Nine months later
Aboard the Percival
Somewhere in the Maldives
*Fennec*
“We can’t outrun it, my Captain. We’re too heavy.” The quartermaster, a stout man named Squib, has to shout at me to be heard. Wind stripping the fear from his voice, but not from his face.
"Hold the wheel." I turn around, scanning the horizon. The approaching ship is barely visible, but she's skimming the waves as if she's taken wing. "You're sure she's a pirate vessel?"
"Lookout confirmed it," Squib says, blotting his forehead. "I've managed to avoid pirates all these years, dammit, and I have new grandbabies at home. I should have just stayed in London."
"Is she flying a black flag?"
Squib nods. "We're done for. It's the Flying Daisy." He gives an involuntary moan. "Got a Daisy flower on black; easy to spo
