Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 400 of 619

The red quay house was warm inside. A wide counter split the room. Behind it stood the trader, a broad man with ink-stained fingers and a ledger open before him. He had bought furs on this wharf for thirty years, and he looked at the three of them like cargo he had not ordered. "Off a ship?" he said. "Then talk fast. I close at dusk." Ajax set the terms plain. Verath hides, whole. Pale-fur pelts. Teeth for healing needles. Gland oil that muffles a man's step. He named no place and no ship. The trader ran a thumb down his ledger and named a price for the lot. Low. A test price, thrown out to see who flinched. Marco stood at Ajax's shoulder. He said nothing. He did not need to speak. Ajax watched his hand. Marco tapped his own gold bracelet twice, quiet, against the counter's edge. The trader believed the goods were worth more than he offered. He was lying. Ajax held the trader's eye. "You've handled Verath before," he said. "You know the hide lasts three lifetimes. Name it again." The trader's mouth tightened. He glanced at the ledger, then at the door, then back. He named a second price, near double the first. Marco tapped once. Truth. This was the real number. Tucker leaned on the counter then, easy, chains catching the lamplight. He had spent years buying rounds and leaving bars with friends, and he worked the trader the same way now. "That's fair," Tucker said. "We'll take it. And we'll bring more. Every ship." He smiled. "Question is what else you want is to bring when we come back." The trader set down his pen. Repeat trade meant more than one good haul. He studied Tucker, then Ajax, and decided they meant it. "Furs," he said. "Enchanted items, fur coats, fine clothes, potions, good wine. And if you can bring the oil steady, the physician houses will pay standing coin for the needles." He wrote as he spoke. "Bring me those, off any ship, no names. I'll buy every crate." Ajax gave a single nod. The deal was struck. Silver for the goods now, and a list of what would fill the hold going home. They shook on it. The trader called for a boy to weigh the furs at the ship come morning. Outside, the wharf had gone gray toward dusk. Tucker rolled his shoulders. "Told you the low price was a lie," he said. Marco only nodded. Ajax stood a moment on the stones. The route was proven now. The northern city would pay for goods and it wanted what Black Oak could make and hunt. Ajax had come north to fill his vault. His brotherhood was no longer only walls. It was a house the coast would deal with.