Chapter 65: The Hall of Seven Doors

Kai slept for two hours on the floor of the Silver Moon’s tower, lying next to the moon pool with Lysa’s spare veil folded up under his head as a pillow. When Mira finally shook him awake, the sun was already high over the city, and it was the middle of the day.

"We need to go," Mira said.

They returned to Hale’s house just long enough for Kai to wash the salt and the dust off his face and change into a fresh shirt. In the front hall, Mira adjusted his vest three times, even though there was nothing wrong with it, and the third time, Kai took her hands in his and held them still.

"I’m fine," Kai said.

"I know you are," Mira said. "I’m not."

[Neither am I, if that makes you feel any better]

"It doesn’t," Kai whispered, but he was smiling a little when he said it.

The Hall of Seven Doors stood in the middle of the old city, halfway between the palace and the Cathedral, and Kai had walked past it many times without ever really noticing it. It was a large round building of gray stone with a domed roof, and seven enormous doors were set into its outer wall, circling the whole building. Each door was carved with the symbol of a different god: a hammer, a crescent moon, a pair of hands holding a flame, a sheaf of wheat, a sun, a wave, and a single tear.

All seven doors were standing open, and so many people had gathered in front of the Hall that the King’s soldiers had to push the crowd aside to make a path for them. Kai could see the fish woman waving both of her arms above everyone’s heads, and a long row of widows from the soup line, and a group of blacksmiths in leather aprons who started banging their fists against their chests as Kai walked past.

"They all came to see you," Mira whispered.

"They came to see me fail," Kai whispered back. "It’s the best show in town."

The inside of the Hall was much bigger than Kai had expected. Seven long wooden benches were arranged around the outer edge of the floor, each one in front of a different door, and high above them, a stone gallery circled the base of the dome. It was already packed with people, so full that some of them were sitting on the railing with their legs dangling over the edge. At the very top of the dome was a round opening that let the sunlight pour straight down, and it landed in a perfect circle in the middle of the marble floor.

In the center of that circle of light was a golden stone the size of a wagon wheel, with a sun and seven rays carved into its face.

Kai stopped walking and stared at it, and for a second, he couldn’t breathe at all.

[That is the Sun Mark]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[It does not look anything like Garrick’s]

The churches were already taking their seats. Brannoch sat in front of the hammer door with his two smiths beside him, his massive arms crossed over his chest, looking as if he was ready to fight anyone who even glanced at Kai the wrong way. High Sister Aurel sat in front of the moon door with a fresh bandage on her head, and Lysa sat right next to her, holding her hand. The Keeper of the Ashen Twins had brought her giant book of names along with her and was resting it on her lap, while Elder Hollis sat in front of the wheat door, fidgeting with his hat.

Elder Marrow sat in front of the wave door with her cane resting across her lap and Nerine sitting beside her. Sunny sat on the Radiant Church’s bench all by himself, in front of the sun door, with his back very straight and his sword lying across his knees.

And on the bench in front of the tear door, wearing a black veil over her face, sat Celestine.

A murmur traveled all the way around the gallery when the widows saw her, and one of the older women in the front row covered her mouth with both hands. Liora was standing at the other end of the same bench in a simple gray dress, with two of the King’s soldiers standing on either side of her.

King Rowan sat in a tall chair between the sun door and the moon door, and Princess Seris sat on a stool beside him with her notebook open in her lap. Justiciar Hale stood in front of the King’s chair, leaning on his cane, and when he struck it against the marble floor three times, the whole Hall fell silent.

"The Conclave of the Seven Churches is now in session," Hale said, and his voice carried all the way up into the dome. "We are gathered here to decide whether the man who calls himself the God of Failure is a god or a fraud."

Hale went over the rules of the Conclave, speaking slowly and clearly, as if some of the people in the room hadn’t been paying attention the first time. First, the Conclave would hear the witnesses against the god, and then it would hear the witnesses for him. Once the god had given his proof, the seven churches would vote.

Kai looked across the room at the bench set aside for the witnesses against him. The slave salesman was sitting at one end of it, looking very uncomfortable in a coat that clearly belonged to someone else, and next to him sat three officers from Ironwatch, with Captain Brekk in the middle. Brekk had his arms crossed and looked very angry about something, and at the far end of the bench sat Bors, who caught Kai’s eye and gave him a small nod.

