Ascended

We reached the city just after nightfall.

Master Bran had usually dealt with the inland cities, so this was a place that I didn’t remember coming to, though in my thirteen years as an apprentice, I’d been to lots of places, most of which Master Bran never told me the name of.

Ziggy was so tired that he couldn’t walk anymore, so we were taking turns carrying him. It was my turn as we approached the wall. I looked at the imposing walls and noticed something very peculiar. There wasn’t a gate.

“How do we get in?” I looked at my female companions.

Val shrugged and looked as confused as I was.

“There should be a raft that will take you around the wall.” Eveth pointed towards the south side of the wall. “That’s what mom…” Her voice caught as she thought about her mother. The leader of the Wranglers had been one of the first casualties when we fought against the horde.

The blonde cleared her throat. “That’s how mom and I did it a few years ago when we came to trade.” A smile pulled the edges of her lips up a little. “Our wagon was so heavy, they had to get an actual boat.”

I closed my eyes and expanded my senses. I’d been doing that every so often while we walked, but there hadn’t been any Zombies close enough for me to feel them. This time was no different. I nodded to Val to let her know we were safe.

“Let’s go.” Val straightened her shoulders, then paused to look at the two of us. “Remember, we’re Bokor. You need to act like one.”

“I get to be an entitled condescending jerk?” Eveth grinned. “I think I can do that.”

I shook my head. “That’s not how the Bokor act. We just want to get rid of the problem as quickly as we can so that we can move on to the next city.” I looked between the two. “It’s not condescending to let the people know that they can’t fight the Zombies.”

Val put her hands on her hips.”We can’t fight Zombies?”

“You’re Bokor and she’s Touched.” I motioned to Eveth. “You don’t count as Humans.”

I expected Val to bring up that she had been killing Zombies as a Human, but then I would have to point out that her Zombie wrangling had been what got her sister killed. Eveth looked insulted, but she’d lost more friends and family than I knew about while wranging Zombies. Both of them could argue the point, but I didn’t see how they could win.

I cleared my throat. There was no need for me to rub their loss in their faces. “Master James was pleasant.”

“And the Bokor sent him to a city that was about to be destroyed.” Val eyed me. “Face it, Byler. Bokor are self-centered jerks.”

Taking care of ourselves since we were the only thing that stood between the Humans and the Zombies didn’t feel self-centered to me. The mere fact that Bokor put themselves between the Humans and Zombies felt selfless, but I was smart enough that I could read on their faces that they weren’t going to back down from this.

“Let’s just go.” I shifted Ziggy. “He’s getting heavy.”

He wasn’t. With my increased strength, I could carry him through the night and still wouldn’t get tired. But I needed a way to end the conversation and that seemed like a good excuse.

“Fine, let’s go see if there are any guards on duty.” Val started walking.

“Why wouldn’t there be any guards on duty?” I hurried after her.

“You don’t know much about people do you?” Val looked over her shoulder. “First rule. People are lazy.” She motioned to the wall. “Zombies can’t climb and they can’t swim. Why spend your night standing on a cold wall looking at nothing when you could find a warm bed or cold drink?” She chuckled softly. “Things would look the same in the morning either way.”

“But that’s...!” I didn’t know what to say.

“People only care who’s to blame when something breaks. As long as it keeps working and they don’t have to do anything else, the bosses don’t care how it got done.” The redhead stopped at the riverbank and motioned to the dock a good fifty feet into the water. “See? nobody’s there.”

I sighed. I really didn’t understand people.

“What are we going to do?” Eveth looked up at the wall.

“Wrong question.” Val smiled. “What would a Bokor do?”