Path of Dragons-Chapter 53Book 7: : The Ferry

“Just a second, bro,” Dat said, already striding forward. As he did so, Elijah studied the dock and its surroundings. Vaguely, he sensed that something was off about the whole scene, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on exactly what was wrong.

“Where is he going?” asked Gideon. “What is he doing? There’s nothing there.”

“Dat has spent more time out in the city than anyone else in Hong Kong. Just trust that he knows what he’s doing,” Sadie said.

Elijah squatted, resting his hand on the ground as he focused on Soul of the Wild. It wasn’t long before Dat passed out of its range, but Elijah was interested to note that the Witch Hunter hadn’t bothered to use Ghost Cloak. He didn’t even use his less powerful stealth ability.

“I don’t like it,” Gideon stated, his hand on the hilt of his sword. He didn’t remove his riot shield from his back, but he was obviously ready for combat. “You know the rumors about him as well as I do.”

“What rumors?” Elijah asked, rising to his feet.

“Don’t worry about it, Elijah. It’s just gossip,” Sadie countered.

“Well, now I need to know,” Elijah responded. “Come on. I love gossip.”

“Mr. Bao is suspected of consorting with the enemy,” Gideon announced. “There is an ongoing investigation into him, largely because he spends so much time in the city.”

“Because we require information,” Sadie pointed out.

“Be that as it may, he has been seen entering necromancer compounds on multiple occasions,” Gideon stated.

“Enough, Gideon,” Nico said, his first contribution to the conversation. “Traitor or not, Dat is committed to this fight.”

“Not if he’s a necromancer in disguise,” Gideon argued. “He’s just waiting on an opportunity to turn on us.”

Just then, Dat winked out of sight. One second, he was there, and the next, he was gone. However, Elijah had seen his friend use stealth on enough occasions to recognize that this was something different. The disappearance was too sudden to have been the result of a spell.

“Where did he go?” asked Zhang Yue.

Lin Tao, the summoner, was already starting to cast a spell. Sadie stopped her with a shake of her head. “Not yet,” she ordered. “Too noisy.”

Lin Tao nodded.

“Do you want me to go check on him?” Elijah asked.

“Just wait.”

Elijah sighed, managing to remain silent for all of fifteen seconds before he said, “This is torturous. Just let me go check on him. I’ll be fine.”

Sadie gave him a withering glare, so Elijah subdued his compulsion to remain active and, alongside the others, waited for Dat to reappear. A couple of minutes passed, and Gideon grumbled about traitors. Meanwhile, Sadie seemed as if she was on the verge of removing the man’s head. Clearly, the tensions between the two ran deep, and it wasn’t just because of his accusations regarding Dat.

After a couple more minutes, Dat reappeared. When he returned, he said, “It’s all set up. Be cool.”

“I’m always cool,” Elijah said with a grin.

“Wasn’t talking to you, bro,” Dat stated, his eyes locked on Gideon. Then, they shifted to Nico. “The ferry will take us to the island, but you’re not going to like it. It’s run by a necromancer.”

“We should kill them and take the boat,” Gideon said. “Where is it, by the way?”

“You set foot on the boat, he’s in control,” Dat answered. “You won’t see it before then.”

Gideon was obviously frustrated by that revelation, but there was nothing he could do about it. He seemed like the type who was used to taking whatever he wanted, and by force if necessary. Being robbed of that option didn’t sit well with him, as evidenced by his surly demeanor.

Or maybe that was just his normal expression. Everything else was just a mask he wore.

Regardless, after Dat explained that there was no other way across the harbor – adding that the water was infested with aggressive monsters – everyone agreed to the terms. Soon enough, he was leading them forward.

Elijah felt it before it came into view. A one-story building to the left of the dock was hidden by some sort of ability. Without Soul of the Wild, he’d never have detected it, suggesting unexpected strength. Twenty feet later, they passed into an unseen bubble, beyond which they could see the building.

And more importantly, the boat gently bobbing next to the dock. It was clearly a repurposed ferry, with a green hull and white, two-story superstructure above. Elijah could see a row of holes running a few feet above the waterline. The whole vessel was at least a hundred feet long, but due to its width, it had a squat, squarish appearance.

Elijah took all of that in at a glance, then focused on the building itself. It was unextraordinary, painted white and reminding him of a bus station. However, he was far more interested in the occupants, most of which were clearly zombies. In only a moment, he counted more than a hundred such creatures, but he stopped counting after reaching that number.

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There were only four living beings inside the building. One adult man, an adult woman, a teenager, and a toddler. Thankfully, the zombies were out of sight. Otherwise, Gideon might’ve had a heart attack. For his part, Elijah had to remind himself that Dat had claimed everything was okay. Without the Witch Hunter’s assurances, Elijah would never have approached the building – not without Guise of the Unseen, at least.

Still, he put his trust in his friend and, soon enough, reached the building, where they were greeted by one of the living humans Elijah had felt. The man was rugged looking, with a patchy beard and weathered skin. However, he did wear a broad smile that revealed a couple of missing teeth.

He wore a simple blue shirt and work pants that were held up by suspenders. On his head was a worn baseball cap.

“Welcome, friends,” he said in heavily-accented English. Clearly, he’d made an attempt to use the actual language rather than relying on the system to translate. “Mr. Dat has booked passage to Tin Hau Island. Please, come inside while the ship is prepared for travel.”

Dat didn’t hesitate, and Sadie soon followed. However, the other Hong Kong residents all hesitated. After a few seconds, Gideon said, “We will remain out here, guarding the perimeter.”

