Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 456 of 619

The new cold room filled in ten days. Rowan brought back three hides, then two more. Marcus ran two loads a season, just as he'd promised. But the ship came home half empty each return, and Aldric's ledger showed the loss. Ajax called his council to the workhouse to fix it for good. Aldric spread the ledger on the table. "We have goods to fill twice your hull," he said to Marcus. "They sit here and wait. Some spoil before your next run." Marcus stood by the cold room door, arms crossed. His silver chain caught the lamplight. "I told you before. The hull is built. I can't stretch her belly. She carries what she carries." Ajax looked at the crated hides stacked to the ceiling. "Then we need a bigger ship. Sell this one. Build another, with a wider hold and cold storage in her belly." The room went quiet. Chalam set his staff against the wall. "Cold at sea is harder than cold in stone, but I can do it." Marcus shook his head slow. "You sell my ship, you sell the crew's silence with her. New hull means a new shipwright who sees your canal. New sailors sworn fresh." He paused. "And the coast knows this hull now. A bigger one draws eyes at every port." Tucker leaned in the doorway, thumbs in his belt. He'd been quiet, listening the way he always did before he spoke. "Selling's the wrong end of it," he said. "You don't sell a thing that already keeps your secrets. You buy a second one." Ajax turned. "A second ship." "Two hulls, two loads, same season." Tucker shrugged. "One runs north while the other loads cold. Marcus captains the big one. Break in a second man on the small." He let it sit. "Costs more up front. But you never sail empty again." Aldric tapped the ledger. "The vault holds it. Steel, grain, and a hull besides." Marcus considered it. "A second hull, I can crew slow and careful. Better than gutting the one that works." Chalam nodded. "Cold I set in a store on land, then load fast when the ship docks” Ajax weighed it. Selling meant a stranger inside his canal and a fresh crew to bind. Buying a second hull kept Marcus, kept the silence, kept the route he'd bled to build. "We buy a second ship," he said. "Smaller than his. Aldric finds the shipwright. Same terms as before, sworn to the chain." Marcus uncrossed his arms. "Then I'll take the deep-water runs and leave the short coast to the new man." Ajax gave the order. The cold room would fill and empty now, twice over. His house had grown past one ship, and the north would see more of his goods than any port could match. But two hulls meant a new captain to trust across open sea, and that man was not yet found.