Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 482 of 619

The bar was open and the shops were mended, but Ajax found he did not know the size of his own town. He called Aldric to the great hall at dawn. Tucker leaned by the casks, chains catching the morning light. Ajax set the question plain. "We hold homes and shops. But how many rooms can we rent to travelers? Traders come off the ships. They need beds. I want a number before I promise anything." Aldric opened the ledger. Grey showed at his temples, and he read from his own careful count. "I walked every house yesterday. Eleven homes stand whole. Twenty-two total, but half want roofs and doors." He tapped the page. "The great hall is yours. The barracks holds your fighters. That leaves the homes to fill." Tucker pushed off the cask. "Don't rent them all," he said. "A captain pays more for a room when three others sit dark. Empty beds look poor. Full beds look poor too, if there's no room to spare." He grinned. "Keep some empty. Charge for the ones that shine." Ajax weighed it. He thought of his lodge at Black Oak, where nine rooms sat cold and drove captains off. He would not repeat that here. "How many soon can we ready them all?" he asked. Aldric ran his finger down the list. "Bran's masons fixed six roofs already. Give them three more days, they close five more. That makes eleven sound homes." He looked up. "Six I would rent. Keep two for your own men who cross the sea. Hold three back until traders fill the town and beds run short." "And the rent?" Ajax said. "A room a night," Tucker said. "Same as the port. Higher for the harbor ones with a window on the water. A captain pays for a view he can watch his ship from." He named a coin. Aldric nodded once, which meant the price was fair. Ajax turned it over. Six rooms nightly. Two held for his brothers. Three kept dark to make the rest worth more. It matched the town's true size and did not overreach it. "Do it," he said. "Six rooms rented. Two ours. Three held back. Set Bran's men on the five roofs before you close the last wall." Aldric wrote it down. "That leaves us short of hands to keep them," he said. "Six rooms want cleaning, fires laid, water hauled. Tucker holds the bar. You'll need two more men for the beds." Ajax had not seen that edge until Aldric named it. A town with rooms to rent needed keepers, and every new keeper was another mouth sworn to silence. He looked to Tucker. "Can you find two clean men at the harbor tavern?" "By the next tide," Tucker said. Ajax nodded. The number was set. Eleven homes, six for rent, the price named. Now he had beds to fill and no hands to keep them.