Page 10 of The Duke and the Disciple

“I don’t suppose you’ve reviewed it?”

“I haven’t had the opportunity with everything going on down at Book these days,” Imryll said. “Whatever the prospectus, we’ll make it work. The Reliquary may not want to play nice with us, but our agreement to follow their lead was nonnegotiable if we want their support.”

“But it’s not a reasonable prospectus, Imryll. Byanystandard.”

“Forgive me, you’ll have to speak plainly, since I haven’t read through the notes yet. What’s the concern?”

Anton raised a finger. “I have no concerns tackling coitus.”

Jasika glared at him.

“Don’t you remember when my cohort had anatomy?” Rahn asked.

She said nothing.

“The Reliquary made us go through all those preposterous exercises about using our own bodies for diagram purposes, which we did, grudgingly, amid no shortage of anxious giggles, and after all the awkwardness of that, they had the audacity to accuse us of falsifying the diagrams and sent us an ‘official’ warning. They’re having a go at us again. That’s all.” Rahn almost laughed, but the sick expression on Jasika’s face stayed him.

“Rahn, respectfully, their warning almost got us kicked out of our own program. We cannot afford another one, and you know it. And you have not seen this curricula. It’s not just a bunch of silly diagrams. It is almost entirely...” Jasika wedged her tongue between her teeth and groaned. “Participatory in nature.”

“Participatory, you mean...” Imryll shifted in her seat. One hand gripped the seat of her chair so hard, it was bone white.

“It means in order for any report we submit to meet the burdened requirement of official research, there must beactualexperiments run. Do you... Must I say it?”

Imryll’s relieved laugh cut through the room. “Jasika, gods, it doesn’t meanyouhave to perform the experiments. There are dozens of households in the Cross. Select a few randomly, give them predefined questions to answer, interview them a few times...”

“Well, I thought so as well, but when I wrote for clarification?—”

“Agh, we never write for clarification!” Anton interjected, shaking his head.

Eyes narrowed, Jasika finished. “When I wrote for clarification, they stated that while we are expected to collect practical observations from citizens as well, and that the Reliquary has in fact sent this curricula to others in the realm for a variety of responses, the cohort itself must be part of the experiments in order to validate any claim made regarding the body’s physical and emotional response to the various stimuli they’ve outlined. Without the official cohort’s validation of these actions and reactions, the Reliquary won’t accept our research as complete. We cannot get around this rule by increasing our cohort artificially for this topic. They have the names of all our researchers. I have the letter, Imryll. I don’t think this is a question of misinterpretation on my part. Aside from the obvious concerns here, my cohort is all young women.”

“Sexy,” Anton muttered.

Jasika flung a hand toward him in the air. “Muala,” she hissed, which Rahn took to be the word formulein Vjestikaan.

“I used to think the Reliquary sent us the topics they had no desire to explore themselves, but if so, this was definitely an oversight.” Anton chuckled, tracing a hand down his thick beard. “You can’t convince me that cabal of repressed scholars wouldn’t jump at this one if they could.”

“This is a test,” Rahn said slowly, sighing. The Reliquary was intentionally making it hard, trying to push them until they surrendered and abandoned their own idea, their own work. The Reliquary had strong-armed its way into the project and taken it over, relegating Witchwood Cross to an annoyance to be dealt with. “They think they’ve backed us into a corner with this one. We just need to be creative enough to find a way out of it.”

Imryll’s face pulled into a frown. She glanced at Rahn. He’d been the first to offer aid and embrace her vision, and their dynamic was more like a partnership. Jasika Voronov had come next, and not long after, Anton Petrovash. Their addition had meant more resources, more legitimacy, but neither was as feverish about the success of their endeavor as Rahn and Imryll were.

“Rahn, where are you with your cohort?” Imryll asked.

“We’re only partway through astronomy,” he said. “The observatory is expected to be ready in springtide and then we’ll need another season or two to complete the remaining prospectus. But as we’re held up until we can do more intensive study, we planned to take a detour into our next subject: atheism.”

“Well, you won’t find many atheists in Witchwood Cross,” Imryll said wryly. “You said we just need to be creative, right? Perhaps your cohort can handle coitus until the observatory is built?”

Rahn’s words caught in his throat. A deep heat seized him from head to toe as all three watched him in anticipation of his response.

“It’s clearly a test, as you said. They’re having one on with us,” Anton said, still laughing.

Imryll shook her head at the table. “Weallknow what happens if we tell them we cannot handle one of their assignments. They never took us seriously to begin with, and they’relookingfor a reason to discredit our work and become the sole claimants. Workwestarted.”

Rahn spun sideways to face her as the blood rushed away from his face, plummeting toward the floor. He’d backed himself into his own corner. “Imryll, I agree with what you’re saying?—”

“You’re a clever man, who will find another way that doesn’t break the Reliquary’s very clear guidelines on research but also does not put any of our young academics in vulnerable and compromising positions.” She exhaled a long breath. “I trust you to figure it out.”

Rahn said no more. Imryll rarely ruled with authority, but when she did, her decision was not to be mistaken for an invitation to debate.

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