Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 319 of 619

The traders came to the dock now. But they came, traded, and left. Ajax wanted them to stay longer, and to leave silver behind. He called Tucker, Aldric, Marco, and Grayson to the hall table. A hot spring ran warm from the cliff behind the walls. He had walked past it a hundred times without thinking. Last night he thought about it. "We cut a bar into the rock," Ajax said. He drew a line on the table with his finger. "One large bar with Three private rooms fed by the hot spring. A man off a ship pays for a hot bath and a drink. He talks at the bar and pays to soak." He looked at Tucker. "You and Marco run the bar. You hear what he says." Tucker leaned back and thumbed a gold chain. He had run rooms and taps for years. He knew what men said with their guard down. "A bath and a bottle," he said. He let it sit. "Ship masters keep secrets tight on the water. Warm them up, loosen the collar, they talk about cargo, prices, who's buying up north." He grinned. "I've drained bigger men with less." Marco spoke plain. "I don't have to touch a mind to read a soaking man. But if I listen close, I'll know who lies about his coin and who carries more than he shows." Aldric was not sold. "You cut a bar into stone in three weeks?" he asked. "Ships come at thaw. You'd be swinging hammers when the first hull docks." Grayson set his hand flat. "Chalam cuts the stone," he said. "He's hollowed cliff before. We line the bar and 3 rooms deeper in the rock behind it, pipe the spring, hang three doors. Days, not weeks." He looked at Ajax. That settled it. The spring was theirs. The stone was theirs. No man owned the ground but Ajax. They started at first light. Chalam struck the cliff with his staff and opened a wide mouth in the rock. Bran and the masons squared a large bar with three small rooms behind it. Rowan showed them how to seat the stone tubs so the hot water pooled clean. By the third day they hung the doors. The last room steamed when Ajax filled it. Tucker set the bar with two bottles and a low bench. "First master off the first ship," he said, "gets a bath on the house." A week later a hull docked at the melt. Tucker walked the master through the canal, sat him in the steam, and poured. The man soaked an hour. He named three buyers up north who paid double for beast hide. He named a rival port raising its tax. He named a captain hunting for a hidden trade dock and cursing that he couldn't find one. Marco met Ajax at the door after. "Every word true," he said. "He doesn't know where he is." Ajax had built more than a bar and bathing quarters. He had built an ear. Every ship that docked would soak, drink, and spill. Black Oak would hear the coast before the coast heard of Black Oak.