“Now that Ember, Ratharin, and Xaedren have joined us, let's quickly recap,” General Ranor caught our attention.
I shoved some chicken in my mouth, then looked over my shoulder at the General.
He nodded at me and continued. “We sent a team to Fress to search for any evidence. None was found. Not even tracks in the dirt. We're assuming the Corrupter used magic to transport the bodies.”
“He probably used it to remove them from their graves too,” I said.
“Why do you think that?”
I glanced around and found everyone's attention on me. After taking a quick sip of wine, I cleared my throat, and said, “The way the holes looked, with broken pieces of coffins protruding upward, made me think the bodies had been pulled forth instead of dug up. It looked as if they had come bursting out of their graves by themselves.”
The room got quiet.
I looked around again. “What did I say?”
“That's an interesting observation, Ember.” The General swiveled his eyes to a few Lords on his right. “I'm surprised our team didn't note that.”
The investigation team grimaced at the General and shrugged.
“We know he has magic,” I said. “Big magic. I've seen firsthand and heard from the Corrupter directly that Death Magic can do anything. It briefly brought my parents. So I'm not sure why you're all surprised that he can pull bodies out of graves.”
“What if he didn't pull them out?” Jath asked.
Gazes swiveled his way, mine included.
“Go on,” the General said.
“If he can bring back the dead, it goes to reason that he can make them rise from their graves. Ember just said it looked as if they'd burst from their coffins.”
“My parents returned as spirits, not in their bodies,” I protested.
Jath shot me a hard look. “You just said that Death Magic can do anything.”
I winced. “Nearly anything. I don't think it can force souls back into corpses. And why would the Corrupter want to reanimate the dead?”
Another terrible silence.
Then, “Fuck!” It was Xae.
I looked over at him.
“He's making another army, Ember,” Xae said. “An army that can't be killed because it's already dead.”
“They'd be undefeatable,” Rath said. “We may not even be able to free them from corruption. Not if they don't have souls animating them.”
“What if they do?” someone asked. “What if he did pull the souls out of the afterworld?”
The room erupted in angry voices.
“All right, settle down!” the General shouted. “Settle down!” When everyone quieted, Ranor said, “The Goddess would never allow souls to be taken from her. I think we can safely assume that if the Corrupter animated the dead, he did so with Death Magic alone, not by summoning the souls back.”
“But Ember's parents were summoned by Death Magic,” Finn said.
“Briefly,” I spoke up. “Now that I'm thinking about it, I imagine the souls would have to be willing to return. My parents wanted to see me so they could say goodbye. But if they hadn't, I don't think anything could have pulled them back.”
“That's a good point,” Nex said. “And I think you're right, General. The Goddess wouldn't allow souls to be taken from her. She is surely stronger than Death Magic.”
Something was tickling the back of my mind. Souls. Corpses. Death had made it seem as if he could bring my parents back to life. But Death was tricky. I didn't believe anything it said. And yet why would it offer something it couldn't deliver on? Maybe I was wrong and it could bring souls back. But where would it put them? Could it make new bodies? Or would it . . . fuck.
