by Jayne Faith
I hurried to my library. The communication monitor built into the surface of my desk was flashing. I ignored schedule reminders and the many messages about Temple business.
There. A message from a fake name, delivered twenty minutes ago.
I ignored the couple of paragraphs of text, which were meaningless, and went straight to the P.S. at the end.
The purple pot fell from the window sill and broke, but the flower survived.
My knees gave way, and I sat down hard on the desk chair.
Maya was hurt but alive.
I did not know the extent of her injuries, but Jeric had arranged for medical equipment to be ready. It was too risky to have a medic waiting—that would have given us away—but he’d assured me that he knew enough to use the equipment to heal broken bones and any non-critical internal injuries. If her injuries were serious enough to require a medic, he said he’d place her near the fire pit and call for a medic immediately.
Having a medic involved after we began the next part of our scheme would actually help us. Getting her through the flame alive was only the first part, and we did not plan to keep Maya hidden for long.
I was not needed in the Temple for a few more hours, so I remained in my quarters for lunch, working from my library. I picked at my food and frequently lost my train of thought, my fingers poised over my typing pad as my mind jumped to Maya and Jeric. It was agony not knowing how things were progressing.
Was Maya healed enough to be moved? We could not wait long.
I could only imagine Lord Toric’s torment. I’d told him only that I would save Maya. I refused to tell him any more, so that regardless of what happened he would not be culpable, and gave him stern instructions not to contact me the rest of the day. I’d done my best to assure him that it would all become clear. But he’d watched Maya fall into the fire as everyone else had. Perhaps I should have recommended he claim sick for the remainder of the day and ask his personal medic for a heavy sedative. Not that he would have followed my advice.
When Celestia’s urgent call finally came, my heart bounced and my nervous impatience washed away in a surge of adrenaline.
I answered, and her round face appeared on my communication monitor.
“Your Holiness!” she exclaimed. “I have the head of the arena maintenance crew for you. I’ve never heard someone so excited. He says he found the Offered girl near the fire pit! Alive!”
I gasped, feigning shock. “By the stars, it cannot be true. Put him through at once!”
The face of an ash-smeared man with pale blue eyes like two shining jewels replaced Celestia’s on my monitor.
“Your Holy Priestess—I mean, Your Holiness,” he stuttered. “I didn’t ever expect to have reason to speak with you.”
I smiled and nodded impatiently. “My assistant says you have something very important to tell me.”
He began speaking rapidly, stumbling over his words and then apologizing, his face disappearing from view every so often when he kept bowing. It was a bit difficult to follow his story.
But I already knew the gist of it, of course.
He and his crew had found Maya near the edge of the sacrificial fire pit, passed out but apparently unharmed by the flame.
“The girl looks a bit woozy,” he said, finally running out of steam. His voice took on a soft, awed quality. “We gave her some water, thinking she’d be awful parched from all that heat. She’s not even burned. Not a bit. Is this a real honest-to-goodness miracle, Your Holiness?”
“It could be, but that is not for me to decide alone,” I said. I asked the maintenance manager to confirm Maya’s location.
I’d already started sending urgent messages on another screen. One to Lord Toric, and another calling for a team of emergency medics.
“Do not move her,” I instructed. “People will begin arriving any minute. Stay right where you are. I’m on my way.”
I rushed from my quarters, contacting Celestia on the way to ask her to send several high-ranking priestesses as witnesses. I also asked her to send Novia, the Temple’s lead scholar and historian.
I hurried from the Temple into the palace and toward the arena. Instead of heading up to the Bridge to Purification as I had earlier that day, I took a lift down.
Servants and workers used a different set of lifts, but word of Maya’s miraculous survival of the flame must have started to spread already. Nobles curtsied and bowed and crowded around me, clamoring for my take on the rumors. I tried to remain demure, but suddenly wished I’d thought to ask Lord Toric to secure the site around the fire pit.
When I reached the ground floor, I grabbed up my robes in both hands and rushed out of the lift. I allowed a small relieved breath when I saw that a dozen of the royal guards blocked the way to the fire pit—Lord Toric had anticipated the need for security. There was already a crowd gathered, mostly workers who would have been nearby when the crew had discovered Maya.
“Step aside!” I commanded over the din.
With wide eyes, the crowd parted. The guards let me through and quickly closed the gap behind me.
A thin haze of fine ash and the smell of fire smoke lingered in the air, in spite of the high-powered exhaust system that constantly vented the space.
I spotted Lord Toric among several other people surrounding an emergency gurney. When he saw me, his eyes sparked with barely-masked emotion.
With a start, I saw that Novia had already arrived. Jeric was nowhere to be seen, to my great relief. We’d agreed that he would stay out of sight, but I’d worried that he wouldn’t be able to tear himself away from Maya for long.
Lord Toric moved to let me into the tight circle that ringed the gurney where Maya lay.
I pressed a hand to my chest and gasped for the benefit of the bystanders. “By the stars, I can hardly believe my eyes.” I went to Maya’s side and slowly reached out a hand to touch her forehead with my fingertips. There was a diagnostic cuff around one of her arms. I spoke softly to her but loud enough for others to overhear. “I saw you disappear into the flame. It can only be by divine intervention that you survived. Have you anything to say, child?”
