Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 455 of 619

The ship docked at dawn. Ajax's men carried the two gray hides up through the canal and laid them in the workhouse. Tarron ran his hands over the fur and said nothing for a long moment. Then he looked up. "This won't fit," he said. "Not with the rest." Ajax frowned. "What won't fit?" Tarron led him to the store room. Bolts of leafcloth, stacked hides, jars of gland oil, crated needles. Every shelf was full. "You bring back a whole beast each trip now. Two, three hides. The store holds one hunt's worth. No more." He nudged a bundle with his boot. "And the glands rot. We have no cold. Aldric packs them in creek sand and prays." Aldric came in behind them, ledger under his arm. "He is right. I turned back a Verath tooth lot last week. No room to cure it. We lose goods to spoil before ships come." Marcus leaned in the doorway, arms folded. "Then the hold is the problem too. My ship carries what fits her belly. Half the coast trade sits here while I sail light." Ajax looked at the crowded shelves. The gray fur mattered only if he could hold enough to fill a hold and reach the north before it turned. "We build," he said. "A bigger store. Cold storage. And the ship carries more." Marcus shook his head. "Can't stretch the hull. She's built. But she runs light on the return. I could carry a second load down the coast if you had it ready and cold." Chalam had followed them in. He set his staff against the wall. "Cold I can hold," he said. "There's a working in the copied book. Draws heat out of a sealed room. I can cut the chamber into the hill by the workhouse and set the stone myself." "How long?" Ajax asked. "Three days for the cut. One for the working." Chalam paused. "It drains me a day after. But it holds cold through summer." Tarron ran his thumb along a gray staple. "Cold, and the fur keeps clean. Glands keep a moon instead of a night. We stop losing coin to rot." Ajax gave the order. Chalam sheared the stone by noon of the third day. Bran walled a store twice the old size, with a sealed cold room at the back. Chalam spoke the working that night and slept a full day after. Aldric moved every hide, jar, and needle inside and marked each on his ledger. The shelves stood half empty now, room for three hunts' worth. Marcus walked the new store and nodded. "Fill this, and I'll run two loads a season." Ajax stood in the cold room while Tarron hung the two gray hides. His breath showed in the air. He had the space now to hoard rare goods and the cold to keep them. But an empty store was a hungry one. He would need Rowan to find new beasts, and fast, or the ship would sail with a half-full hold again.