Marco. "You bring your reader?" "He comes," Ajax said. Marco leaned on a coil of rope, calm, already listening past them to the harbor. They sailed north with the tide. Ajax brought Chalam too, the wizard who read magic in stone and chain. Chalam kept his satchel close and his staff wrapped in cloth. He said little on the water. Near the northern city he opened his satchel and drew out powdered lodestone. "The red coat carried a mark," Chalam said. "House sign. I copied it." He held up a scrap of cloth stamped with a spiral crossed by a bar. "This is who buys your men." Marcus knew the mark. "North quarter," he said flat. "Stone hall past the fish market. Guards at the door. They trade in salt and silence." He paused. "I burned a man there once. He'd know my face." "Then you hold the ship," Ajax said. "Marco and I walk in as traders." They paid the tenth tax at the gate and passed without a name. Marco led them through crowded lanes to the stone hall. He stopped across the street and tilted his head, listening. His face went still. "A woman leads," Marco said. "She's inside. She wants your harbor because your route cuts her profit." He listened longer. "She's already sent two men south by ship. To find your dock." Ajax felt his gut tighten. "When." "Yesterday's tide," Marco said. "They're on the water now." Ajax did not go through the door. He turned and walked fast back toward the harbor, Marco at his side. He had found the head of the thing that bought his men. He had a name for the threat and a face behind it. But the rival had already moved. Two of her men sailed south to find the hidden dock that kept Black Oak alive. "Marcus," Ajax said at the rail. "We sail home. Now. We beat them there or we lose the harbor." Marcus cast off the line without a word.