Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 537 of 619

The new hunting ground was claimed, but claiming was not holding. Ajax stood on the Silvermoor dock with the marked bark still in his mind. Thirty-one beasts. Hides worth twice the southern kind. The Seraphine could not carry it all in one trip. He needed a bigger ship, faster than the one he had. And like the last hull, no one could know where it docked. He called Aldric, Tucker, Chalam, and Marcus to the hall. Aldric came with his ledger and set it open on the table. "One ship cannot serve three towns and a new ground," he said. "The Seraphine sails full and comes back full. Cargo waits and spoils. We lose coin every tide." He tapped the page. "We need a second deep-water hull. Larger. It carries more and sails the open run north." Marcus leaned against the wall, arms crossed. He captained the Seraphine and knew every wharf that took silver quiet. "A hull that size gets noticed," he said. "Shipwrights talk. Harbor masters count keels. You buy big, someone remembers." "Then we buy it the way we bought the first," Ajax said. "Northern silver. No names. The wright sees the water once, then swears the chain." Tucker grinned and turned one of his gold chains in the light. "I know a wright at the south wharf," he said. "Owes debt at two ports. A man in debt keeps his mouth shut for coin and a way clear." He shrugged. "I can have him building inside a fortnight." Chalam set his staff against the table. "The dock cannot hold two hulls as it stands," he said. "The canal is narrow. A larger ship will not turn." He said it flat. "You must widen the harbor and cut the canal deeper. That means more stone moved than the last time." Ajax looked at him. "Can you cut it?" "With the new staff, yes," Chalam said. "But every hand that digs will see the gate. Bran's masons, the men who haul. They will know the shape of the place." "Then they swear the chain, same as the rest," Ajax said. "Midnight fire. Silver or their memory wiped. No man leaves with the map in his head." Aldric wrote the terms in his ledger. "Widen the harbor. Cut the canal. Hide the mouth with the Emissary's veil, same as the sea gate." He looked up. "Then the bigger ship has water to sit in and no eye finds it." Ajax set his hand flat on the table. "Tucker, ride for the wright at dawn. Marcus, you take the plans north for the beams. Chalam, you and Bran start cutting the harbor in three days." He looked around the hall. "We build the ship. We hide it. Then this house carries every hide it can pull, and no lord holds the water but me." The orders were given. The work was set.