“Not like yours.” Achilles frowned his sympathy, but darkly. “Not like yours. The others have someone to accuse: Ockham Saneer, Ganymede, Andō, the CFB, the Anonymous, but you have no one. Europe was unknowingly complicit in O.S., and Europeans who don’t want to accept that guilt will be loudest in screaming for someone’s blood. But whose? Casimir Perry went down to the House of Death together with his victims. Now you have hundreds of your leading men to mourn, a billion Members desperate to prove their innocence by punishing the guilty, and no villain to take it out on. That worries me.”

The King of Spain leaned his head against the wall behind his chair. “I had not thought about revenge.”

Rarely have I seen godlike Achilles astonished. “How could you not? Bridger wasn’t even my child by blood, and when I lost him revenge nearly drove me rage-mad, even though I knew no earthly power was responsible for my loss. Your son was murdered, and by Perry, a man you broke bread with, a traitor!”

“Was Bridger that child who resurrected Epicuro?”

Even Achilles took a moment to recognize one of Jehovah’s rarer names. “Yes. He resurrected me, too, and I raised him like a son. If any living man had been responsible for his death, that man wouldn’t be living now.”

Spain nodded. “Both my sons were killed that day. One was returned to me, and with their resurrection came proof of the existence of the Higher Power that now holds the other. How many worthier men have not been blessed with such consolation in their grief?”

Achilles’s words were stone. “I’ve rarely found the gods much consolation.”

Spain paused. “Do you think your existence proves your gods are the real ones?”

“No.” The veteran let himself sigh. “I’ve thought hard about that, and, with all I’ve seen, I wouldn’t put it past Fate’s whimsy to make me real but leave my gods a pack of empty superstition.” He peered hard at his fellow king. “You’re the first to ask me about that.”

Spain seemed to struggle to keep his heavy eyes open. “It’s a frightening thing to ask. And without a sensayer here, if Mycroft chimes in we’ll have broken the First Law. I suspect a lot of people have these past few days. We shall have to talk to the Sensayers’ Conclave about arranging some sort of amnesty. The First Law is necessary but, with the miracle of resurrection captured on video, who could obey?”

The ancient hero scowled. “Do you think there will be religious strife? Even if it can’t be public, I suspect many Members of the Hives, like you and I, still have… convictions.”

His Most Catholic Majesty did not meet godlike Achilles’s eyes. “I understand you still consider yourself Greek. If you wish to contact the President of the Greek nation-strat, I can arrange it at your leisure.”

Achilles snorted. “I still can’t believe that Spain rules Greece.”