“The shopkeeper told me that people in the harbor amble hire her to find their stolen treasures. She lives above a bait shop, two blocks away from that store.”

“Does she?” said Giddon, who would’ve expected something more glamorous, had he considered it yesterday. Now he just felt lost and out of sorts. He’d bought that starmaker, because he hadn’t been able to help himself. Bitterblue would have loved it; it was the sort of thing she would’ve kept close, as a treasure. It thumped in his pocket as he walked.

“Hava,” he said, “do I use you?”

“Oh, ugh,” said Hava. “I knew this was coming.”

“There was something in what Trina said.”

“Okay then, do I use you?” said Hava. “When we’re at a party and I let you do all the talking while I hide? Or let you carry everything with your big muscles? Or let you distract everyone by looking all handsome and stuffed with valor?”

“How do you manage to be so insulting while giving compliments?”

“She was feeling sorry for herself. Do you always take everything to heart?”

“Not everything.”

“You don’t use me,” said Hava. “If you did, I’d be sure to let you know.”

“That’s true,” said Giddon ruefully.

Now Hava was the one laughing. “Giddon,” she said. “Could we please talk about what we’ve learned? We know our men went north. While they were there, it sounds like they found something, something they wanted Trina to confirm.”

“A discovery they were probably killed for,” said Giddon.

“Right,” said Hava. “The day they were killed, someone hired them a Kamassarian crew. The crew scuttled the ship, then someone, probably whoever’d hired them, picked the crew up in an airship and carried them north.”

“Right,” said Giddon. “There are some holes and we’re making some assumptions, but that sounds like the size of it.”

“So,” said Hava. “How can we discover what they found in the north?”

“We need to know where they went,” said Giddon. “There’s a lot of Winterkeep to the north.” Ahead, the Cliff Farm came into view, cows spotting the hillside. Beyond it, the glass of Quona’s windows glinted in the light from the sea.

“Quona went north today, incidentally,” said Giddon. “Did she tell you?”

“I managed to avoid her this morning.”

“The Varanas have some property somewhere. She said she might be gone overnight.”

“Really,” said Hava, squinting ahead at Quona’s tall house. She seemed to be studying the roof. “In that case, it seems like the perfect day to check out her attic.”

—

The door at the top of the stairway in Quona’s sitting room was locked, but Hava made short work of it with her lock picks while Giddon watched for Quona’s staff.