Anne Dray's Arc

Chapter 7 of 28

Anne left her warship and rowed to the two-masted raider at anchor. The captured treasure ship rode behind her, proof for the free captains to see. Most captains had answered her banner already. One had not. The other crews watched him. If he refused, they would refuse too. She climbed the raider's side and swung onto a weathered deck. The ship was hard-used, its sails patched, its rails scarred by old fights. A woman stood at the wheel with black hair and a mean set to her mouth. Anne knew her by reputation. Kate Blackwater had taken this ship by force. The old captain went overboard the day she claimed it and never came up. "You're the red banner," Kate said. She did not offer her hand. "I am. You've seen my proof at anchor." "I saw it." Kate crossed her arms. "Doesn't move me." Anne kept her voice level. "The others are watching your answer. You know that." "I know it." Kate spat over the rail. "I follow no one. I took this deck alone. I keep it alone." Anne looked past her. A man coiled rope near the mast, older, aboard before Kate ever was. Kate's eyes flicked to him and back. She watched him the way you watch a knife you can't put down. Anne understood then. Someone had waited for Kate's back to turn and sailed off with her ship once before. "You lost a ship," Anne said. "Someone stole it while you weren't looking." Kate's jaw tightened. "That's my business." "It's mine now. I mean to find it." Anne stepped closer. "Alone, you chase one thief across the whole sea. Under my banner, every crew that flies red hunts with you. We find your ship. We give it back to you." Kate said nothing. Her hand rested on her belt. "I don't ask you to bow," Anne said. "I ask you to sail beside me. You keep your deck. You keep your crew. When we take back what's yours, you owe me nothing but the next fight." The old man by the mast stopped coiling. He watched Kate. The whole deck went still. Kate looked at the treasure ship, then at the red banner on Anne's warship. "You find my ship," she said. "You lose interest, I cut loose." "Agreed." Kate pulled a red cloth from a chest and threw it to a crewman. "Run it up." The banner climbed her mast and caught the wind. Across the water, on the other decks, cheers broke out. Lanterns lifted. The last holdout had answered, and now the rest would follow. Anne watched the red cloth snap above the raider. She had them. Every free captain would fly her color now. But Kate's price was a ship stolen months ago, hunted by the Crown's whole fleet, and Anne had just promised to find it.