Maya blinked a few times, and for a moment I wondered if she’d indeed been injured too gravely in the fall to pull off the scheme. But then she looked up at me. “Am I a miracle, is that why you’re here? For the pronouncement of a divine event?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly. “I’m only an Earthen Obligate, but . . . it does seem like an appropriate offering considering the way we parted, Your Holiness.”
She gave me a sincere, round-eyed look as a few people tittered at her little jab.
She was playing the role perfectly—innocent, lovely, and delicately small as she lay there with her raven hair spread around her pale face. She appeared dazed, maybe awed. And her serene composure, the complete absence of fear or anger in her voice, and the small movements of her body seemed to draw everyone in.
I held her hand in both of mine. “Clearly, the stars have a different fate in mind for you. I hope they forgive us for our grave misjudgment. I hope you can forgive us.”
I bowed my head, and a hush fell over the crowd. Maya touched my wrist with her free hand. “Somehow, I survived. I am alive,” she said. “It would be ungrateful of me to withhold forgiveness, Your Holiness.”
I looked into her face as a fragile smile trembled on her lips and a tear escaped one of her eyes, and I realized that her emotion was not an act. She’d been informed of our scheme by Jeric after she’d fallen through the portal, but I could not forget that while she’d stood on the Bridge to Purification, she’d truly believed she was going to burn to death. We’d put her through a terror that did, in fact, warrant apology.
I glanced up and noticed that one person in the crowd stood stiffly, seemingly unmoved by the scene. It was Novia. She held her tablet at her side and stood very still, giving me an unblinking, calculating look. The priestesses I’d called for had gathered near Novia, peering around her at Maya with
awe and curiosity.
“We must question her.”
My pulse tripped at the sound of Novia’s voice.
“We do not know if her survival is a miracle,” she said. “That will require investigation.”
“Absolutely,” I said with a magnanimous smile. “We certainly will perform a full investigation.”
I flicked a look at Lord Toric, who stepped into the circle as if on cue.
“We should move her to a more comfortable place where she can be treated and monitored in peace,” he said.
“I agree, my Lord. I feel it only right that the Temple take her in,” I said. I looked down at Maya. “It seems appropriate for one who has been touched by the divine hand of the stars.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Novia shift her weight. She muttered something that I didn’t quite catch.
“Thank you, Your Holiness and my Lord.” Maya lowered her eyelids and dipped her chin, a respectful little bow-like gesture.
Lord Toric raised a hand and signaled to four guards standing nearby. They trotted over, and he touched his earpiece and spoke a few quiet words.
“A royal guard contingent will escort the priestesses, Maya, and Your Holiness to a transporter which will convey you the short distance to the Temple,” he said.
I nodded and took a quiet deep breath as people began to move and speak.
One of the next critical pieces of the plan was convincing the public, which only hours before had screamed for Maya’s sacrifice, that she was a divine treasure, a living miracle. Judging by the reactions of the people present at the fire pit, I believed we might be able to sway opinion.
My elation dimmed when I cast a look at Novia’s retreating back. It might well prove easier to convince the public than the Temple historian. But I could not afford her opposition. We needed everyone’s support to keep Maya alive.
*
We settled Maya in the largest room of the Temple’s guest quarters, with half a dozen of Lord Toric’s royal guards keeping watch while she rested and medics came every thirty minutes to check on her.
My office was flooded with calls from the press, asking for statements, interviews, and access to Maya.
I composed a short but positive statement about Maya’s survival for the Temple media liaison to disseminate to the press and told Celestia to ignore all media requests for the time being.
Next, I called an emergency meeting of the Temple’s Holy Assembly. The decision-making body of the Temple was comprised of twenty-two elected priestesses, with myself as the twenty-third member. Novia was the elected Chair, as the High Priestess could not also serve as Chair, and the position gave her power equal to mine within the Assembly.
The air was thick with anticipatory energy as the priestesses of the Assembly gathered and took their seats. Novia waited for everyone to settle at the large circular table and then stood.
“I call to order an unscheduled meeting of the Holy Assembly,” she said. “The proceeds of this meeting are being recorded.” She paused to do a quick roll call. “Let the record show that we have a quorum and full attendance. Because this is an emergency meeting, we will skip the reading of the last meeting’s minutes and the usual business and proceed directly to the topic for which this unscheduled meeting was convened.”
She turned her penetrating gaze to me and nodded. I rose to my feet as Novia took her seat.
“I requested this emergency meeting to discuss the remarkable events of the past few hours.” I resisted using the word miraculous, as I didn’t want to appear too biased just yet. “As I’m sure all of you know, the young Earthen woman who was sent into the flame this morning was found alive by the workers in the fire pit. Not only is she alive, she appears completely unharmed, as the priestesses who came to the fire pit shortly after Maya was discovered can testify. I believe her survival defies logical explanation, and only divine intervention could have saved her. For reasons we do not yet completely understand, the stars did not see fit to let her die. As such, I officially nominate as a candidate for miracle status the event of Maya Calderon’s survival of the flame.”
