Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 569 of 619

Ajax needed two more wizards before thaw. He rode east to the Crossing himself, past the gate he now owned, and took Marco and JD with him. If his maker line was to stand on its own, the last two men had to be found in the wild city beyond the wall. Marco kept the gate all week and knew every trader by now. He rode beside Ajax with the road dust on his jeans. "City's got three drinking halls," he said. "Gifted men drift to the water side. Cheap wine, no house watching." He rubbed the gold bracelet on his wrist. "We split. I take the trade floor. JD takes the harbor bar." JD nodded once. He and his brother worked apart the way they always did, one gift stretched across two rooms. "I hear lies in the drink," JD said. "Marco reads the rest. Same as home." He pulled his green shirt open another button against the heat and went for the harbor without another word. By the second night JD sent word through the caller ring. He had found a man near the docks. Ajax and Marco crossed the dark streets to a low tavern. JD stood at the door with his back to the wall, watching the room the way he watched everything. "Two," he said. "One's a fraud with a bought charm. The other sits alone. Clean talk. Real spark." He tipped his head at a thin man by the fire. "He's yours to read." Marco moved close and stood over the man a moment. The man looked up, unsettled, not knowing why. Marco read him and stepped back. "Gift's real. He came here to sell it to a house that already turned him away. He's afraid, not false." He met Ajax's eyes. "He'll swear for a wage and a wall." Ajax sat across from the man and named his terms. Wages, a bed, a place among makers who answered to no lord. The man agreed before the wine was gone. That made seven. The next day Marco found the last one on the trade floor. A cart hand with a steady spark, no charm, no house. Marco read him twice to be sure. "Clean," he said. "Wants only coin." JD came off the harbor and listened to the man talk in the tavern that night. "No lies," JD said. "Bring him." Ajax took both men back through the gate. Chalam blood-locked each to the mirror and marked them for the cliffs. Then Ajax laid a charmed silver chain on each neck and heard the oaths. The line stood at eight makers now. He touched the cold chain on his chest. Marco and JD had done in a week what he could not do alone. "It's enough," Chalam said at the hearth. "I can teach in pairs and hunt the sites both." Ajax looked at the two brothers by the fire. His maker line was full. Chalam began to train them.