The house looked like someone had been living in it.

Either that meant that there was a caretaker for the ‘Bokor House’ or this was really someone else’s house and they had been evicted ahead of us. As much as I assumed it was the second, I hoped it was the first. I usually had been too busy to notice the looks that the Humans had given Master Bran, or maybe it was because people were smart enough not to give those looks around him. For most of my life, I’d been under the impression that most Humans were happy to give the Bokor what they needed. It was just a few of the jealous ones who resented us.

Unfortunately, the more I dealt with people, the more it seemed like Humans resented having to work with us, doing so only because of how much stronger than them we were. There were some that tried to curry favor, though I was curious if the pleasant reception we’d received at Gher had been because they were hoping that they’d receive a reward or because we had been Bokor and not potentials.

All it took was a look from Eveth and Ziggy quietly followed his older cousin down the hall while the Mayor busied himself with lighting the lamps.

“Is it, um… adequate?” The balding man looked over at Val.

The redheaded ran her fingers over the back of the wooden furniture. “It’ll do.” She dropped her pack in one of the large chairs, then turned to look at the mayor.

“Is there anything else you need?” The older man was wringing his hands together.

“Have you seen any Zombies?” I cut in before Val could get any more into character.

“We, um…” The mayor wiped sweat from his brow as he looked at me.

“You haven’t.” Val folded her arms in front of her. “Because you haven’t been paying attention.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I’m sure there’s not been any activity of note.” He tried to keep his eyes focused on me.

His gaze was piercing, which made me very uncomfortable looking at him. I tried looking in his general direction and that helped a little.

“An entire horde of Zombies wiped out Gher and you don’t ‘think’ that anything of note came by?” Val sounded even more irritated. “That horde had to be gathering for close to a week. If they passed by here…” She shook her head. “Think of how many people are dead because your guards didn’t want to lounge on the walls.”

To be fair, the horde had most likely come from inland rather than the peninsula, so I doubted that the guards would have seen anything, but if a horde swept down the peninsula for one of the larger towns, then one of their ships could have sent a warning to the cities further south. That reminded me.

“Are your ships out?” I motioned towards the east where the docks were. “I only saw a couple little boats in the harbor.”

The mayor looked more uncomfortable. “We um… haven’t heard from our ships.”

“As in you lost them?” Val sighed. “Don’t tell me that Zombies have taken those too.”

“I don’t know!” The mayor winced at the volume of his voice and dialed it down before quickly continuing. “We usually have our two main fishing boats along with three ships that run supplies back and forth between here, Port Town, Opel, and Carthage.” He slowly moved to the dining room table and sat down when he saw that Val wasn’t going to go off on him.

Eveth walked down the hall before he could continue. She looked from the older man to Val. “He’s asleep.”

The mayor looked confused. I could see a question forming and tried to head it off.

“The apprentice is new.” I glanced between my two female companions before looking back at the mayor. “He hasn’t adjusted to our schedule yet.”

The balding man looked like he was chewing on his cheek as he thought, then he turned to me. “I’ve never seen a Bokor with glasses before.”

There was something in his tone that felt like he was having doubts about our validity as Bokor. I tried to think of a good explanation for why I was wearing goggles, but Eveth saved me while I was thinking.

“What were we talking about?” The blonde sat on the arm of a wooden rocking chair in the common room as she ignored the man.

“Missing ships.” Val tapped her fingers on her arms.

“Oh, that…” The mayor swallowed.

“Yes that.” Val unlinked her arms. “I’m waiting.”