“That is true. But they don’t have a problem with their enemies who are already my allies. They have a problem if I try to make a new alliance with one of their current enemies.”
I rubbed my head. “The politics of heaven sound even more complicated than the politics of Earth.”
“They really are,” she laughed. “But someone must do the job. Someone must look past the petty disputes that have severed alliances and friendships. Someone must move beyond minor slights that have escalated into full-out hatred. The gods need to be united if we are to face the demons, the Guardians, and who knows what else is out there.”
“Good speech.”
“It had better be,” replied Saphira. “I’ve been practicing it for the last several hundred years.”
I really had to give it to Saphira. She was good. She knew just what to say to everyone. She changed her tone, her speech, everything to suit the person she was talking to. She knew how to gain your trust and make you feel like her best friend. It was no wonder she was so popular.
I liked her too, even knowing that she was manipulating me. I guess I couldn’t really hold it against her. She’d probably been doing it so long that being universally loved was simply natural to her.
Nearly two hours had now passed since Coralia’s accusation. And I’d spoken to almost every god at the gala. At this point, I felt like I truly understood Lady Saphira—and yet I wasn’t any closer to figuring out if she really had met with the rebels. Coralia’s photograph seemed to indicate that she had, but then again, photographs could be faked. How was I supposed to know if it was real?
And then it hit me. Maybe I didn’t know anything about faking photos, but I bet this sort of thing was right up Patch’s alley.
“It’s a fake,” he declared when I showed him the picture. “Whoever faked it did a good job, though. I didn’t notice it when Coralia projected it onto the sky, but looking at the real thing, yeah, I’m sure Saphira was edited into the photo. Look at the shadows cast on her from all those candles. They just aren’t quite right. It’s the candles. The truth is all in the candles.”
I looked down at the photo and saw what he meant. The truth was indeed in the candles, but in more ways than one. In ways that Patch, despite his impressive magic and towering intellect, did not see. There were so many things the gods were far too omniscient to see.
“Thank you, Patch.” I left him there, and walked over to the water lily fountain. And then I jumped up onto the same mermaid Coralia had climbed. “Lords and ladies, gods and goddesses,” I borrowed the opening of Coralia’s speech too, except I spoke the words with a little more volume—and a hell of a lot more pep. “This photograph is a fake. Lady Saphira was edited into it. Thank you for your attention.”
By the time my feet hit the ground, Saphira’s allies had abandoned Coralia. And by the time I’d rejoined Stash at the edge of the party terrace, they’d all loudly and emphatically declared their loyalty to Saphira. Based on the size of the crowd around the once-more perfect goddess, it didn’t look like anyone here stood even a remote chance of beating her in the Choosing.
Saphira bowed her head to me from across the terrace, then allowed her allies to carry her away to the throne one of them had freshly created with a little bit of metal and a whole lot of magic.
“You have done a great service for the Lady Saphira tonight, and she won’t soon forget it,” Calix said behind me.
When I turned to face him, I saw two things in his eyes. The first was that he knew what I knew: though someone had edited Saphira into the photo, she had in fact been there with the rebels on that world. She’d just been too perfect to be caught on camera doing it.
“I’d rather have her on the council than Coralia. Better a goddess of mercy than a cruel and vengeful goddess,” I told him quietly. “I believe that Saphira at least will try to do the right thing. I guess she figured the same about me when she picked me to be her Inquirer. She knew I’d do the right thing, even if the right thing meant covering for her.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes.
“You know, I wasn’t rewarded with angel wings merely because of my good looks.” I winked at him.
But Calix wasn’t in the mood to banter with me this time. How did you figure it out? he asked in my mind.
The candles in the photo. They look just like the candles at this gala. The event planner said they were all Saphira’s idea. The gods always use magic lights, cast by spells, not candles. But the magic lights don’t smell as nice as candles. She got the idea of candles as party lighting after visiting the rebels, didn’t she?
Yes.
Lady Saphira, the perfect goddess, was guilty of consorting with rebels. What did it say about my character that this only made me like her more?
She’s spent her whole life studying to be the perfect goddess. So what brought her to people who’ve rebelled against the gods? I wondered.
You would have to ask her, he told me. All I know is the rebel situation is not as cut-and-dry as people here believe.
So they aren’t rebels?
Many of them are. Others were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Lady Saphira has a bad habit of helping out people caught in tough spots. His face was almost reproachful.
That made me laugh. “You’ve trained Saphira to be the perfect goddess, but you don’t really have her under control, do you? No, it seems to me like she’s the one who has you under control.”
That was the second thing I’d seen in Calix’s eyes: he was totally and completely in love with Saphira.
“She doesn’t know you’re in love with her, does she?” I said.
“My feelings do not matter. I will always protect her. Always keep her secrets. No matter what happens.”
“You do realize that your keeping her secrets saved her engagement to Eros.”
“As it should be. A goddess needs allies to ascend to the council. And the council needs Saphira. It’s for the good of all gods.”
“You should tell her how you feel.”
“I cannot. We can never be together, and I won’t keep her from her great destiny.”
The man had stayed by Saphira’s side all these years, loved her, protected her, knowing all along that he could never have her. It was so beautiful, it almost brought a tear to my eye. I’d never before met a god so noble and self-sacrificing.
“You’ve done a great service for Saphira,” Calix said again as his goddess walked away with her betrothed and Stash moved closer to me. “And so I am going to do a service for you. I have important information about your parents.”
I perked up at that statement. There was so much I didn’t know about my parents. So much I wanted to know.
“Nearly twenty-five years ago, Lady Saphira sent me to perform a service for Heaven’s Army.”
“What kind of service?”
“Many of the gods’ noble houses send members of their personal guard to Heaven’s Army for large-scale operations, usually important battles against the demons that require a lot of soldiers,” Stash told me. “It’s how the lords and ladies give back, how they do their part for the gods.”
“They give back by sending others to give back for them?” I said. “Nice trick.”