Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 342 of 619

The dryad's cloth reached Tarron's loom that night. By morning, Ajax walked to the shed to see what the woolwright had made of it. He wanted goods before the thaw, and now was the test of whether the dryad's thread could become trade worth the ships. Tarron sat at his loom, hands moving fast over the leafcloth. He did not swear oaths to the wall like the fighters. He swore to the craft, and Ajax had learned to leave him to it. On the bench beside him lay a finished thing: a folded cloak, gray wool trimmed with a band of the dryad's weave. The band caught the light like water on stone. "It takes the root dye," Tarron said, not looking up. "Red no port has. I made the cloak to show the color against plain wool. A master sees the trim, he wants the whole bolt." He set down the shuttle. "Give me three days. I'll have six pieces. Each one different. No two the same means no two prices." Ajax lifted the cloak. It was light and warm and unlike anything in his vault. "Do it," he said. This was the goods that would fill a hold and make a master talk. The workhouse had turned gold into things at last. Outside, Grayson waited by the pen. He had already sent the hunters north. "Rowan's men laid trap lines for hides," Grayson said. "Deer and marten. They'll bring meat and fur by the third day." He crossed his arms. "Fur pays the wages. Cloth pays the reputation. You need both filled before a ship shows." "They're both moving," Ajax said. Grayson gave a short nod and said nothing more. He turned to check the gate. Aldric found Ajax at the workhouse door near dusk. The scholar carried the ledger under his arm, grey in his hair, gold thread bright on his green tunic. He opened the book and ran a finger down the page. "Two problems," he said. "You have goods coming. You have no way to swear the hired men before those goods leave." He closed the ledger. "A worker who quits at thaw carries what he saw to the port. The cloth. The dock. The gate." Ajax had set the rule already: swear the Code at thaw or leave. But the ships came at thaw too. "Then we swear them first," Ajax said. "Before the first hull docks. Any man who won't take the oath walks out before he sees a ship, not after." Aldric wrote it in the ledger. "That holds," he said. "Bind them, then trade. Not the other way." By the third day, Tarron carried six finished pieces to the hall. Each caught the light in its own way. Ajax laid them across the table and knew the workhouse could feed ships now. The brotherhood would trade its way through spring, not raid. He set the swearing for the morning before the thaw, and the goods behind the men.