Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 414 of 619

The morning before the ride, Ajax gathered his council in the hall to settle one question. He had held off the northern threat and unloaded the ship. Now he needed to know what to bring. He spread the map on the carved table and looked at Aldric, Chalam, and Tucker. "We ride north in a day," he said. "Tell me what this house is missing." Aldric answered first. He had the ledger open before Ajax finished speaking. "The staff is our weak point," he said. "It cracked twice already. In the north woods it will fail when we need it most." A soft knock came at the door. The Leafgift Dryad stepped in without waiting. Her bark-skin caught the lamplight, and green leaves shifted at her shoulders. She carried a length of pale wood in both hands. Ajax knew her. She had gifted staffs, trees, and warnings before, and each gift bound him tighter to her grove. He rose. "You asked the grove for wood that will not break," she said. "I brought it. But it must set overnight against the moon before your wizard can carry it." She laid the wood on the table beside the map. Chalam touched it and drew his hand back. "It hums," Chalam said. "Stronger than the last. This one holds." "One night," the dryad said. "By dawn it is finished." She left as quietly as she came, leaves whispering at the door. Ajax turned back to the map. One problem solved. Another sat in front of him. "Tucker," he said. "The ship. Is it big enough for the north?" Tucker leaned against the table and turned a chain in his fingers. "Depends what you want from it," he said. "For gold and furs, it holds enough. It sails eight days and comes back. That's proven." He shrugged. "A bigger hull means a bigger crew, more mouths sworn to silence, more men who see the canal. That's how secrets leak." Aldric nodded. "He's right. The current ship can catch fish on the run and store the catch cold. We sell the fresh trout at the docks and it costs us nothing extra. A larger ship adds risk, not profit." Ajax weighed it. He wanted his house to grow. But a bigger ship meant more strangers behind his walls, and he had spent a year binding every tongue to silence. "We keep the ship we have," he said. "It fishes on the crossing and stores the catch. We trade the fish fresh. No new hull. No new crew." By dawn Chalam came to the hall carrying the finished staff. It no longer hummed loose in his grip. It sat steady, whole, ready for the ride. Ajax looked at his three men and the settled map. The staff would hold. The ship would stay. His house was armed and quiet, and nothing new stood between him and the north.