"Does the accused wish to say anything before the witnesses are brought forward?" Hale asked.

Princess Seris had found that rule in one of Hale’s law books two days ago. The accused always had the right to speak first, because the people who had written the old laws believed that an innocent man should never have to wait to be heard.

Kai walked out to the middle of the floor and stopped at the very edge of the circle of sunlight. He could feel every pair of eyes in the room on him, and his heart felt like it was trying to jump out through his throat.

"Elowen," Kai said. "Would you please stand next to me?"

Elowen walked over to him from where she had been standing behind Mira, and she drew her sword, and the blade stayed dark in her hand. Whispers spread through the gallery right away, because by now, everyone in Veyrath knew exactly what her sword did.

Kai pulled the four folded pages out of his vest, and his hands were shaking so badly that he almost dropped them. He unfolded the first page and looked down at the line at the very top, written in Mira’s neat handwriting.

"My name is Kai Mercer," Kai said, "and I used to be a liar."

No one in the room made a single sound, and it was so quiet that Kai could hear the pigeons cooing up in the dome.

Then he told them everything. He told them about the world he came from, and how he had lied to grandmothers and landlords and dentists, and how he had been really good at it. He told them how he had woken up in a market square wearing nothing but his boxers and told a man with a beard that he was a god, just so the man wouldn’t kill him. He told them how he had paid for a girl in chains with a handful of glamoured rocks, and how he had dressed up as a nun at Ironwatch and poured wine for a captain who wanted her to sit on his knee.

Captain Brekk got redder with every sentence, and the officers on either side of him started laughing.

Kai told them everything, and the whole time, Elowen’s sword stayed dark.

When he reached the end of the fourth page, he folded the papers back up, and his voice had gone raspy.

"I’m not telling you this so you’ll feel sorry for me," Kai said. "Lord Draven was going to have these men tell you all of this, and then you would think I’d been trying to hide it. I have nothing to hide from any of you anymore. I lied to almost everyone I ever met, and when I got here, I learned that lying doesn’t work on gods. So I stopped lying."

Nobody in the Hall said a thing. The slave salesman had his head down and was staring at his shoes, Bors was smiling from ear to ear at the end of the bench, and up in the gallery, the fish woman was crying into her basket.

Then Kai heard footsteps on the marble floor behind him.

Every head in the Hall turned towards the sun door, where two men were walking through it side by side. One of them was Elder Voss, with his scarred face and his iron gauntlets. The other was very handsome, with silver hair slicked back from his face, a ring on almost every finger, and a pair of black leather shoes that gleamed in the sunlight.

Lord Castor Draven smiled at the Conclave as if every person in it had come there just for him.

The King’s soldiers moved forward to grab him, but Hale raised his hand to stop them.

"Wait," Hale said, and his face had gone pale. "No one may be taken into custody while the Conclave is in session. It is the oldest law there is."

"I know that law," Princess Seris whispered from beside her father. "I read it. I just did not think he would dare to use it."

"Thank you, Justiciar," Draven said with a smile, and he bowed to the King, and then to each of the seven benches in turn. "I am here to give testimony, like any other citizen. I’m sorry that I’m late. My new shoes were pinching."

Draven walked out to the middle of the room and stopped right across the circle of sunlight from Kai, standing so close that Kai could smell his cologne.

"That was a very good speech, Mr. Mercer," Draven said. "For a second, I almost believed it." He turned to face the seven churches. "I don’t think I need to inform the Conclave that he was a con man, because he has just done that for me. I only have one question for him, and I would like the lady with the sword to remain exactly where she is while he answers it."

Elowen didn’t move, and her sword stayed dark.

Draven looked back at Kai, and his smile grew even wider.

"Mr. Mercer," Draven said. "Are you a god?"

Kai opened his mouth, and then he closed it again, because he realized exactly what Draven was trying to do.

He wasn’t a god, and he never had been one, because he was only a con man from Earth with a goddess living inside of him, and every power he had ever used had come from her. If he said yes, Elowen’s sword would light up in front of the whole city, and if he said no, then the God of Failure had just told the Conclave that he was a fraud.

[Kai]

Kai didn’t answer her, because for once in his life, he didn’t know what to say.

[Kai. Do not lie to them, no matter what]