I sat, and Novia rose. “Does anyone second the nomination of said event for miracle status?”
One of the priestesses I’d called to the fire pit, an energetic woman about my age named Mercuria, stood just long enough to say, “I second the nomination.”
There were several quiet murmurs of agreement around the table, which eased a bit of my tension.
“With the second of the nomination, we proceed to a vote of the Assembly. By raise of hands, who votes for the miracle commission to begin an investigation of this event?” Novia asked.
I lifted my arm into the air, and with a quick glance around the table saw that there was an easy majority. But Novia had not raised her hand. I held my breath, my eyes on her. At this stage, either she or I could veto and put an end to the proposal.
She raised her hand, and I nearly went limp with relief.
“We have a majority vote,” Novia said, and the raised hands dropped. “However, I want it noted that my vote is given with reservations. I do not believe this event was a miracle, but I do want to launch an investigation to discover the fraud that made it appear so.”
Some of the priestesses looked startled at Novia’s blunt accusation and one began to protest, but at least a couple gave tiny nods of agreement.
“I respectfully suggest that the miracle commission convene immediately after this meeting to begin their investigative process,” I said with a deferential bow of my head at Mercuria, who was the chair of the miracle commission.
Mercuria nodded enthusiastically. “I’m sure I can speak for the rest of the commission when I say that we are very eager to get started. It is a great honor to have a nomination to examine, and we look forward to serving the Temple and Calisto by rigorously inquiring into the event.”
I kept my expression studiously neutral. Novia was not on the miracle commission, but I knew she would be watching their every move and going over their proceedings with an extremely critical eye. I had no doubt she wouldn’t think twice about offering her opinions on their methods of inquiry.
Maya’s survival did not necessarily have to be named a miracle in order to keep her safe, but cries of fraud or falsification would certainly affect public opinion. And it was the public, after all, who had clamored for her death to cleanse the sin of breaching the divide between Calisto and Earthenfell.
The influence of the Temple was powerful, but I knew it was no match for frenzied public outcry. I could only hope that we could help sway things in the right direction.
Novia ended the meeting and all the attendees signed the official recording.
As I left the assembly hall, it occurred to me that one person had been conspicuously absent at the fire pit: Akantha.
The Mistress of Tournament was usually one of the first on the scene for anything involving the Offered. New apprehension stirred in my gut. I wanted to believe differently, but knew it was foolish to ever assume that Akantha was uninterested in any affairs that she could be part of—especially affairs that garnered publicity or gossip.
I hurried to my office, intending to contact Lord Toric before he retired for the evening. When I arrived, Celestia jumped to her feet to curtsy.
“Please summon Lord Toric—” I began just as she started to speak too.
She ducked her head. “Forgive me, Your Holiness. Lord Toric is waiting to hear from you.”
“Ah, how very convenient. Please put him through.” I continued on through the reception room and into my office.
I activated the communication panel in my desk, and Lord Toric’s face appeared on the screen.
For a moment he pressed his lips together, his eyes shining. Then he shook his head once. “Remarkable . . . I’m still overwhelmed, Your Holiness.”
I gathered that he was being roundabout in his acknowledgement of Maya’s survival, in case anyone might intercept or overhear our conversation,
and I approved of his caution. We could not be too careful in the matter.
“Remarkable indeed,” I said. I allowed a broad smile to spread over my face, and it was as if I had not smiled in a year. I gave a little laugh and then composed myself. “An inquiry by the Temple’s miracle commission has been initiated.”
“Ah.” He paused and gave me a penetrating look. “And do you think I will ever be privy to the details of this remarkable event?”
I knew what he was asking. He wondered whether I would ever tell him how Maya’s rescue was orchestrated.
“Perhaps, someday,” I said. “But sometimes it is better to make peace with the mystery when it comes to divine happenings.”
He tilted his head in a small gesture of acceptance. “And how is she doing?”
“By last update, same as before. Resting and sleeping, and all vital signs are within the normal range,” I said. “My Lord, there is something I should have asked about earlier. Have you any word from Akantha? I would have expected her to be one of the first to arrive at the fire pit.”
His face clouded. “No, I have not. I will ask my assistant to contact her right away. Which reminds me: we do not know what Maya’s status is now. She was officially disqualified from the Tournament when the law demanded her execution. Does that disqualification still stand?”
“An excellent question.”
I could not say it aloud, not knowing whether our conversation was truly private, but if there was any way to keep Maya from the Tournament and Akantha’s jurisdiction, we needed to do everything possible to ensure it happened.
“I will look into that as well,” he said. “I must go, but I will be in touch soon. Thank you for taking her in, Your Holiness. Thank you for your wisdom, your leadership . . . for everything.”
His aquamarine eyes stared sincerely from the screen for a long moment, and then he ended the communication and his face disappeared.
Just as I was finishing up some Temple business and getting ready to go home for the night, Celestia’s voice came in my ear. “Your Holiness, the prince Sir Jeric is here asking to speak with you. Would you like me to have him make an appointment for tomorrow?”