Thero frowned as he scanned it. “I don’t know this system. Can you read it?”

“Yes. It’s just an offset encryption. Let me show you.”

He went to Thero’s desk across the room and took out a sheet of scraped parchment and a quill.

The wizard joined him, looking over his shoulder. The first line on the page read SORITO ALA TIRLYK SMIEXT YWBIMTUH YHSAWWEKRI. The second was longer: BIUB UI KJNA ERTOARXMEN BMOPIU YNERSBQUIUS ESPYTEBV CWATP OSMRYIUP TRADFTVIH OUY.

“It’s not a hard code, but whoever wrote this knew a trick or two. The beginning of it is pure gibberish, designed to throw off anyone trying to make it out.” He struck out the first two groupings of letters of the first line, except for the last one in the second grouping: A. “Taking every second letter from there, you get AILK.”

“Klia, backward.”

“Exactly. But from here, taking every second letter, you get them in proper order left to right: METWITHHAWKI.” He drew a series of slashes between the letters, dividing them into MET WITH HAWKI.

“Hawki?” asked Thero.

“It’s probably meant to be ‘hawk.’ And we don’t know who that is. Perhaps someone from the Red Hawk or White Hawk regiments?”

“But that cipher doesn’t work on the next line,” Thero pointed out.

“No, because you start with the third grouping and read every third letter. It’s a common system, although whoever wrote this may not have known that. An amateur intriguer, probably. So using that …” Seregil slashed through the letters of the second line, leaving: ATREMINSUSPECTSYMPATHY. “ ‘At Remin suspect sympathy.’ The second word nearly threw me off, but Remin is a small town on the Folcwine, probably the site of a battle.”

The wizard shook his head. “The first part sounds like something that could be common knowledge. But the ‘sympathy’ suggests some sort of collusion.”

“I think you may be right. Here are the two I translated.”

The first read: ailk recalled to queens camp given more riders appears in favor rumor she is to be made general wolves with her. The second read: no general ailk shows no ill will openly but ire among ranks hawk seen three times spent several hours alone in tent unable to get close wolves too loyal forgive slow progress difficult.

“This ‘hawk’ again,” Thero noted. “And Klia’s name spelled backward. But still with no clue as to who the hawk is, or the wolves.”

“ ‘Wolves’?” said Seregil, surprised the wizard hadn’t twigged. “Urghazi is Plenimaran for ‘ghost wolves.’ It’s common knowledge, especially in the cavalry.”

“The message said that the wolves are too loyal. Too loyal to do what? Involve in a coup to convince her to mutiny? Or too loyal to turn against her?”

“Either one could be true, believe me. They’re her personal guard.”

“You don’t need to convince me, Seregil. What else did you make of them?”