“Decorum, Mika,” Thero reminded him. “You must address her as Your Highness when we’re in public.”

“Your Highness, I mean,” Mika amended.

Klia gave the boy a wink. “Once we’re under way, it won’t matter so much. It’ll be like a holiday.”

“A holiday?”

“Not from your lessons,” Thero warned, though not unkindly.

“I like my lessons, Master Thero, but I’ve never been on a holiday before,” said Mika.

“Well then, I suppose we’ll learn how well you like traveling by sea today.”

The boy looked from him to the ship. “Why wouldn’t I like it?”

The Courser and her escorts sailed smoothly out through the inner and outer moles. Standing on the stern castle, Seregil watched the harbor and the city on its tall cliff recede into the distance. For the first time in months he was excited, with something new and possibly deadly to look forward to. Alec gave him a knowing smile as they joined hands and leaned against each other, sharing a moment of mutually understood excitement. The slap of waves against the hull, the cries of the gulls, the cold salt breeze, a journey to a place unknown: it all spoke of adventure.

That, and the unmistakable sound of Mika being sick over the ship’s rail.

When the shoreline had faded away in mist and distance, one of Klia’s aides summoned Seregil, Alec, and Micum up to Klia’s cabin, leaving Thero above with Klia’s drysian healer, Yana, and her apprentice, who were tending to Mika’s seasickness.

The vessel had one finely appointed royal stateroom high in the stern, occupied by Klia and Thero, and Micum was bunking with Mika in a smaller one beside it. The rest of them had to make do with a larger passenger cabin below, the walls of which were lined with narrow bunks with railings.

The royal cabin had silk-hung windows, a poster bed, a small round table, and a sideboard stocked with bottles of fine spirits held in a rack.

Klia was at the sideboard as the others came in and took their places around the table. Selecting a bottle of brandy from the rack, she shook her head. “I don’t feel right, toasting the voyage, given the reason for it.”

“To the late governor’s memory, then, and to luck apprehending his murderer,” Seregil suggested.

Klia nodded as she filled four silver brandy cups and sat down between Micum and Alec. “Tell me what you know so far.”

“That the former governor and a companion were killed in some unpleasant manner in a locked room in the old city,” Seregil replied.

“Yes. The windows were barred and the door was locked for the night. The guards on duty are no use. One was driven out of his wits and is confined to the madhouse in Deep Harbor. The other disappeared without a trace.”

“But someone reported seeing a spirit, didn’t they?” asked Alec.

“Yes, just up the corridor from the bedchamber, at the same time that the screams were heard. According to the guardsman who saw it, it was the shade of a man, and it blocked his way for several moments.”