Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 92 of 619

They made camp in a hollow of stunted oaks by dusk. Elara took the first watch on the rim. The rest sat close to the fire and ate cold meat and hard bread. Ajax kept the ledger under his knee and the ring cool on his finger. Two names left. One day of the ring's cover left. He wanted the men settled before the ride at dawn. Tucker leaned back on his saddle and stretched his boots to the coals. He had the plain gray ring on a cord around his neck now, tucked under his vest. He caught Ajax watching and shrugged. "Question for the fire," Tucker said. "When the walls are up and the pay is spent, where does a man go for a date or some company out here?" Grayson did not look up from his cup. "Not my problem." "It'll be somebody's." Marco snorted. "You mean yours." "I mean all of us." Tucker tipped his chin at Ajax. "Last time you went to a city house you came back with oil that pulled at the wizard. That cost us a day." Chalam set his staff across his knees. "It did." Ajax chewed and said nothing. He remembered the oil. He remembered Chalam telling him plain in the dark. Asher spoke from across the fire. "Then don't go to a city house." "Where, then," Ajax said. Asher shrugged one shoulder. "Here. Us. Whoever wants to. Two of us go off alone and spend time together if both agree." Marco kept his eyes on the fire. He did not look at Asher. He did not disagree. Grayson set his cup down. "Nobody touches me. Ever. Say it back." "Nobody touches you," Ajax said. "Good." Tucker grinned into his beard. "So it's a rule. Between us, if we want. Not down the road." "Only consensual between any two men." Ajax said. "No dosing. No power. Ever. Any man uses a working on another man in this camp, he rides out that hour." He looked at Asher. "Understood," Asher said. "Marco?" "Understood." Chalam nodded once. "I hold to it." Ajax turned the ring on his finger. He did not want this. A brotherhood held on iron and pay, not on beds. But the oil had cost him a day, and a day was what he had left. He would not spend another one because a man rode into a strange town with silver and a mouth. "Then it stands," Ajax said. "Inside the company. Nowhere else until the walls are up." Nobody spoke against it. Tucker raised his cup an inch. Grayson drank. Asher looked at Marco once across the coals. Marco met the look and held it and looked away. Ajax banked the fire and told Tucker to wake him at second watch. He lay down with the ledger under his head. One day of ring. Two names. He had closed one door tonight so he could walk through the next one clean.