Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 349 of 619

The crated cloaks sat waiting by the dock. Ajax had answered the ship's question. But at dawn Rowan came in from the north road, mud to the knee, and told him the beasts had come back. Two more Verath, feeding in the woods a half day north. Their hides were worth more than any cloak in the crate. And a fresh Verath hide would sell the corner master on Black Oak better than anything else in the hold. Ajax sent hunters north to kill them. They would return in two days. The ship came in five. He found Grayson at the gate and told him the count. Two days for the hunt. Three left after that. Grayson crossed his arms, chain flat on his chest. "Cutting it thin." "The hide's worth the thin," Ajax said. Grayson said nothing more. He did not soften it and he did not fight it. Aldric came to the hall with his ledger. He set it down and read the page like a torn map. "Two hides in the hold changes the master's price. A whole Verath skin, uncut. No other port has one." He tapped the roster. "But you've stripped four hunters from the walls for two days. If the ship comes early, you load short-handed." "The blind watches the sea," Ajax said. "Kael and Torren send word before any sail reaches the dock. If a ship arrives, we have 8 lodge workers to load with little time away from the lodge." On the second night the hunters rode in. Two whole Verath hides, thick and dark, slung across the horses. Ajax ran his hand down the largest. It would hang in the hall until the master saw it, and no cart or boat had shown Black Oak to the port. "Crate the smaller," Ajax told Aldric. "Hang the large one whole. Three days to the ship." The hold would fill. The gate stayed sealed.