Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 460 of 619

Two ships now sailed full, and coin came in faster than the vault could count. But the lodge stayed the same size. Ajax stood at the bar one morning and saw the problem plain. Captains crowded the room. Some drank, bought casks, and left. Others wanted beds and baths that were already taken. He called Aldric and Tucker to the empty suite to decide the thing. Aldric came with the ledger under his arm. He set it on the table and opened it to the last page. "Twelve rooms. All full every night this season," he said. "We turn captains away. I counted nine last week." He tapped the column. "Each one carries a purse and a mouth. We lose the silver and the talk." Tucker leaned against the wall, chains catching the light. "More rooms, more captains," he said. "More captains, more stories at the docks. That's how a place gets a name." He grinned. "But every stranger you house is a stranger who's seen the canal." That was the knot. Ajax wanted the trade. He did not want the road to his gate spoken in port bars. He asked Aldric the cost of it. "A bigger bar draws a bigger crowd," Aldric said. "A crowd hides a spy. But it also hides one of ours." He closed the ledger. "Marco can read them. That is the answer. Expand, and put Marco on the door when he can spare the days from the Crossing." Ajax turned to Tucker. "Marco reads captains at the bar. He hears a lie before it lands. He marks the ones who ask about the gate." Tucker nodded slow. "He did it before, when he wasn't holding the road. Pull him back a few days a season. Sit him by the wine. Let him listen." Ajax weighed it. The Crossing gate held with two sworn men under Marco. He could spare Marco for short stretches. He decided. "We build," he said. "Double the bar. Six new rooms above it. Two more baths. One new suite with a view.” He looked at Aldric. "Bran cuts the stone with Chalam. You keep the ledger tight. Every captain who lodges gets watched." Aldric wrote it down. "And Marco?" "He rides in when the ships come home. He works the bar three nights. He reads every master who asks the wrong question." Ajax set his hand flat on the table. "We erase the ones who dig. Same as always." Tucker pushed off the wall. "I'll send word to the Crossing." Bran and Chalam broke ground the next dawn. In six days the lodge doubled. Six rooms filled the first night. Marco came in from the road, sat by the wine casks, and read three captains dry. Two were honest. One asked twice about the sea path. Marco marked him. The lodge grew. The trade grew. And now the wider door had a listener sworn to guard it.