Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 58 of 619

They rode north two days and made camp within sight of a walled town on the coast road. The men watered the horses and stripped their tack in silence. Ajax counted the map again by firelight. Four marks remained. He had ridden them hard through two seats and a hall breach, and the road was starting to show on them. Tucker sat down across the fire and pulled a boot off. "Ajax. The men want a night in the town." Ajax looked up. "For what." "A bed. A drink. A woman." Tucker set the boot beside him. "They've earned it. You know they have." Grayson came in from the picket line and stood at the edge of the light. He heard the last of it and said nothing. Marco crossed from the horses. "He's not wrong." Asher stayed at the far side of the fire, watching. He did not speak. Ajax looked at each of them. Chalam was already asleep against his satchel. Elara was down by the creek, out of it. The rest were waiting on him. "One night," Ajax said. "Before the next mark. You find a house, you keep your blades on you, and you're back in the saddle at dawn." Tucker grinned. "I'll find it." "You will," Ajax said. "That's the deal. You find it. I'll ride in with you." Grayson looked at him. "You told me first this time." "I'm telling you now." Grayson nodded once and walked back to the horses. They rode in at dusk the next day. Tucker went ahead and worked the taproom for an hour while the rest stood at the bar. He came back with a name and a street. Ajax paid the house himself, in silver from the hall, and told the woman at the door there would be no trouble from his men or he would take it out of the price. She counted the coin twice and opened the second door. Ajax did not go up. He sat in the front room with his back to the wall and drank water. Grayson sat with him. Tucker, Marco, and Asher went up separately. Chalam stayed at the inn with Elara. An hour in, a girl came down the stairs and crossed to Ajax. She set a folded scrap of paper on the table beside his cup. "The man in the room paid me to give you this," she said. "He left through the back." Ajax opened it. One line, in a plain hand. I know what you carry. Ride south or wear the collar. Below it, a small spiral, pressed in ink. Grayson read it over his shoulder. "He watched us come in." Ajax folded the paper and put it in his vest. He stood and went to the foot of the stairs. "Get them down," he said. "We ride tonight."