They’d camped beside a stream, and Maya shuffled over to it, empty canteen in hand. She was surprised to find Tanax sitting cross-legged on a nearby rock, looking up at the stars wheeling over the darkened mountains. Maya cleared her throat.

“Is something wrong?” she said.

“Just having trouble sleeping,” Tanax said.

“Bad dreams?”

“More like … regrets.” Tanax leaned back and sighed. “I keep thinking I should have seen through Nicomidi long before this. If I’d only noticed …”

“You were obeying your master’s orders.” Maya knelt by the stream and let water glug into her canteen. “Nobody can fault you for that.”

“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.”

*