“No. I assumed he needed to be present to control the dead. It was the one positive to this turn of events. With him accompanying the dead, we had a chance at him. But now he's back to sending his forces out while he stays safe behind his death ward. I was mistaken again.” He shook his head. “This war has continued so long because we rarely get an opportunity to fight the Corrupter himself. We need to take the battle to him. But none of my mages have been able to come up with an enchantment to break his ward.”
“I can't break it, but I can get you through the ward,” Death whispered.
I went tense, unable to answer.
“I can help you end this war. And isn't that interesting? You are prophesied to end the war, and here I am, offering you the tools you need to do so. Have you never considered that I could be a part of your destiny?”
“Ember?” the Emperor cocked his head at me.
“I'm sorry, Your Imperial Majesty. I was lost in thought.” Fuck, maybe I should tell the Emperor about Death.
“Indeed,” the Emperor said. “And I understand. This requires more consideration from all of us. I must find a way through that ward. If I don't, he could hide forever.”
“I don't believe that's his plan, Your Imperial Majesty,” I said. “He wants to take your place. To do so, he will have to show himself.”
“Yes,” the Emperor said grimly. Then, in a tone of revelation, “Yes!” He jumped to his feet.
We hastily followed suit.
“No, no. Sit down. Enjoy your meal. I've just had an idea, and I need to speak to the Imperial Mages about it.” He spun around and hurried from the room.
We watched the Emperor leave, his long hair swishing behind him like a cloak, looked at each other, and sat down.
“What do you think that was about?” I asked as we returned to eating.
I mean, if you got the chance to eat in the Imperial Palace, you took it. The Emperor's chef was even better than ours.
“I don't know,” Rath murmured. “But I'm sure we'll find out.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
When we got back to the citadel, there was a meeting going on in the dining hall. When the three of us walked in, the animated conversation—and by that I mean shouting—slowly faded into silence.
General Ranor, standing at the head of the room in his usual spot, broke the silence. “What did the Emperor say?”
“Not much,” Rath said. “We concluded that the dead, though they were immortals, did not possess magic. Magic leaves us when we die. Therefore, dead immortals are just as susceptible to reanimation as dead humans. But this also means the only magic they possess is that which animates them. The Emperor was pleased by that. It means we don't have to worry about fighting corpses with elemental magic. What he wasn't pleased about was the fact that the Corrupter wasn't present. This means he can control the dead even when he isn't there.”
That brought on a lot of angry muttering. The Emperor wasn't the only one who was hoping the Corrupter had to attend every undead attack.
“Anything else?” Ranor asked.
“The Emperor's mages haven't come up with a counterspell yet, but they are working on it,” Xae said. “That's about it.”
“Fucking great,” Nex grumbled. “Now we're facing our own dead, and he still doesn't have any advice.”
“What did you expect from him?” Xae asked. “He's the Emperor, yes, but he is still just a man. If there is no solution to be had, even he will not come up with one.”
“So there is no help for us?” Lord Veker asked, his expression going feral, reminding me of the wolf he could shift into.
“We have those three,” Keltyr said with a wave toward us. “They handled shit in seconds out there today. You should have seen them incinerate those bodies.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that, they were gone. Fucking ashes.”
“But three of them aren't enough,” Lord Dreven said. “You need to start seeing more than Keltyr, Ember. Come on, how hard is it to pick a few of us to date?”
“Shut the fuck up, Dreven,” Xae growled. “You don't know what you're talking about.”
“It's all right.” I laid a hand on Xae's arm and then glanced around the room. “I know all of you are depending on me to empower us enough that we can end this war, but this isn't just a mental decision I have to make. I have to open my heart to more men when it's already overflowing. Imagine you had two people who you dearly loved and yet, you had to find others to fall in love with. How easy would that be?”
“Pretty fucking easy if I were a hot gay man living in a citadel stocked full of other hot gay men who were all eager to get in my pants,” Dreven shot back.
