I appreciated my mistress’s shrewdness, as we were already behind schedule. The cost of our new course was steep, but it was a much more direct path, and I had no qualms about bypassing Bengal and Lyonmar.

“We have dealt with enough predators already,” I expressed to Madame Fog. “It will be nice to get back to a more civilized land.”

She smiled back, thin-lipped. My words came back to haunt me only a short time later.

It was near noon when we came under attack…