Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 522 of 619

The crossbows sat ready on the walls, but they needed hands. Ajax counted his men and came up short. Eight trained on the engines meant eight not sent north. He called Aldric, Grayson, Chalam, and Tucker to the hall to settle the numbers before the next tide. Aldric spread his ledger on the table. He tapped a column with one finger. "You have thirty men on the wall. Eight for the engines. That leaves twenty-two to hold the gate, the canal, and the sea watch." He looked up. "You need more. Not fewer." Ajax leaned over the ledger. "Then we hire. Where do new men come from?" Grayson answered flat from the door. "Silvermoor. New swords get trained there. The keepers drill them before they sail south." He crossed his arms. "But if we pull training north, the island runs on hired men we barely know." Ajax turned the question. "How much does Silvermoor bring in?" Aldric turned two pages. He ran his finger down a row of figures. "The bar and lodge clear silver every week. The trader tax adds more. Last count, Silvermoor earned near half of what Black Oak spends to feed and arm this whole house." He closed the book. "It pays. It pays well." Tucker set down his cup. "Half your coin comes from a town eight days off. And you want to train fresh men there too." He shook his head. "That's a lot resting on one wall you can't see." Chalam spoke from the bench. "Then strengthen the wall. I can cut more quarters. Bran can build a drill yard by the grain store. Train swords at Silvermoor, ship them south when they're ready." He rubbed his beard. "You don't move the money. You build where it already is." Ajax weighed it. Silvermoor fed his house and stood as the one place that turned raw men into fighters. Moving the training would break both. Building there kept the coin flowing and made new swords in the same breath. "We build at Silvermoor," Ajax said. "A drill yard and a second bunkhouse by the grain store. Train men north. Ship the trained ones south to work the engines." Grayson gave a short nod. "Two runs a season. Marcus can carry them." Aldric wrote it down. "That commits Bran north for five days. And more coin than the crossbows cost." "Do it," Ajax said. "Silvermoor holds the trade. Silvermoor makes the men. It stays the heart of it." He sent Chalam to mark the plans and Bran north on the next tide. The choice was made. Silvermoor would no longer only sell wine and rent rooms. It would forge his brotherhood's fighters and pay for them both at once. But every trained sword now had to cross eight days of open sea to reach the wall it was meant to hold.