Anne Dray's Arc

Chapter 8 of 28

The red banners flew on every mast, but Anne heard the fleet before she saw the trouble. She rowed back from Kate's raider to the shore where the free captains drank. The tavern sat on the sand, its timber walls gray with salt and its roof crooked. Inside, the captains she had won were already shouting. Two of them stood chest to chest by the barrels. One wanted to hunt Kate's stolen ship first. The other wanted the treasure ship's gold split now, tonight. A third captain slammed his cup down and named his own course. Every man ran his crew his own way, and each way met the others like flint on steel. Grimjack found Anne at the door. "They agreed to your color," the old navigator said. "They didn't agree to each other." Anne saw it plain. She had a mob, not a fleet. Banners meant nothing without rules every crew would follow. She stepped onto a bench so they could see her. "You all fly red," she called. "Red means nothing yet. We need one code. The same code on every deck." "Whose code?" a captain barked. "Yours?" "Ours," Anne said. "We write it here." The room went quiet, then loud again. Emily pushed forward, her tool belt heavy at her hip. "Every yard I worked had rules," she said. "The Crown called them law. I called them the reason ships came home. Rules aren't chains. They're what keeps you alive." She looked at the arguing captains. "Pick shares. Pick who commands a fight. Pick it once." Chris stood by the wall, arms crossed, the scar bright across his face. He trusted none of them and he said so. "Someone here will cheat the shares," he said. "Count it. Write it down. No trust." Anne took the words and made them law on the spot. Equal shares, counted before the whole fleet, written in a ledger any captain could read. In a fight, the nearest red captain took command until it ended. Any crew that stole from another lost its share to the rest. She said each rule loud. She asked for hands. The captains chewed on it. Kate had rowed in behind Anne, and now she spoke. "Written shares," Kate said. "No one sails off with what's mine again. I'll sign that." She was the one they had all watched. When she raised her hand, the others raised theirs. Emily brought a slab of plank and cut the words into it with her knife. Each captain pressed a mark beside them. The two who had nearly fought now stood under the same terms. Anne had a fleet with one code, bound by ink and blade. Grimjack leaned close as the captains drank to it. "They'll hold to this," he said. "Long as you give them a fight worth holding for. Kate signed for one reason. You promised her ship back. Now the whole fleet's watching you keep it."