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She gaped at me with wide amber eyes for a full two heartbeats. ‘Em.’
‘You want to go ask thegodsfor answers?’ Nenya said sharply. ‘Hell take us all. Raising the dead might be just a tad ambitious, Emelin.’
‘It might be,’ I said, willing my voice to stay calm, ‘if raising the dead is actually what we’re talking about. Agenor? Do you know …’
‘Good question,’ he said bleakly. ‘Excellent question, really. If I had the answer for you, I don’t think we’d be sitting here.’
‘You don’t know what happened to them either? The gods, I mean?’
‘No. I …’ He cursed. ‘Well, Korok is most definitely dead and not coming back. But the others … I couldn’t tell you for the life of me.’
We were silent for a moment.
‘You were there,’ Tared said, those few words a glaring accusation. ‘The day she killed him and cursed the entire continent with that gods-damned plague. Aren’t you supposed to know what happened, of all people?’
‘I knowsomeof what happened.’ Agenor closed his eyes; whether he was trying to better see his memories or rather to avoid them, I wasn’t sure. ‘Their plan, if I understood the shreds they told me afterwards correctly, was to use Korok’s life force to steal the powers of the other gods, essentially. If everything had happened as intended, Achlys and Melinoë would have wielded the magic of four deities by the end of that day.’
Cas blurted out a curse. Around us, most faces had gone pale; only Creon somehow looked like he wasn’t in the least surprised by the story, even though I knew this was as new to him as to anyone else.
I’d never heard any of it, either – but it did make sense, so much sense. ‘And that didn’t work out as hoped.’
‘No,’ Agenor said wryly. ‘It was all rather experimental, you must understand. They planned it alone – as far as I’m aware, no one else knew of their schemes until the moment everything went to hell. I like to think … well.’
Liked to think he’d have done something if he’d known. Instead, he’d stepped aside while the Mother killed the god he’d sworn to protect, while she destroyed a continent he’d loved, while she started yet another war just as she’d won his coveted peace.
I let that point go.
‘Good to know,’ I said, and I said it firmly enough to distract even Tared from the sneer I knew he’d been about to utter. ‘Because that lends a lot of credibility to Sophronia’s theory that the plague is linked to divine magic.’
‘The plague is most certainly linked to divine magic,’ Agenor said, rubbing his eyes. ‘Achlys and Melinoë assumed the powers were drained from the gods but didn’t attach to anything else. So instead, that magic just …’
‘Went rogue.’
‘Yes.’
‘Destroying all life in its path. Becoming what we know as the plague.’
He sighed. ‘Yes.’
‘But that means all we know for sure is that the gods lost – well, some of their magic,’ I said, weighing my words with painstaking care. ‘It need not be all of their powers, and there’s no particular reason to assume theydiedfrom the impact.’
‘No,’ Beyla said quietly, ‘but that’s a weak basis for a rather dangerous undertaking, wouldn’t you say?’
‘There’s more,’ I said, waving that objection aside. ‘I found a travel report from an alf who tried to fade into Orin’s mountains to find more alf steel. Didn’t get far before the plague magic started burning him, but he does mention seeing two white wolves guarding the place.’
Agenor’s breath caught. ‘Oh, hell. Orin.’
‘Yes. There are sightings of Zera’s doves, too. Not that those are entirely reliable, because of course everyone would like to be blessed with lifelong love and happiness, but I found a few cases with multiple eyewitnesses, and in those cases the receivers of the blessingsdoappear to have lived surprisingly long and happy lives. Sailors sailing close to the Elderburg coast say they hear strange voices singing at night, which …’
‘Sailors’ tales,’ Nenya said sharply.
‘What exactly are they supposedly singing?’ Agenor said.
‘Songs everyone on board is able to understand, even if they speak different languages. Which sounds like magic to me.’
He cursed again. ‘Inika. Hell below. I had no idea.’
‘So you agree it’s possible?’ It took every last shred of willpower to not shout the words, to not grab him by the shoulders of his frustratingly well-tailored blue shirt and shake him until he gave the answer I needed. ‘That they’re still alive?’
