Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 596 of 619

The boat cleared the reef by midday. The trade token sat in Ajax's belt, cool leather stamped with a stranger's mark. But the sea passage still needed a man who could read it. Ajax turned from the rail and found the pilot at the tiller, the hired reef man Marcus had brought aboard. The pilot watched the water, not the crew. He called depth by color, green for safe, brown for shoal. He had guided them in. Now Ajax needed him to guide them home, then he needed to be sure of him. Marco climbed up from below and stood beside Ajax. He said nothing at first. He only looked at the pilot. Marco read men the way the pilot read water. After a moment he spoke low. "He's holding something back. Not a lie. A price. He means to name it once we're through the reef." Ajax nodded. He crossed the deck. "Take us out," he said. "Then we talk." The pilot brought the boat through the last brown line and into open blue. Then he lashed the tiller and turned. "I've done my part," he said. "I want off at the next port. Full pay. And I keep the color-marks to myself. That water's worth silver to any house that learns it." There it was. The man knew the one road west. He could sell it. Ajax could not let a stranger carry that knowledge loose along the coast. Chalam came to the rail, staff loose in his hand. Ajax spoke without turning. "Read him for a charm." Chalam passed the staff near the pilot. "Clean," he said. "No working on him. Just a man who knows a thing worth money." Rowan sat on a crate, bow across his knees, watching. Aldric climbed up last, roll of chart under his arm. He had drawn every mark the boat passed. "The reef's on my map now," Aldric said. "But a map's only good to us. He carries it in his head to anyone." Ajax weighed it. He would not kill a man who had done the work asked of him. But he would not set him free to sell the road either. "You'll take my chain," Ajax said. "Silver. Sworn to silence. Full pay, a bed at my wall, wages every season. You pilot my ships west and speak of that water to no one. Refuse, and my wizard takes the reef from your memory before you touch land." The pilot looked at Chalam, then at the sea, then at the chain in Ajax's hand. Marco spoke quiet. "He'll take it. He's tired of selling himself to strangers." The pilot bent his head. Ajax laid the silver on his neck and named the oath. The man swore it. Aldric rolled his chart tight. "Now the road west answers to you," he said. "Same as the rest." Ajax looked at the water ahead, open and his. Black Oak had gained a reef, a coast, and a bound pilot. The next door was still out there. He would reach it first.