The Prisoner of the Twelve Provinces

In Brittany, there is a belief about the black man Anku, who takes sinners on their final journey. Many face a one-way trip in his black cart. Gwena, a healer's apprentice, is waiting not for the afterlife, but for an... unknown faraway land.
 
In the lands of the Twelve Provinces, there has been no word of steamships and submarines, but they believe that the little bird pibill can heal wounds, and turtles can travel through time.
 
A chance saves Gwena from slavery and certain death — but now he must survive in a new, harsh world where no one trusts anyone, the sea is teeming with predatory krakens, and on land, all borders are guarded by a powerful customs service — a source of terror for some and certain profit for others.