I burnt out the stumps.

  Fire magic was useless against the ground and the one time that I’d managed to do something other than fire, I’d blasted the sandy soil with a rock the size of my fist. The rock had dissolved a few seconds later, but instead of knocking dirt out of the hold, it had compacted it. Which made the soil even harder to dig out.

  It took Val until the end of the day, but she was able to make a rod of ice. Tomorrow, she was going to try to form a head on it and see how long she could work with a shovel made from ice. Just one person with a shovel was going to make the process a lot faster, even though the soil was loose enough once the roots were cut away that the people were able to scoop it out with their hands.

  I looked around the fire. Even though Eveth and I could have kept working through the night, people needed their sleep, so as soon as it started getting dark, work was halted. All of the children and most of the women were sleeping in the storehouse. The shelves had been turned into makeshift beds and there were enough spaces that forty people could sleep down there. The rest of them were scattered around small fires in a ring around the entrance.

  Marshal Emes had insisted that a guard be kept, so there was at least one person who was supposed to be awake at all times at each fire. Captain Jace had loudly protested when people started calling Marshal Emes captain, so he had taken the title of marshal instead. Considering that he was more of a sheriff than a guard captain, it seemed fitting.

  Once the groups had been set, people had started trying to go to sleep. Now, the only fire where almost everyone was still awake was the lone fire on the beach.

  The fire the leaders of the city were.sharing with us.

  It had gotten too quiet once we’d finished eating. Considering Captain Jace was sitting with us, that was even more unusual. The dip in the water had made it more pleasant to be around the joyful man and I suspected that he may have had instructions about how to wash himself other than just dipping in the water.

  Dame Isough and Marshal Emes were the other two humans. Fyga had started waking up, so she’d been brought out of the storehouse, but she hadn’t been able to stay awake long enough to eat more than a few bites of the soup that Dame Isough had cooked. She was sleeping beside me on a bed of large leaves that someone had made for her.

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  I was surprised that Carl and Hugh weren’t part of the group, but they had insisted on staying on the other side of the island with two other men to watch the city in case the Zombies attacked. Val hadn’t wanted the fight to force them to come along, especially when it made sense. It just would have been better if it was people that we trusted that were watching our backs.

  With Theo still running around on the island, I had a feeling that it was only a matter of time until the entitled man met back up with his bodyguard. They didn’t have a way to get off the island, or I’d be worried that they would try to get back to the Touched in Port Reggo and have the men loyal to him turned.

  The situation with Theo puzzled me. I’d been around Zombies long enough to know that infections never led to someone becoming a Touched. You also had to have a certain level of exposure to Zombies in order for the change not to kill you. Which meant that either Theo had been planning on becoming a Touched for years, or the Touched had a way to turn those who weren’t conditioned. Both options were alarming, but that was just another thing that I’d have to report to the Council.

  Val cleared her throat to break the silence.

  “We’ve found enough food to last us through winter, but before we start doing any more building, I think it’s time that we decide what our plan is.”

  “We cain’t stay here!” Captain Jace was the first one to speak. “That Ghost ship’ll be back and it won’t matter that we got Backers. The ghosties will take up all to tha depths!”

  Dame Isough glared at him. “If you tell that ghost story to the children one more time, I swear, I’ll-”

  “He’s telling the truth.” I cut her off.

  The old woman’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between us. “What?”

  “I’s told ya!” The bald man jumped up and pointed at me. “The Backers believe ma!”

  “Sit down.” Val glared at the man standing next to her.

  Eveth, who was sitting next to her and on the other side of Fyga, leaned forward. “Master Byler, is this something that the Bokor taught you…?” Her voice drifted off as she stopped herself from asking if it was something I’d been told by the Touched.

  “Fyga and I saw the ship last night.” I thought about explaining about the Revenants, but that was a conversation that I wanted to have with Val and Eveth alone first. “It’s real.”

  My declaration dropped silence over the group as they all processed what that meant.

  I gave them a few minutes to think, then cleared my throat.

  “So we can’t stay here for long.”

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