Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 543 of 619

The Seraphine reached Silvermoor at dusk, and the three frozen hides went into the cold stores whole. But the next morning Aldric found Ajax at the harbor with his ledger open. Two more hunts sat waiting in the western bay, and the ship's hold could not hold cold charms forever. "Chalam breaks the charm, and the fur slips again before we sell it," Aldric said. "We need cold that stays. Cold in the ship itself." Ajax called Chalam to the dock. The wizard came with his staff, the one bound from Verath bone and grove wood. He read hides the way Rowan did, but he read magic better. Ajax laid out the problem plain. "The charm holds days. I need it to hold the whole run. Can you charm the storage below deck, so it stays cold on its own?" Chalam knelt at the open hatch and looked down into the dark hold. He said nothing for a moment. Then he pressed a hand to the plank and drew it back. "The wood drinks warmth from the sea," he said. "A charm on the air alone won't hold. It leaks out through the hull." He looked up. "But I can charm the boards. Cut the cold into the wood itself, ring the whole store in lodestone. Then it holds its own chill and keeps out the sea's warmth." "How long?" "Until I break it. Or until the wood rots." He opened his satchel. "But it costs. This is more than freezing three hides on a deck.“ Ajax remembered the old staff cracking. "Will it break the new one?" Chalam ran his thumb along the bone. "No. The bone holds where the old wood split." He met Ajax's eyes and did not soften it. "But I'll be dull one day after. Maybe two. I won't scry or fight in that time. If trouble comes north, I'm no use." Ajax weighed it. Three days of a blind wizard against a season of rotting hides. "Do it." Chalam went below. He chalked a ring around the store's walls and floor. He poured lodestone thick along every seam. He set a numbered vial in the center and struck his staff to the boards. He spoke the cold words, longer this time, and the hold went hard and still. Frost bloomed white across the planks. Ajax climbed down and breathed out, and his breath hung in the air. Rowan pressed his palm to the wall and left a mark in the frost. "It's holding on its own," he said. "No charm on the hides needed now. Just lay them in." Chalam climbed to the deck and sat heavy against the mast. "Done," he said, voice already slow. "It'll keep the whole run. Wake me in two days." Ajax stood in the frozen hold. He had a cold hull now. The western bay was his to work, and no haul would spoil before the red quay counted its silver.