The fighting party went deeper into the forest this time. More of them were along today due to feeling confident. A few of the ghouls drifted in but only in ones and twos, easily dispatched. Every so often, they stopped for Arlen to place permanent markers and build a little fort. The presence of anything manmade stood out against the ever-present smell of plants and the crowded feeling of the dense trees around them.

"Can you scatter some metal too?" asked one soldier.

That worked fairly well. He embedded bits of iron where he could stab with them for some extra punch. "Why does iron help against ghosts, anyway?"

They didn't know, but they'd tried various rituals and substances like salt with little effect.

The next time a few ghosts came at the party, it was a chance to test tactics. Everyone retreated to the nearest fort a short jog back, then battled from behind pillars and awnings with the option to fall back into a little building. Worked well.

They had to stay on offense. By afternoon they'd charted more of the island's depths, and at last they spotted a ruin. It barely stood out in the fog: a dome of hazy light around a squat stone building large enough to have been an ugly mansion. Nothing more besides the overgrown suggestion of a road or wide foundation.

From behind it, large yellow eyes peeked out in an inky cloud.

"Back off," Arlen said, but everyone was already enthusiastically doing that. Arlen raised another fort quickly, focusing on one wall at a time to get some kind of defense up.

The Walker in Shadow flowed from behind the ruin. It rumbled and stretched, arching its back until it looked taller than an elephant.

"Let's go back!" said one warrior.

Arlen rushed. He had a wall, part of another. "What is that thing?" he asked without looking again.

"It's big."

Another guy said, "More solid than the ghosts. But smoky?"

"It's coming this way!"

Arlen couldn't help but look now. The looming shadow moved with a low rumble he hadn't noticed while casting his ground-moving spell. "Don't run yet. Back off slowly." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a chunk of roast meat he'd been saving, then lobbed it toward the creature as a distraction. If it was more like a wild animal than a ghost, maybe that'd help. He backpedaled. Maybe the group could make it to the next complete fort.

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The beast stopped, then rippled sideways and lowered itself to peer at the meat. It looked up and aside, paced indecisively, then pounced on the offering and devoured it.

"That worked?" said a hunter. He grabbed his spare food and threw that too. The Walker went for it. They were buying time. "Everybody, your food."

The creature's body was indistinct, but when it lowered itself again Arlen had the impression of an animal sitting. Somewhere within that darkness, behind the eyes, another creature floated. Trapped, maybe.

The group backed off, but the Walker wasn't outright threatening them now. It stood, stretched, and rubbed its inky side against the incomplete fort Arlen had abandoned. Then it purred.

Arlen blinked. "What?"

"It's still coming after us!" someone said.

"Shush. Just walk. No sudden moves."

The group had reached their last waypoint and had a good defensive spot now. Everyone was a little more confident due to that, but also the Walker had failed to attack them. It had only followed. "Now what?" asked a hunter.

"Can we get back home before dark?"

"Yeah, even walking."

"Anybody got meat left for it?"

One guy had held out. Arlen made him toss his supper toward the giant monster. It sniffed and devoured this treat too. "Maybe it's not hungry now?" said the man who'd donated.

Arlen said, "It's like a cat!"

"Are we the mice?"

Arlen shivered. "Stay here. I'm going to try something stupid."

He left the shelter of the fort and slowly approached the towering monster. It tilted what passed for its head, mostly visibly by the angle of its golden-coin eyes. In the shifting depths of darkness, he saw a floating black cat. The body around it moved like a puppet. Hesitantly Arlen reached out and touched the shadowy substance along its side. It felt like a chilled pillow. The great head stared at him but made no effort to eat him. The whole body rolled over. Arlen petted its back in long strokes, and the Walker in Shadow purred.

"Um, sir?" said one of the men.

"Sometimes when you stare into the darkness, it trots up to you for petting and food."

#

Arlen left the island of ghosts behind. Everyone was well equipped and had a new ally of sorts. The feline Walker had followed them all the way to town without bothering anyone, and had come back the next morning to utter a deep and echoing meow until someone left it a hunk of smoked meat.

Arlen sailed to Decim to report to Voz about the discovery and the continued cleanup. His main focus right now was farming: getting everyone to tend the expanded gardens he'd encouraged every island to grow in a hurry, to make up for the ruined crops caused by the hurricane. Food would be tight for another month before new vegetables came in, but the fish supply held out for now.

Arlen publicly bestowed his "magical" gun on Voz as a show of support. In private he asked, "Whatever happened to the Black Arrows?"

They'd met in one of the side rooms of the expanded palace. The building now had a four-story tower, a stone wall, and a whole wing of storage and housing for whoever might need them. Arlen had tried to give the place a style that didn't clash with the original palace too much, but his stonework was different from anything in this island's tradition. So he'd consulted with some people from Catacomb and Stormhowl and tried to work a bit of their style in.