Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 364 of 619

The captain still lodged in the bar three nights later. Ajax needed him to stay, because a happy guest who talked freely was worth more than his tenth in taxes. He found Tucker at the counter and Aldric bent over his chart in the corner. "The captain," Ajax said. "Keep him here two more nights. Aldric, ride to the port and find me a shipwright. A hull won't build itself." Tucker refilled the captain's cup and waved two of the silver-chained lodge men over. They wore fitted silk shirts and moved easy, the way Tucker had trained them. "Fresh trout tonight," Tucker told the captain. "A hot bath after. No charge. A man shouldn't sail before he's rested." The captain grinned and settled deeper into his chair. One lodge man poured wine. The other set a plate before him and stood near, patient, drawing his eye. The captain forgot the tide. Aldric rolled his chart and stood. "A shipwright is another matter," he said. "Good ones are known. If I ask by name at the port, word travels back here." He never softened a problem. He named it and waited. "Then ask without a name," Ajax said. "Say a merchant inland wants a fishing hull. No dock. No coast." Aldric considered it. "That could work," he said. He left at first light with silver and a plain story. He returned the next evening on a tired horse. Ajax met him at the gate. Rowan stood there too, holding the bar, his bow across his back. Rowan had been raised by the grove and read men the way he read tracks. He watched Aldric dismount and said nothing. "I found one," Aldric said. "A shipwright by the south wharf. Old, half-retired. He builds small hulls still. He asked no questions about a fishing boat for an inland man." He paused. "But he wants to see the water she'll sit in. He won't cut a keel blind. He said a hull built for the wrong sea rots or breaks." Ajax turned that over. A shipwright at his dock would see the canal, the hidden gate, everything he had spent a year sealing away. "Did he take the work?" "He took a deposit," Aldric said. "He'll start the frame at his own yard. But he comes here before the planking. That's his price." Rowan spoke without looking up. "Then he sees the gate." "Yes," Aldric said. Ajax gripped his father's chain. The captain drank in his bar, kept warm and talking. Aldric had his shipwright. The city lay eight days north, five houses hungry for pelts, waiting. He had what he needed to reach it. But the man who would build his ship had to be brought inside the walls first. Ajax had traded one closed door for an open one. "Bring him," Ajax said. "When the frame's up, bring him through the canal. We'll deal with what he sees when he sees it."