“Are you sure? Or would you prefer to discuss the ramifications of the Belgric War for a few hours before getting back to why I practically screamed There! twenty minutes ago?”

No one said anything.

“Good. Because I was pointing out the cave entrance we’re looking for. I found it. It’s that one down below us.” She took the astrolabe back from Kolby and carefully stowed it in her pack. “Shall we, gentlemen?”

“You can’t be serious,” Virgil said. “It’s nearly night. Now that we know which hole to explore, can’t this wait until morning?”

Farilane pointed at a hazy gray curtain of rain sweeping across the Goblin Sea. “Wind is blowing our way. The last storm trapped us for days, and we’re running low on food. Besides, all these crevasses look the same, and if we come back in the morning, I doubt I’ll be able to identify the right one.”

The old man frowned as he looked down the slick, jagged face of the cliff. “Allow me to rephrase. You don’t expect me to climb over slippery stone in the dark, do you?”

“Why not?”

The old man replied with a dangling jaw.

When she didn’t respond, he explained, “I’m not a limber young woman. I’m sixty-eight years old, and even in my prime no one would have described me as athletic.” He took a step forward for a better look, then grimaced. “One slip and your man-eating seagulls will be pecking flesh off my shattered bones.”

“Virgil,” she began, placing her hands on his shoulders, “life is a gamble, my friend. The trick is to wager wisely, balancing risk against reward. At your age, nothing is too perilous. Working for a wedge of cheese at a leper colony wouldn’t be out of the question. And the reward waiting in that cave is so much better than a bit of cheese.”

“You can’t know that. The book you’re searching for has been intentionally hidden for centuries. I have to think there’s a reason. Perhaps you should reconsider the implications of unleashing such a thing upon the world.”

“I seek the truth, and the truth is always a good and noble goal.”

“Is it?”