Clarice wishes to see the world, so she takes berth as a passenger on a ship heading for the New World. But whether it was destiny, impatience, bad luck or the lure of the ship’s handsome navigator, Clarice winds up on the ill-named and ill-omened ship Asesino, captained by the dubious, but reputedly lucky Samuel Sprunt. Sprunt’s luck, however, is other’s misfortune; he and his mates may survive every misfortune that can befall a ship, but others lose their lives. The ship on which Clarice nearly books passage is the Cutty Wren, and somehow I hope we see more of this charmingly named ship and her Captain Hawthorne later in the series, for it would be a shame to waste such promising names on a throwaway character.

Clarice, as Clarence, quickly befriends several of the crew, including Mr. Emerson, the genial cook; Dr. Chapman, the ship’s surgeon; and the aforementioned navigator, Dominick Moreyet. But the captain, along with his bully of a first mate, a corrupt purser, and the sinister Reverend Dobbs turn an ordinary passage to a nightmare, and seem hell-bent on inducing a mutiny, but why? And what is the purpose of the mysterious - and patently magical - pendant the captain wears around his neck?

When Clarice has to decide between standing by or taking a side, she commits herself to a course that she never foresaw. Soon she finds her freedom, and the soul of the man she is falling in love with, on the barter-block at The House of the Four Winds, where they can only be ransomed by succeeding at a quest that has doomed many a ship before theirs. But maybe a practical princess turned adventurer can find a way. ~~ Chris R. Paige