“Did he describe it in any detail?” asked Seregil.

“Not that I know of except that he was tall.”

“Is this man—the one who claims to have seen the ghost—available to speak with us?” asked Alec.

“Yes, he’s being held at the governor’s villa,” Klia replied.

“Held?” asked Seregil.

“He was desperate to get away from the island. Can’t say as I blame him, if he’s telling the truth.”

“Odd thing to lie about, unless he thought he was going to be blamed for the murder,” Micum noted. “You say he was down the corridor from the bedchamber? Was he within sight of it?”

“That I don’t know,” said Klia.

“What about the bodies?” asked Alec. “We saw Lady Zella’s letter, but she didn’t go into detail.”

“You know as much as I do on that account,” Klia replied.

The ships pounded up the coast, tacking into the wind to Cirna, which straddled the massive cliffs of the Isthmus that connected Skala to the mainland. The city was a major trade port and guarded the great Cirna Canal—a man-made channel that cut through five miles of stone to connect the Inner and Osiat seas.

The captain steered for the mouth of the Canal, a dark and deceptively narrow-looking cleft in the cliffs. It was flanked by two towering pillars carved in relief on either side of it. Each was topped by a huge smoking beacon supported by the symbol of one of the sacred Four Immortals. On this end of the channel, the left-hand pillar bore the carving of a massive sheaf of grain bound with a serpent, and the right one a coiled dragon crowned with a crescent moon.

“Do you know what those carvings symbolize, Mika?” Alec asked as they stood with the others on the deck of the forward castle. Thanks to the drysian’s herbal teas, the boy was his chipper self again.

“The sheaf is Dalna the Maker, the Immortal who tends to life and fertility. The snake represents forever,” Mika answered dutifully.

“Eternity,” Thero corrected. “And the other?”

“That’s Illior Lightbearer’s dragon, wearing Illior’s Moon on its head.”

“And what does Illior rule?” Seregil prompted.

“Illior rules over magic, madness, and dreams.”

“And nightrunners,” Alec added softly.

“And nightrunners!” Mika whispered.

“Very good.” Seregil ruffled the boy’s hair.

“He’s quite taken with iconography,” Thero noted.

The ships joined a few dozen vessels anchored outside the Canal. Klia’s flag on the masthead of the Courser and her sister vessels gave them precedence, and before long the towing boats came out for them. When the heavy lines were fastened, they were rowed into the damp, echoing confines of the channel.

“It’s your first time through, isn’t it, young Mika?” asked Captain Lira, who’d made a pet of the boy over the past few days.

“Yes, Captain.”

She reached into the purse at her belt and gave the boy a small silver amulet on a chain. It bore the wave symbol of Astellus. “For luck in travel, child. Keep it safe.”