Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 529 of 619

The hold was full. Ajax loaded the last quilled hide by lamplight, then boarded the Seraphine for the run back to Silvermoor. Marcus Tidewater held the helm through two days of open water. When they docked, Ajax sent word that he would rest one night in the harbor suite before turning south to the burned house and the stone slab beneath it. The suite door stood open. Marcus was already inside. Ajax knew the captain by his silver chain and the loose vest that hung from both shoulders. Marcus ran the northern route for him, sworn on a chain to keep the dock hidden, bound by desire more than fear. He wanted Tucker at Silvermoor, and that wanting kept the ship coming home. But Tucker was eight days south, at Black Oak, working the trade cart. And Marcus had turned that hunger toward the wrong man before. "You look tired," Marcus said. He crossed the room fast. His hand found Ajax's arm, then his chest. "I watched you fight two beasts and take no cut. A man like that shouldn't sleep alone." Ajax stepped back. "You've got a suite of your own." "I've got a want." Marcus did not soften it. "You. Now. Tucker's a sea away." Ajax caught his wrist and held it still. He thought of Tucker at the fire, of the way the two men leaned close at the bar. Their love was the thing that kept the route running. If Ajax took what Marcus offered, he'd break it, and a broken captain would sink the whole trade north. "No," Ajax said. "You want Tucker. Not me. You just can't reach him tonight." Marcus stopped pulling. He looked at Ajax a long moment. "He keeps me waiting on purpose." "He does." Ajax let go of the wrist. "And you come back faster for it. Don't spend that on me and lose it." Marcus dropped his hand. Something in his face settled. "You're right," he said, flat. "He'd hear of it. He'd know." He stepped away and stood by the window, looking at the dark water. Ajax poured two cups of plum wine and set one on the sill. "Sail me south at dawn. I've a stone to open at the burned house." He drank. "Then run north with a full hold. You'll be back at Silvermoor in three weeks. Tucker will be here by then. I'll bring him up myself." Marcus took the cup. The line of his shoulders eased. "Three weeks," he said. "I'll hold to that." Ajax finished his wine. He had kept his captain steady and kept the northern route whole. The desire that bound Marcus still pointed the right way, toward home and Tucker, not toward him. At first light the Seraphine would turn south, and Ajax would carry his father's blade back to the slab in the burned earth.