“But you have another!” Caesar limped another pace forward. “You have two!” Wait. This was not Caesar’s limp. This was different, a stagger, bodily, and he clutched his side with his gray-sleeved right hand. I feared a heart attack, but realized it was the spot where Apollo had stabbed young Cornel with his pocketknife, the day after a Utopian first turned down Mars. Honest Apollo. He knew Caesar could never see him as an enemy unless he shed first blood with his own hand. Cornel MASON didn’t understand then. Does he now? “You were—”

“Hsht.” I cannot call the sound Achilles made a word, but from his glance, and his hand on Caesar’s one gray shoulder, I understood as clearly as if he had spoken: Whether they’re breaking our secret alliance or not, don’t make it worse by revealing that secret alliance in front of everyone.

Utopia turned to the Alien. “Have we failed Your Great Test?”

“You emptied the arsenal,” Jehovah pronounced, “but no thinking thing has been unmade. This is still peace.”

You might think Dominic would curse seeing his hope for God tears crushed, but all Jehovah’s words are miracles to him, new Truth revealed, precious as Scripture. As the beast’s body sits silent, the mind within is redefining war and peace to reflect this Revelation.

“We are glad You agree,” the Delian answered. “We do not expect the world to.” Not a glance, not even for Caesar. “Third item on the tablets, each of you will find twenty-three different scrying techniques for seeking evidence that others are brewing harbingers. This way you can watch each other, and know when the threat returns. Each of your lists contains several techniques we have shared with all of you, and several which are unique to your own list, so the others can’t craft counterspells.”

“But you know all of them.” The frown settled most darkly on President Ancelet, although Kosala too fixed narrowed eyes upon the Delian.

“Yes,” Utopia answered. “Even if we vowed to purge our knowledge of these arts, we have no means to make you believe that we have purged it.”

“And you still have harbingers yourselves.”

“We cannot prove we don’t.”

Ancelet crossed his arms. “And you expect us to see you as what? Neutral referees?”

The Delian remained recital-cold. “The next three items you will find are lists of names.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“You still haven’t heard our most objectionable act.” Utopia waited.

No one would break this silence.