A short lively black-skinned person rowed in toward Moem, their head bowed, their bright yellow khanga hitched up to their knees. When at last the boat bumped up on the rocks, they unloaded a caravan’s worth of bundles and bags and bolts. Then, looking up at the mesa towering above them, they sat down in exhausted frustration.

“Let’s go help them,” Baru said, with a glimmer of suspicion. “I think they might be looking for me.”

“Why?”

“I left a message for the Oriati spymaster yesterday. I asked to meet.”

“Ah,” Xe said, nodding sagely. “And Execarne keeps in touch with the Oriati spymaster. So they would come here to see you. But that can’t be their spymaster.”

“Why not?”

“Do you see the markings on their throat? The green painted stars? And those golden chains from nose to ear?”

“No, I don’t—do you have telescopes in your eyes?”

Xe laughed. “Those are the regalia of an Oriati Federal Prince. The governing sorcerors of the great Oriati Mbo.”

“Governing sorcerors?”

“Yes, they wield and protect the great trim of nations. They wouldn’t do espionage.”

“Oh,” Baru sighed. “Sure, trim. Whatever that means.”

“Don’t be so dismissive, Your Majesty. The Oriati are a great and scientific people.”

“Did they tell you that themselves?” Baru teased.

“Of course they did.” Xe put her hands under her chin (now they were lying side by side to stare over the cliffside). “Duke Unuxekome loved the Oriati. Their ships would come in to Welthony, and we divers would take contracts to clean their hulls.”

An absolutely eerie sense of synchronicity came over Baru. It was Unuxekome who’d called for the Oriati fleet’s help in attacking Treatymont. And if Ulyu Xe had spent time in Unuxekome’s town, maybe she knew some of the ships involved.…

“Xe,” Baru said, thoughtfully, “do you know where those Syndicate Eyota ships sailed from? Before they stopped on the Llosydanes, I mean?”

“No, not at all. Although…”

“Yes? What do you remember?”

“Some of the divers from Welthony mentioned a letter for the Duke Unuxekome, from his mother Unuxekome Ra, who was once Duchess but lives now on Kyprananoke. And I remember thinking, oh, that letter must have come in with the Eyota pirate ships, so they must have come through Kyprananoke, too.”

Baru clicked more puzzle pieces together. On the deck of his little mail-ship, Beetle Prophet, Unuxekome had told Baru, I used to dream I was a bastard. My mother sailed with the Syndicate Eyota, see? All those dashing Oriati buccaneers, raiding and adventuring …

So Unuxekome’s mother Ra was with the Syndicate Eyota, on Kyprananoke. She might know who had funded Abdumasi Abd’s doomed venture. And if those funds came from the Cancrioth and its agents … victory.

So Baru would go to Kyprananoke next, to find Unuxekome Ra.