There wasn’t much to prepare.

Val, Eveth, and I all had our Bokor swords, which we’d mainly use. Fyga didn’t have a visible sword, but she could make ice blades that were just as deadly. Leaving our gear behind would be safer for us, but I had a feeling that someone would go through it even if we tried to put the fear of the Bokor in them.

So while the four of us had our gear on us and were ready to fight, there was one person in our group that wasn’t.

Ziggy.

I’d been around Zombies since I was that age. I’d even killed my first Zombie by myself when I’d been eight. That didn’t mean that Ziggy could kill a Zombie or should be exposed to them. While I wasn’t too concerned about the Humans hurting him or trying to hold him hostage or something, I was worried about what he might say. The boy was still getting used to the fact that his cousin was a Bokor, even though she was really Touched. All he had to do was tell one wrong person and the whole town might try to force us to tell them how to change. I was a lot stronger than I’d been when the Pline guards had attacked us, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to get into another situation where I had to fight Humans.

“What are we going to do with Ziggy?” I looked over at the boy that was sitting at the table back at the house. I didn’t have a taste for fish but Eveth and Fuga were happily eating the soup that the villagers had brought us.

Val sighed and kept her voice low. “I was thinking about the same thing. I think we should bring him with us.”

We were on the other end of the house, but the common room, eating room, and kitchen were all basically one large, open room. There wasn’t much inside other than some furniture, so sound carried very well with all the hard surfaces.

“That’s what I was thinking, but it’ll be a lot harder to keep an eye out for Zombies if we clump up.” I forced myself not to look over at the others. “And I don’t think we should let Fyga go far.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That means Zig and Fyga are in separate groups. Eve can handle Zig the best, which leaves the two of us to each take a group.” Val nodded at the people at the table. “I think you should go with Fyga.”

“Why?” That was the conclusion that I’d ended on, but I was curious what her reason was.

“You’ve dealt with her before and she follows your lead.” Val grumbled. “I’m not sure that I wouldn’t stab her if she smarted off while we were alone.”

“I was going to say that we needed Eveth and me to be in separate groups since the two of us can sense Zombies, but that works too.” I smirked at the thought of Val stabbing Fyga. The Touched woman would quickly heal as long as it wasn’t lethal, which only seemed to minimize the severity of such an action.

“Fyga should be able to sense Zombies too, shouldn’t she?” Val pointed out the small hole in my theory.

“You’re willing to trust her to tell you that there are Zombies headed your way?” I shook my head. “At least with me, if the Touched that are after her show up, maybe I can talk to them. If she was with you, it’d be attack first, talk later.”

“Those are good points.” The redheaded woman touched her cheek and the purple swirl glowed brighter under her fingers. “Are these going to get bigger?”

“Yes and no.” I chewed on my lip as I thought. “As you get stronger, the marks will get wider until you learn how to condense the magic in them. When that happens, you’ll be able to shrink them back down. The Grand Councilwoman has marks that you can barely see. Master Bran said that she keeps a little so people will know she’s a Bokor, but she could make them vanish altogether.”

“Huh.” Val closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“What?” She seemed unsatisfied with my answer and I wasn’t sure why.

“Nothing.” Val waved her hand at me as she turned towards the others. “Fig you’re with Byler. Eve and Zig, you’re sticking with me.”

“Don’t want me all to yourself?” Fyga winked at the older woman.

Val scowled for her answer.

“Alright.” I motioned to Fyga before the two of them could start fighting. “Let’s go and see if the lumberjacks are ready to start moving.”

I was glad that the blue-eyed woman didn’t try to argue. She’d only been with us for a few hours and already she was clashing with Val. I was going to have to talk to her about that because if she planned on staying with us, then we couldn’t have friction like that. Until we could figure out how to get the Bokor to accept us, we couldn’t afford to do anything that might clue anyone in on the fact that most of us were Touched.