Anne Dray's Arc

Chapter 21 of 28

The larder was full, but the fleet was not whole. Anne stood on the dock and watched the newest raider captain's ship ride at anchor. He had answered her banner. He had tied a red cloth to his mast. But he had not marked the written code carved in wood, the code that bound every other captain to equal shares and command rotation. An unbound captain could take his men and go the day a raid soured. Worse, his crew might learn the code had no hold on him, and start asking why it held them. Kate Blackwater found her there. Kate had been the last holdout once. Anne had won her by returning her stolen ship, and Kate had carried the base plan to the other captains after. She did not waste words now. "He's watching us build," Kate said. "Not signing. That splits the yard." "I know." "Make him sign or send him off." Kate spat over the rail. "A red rag isn't a mark." Anne rowed out and asked the raider captain to meet her ashore. She named a place both crews could reach without watching eyes: the run-down cabin above the cove, its roof sagging, its boards gray and split. She wanted no deck under his feet, no rail his men could line. He came at dusk. Kate came with Anne, silent, one hand near her belt. The three sat at a warped table inside. Anne set the code between them. Emily had carved it. Every captain's mark ran down the wood. "You flew my color," Anne said. "You haven't touched this." The raider ran a thumb along the carved lines. "A mark ties me to your losses. I don't know your losses yet." "Then don't sign for me," Anne said. "Sign for them." She pointed at Kate. "She hated me. She marked it because it counts her share fair, in front of every man. It stops the captain beside her from skimming. It stops me too. You want a fleet with no rule? You've sailed those. You know how they end." Kate spoke once. "He kept his word on my ship. That's why I'm here. Not the color." The raider was quiet a long moment. Rain dripped through the broken roof and struck the boards. "Command rotates in battle," he said. "Even mine?" "Even yours. Even mine." He drew his knife and cut his mark below Kate's. The wood took it clean. "Now it holds," Kate said, and stood. Anne carried the code back down to the dock. Every captain was bound now. The fleet would not split from within. But a bound captain expected the shares he'd signed for, and shares came only from Crown prizes. She had just given her last free captain a reason to want the next raid soon. The whole fleet would sail for it, and every prize would draw the Crown's hunt nearer the one way in.