Ilior nodded. “I heard the same.”
Selena flexed her stiff fingers and combed them through her hair. “My first teacher, High Reverent Coronus, once told me that the Two-Faced God’s intentions were like the phases of the moon. That at times, there is darkness and pain. That is the Shadow face’s new moon—black and cold. But if one serves faithfully, patiently, the blessings of the Shining face appear, like the waxing moon in the night sky.”
Ilior said nothing.
Selena tamed her hair into a smooth, tight braid. “The sky has been black a very long time but with Skye’s decree about my wound, finding Captain Tergus to take us off Uago, and now this…” She nodded at her reflection. “The moon is waxing. Accora was the Bazira they spoke of. I can feel it. Our fortunes are turning.”
They have to, don’t they? At long last…
They descended the stairs to a full common room. Nearly all the whalers were home from the season’s last catches and the celebratory carousing would last until the merchant packets from Isle of Lords arrived, and then start again when the coin and goods had been exchanged. Julian sat at a table with the whaler captain from the night before. He waved her over.
“Captain, this is Selena Koren and Ilior,” Julian said. “This is Captain Tunney. He was kind enough to let us sail past yesterday morning.”
“I remember.” Selena sat across from the captain; grateful Julian had been thoughtful enough to pick a table nearest the roaring hearth. She took a chair and set her back to the fire. “Well met, and thank you.”
Captain Tunney waved a hand. “T’warn’t nothin.’” His face was free of paint, revealing a warm, broad face of middle years shielded by a scraggly beard and bushy brows. “After what you did for Boris…well, I might be in the god’s good graces fer letting you pass so you were there when he needed you.” He looked her up and down. “I heard you was taken ill yerself last night. I hope this day finds you well?”
“Well enough,” Selena said, forcing a smile.
Tunney pushed a plate of grilled fish and turnips toward her. There was a bowl of warm bread and a pot of tea as well. “Eat up, then! Takes a fair ton of hearty food to keep yer inner fires burning against our cold winds.”
Selena cleared her throat. “Again, thank you.” She took up her fork as a serving girl brought a similar plate—with much larger portions—to Ilior.
“Captain Tunney was just telling me about a strange visitor to Isle Nanokar,” Julian said pointedly.
“Strange visitors, indeed!” Tunney said with a nod at Ilior. “An’ here methought our little oasis in the snow was hidden away from the gen’ral excitements o’ Lunos. But we’ve now seen Aluren Paladins and dragonmen—”
“And Bazira?” Selena said with a reproachful glance, but Ilior shrugged off the slur and concentrated on his food.
“Aye, them too.” The captain wiped his chin with the back of his hand. “I understand yer after one such this very moment; the self-same witch who lived among us for two years.”
“Two years?” Selena felt her heartbeat quicken.
“Aye, two years though I couldn’t even recollect her name until young Tergus here reminded me.”
“Accora,” Selena said. “Her name was Accora, wasn’t it?”
“Aye, that was it,” he agreed.
The moon is waxing. She exchanged gladdened looks with Ilior, but Julian shook his head at her and jerked his head at the whaler captain.
Tunney swallowed a forkful of turnips and washed them down with his tea that smelled strongly of tree bark. He wiped his beard with a cloth and said, “But like I told yer Cap’n Tergus, me tale won’t be so much good to you, seeing as it’s nigh twenty years old.”
Selena dropped her fork with a clank. “Twenty?”
“Aye, lady.”
Julian made a face as if to say, “I warned you,” and leaned back in his chair with his mulled wine.
Ilior glowered at him. “But even so there might be something useful in your recollections that will help us,” he told Tunney.
“Aye, I hope that be true. I hate to see a beautiful lass look so aggrieved.”
Selena forced a smile. “Anything you remember will be helpful.”
“Well, lessee.” Tunney leaned back in his own chair and ran his hand down his beard. “I’d just seen my thirtieth winter, already wearin’ in me first schooner. This Bazira, she came on a dark tide, it seems. Like she was up to no good fer her faith. I seem to recall her doing some preaching ‘bout the Shadow face an’ the like but it didn’t last.”
“Why not?”
“Likely she was shunned for being a Bazira,” Ilior said, forking the last of his fish. “Can’t blame you for that.”
“Nay, Master Ilior,” Tunney said, “that’s not how we do things here. The Shadow face and the Shining are two halves of the same coin. And a coin’s value ain’t found but on one side or t’other, but in the whole.” He waved his spoon in the air. “Here, we got the wind an’ sea an’ snow to fret ‘bout. We hafta wrastle the oceans’ giants for our livelihoods. Angering the god be a foolish risk when we got risk enough.”
“Why did Accora cease her proselytizing?” Selena asked.
“It seemed like her heart warn’t in it. Or even like she were scairt. That’s what Byric down in the library thinks anyhow. Don’t know what the likes o’ her had to be scairt about, but there t’is. You should seek out old Byric. He spent more time’n anyone with since she spent most days perusing our library.”
“What was she looking for?”
“That I cain’t say neither. Byric be the man t’ask.”
“Very well. Byric it is,” Selena said, pushing back her plate. “Where can I find him?”
“In the library, o’ course. He’s there most time. Protective he is, of our strange li’l treasure trove.” The captain finished off his tea and set the mug down with a thunk. “I’ll take you there meself, if yer up to go.”
“Yes, now please,” Selena said.
Ilior shook his head. “After last night—”
“I will go,” she insisted. “The god did not send us here without purpose.”
“It’s not near,” Tunney said, “but we can take me dogs. I know they be itching for a run.”
“Why would we take your dogs?” Selena asked. “Is the way dangerous?”
“Nay, t’isn’t. My dogs be fer pulling the sled.”
“Very well,” Selena nodded. “I’m ready.”
“Not yet, lady,” he said. He swiveled in his chair. “Oi! Hilka! You got any windpaint?”
The innkeeper’s voice called back from the storeroom behind the bar. “Not if yer to use it in me room an’ make a holy mess o’ me tables n’ floors!”
Captain Tunney chuckled. “Pardons. I’ll acquire our necessities an’ meet you in the cask house, out back.”
“Captain Tunney told me about the library last night,” Julian said after the whaler had left their table. “It’s tucked in a wind-swept canyon underground, reachable only after a two-league trek.”