“No, Ember,yougo!” Xae growled, still close to his wolf. “You are more important than the rest of us.”
“And I'm also what empowers you!” I growled back. “If I leave, your magic goes with me. I'm staying.”
Xae growled.
“Easy, Xae,” Rath said. “He's right. Go, Loren. We'll handle this.”
Loren nodded and disappeared.
Lord Gren went to help the freed Corrupted while the rest of us dealt with the bodies. We knew the dead were all human, so we didn't have to search the corpses for signs of race, and that helped save time. We gathered them in a cart and took them to the edge of the forest where we buried them in a mass grave. The freed Corrupted huddled on a sidewalk at the edge of the city, watching us even as Gren talked to them, trying to discover where they were from and where he could take them.
I paused as we were filling in the grave. “Hey, is it just me or do these corpses look fresher than most?”
Someone chuckled.
“No, I'm serious,” I said. “Sure, they're stinky, but there aren't rotting bits falling off them.”
“Great fuck, he's right,” Kel said.
“What are the odds that the Corrupter found several fresh graves at once?” Lord Jusso asked.
“Slim,” Rath said. “Like a splinter.”
“What is that fucker up to?” Xaedren growled again.
“I think we should visit the Emperor,” I said.
The Wraith Lords looked at each other, nodded, and then we all got back to filling the grave.
Chapter Thirty-One
As usual, we were led back into the Emperor's apartments by Agal, his manservant. The Emperor was in the middle of magic training, so we waited in his office for a few minutes while he finished up. I liked learning that he trained as we did. It made him more relatable.
We waited in silence, the whole team except for Gren, who was still dealing with the freed Corrupted. Loren was there though. He had returned to help us bury the bodies after delivering our message to General Rontor. When the Emperor came in, we got to our feet and bowed.
“Sit down, please.” The Emperor waved us back down and took a seat among us. “What's happened?”
“We just came from a mission, Your Imperial Majesty,” Rath said. “The Corrupter used the deadandCorrupted. The dead attacked the city while the Corrupted tried to abduct several of us, including Ember.”
“What did you just say?” the Emperor whispered.
“They tried to drag us away, Your Imperial Majesty,” I said. “And they were persistent. I got away a couple of times but as soon as I was freed, another one had me.”
Jusso added, “It was as if they were strewn among the city and the forest, waiting, just in case the first attempt failed, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“How many of you did they try to take?” he asked.
Seven men raised their hands, including Rath, Kel, and me.
“Damn it all!” the Emperor exclaimed.
“And they were faster, Your Imperial Majesty,” Xae said.
“And fresher,” I added.
“Fresher?” the Emperor asked.
“They weren't rotting.”
