Six things Ibrahim learned from the first day’s journey to Restenford:

1. Confirmed: People who read books should not be trusted.
2. Gebbel’s mom fixation, already irritating, is going to be a nuisance.
3. The stonings they do on this Allahforsaken island are nothing like the stonings they do back home, Ibrahim fondly reminisces…
4. Ismail got his sword to glow. Ibrahim wonders if the scholar will teach him that trick.
5. This spiked chain facilitates Ibrahim’s favorite method of dispatch. His life-tally of men he’s castrated? An impressive four. (If this lizard man gets out of line, he may be the fifth.)
6. “Lydia” (if that is her real name) appears to have evaporated into the fog—with the one-eared Goblin muttering something unintelligible about a dark-cloaked figure. But perhaps the woman is a Fog Elemental?

By trusting in Allah’s mighty wisdom and wise might, Ibrahim knows he will prevail. ■