Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 484 of 619

The town opened at first light, and traders came off the ships within days. But every man Ajax passed asked the same question: what do you call this place? A town with no name looked like a camp that might fold. Ajax gathered his council in the great hall around the bar. Aldric brought his ledger. Tucker leaned on a cask. Chalam stood with his staff, and Rowan came in from the wall. Grayson had sailed north on the last tide to see the town himself. Ajax laid it out. "The town needs a name. Traders won't trust a place we can't call." "One rule first," Aldric said. He set his ledger down. "The name of Black Oak stays home. If the port learns this town belongs to the same house that owns the hidden dock, they'll trace our whole route. Keep the two apart." Grayson spoke from the doorway, salt still on his coat. "He's right. Two names, two houses. No one links them." Ajax nodded. "Suggestions, then." Tucker poured himself a cup and grinned. "Name it something a captain remembers after three drinks. Nothing grand. Grand names make men suspicious." "Something true to the place," Rowan said. He rarely spoke in council. "The water. The rock. What the land is." Chalam turned his staff in his hand. "The map called these the far islands. Cold water. Gray stone." He paused. "Men here fear the sea more than the walls." Aldric wrote as they talked. "Gray Harbor. Stonewater. The Gull." He read each and shook his head. "Common. Forgettable." Ajax looked at the wolf paw the carver had cut into the hall front, deep in the gray stone. He thought of the tide that ran cold against the harbor wall each dusk. "Grayharbor sits flat," he said. "But the water here turns silver at last light. Rowan saw it. Marcus named it on the way in." Rowan nodded once. "Silver tide. Every clear evening." Tucker leaned forward. "Silvermoor. Say it in a bar and men lean in. Sounds rich. Sounds safe." Aldric wrote it. He read it back. He did not shake his head this time. "Silvermoor. It fits the water. It hides Black Oak. A trader hears wealth, not a warhouse." Grayson crossed his arms. "No paw on the wall out where ships see. Cut it inside the gate only. The name carries the town. The paw stays ours." Ajax weighed it. The name held two things at once. It drew traders and it buried the link home. "Silvermoor," he said. "That's the name. Aldric, send it to every harbor Marcus touches. Tucker, tell the captains at the bar tonight." Aldric closed his ledger. "I'll set it in the roster. Silvermoor stands separate from Black Oak. Only the council knows they're one house." Ajax stood. His brotherhood now held two names across eight days of sea, and no port could tie them together. "The town has a name," he said. "Now it can grow."