Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 519 of 619

The next tide carried Chalam and Marco north. Ajax kept the second caller ring on his hand and waited. He could not open the dark house himself. That was Chalam's work now, and Marco's. The two of them sailed to the north quarter to read the third house before it could speak the truth about his forged letters. Marco came back to Ajax through the ring first. His voice was thin over the distance, but the words were clear. The dark house sat at the top of the quarter, stone-walled, its shutters closed to the street. "They're quiet because they're careful," Marco said. "Not because they see through us. I read three men at the door. None of them think the letters are false." Ajax closed his hand on the ring. "Then why haven't they moved?" "They wait," Marco said. "The old man who leads them won't act until he's sure. He watches the other houses draw swords. He wants to see who falls first." A pause. "He believes the lie, Ajax. He just doesn't trust it yet." Chalam came on next. He spoke plain, the way he always did. "I got near the wall. Marco held the guards' minds while I read the stone." He stopped. "There's no working here. No binding. No charm. Just a frightened old trader and a house that's slow to fight." He did not soften it. "I brought vials for nothing. The threat was smaller than we thought." Ajax breathed out. The knife at his back was no knife. "Then it's the best kind of house," he said. "One that fears the others more than it fears me." "He'll turn," Marco said. "Give him one more push. If he hears the fourth house is arming against him, he'll arm back. Then all four are in it." Ajax weighed it. He could send Marco to plant one more word among the old man's runners. A whisper that the fourth house counted his ships. "Do it," Ajax said. "Feed the old man the last lie. Then come home." "There's a boy at his gate who takes coin from anyone," Marco said. "I'll pay him to carry it. The old man will hear it by dusk." Chalam spoke once more. "After that I'm done here. The staff's rested. The vials are full. I've read what there is to read." "Then sail on the next tide," Ajax said. "Both of you. You've done the work." The rings went quiet. Ajax stood alone in the hall with his hand on the table's paw mark. The dark house was no longer dark. It was a slow old man who feared his neighbors, and Marco was about to make him fear them more. All four houses would soon turn on each other while Silvermoor traded free. He pulled off the ring and set it on the table. The last door had opened, and nothing waited behind it but a man Ajax could use.