Anne Dray's Arc

Chapter 25 of 28

The chain held the harbor shut, but the scout carried its location north. Anne knew what came next. The Crown would send ships. And she owed the local captains for months of grain and salt fish, a debt she could only pay in prize shares. Her fleet had taken nothing new in weeks. She stood on the dock and did the math. The provisions ran out before the debt cleared. She needed a prize, and she needed it fast. Claire climbed down from the mast and found Anne at the water's edge. Claire was the fleet's sharpest eye, the one who spotted trouble long before it reached the deck. She spoke plain, no wasted words. "That scout runs north to the Crown," Claire said. "Same water the treasure ships use. Two of them cross the strait this week." She let it sit. "If we chase him, we find them." Anne looked at the horizon where the scout had vanished. "He'll reach the fleet first." "Then we don't chase the scout," Claire said. "We wait where he's going." Anne understood. The scout would report. The Crown would move. But the treasure route ran the same strait, and a laden ship could not turn quick. She called Chris up from the dock. He came without a word, the scar white across his sweating face. "Two ships. Fast ones," Anne said. "We take a treasure hull in the strait before the Crown blockades it. Can the crews sail tonight?" Chris looked at the loaded chain, then at Anne. "They're rested. Hungry." He wiped his hands. "Hungry crews move faster." They sailed on the night current. Claire rode the mast and found the treasure ship at dawn, low in the water, iron on her flanks. Anne remembered the rudder seams. Cannon fire meant nothing against the plating, but the seams could be jammed. She brought her hull in from the stern. Claire's shots kept the marines off the rail while Chris and the boarders drove an iron bar into the rudder gap. The great ship swung and stalled, dead in the water. Anne's crews poured over the side and took the deck. The hold was heavy this time. Coin, plate, bolts of cloth. Enough to clear the debt and leave a share for every captain. Anne stood among it and felt the weight lift. They ran back through the current, prize hull in tow. Anne sent the local captains their fixed share off the top, and the grain kept coming. The crews saw the count made in the open, coin by coin, exactly as the code promised. But she had shown the Crown a fresh wound in the strait, another vanished treasure ship, another trail of survivors pointing toward the cut. The debt was paid. The base was fed. And the enemy that already knew where she lived now had one more reason to come.