A murmur ran through the crew. Every man aboard had signed the Sea Witch’s articles—a stained, bullet-pocked parchment nailed to the mainmast. It wasn't a law of mercy or justice. It was a law of survival.
Silas’s eyes widened.
Silas spat a tooth onto the deck. "You can't hang me, Elara. We're pirates. We ain't bound by no king's law." pirates law
Silas sneered. "You'd never find a new navigator as good as me."
It was a brutal law. But it was their law. And on the lawless, endless sea, it was the only thing standing between them and the abyss. A murmur ran through the crew
I. Every sailor has a vote in the disposition of plunder and the election of officers. II. Desertion or concealment of treasure is punishable by death. III. Lights out at eight bells. Gaming and fighting forbidden after. IV. Mutiny earns the maroon. V. The captain shares the same rations, the same danger, and the same fall from grace.
Flint-eyed Captain Elara Vane stood on the quarterdeck of the Sea Witch , a splintered cutlass in her hand. Below, on the blood-stained main deck, her first mate, a hulking man named Silas, knelt in chains. It was a law of survival
The vote was eleven for Elara, nine for Silas, and three abstentions.