Marsal Eme was the first one to respond.

  “The channel freezes more years than not.” The gray-haired man looked at Val. “The men have chopped more ice than trees, but if that horde is still there come winter, there’s no way we can defend the whole island.”

  “We can’t protect a group this big on the mainland.” Eveth laced her fingers together. “Even if we only took the people with weapons, we’d still be moving too slow to outrun an attack and no one has leathers.” The young blonde shook her head. “We could go, but that would leave this place unprotected.”

  “I’m not doing that.” Val shook her head. “But she’s not wrong, we need help.” The ginger rubbed one of the purple swirls on her cheek. “Master Byler, how many people do you think you and Master Fyga could protect?”

  My mind flashed back to being pinned down on the top of the stone wall around Pline while Max was thrown over to the Zombies below. I hadn’t been able to protect the one person I was charged with.

  I shook my head. I was stronger now and she wasn’t asking about treacherous humans, she was asking about Zombies. Humans were one thing, but Zombies, I was a lot more experienced with.

  “Considering the size of packs that Zombies usually run around in, the two of us could probably protect a group of ten easily.” I swallowed. “But against an army? Four or five.”

  Since we would be able to feel when the Zombies were getting close, it would really come down to how fast the humans could get into trees, but the further we went down the peninsula, the fewer trees we were going to have.

  “Who do we want to send and where will they go?” Val looked at the three humans.

  “Carthage’ll have a boat ta spare.”

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  “That’s north and you’ll have too much water to cross before you get to shore.” Marshal Emes shook his head. “Plus, it’ll take you a week to get there on foot!” The gray-haired man turned from the captain to Val. “Terrace is only three days south and it-”

  “Ain’t nothin’ but a fishin shack!” Captain Jace huffed and crossed his arms. “Ya aint gonna find ya a boat there that can carry the Backers, let alone da rest o’ us before we die!”

  I’d never heard of Terrace and it wasn’t on my list of places to stop and check on. Since I was supposed to check on the cities on the peninsula, I was inclined to believe that it wasn’t anything more than an illegal human outpost.

  “You want to send the Bokor to ask aid from those outlaws after they killed so many pirates?” Dame Isough clicked her tongue and looked at me. “Forget Zombies, how many people can you protect from pirates?”

  I started to throw out a number, but stopped when Fyga shifted next to me and touched my leg with the back of her hand. We hadn’t been able to protect ourselves in the dark with tree cover.

  “If they see us coming?” I shook my head. “None. We’ve got magic and could take their hideout, but I can’t do that if I have to watch a human’s back.”

  “I wouldn’t need the Backers ta watch ma back.” Captain Jace’s one eye sparkled. “I can handle ma self.” He wagged his finger. “An ya know I can keep up with ya, so don’t think about leavin’ ma out.”

  I looked at Marsal Emes. “I suppose you want to go too?”

  The older man shook his head. “I’m not going to lie to you and say that I wouldn’t get in your way.” He rubbed his chin. “But if you want some more, I could think of a few that might be capable.” He frowned. “Most of the best fighters stayed behind to hold back the Zombies while everyone escaped.”

  My heart sank. A city of ten thousand had been reduced to just over a hundred. I’d failed so many people, but that only hardened my resolve not to fail the survivors.

  “It’s great that you’re planning a team to go get us a rescue, but how are you going to get off the island?” Dame Isough gestured at Fyga. “You can’t make another ice bridge if it’s going to do that to her again once you reach the shore.”

  I didn’t want to tell her that we couldn’t do that again even if we wanted, but that would be too admitting that we were a lot weaker than what they thought we were. And it would be outing our guardian angel, who seemed like he wanted to stay hidden for now.

  Captain Jace answered the question before I had a chance to come up with something.

  “We build a raft!”

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