Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 510 of 619

The Seraphine reached home at dusk. Ajax stood on the dock while his men tied off the ship. The rival's hunters had sailed past his gate blind, but the woman in the north still wanted his harbor. Two men had failed. She would send more. Ajax knew he could not just wait behind hidden stone. He had to make the gate hold against smarter eyes than these. "The magic held once," Ajax said. "Will it hold when they bring their own wizard?" Chalam set his staff against the rail. "The Emissary's working hides the gate from sight. Not from a man who already knows it's there." He paused. "If they measure the coast, count the miles, they could mark the spot without seeing it." That cut deeper than any blade. Ajax turned to Marco. "Can they do that?" Marco leaned on the mast, eyes half-shut. "The two who searched thought about counting rock faces. Landmarks. They wrote nothing down. But the next men will." Ajax gripped the rail. A hidden gate was not enough. He needed the sea itself to lie. Tucker came down the dock, chains catching the last light. He had run the bar, the trade, the towns across the water. He knew how men were fooled. "You can't hide a coast forever," he said. "So don't try. Give them a dock to find. A false one." Ajax stared at him. "A false dock." "Down the shore. Open water, plain gate, a shed or two." Tucker shrugged. "Let their wise men measure that. They report back. She thinks she's found you." He smiled. "They watch the wrong stone for years." Marcus spoke from the deck. "There's a cove south. Two hours' sail. Beach and cliff. No good landing, but it looks like one." Ajax weighed it. A decoy harbor would draw every hunter the woman sent. They would circle it, watch it, waste their silver on empty rock. The real gate would sit unwatched. "Build it," Ajax said. "A gate in the cove wall. Rough shed above. Make it look worked, but keep it empty." He looked at Chalam. "Can you cut the stone?" "In a day," Chalam said. "The false gate needs no working. Let them see it plain." They sailed at dawn. Marcus anchored off the cove. Chalam's staff sheared a black gap into the cliff, iron-framed and solid. Bran's spare tools built a shed on the shelf above. By dusk the cove looked like a smuggler's berth, hard-used and hidden. Ajax stood back and studied it from the water. Any hunter would swear he'd found the mark. "They'll find this and stop looking," Marco said. "It reads true." Ajax nodded. His real gate stayed secret behind the Emissary's veil. Now the woman's men would chase a lie two hours south. He had fortified the harbor not with stone alone, but with a false trail. The gate was secure. Next he would face the woman herself.