Corsair was never meant to be born. Her mother, the prettiest consort of a king who didn’t love her, had a desperate dalliance with a domestic dog. And when the children came out, she killed the ones who didn’t look like her or her illustrious husband, rending their bodies between her teeth and covering her newborns in gore.

And when Corsair’s coat grew in with curls instead of straight edges, she was given to a servant to kill. He almost managed it, but the girl was like a cockroach. She survived, thrived, pushed forward and outward. She was picked up by a motley crew of pirates as a ship swab, but she’s grown into her own.