Anne Dray's Arc

Chapter 3 of 28

Three days at sea, and Anne's warship still held no crew but her own. She had the ship. She had the banner. But she sailed empty water, and no free captains came. A red flag meant nothing if no one saw it. She found Grimjack hunched over his charts below deck, his brass compass swinging on its chain. "I can raise a fleet," Anne said. "But I need to know where fighting men drink and gamble. Where do free captains meet?" Grimjack did not look up. "They meet where the Crown can't reach." He tapped a mark on the chart, far off any trade lane. "A tavern on a hidden shore. I steered crews there before you were born." His finger stayed on the mark. "But they won't cheer you, girl. They'll smell the bounty on your neck." "Then take me there anyway," Anne said. He met her eyes. She had trusted him since she was a child, and he had never steered her wrong. He sighed and turned the wheel course north. By dusk they anchored off a rocky cove. A weathered tavern leaned over the waterline on crooked pilings. Lanterns hung from its porch. A wooden sign creaked above the door, painted with a skull. Small boats crowded the shore below. Behind the tavern rose a single towering redwood, its trunk straight as a mast. Anne pushed through the door. The noise died. Twenty hard faces turned from their cards and cups. She knew them for what they were. Free captains, each with a crew, each without a leader worth following. A big man near the bar rose slow. "You're the red-haired woman the Crown wants hanged," he said. "Your face brings a fleet down on any port you touch. Get out." Hands moved toward knives. Anne stood her ground. Grimjack stepped in beside her, and the room shifted. "You know me," Grimjack said. His voice carried. "I steered half of you through the Gray Reef when the Crown burned your ships. I don't follow fools." He set his old hand on Anne's shoulder. "I follow her." The big man frowned. "Why?" "Because she sank two Crown patrols with a crane and a stack of timber," Grimjack said. "She stole a warship out from under their noses. The Crown fears her. That's why they pay to see her dead." Anne let the words land. Then she spoke. "They hunt us one crew at a time. Alone, we hang alone. Under one banner, we're a fleet they can't burn." The big man studied her a long moment. He did not draw his knife. But he did not raise his cup either. "Talk is cheap, red hair," he said. "Show us. There's a Crown treasure ship crossing the strait in three days. Take it. Then we'll talk about your banner." Anne had found the free captains. Now they demanded proof, and the Crown itself lay between her and it.