“I was his agathios. I knew him as well as anyone did. I think back to things he did, things he said, and try to figure out … why, I suppose.”

“And?” Maya straightened up.

“And I still don’t understand,” Tanax said. “Nicomidi was … distant. Stern, maybe. Uncompromising. But what he taught me, to always act in accordance with the principles of the Order, he lived that himself. He thought the Pragmatics were wrong, but he never talked about them like the enemy.” Tanax did his best to mask it, but Maya could hear the pain in his voice. “If you’d asked me a month ago, I would have said there was no one less likely to betray the Order.”

“I’m sorry,” Maya said quietly.

“We’ll find him, if he’s with Jaedia,” Tanax said. “And when we do, he’s going to explain to me exactly what he was thinking. I have to … understand, at least. Or else …” He shrugged. “That’s why I had to come with you. It seemed like the best chance of getting an answer.”

“I think the Council would like some answers, too,” Maya said. “Personally, I’ll be happy as long as we get Jaedia back.”

“Of course,” Tanax said. “I won’t lose sight of that, I promise.”

He paused as Maya turned back to her tent, then spoke up again.

“You and Arcanist Bequaria, eh?”

“So?” Maya challenged. “Are you planning another lecture on Order propriety?”

“When did I lecture you on Order propriety?”

“In Deepfire, you accused us of sneaking out to a brothel.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Tanax shook his head. “I was …”

“Being an ass?” Maya suggested.

“I was going to say ‘unkind.’” He sighed. “Worse than that. I was acting exactly as my master had taught me to act: completely certain of my own moral superiority. He’d told me that you’d been sent by the Pragmatics to ruin the mission, and I was so sure …” He shook his head again. “I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

“If it helps, Jaedia told me the same thing about you. Nobody’s infallible.”

“I suppose not.” Tanax gave a dark chuckle and climbed to his feet, stretching. “I should try to sleep. We must be getting close.”

“Yes,” Maya acknowledged. “Almost there.”

*

“Are you sure this is it?” Tanax said.

Maya shaded her eyes and looked at the little stream, which descended from a cluster of rocks to join with a slightly larger creek and continue winding out of the mountains. The valley stretching up behind it, narrow and stony, looked like a hundred others they’d passed.

“No,” Maya said honestly. “But if Marn’s directions are right, this is the most likely spot.” She sighed. “I wish we had some sign Jaedia came this way. We should have nearly caught up to her by now.”