This was Freedom! This was Living! Captain Sanya Harkon leaned against the rail right over the bowsprit as if she were the figurehead of the newly designated Bloody Galia . She wished it could always be like this, with the sun and the sea and the brylks cutting through the waves ahead of them.
They'd been lucky so far to have evaded capture by any pursuers. She knew that soon however they would have to turn the tables and become the hunters. She had promised her crew prizes and they were bound to forget their loyalty to a fourteen year old girl if she didn't prove herself capable. That, and the stores that had seemed so ample when they set off, wouldn't last forever. They would have to take what they needed or find an island where they could resupply.
A shadow descended over her vision and she nearly swatted the thing away into the sea before she felt the soft leather in her hand. "What is this?" The hat was pieced together skillfully from worn fabric, most likely what was leftover from the long coat she was wearing. She looked up at the man who had dropped it onto her head.
"A captain needs a proper hat." Leon grinned at her. His father had been a sail maker and he knew his way with a needle and thread much better than Sanya, she was ashamed to say.
"Aye!" She set it on her head at a rakish angle.
Then in a lower voice he said, "And I thought it might hide your hair a bit."
"Aye," she said again tucking a few more wayward strands under the brim.
"It probably wouldn't hurt if you didn't look so much like a girl when we go after our first prize," he suggested, judiciously.
"But you know I can fight?" Her hand went to the hilt of the knife in her belt
Leon Hardicort grinned again. "Aye. You're our Ace of Staves but they don't know that and until you really have a chance to make a name for yourself, we've gotta keep you in reserve. Aye?"
"Aye." She frowned with disappointment but she perked right back up again. "You've got an idea for what our first prize might be, haven't you?"
"Come on. I'll show you on the charts."
What he showed her was a small island that was heavily forested. Lumber was their business, lumber for shipbuilding. "You know what a profitable business that is?" he suggested.
"Aye." She did. Papa had acted like it was no big deal while they were working on the craft that was now swaying comfortably beneath her boots. And maybe it wasn't, if the Blackwells had paid him as handsomely for it as it was surely worth. She didn't mind stealing from the Blackwells. If Papa had had to pay out of pocket for the materials that had gone into the Bloody Galia it surely would have bankrupted him.
"It just doesn't seem quite like piracy if it's on the dry land." She objected. Sanya had come to terms with the idea of taking booty from another ship. She felt safe on the deck of her own and wouldn't mind swinging over to another through the rigging and demanding that another captain might hand over all he possessed in exchange for the lives of his crew.
She also knew that it wasn't likely to be chests of credits that they would find in the hulls of the other ships they came upon. It would be goods that they would have to carry to a market where they could be sold or traded for something else.
"Unloading from their dock to our hold isn't really any different from moving crates from the belly of one ship to another." Leon shrugged.
She thought about it and then nodded.
"Plus," he added. "The owner of the operation had recently gone to meet the salt gods. It's his widow who's trying to run things now. Should be easy pickings."
Sanya scowled with her hands in fists on her hips. "You think a woman's not capable?"
"No." He let out a laugh. "I just meant in the transition between leadership… "
"Aye," she said again and then with a deep breath made her decision. "We'll bring it up for a vote with the crew and…"
"No," he interrupted. "This isn't for the crew to decide. You're the captain. It's up to you to tell us where we go."
"Aye?" Sanya felt very small and unsure of herself. She was glad it was only Leon here to witness her weakness. She was thankful for his guidance and she trusted that he believed that this should be their first venture.
With more confidence than she really felt at that moment, she nodded. "Aye. Mr. Hardicort, we sail to the island and take that lumber!"
"Aye aye, Captain!" He smiled and went to inform the men.
…
The Bloody Galia dropped anchor just as the little island came into view on the northern horizon. From here Sanya could climb up to the main top and observe the goings on with her quadnocs but unless the islanders were specifically looking for the dark spot on the waves she and her crew would be invisible until they decided to move closer.
Even at this distance she could make out the production of the logging operation as they carried felled trunks of what must have been humongous trees to the docks for transportation. Leon had been right; a cargo of those would fetch a princely sum. She patted the main mast of her own ship and smiled before siding down the rigging to go over the plan once more with the crew.
"Tonight," she told them. "We sail close enough that we can lower the skiff and row to shore. Mister Hardicort, Damon, Cantos, Fenn, and Boggs, you'll come with me and we'll go quiet as we can to choose our hostage. Markos, I'm leaving you in charge here to await our signal."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" they all agreed without delay.
