Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 363 of 619

Aldric came to the vault at dusk with a rolled chart and a hard look. "The captain still drinks in your bar," he said. "Before we hunt a shipwright, I want to know the city itself. What runs it. Who we would sell to. A hull is worth nothing if the port turns us away at the harbor mouth." Ajax saw the sense in it. He had asked two questions and gotten two answers. Now a third had grown in their place. He did not know the city, only the size of it. He brought Aldric down to the bar, where Tucker leaned on the counter, gold chains bright against his open vest. Tucker had spent his life reading rooms and loosening tongues over drink. Ajax trusted no one more to pull a stranger open. Tucker refilled the captain's cup without being asked. "That harbor," he said. "A hundred ships, you said. Who tells them where to dock?" The captain warmed to it. He talked of the merchant houses, five of them, each with its own quay and its own guards. No king sat above them. They fought each other with coin, not swords. A stranger with rare goods could pick the house that paid best and let the others bid against it. Aldric set his chart flat and drew as the man spoke. He marked the five quays, the guarded gate, the counting hall where sales were sworn. He worked in short, sure strokes. "Any tax on a foreign hull?" he asked. "A tenth," the captain said. "Paid at the gate. After that, no man asks your name." Tucker caught Ajax's eye and gave the small nod that meant the man told it true. Ajax leaned on the counter beside him. The picture filled in. Five houses hungry for hides. No lord to seize a dock. A tenth at the gate, then silence. It was not a wall to fear. It was a market with a door price. "Which house pays best for fur?" Ajax asked. "The one with the red quay," the captain said. "Old money. They dress their council in pelts to show it." Aldric rolled the chart and pressed it into Ajax's hand. "Now you know the city," he said. "Five houses, a counting hall, a tenth at the gate. You can walk in and not be robbed blind. That is more than most captains carry north." Ajax touched his father's chain. He had the shape of the port now, the men who ruled it, and the door they would open for a fee. The question that had gnawed at him was closed. "Then we build the hull," he said. "Aldric, find your shipwright. Tucker, keep this captain talking two more nights. I want every quay master's name before we sail." Tucker raised his cup. "Easy work," he said, "in a warm room."