“It’s not—I mean—” Beq shook her head, then stepped out of the doorway. “Do you want to come in?”
“If I’m not interrupting your reading.”
Beq gestured Maya to one of the chairs and took the one opposite, pulling her feet up to perch on the edge.
“About … last night,” Beq said, pushing her spectacles up her nose. “I drank too much. Obviously. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Maya said. “I think everyone was … relaxed.”
“I mean I’m sorry you had to take care of me.” Beq looked down at her hands. “You seemed like you were enjoying yourself, and then I dragged you away.”
“Look, it’s all right,” Maya said. “Honestly.”
“But—” At Maya’s warning glare, Beq subsided. “Okay. I’m also sorry if I said anything … stupid. You can probably ignore it. I don’t have a lot of experience being drunk.”
“I gathered that.” Truth be told, Maya didn’t either; she’d had her share of wine and beer at village festivals, but always under Jaedia’s watchful eye. “I don’t remember anything too embarrassing.”
“That’s good,” Beq said, looking genuinely relieved. “I’m … I’ll be more careful next time.”
“And you really feel okay?”
“More or less?” she said. “A little stiff, maybe, but that could be the bed. It’s too soft for me.”
Some people, Maya thought, rubbing her own still-throbbing head. Oh well.
“Listen,” Maya said. “I … found something, last night.”
“What kind of thing?”
“Something I wasn’t supposed to see.” Maya’s hand tightened on the letter in her pocket. Here goes nothing. “I think it’s the letter Tanax brought for Raskos.”
Beq blinked, and there was a long silence.
“How?” she said after a moment. “It should have been ciphered.”
Maya let out a breath. At least she’s not turning me in to Tanax yet. “Raskos copied out the plaintext. He thought he’d burned it afterward, but he didn’t manage to, and I … picked it up.”
“That’s careless of him.” Beq’s eyes were bright with curiosity, and Maya relaxed a little further. “Let’s see it, then.”
Maya unfolded the letter and handed it over, and explained the conversation she’d heard along with it, about the assault on the rebels. Beq frowned, peering closer at the letter.
“It explains what we’re doing here, anyway,” Maya concluded. “And why Raskos wasn’t pleased to see us. We’re not here to help him, we’re here as a threat, or at least Tanax is.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Beq said. “Nicomidi is a Kyriliarch. If he wanted something from Raskos …”
“He could order him to hand it over, right?”
“Not … exactly,” Beq said, thoughtfully. “It’s all a little vague. Technically, as a dux, Raskos serves the Republic and the Senate, not the Order. Most of the time, Republic officials will obey the Council as a courtesy, but if Nicomidi really wanted to give an official order to Raskos, he’d have to go through the Republic bureaucracy.”
Something clicked in Maya’s mind, and she felt a chill. “And if he did that, it would be impossible to keep secret. Doing it like this, with a threat, only makes sense if he doesn’t want anyone to find out about it.”
Beq stared down at the letter with a new tension, as though it were a snake. “You think he’s hiding something from the rest of the Council?”
“If he isn’t, why would a Council investigation be such a threat?” Maya took the letter back and read it over again. “Have you ever heard of a ‘Core Analytica’?”
“Not exactly,” Beq said. “Analytica are a kind of ghoul arcana; I know that much. They’re associated with some of their larger creations, but nobody really knows what they’re for. I know they’re supposed to be very rare, though.”
Rare, and therefore valuable. Though it couldn’t be as simple as that, not for Nicomidi to go to all this trouble.
“Why would Nicomidi want to keep this secret?” Beq said. “He’s with the Dogmatics, isn’t he? If they knew Raskos was up to something illegal, they ought to be ready to expose him on the spot.”
“The only thing I can think of is that he’ll get some kind of advantage from it on the Council,” Maya said. “My master, Jaedia, works with the Pragmatics. Before I came on this mission, she told me that the Dogmatics might try to do something to sabotage it. Maybe this has something to do with it.”
“My master told me that arcanists have to stay away from any kind of faction conflict,” Beq said unhappily. “Leave that to the centarchs, he said. They can afford to waste their time with nonsense; the rest of us have work to do.”
“Sorry,” Maya said, suddenly uncomfortable. “I had to talk to someone about this. I didn’t think about the position it might put you in—”
“No!” Beq squeaked. “No, I didn’t mean—it’s fine. I’m glad you … you trust me.” She hesitated a moment, then said, “So what are you going to do?”
“I can’t tell Tanax,” Maya said. “Nicomidi’s his master.”
“He didn’t know what was in the letter,” Beq said.
“He’d just say that Nicomidi and the Council have their reasons, and report me for even looking at this,” Maya said. “When we get back to the Forge, I can take it to Jaedia and Baselanthus, and they’ll know what to do.”
“What happened to the original ciphered letter?”
Maya shook her head. “I left it on the table. I figured Raskos would come back for it.”
Beq bit her lip. “Without that, this isn’t exactly evidence. It could have been written by anyone.”
“Dhak,” Maya swore. She took a deep breath. “All right. So we need to figure out what’s going on, and find some kind of proof to take to the Council.”
“Or you could just burn the thing and forget you saw it,” Beq said quietly. “It’s an option.”
“I can’t,” Maya said. “Jaedia warned me that the Dogmatics were up to something, and this has to be it. It’s something they were going to use to try to hurt her, and I can’t let that happen. If I can get evidence of what they’re trying, then she can show it to the Council and defend herself.” Maya looked down at the letter again, then shoved it in her pocket. “Thank you. I’ll figure this out. I don’t want to get you any more involved than you already are.”
“I—” Beq bit the word off and went silent. Maya cocked her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t mind … being involved.” She took a deep breath, and the words came out in a rush. “I’m supposed to be supporting you, and I know I might not be much good, but I did help you fight those smugglers, but if you think I’d slow you down I can—”
“Stop.” Maya held up a hand. “You’re sure? You might get in trouble, you know.”