Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 536 of 619

The holds were full when the Seraphine reached Silvermoor. Ajax had found a new bay west of the burned house, thick with untouched game. But one good bay was not a hunting ground. He needed to know how far it ran, how many beasts it held, and whether the house could count on it past a single season. Before he could rest, he called Rowan and Aldric to the hall. Aldric came with his ledger under his arm. He set it on the table and opened it to the last four hunts. "The southern grounds gave less each trip," he said. "This new bay changes nothing until we know its size. One rich shore feeds us once. A ground feeds us for years." He tapped the page. "I want a proper survey. Numbers, not stories." Rowan leaned against the wall. He had come off the boat and had not yet washed the salt from his arms. "The bay runs west," he said. "River goes back into the hills. Tracks led that way. I saw sign for four more beasts before we turned. Maybe more past the bend." He said it flat, the way he always did, giving only what he had seen. "Then that is the task," Ajax said. "You take the hunters up the river. Walk the whole ground. Count what you find. Aldric writes it down when you come back." He looked at Rowan. "No killing this run past what we need. I want the count clean. If we strip it now, we learn nothing." Rowan nodded. "Two days up. One to walk the far bank. Two back. Chalam masks us the whole way." He pushed off the wall. "I will bring you the number." The hunters sailed at dawn. Ajax stayed at Silvermoor and worked the docks while he waited. On the fifth day the small boat came back into the harbor with Rowan at the oars. Rowan climbed to the hall and dropped a strip of bark on the table. He had cut marks into it, one for each beast. Aldric bent over it and counted aloud. "Thirty-one," Aldric said. He looked up. "You counted thirty-one head." "Sign for more up past the falls," Rowan said. "Water is good. Grass is thick. They breed here. Nobody has hunted them." He set his bow against the wall. "This is not one bay. It is a whole ground. We can take from it for years if we hunt slow." Aldric wrote the number in his ledger and closed it. "Then the house holds," he said. "Not for a season. For as long as we are careful." Ajax picked up the marked bark and turned it in his hand. His hunting grounds were no longer running dry. The house had land no rival knew, feeding men he had sworn to no lord but himself. He set the bark down. "We claim it," Ajax said. "This ground is ours."