…
Luck was with them. As they neared the shore Sanya saw the light on in the main office. It was the woman, the one who Leon had said was the manager of the place now, who had decided to stay up late and work on the books. Lucky for them, not so lucky for her, it took no time at all to gag her, tie up her hands and carry her back to Sanya's own domain.
Sanya wondered if the woman felt safer now that she was alone with the diminutive captain after the leering scowls and laughter of the sailors who had carried her here to the main cabin. She didn't speak right away. She only drew one of the daggers from her belt, ran her thumb against the blade and then tossed it quickly, just missing the woman's right ear as she had done so long ago to gain the attention and the respect of her greatest enemy.
There. The move had elicited just the proper amount of fear in the eyes of the woman bound to the chair. With a smile Sanya sauntered across the cabin to retrieve her blade and used it to cut the gag so that she could speak with her hostage.
"Madam Fartrad, I presume?" Sanya lowered her voice attempting to keep her gender a secret for the time being as Leon had suggested.
"Aye, er y-yes, I am." Her voice betrayed apprehension but she was bearing up bravely under the interrogation.
"Your husband ran the logging operation until he died last season, Aye?"
"That's correct." She nodded. Maybe she thought things would go better for her if she cooperated. "It wasn't sudden. He spent the last months preparing me to take over for him as our son also has the sickness."
"Sorry." Sanya frowned with an ounce of sympathy before she continued, "what do you think your people give us to return you safe and sound?"
"You'll be wanting the timber, I assume?" She returned the question with a question levelly. She looked around the cabin seeing that it was newly built from the very best, maybe even from a previous harvest of her own trees.
"Aye."
"We will give you want you want."
The captain was encouraged by the direction of the conversation but Madam Fartrad's next question surprised her.
"Where do you plan to sell the timber? It's worth quite a sum but only if you have the right buyer. You could go to Harkon Hall." Could she have already heard the alert go out that one of the Harkon twins was missing? Did she suspect that this boy might in fact be her?
"No!" Sanya spouted before she answered more calmly, "we're not headed that way."
"Well then," the woman squirmed a bit in her bonds as if to remind the captain that she was still tied. Obviously she would be more comfortable discussing terms if her hands were free. "I have a proposition for you."
With a sigh Sanya crossed the room again to free the woman's wrists. She didn't see the harm in it. Madam Fartrad had seen what she could do with a blade and there were an entire crew on the other side of the cabin door who would catch her if she decided to try to escape.
"Thank you." Madam Fartrad nodded and rubbed the feeling back into her hands. She didn't waste any time in divulging her plan. "There is another band of pirates in these waters who generally around this time of year have the same idea that you had yourself. When they come along they will likely take all of our timber and pillage anything else they can while they're here. Only if they were to see your ship protecting our docks they might not be in such a hurry to stop here as they have been in years past."
"You wanna pay us to protect you?" Sanya asked.
"Aye."
The sum she offered was not as much as they would have gotten for selling the timber, but it was a start. They could always just take the credits and run, leave the islanders to whatever the other pirates wanted to do with them. Madam Fartrad was taking a risk, paying for her own ransom without any security that Sanya and her crew would stick around after the transfer.
Maybe it was Sanya's conscience or her curiosity wouldn't let her sail too far off until she had seen if these pirates would actually show up. They returned the woman, got the credits, and then made their way around the back of the island where their masts couldn't be seen for the trees.
Sure enough, just as Madam Fartrad foreseen, another ship flying a black flag approached the island on the morning tide to begin their plundering. They never expected Sanya and her crew lying in wait to pirate the pirates who had already taken a substantial prize of their own not long before. The ship's hold was full of all kinds of goodies that the Bloody Galia acquired on top of the sum they had already collected from the island's natives.
Of course it didn't come without a fight but Sanya and her crew were more than ready for them. She took on the opposing captain herself capturing the attention of the men from both ships eager to see the outcome of the duel. When she disarmed the man she got a round of cheers.
"Bested by a little boy." The other captain spat, looking up at her from where she had knocked him to the deck. "Must be beginners luck." He attempted to rise but she couldn't afford to show mercy at this stage in the game.
With her short sword still pointing at his neck, she tore off her hat at let her hair fly free. "I'll have you know you were bested by Sanya the Knife Harkon." And then she ran him through.
She stood there and watched the life drain out of him, barely hearing the sounds of the resuming battles around her. She didn't participate in the rest. Instead she staggered to the rail and emptied the contents of her stomach into the waves to celebrate the event of her first kill.