Sadie had clearly expected as much – as evidenced by the subtle roll of her eyes – and she said, “Suit yourself. Nico? Elijah?”

Nico shook his head, professing his desire to remain with the group. Elijah, on the other hand, had never intended to remain outdoors. The situation inside was just too interesting to miss. So, he followed Sadie and Dat inside.

The interior of the building was just what he’d felt from without, and it looked like the lobby of a bus station. A few chairs lined the walls, and there was even a busted vending machine in one corner. But perhaps the most interesting factor was what he smelled the second he stepped inside.

“Is that coffee?” he asked, glancing back at the proprietor. “It smells like coffee.”

“It is!” said the excited man, grinning broadly. “We found a stash early on, and we have been hoarding it ever since. Would you like a cup?”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Elijah said. “I’m Elijah, by the way. The armored woman is Sadie. And you know Dat.”

He nodded gravely. “I know your identities,” he said. Perhaps he had an ability that helped with that. “I am Ke Ming.”

“What about the people in the other room?” asked Elijah, not so subtly hinting that he was aware of their presence. “Your family?”

“My wife, Mei, and my children,” the man answered. Elijah could feel the man’s heartbeat quicken as he poured a cup of black coffee from a carafe that had been warming on the counter. The white mug had some Chinese characters on it that Elijah couldn’t read, but he could interpret the meaning of the graphic on the other side, which resembled the ferry floating at the end of the dock.

When he handed over the cup, Elijah said, “Thanks. When do we get going?”

“At dusk,” Dat answered before the ferryman did. “Any earlier, and the monsters are more active.”

Elijah glanced through one of the windows. That was only an hour or so away, which was an acceptable delay. More than anything, he wanted to just shift into the Shape of Sky and fly over. However, he’d already seen plenty of aerial threats that told him just how bad of an idea that would be.

So, he sat in one of the chairs lining the wall and took a sip of the bitter coffee. It had clearly gone a little stale before it had even been brewed, but it was still palatable enough. Absently, he dipped his hand into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel.

That got a response, and the ethera swirled around the ferryman.

“Just getting some honey,” he said without looking up. He took the jar from his satchel, then popped it open. As he poured a dollop into the coffee, he added, “Don’t need to be so touchy. I’m pretty friendly most of the time. By the way – what do you plan to do with all those zombies down in the basement? I mean, far be it from me to deride a man’s hobbies, but collecting zombies kind of seems dangerous. Especially with kids in the house. But whatever. I used to collect rocks when I was a kid. Not even special ones. Bought a polisher and everything. So you do you, I guess. I liked rocks, and you like ambulatory piles of rotting flesh. No judgement.”

“Elijah…”

“What? Collecting rocks is weird. Not zombie-collecting weird, but –”

Dat cut in, “Lots of people collect rocks, bro. It’s not that weird.”

“Yeah. People collect rare rocks. Or pretty rocks. I just collected –”

“Elijah,” interjected Sadie. “Stop.”

He sighed, then slipped his honey jar back into his satchel. “Fine,” he said, taking a sip. “But nobody’s going to convince me that collecting zombies in your basement isn’t strange. Because it just is.”

“I…I am not collecting them. They are my workers,” Ke Ming pointed out. “They row the ferry.”

Elijah’s eyes widened. “Oh. That makes more sense. I retract my former statements, vis a vis weirdness. I mean, it’s not normal. But it’s different in an innovative way. Use that free labor and get rich, my man.” He raised his fist, adding, “Capitalism. Yeah.”

After that, an awkward silence followed – a hint that Elijah had taken things a little too far. He tried to make idle conversation, but nobody seemed inclined to participate. So, he sat there, sipping his bad coffee and wishing he still had his old smartphone. Scrolling social media wasn’t good for much, but it was great for making time pass more quickly in waiting rooms.

In any case, Elijah spent his time examining the zombies in the basement via Soul of the Wild. And just as he’d supposed in previous attempts at the same, he determined that they weren’t entirely dead. They certainly weren’t alive, either. Not in any way he could determine. Instead, they were motivated by some weird mixture of life and death that combined into something wholly different.

It was both fascinating and more than a little revolting, kind of like seeing a dead body for the first time. Elijah spent most of the next couple of hours in that examination, and eventually, Ke Ming announced, “It is time. Please warn your companions not to attack my laborers. Without them, we will never reach the island.”

Sadie left the building to do just that, and Elijah didn’t need Soul of the Wild to recognize that it caused a bit of an argument. If they weren’t all hidden by the ferryman’s ability, Elijah might’ve worried that the shouted argument between Sadie and Gideon would bring hordes of hostile zombies their way.

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In the end, Sadie convinced her brother to support her side, and together, they cowed Gideon. Truthfully, Elijah understood the man’s objections. He’d been fighting zombies and other undead for years, and now he was expected to accept a situation where he was dependent on them? However, Elijah’s fundamental dislike of the man colored his opinions enough that he immediately thought even more poorly of him.

Regardless, it wasn’t long before they followed a shambling procession of zombies – Elijah counted nearly a hundred and fifty of them – to the ferry. Fortunately, the undead went down below, while all the passengers remained on the deck. That would hopefully go a long way to undermining potential hostilities, though Elijah could easily predict that something would go wrong.

At the very least, Gideon would one day return with enough people to wipe the ferryman – and his family – out. His hatred ran that deep. At worst, he would do something to foul their passage. Elijah vowed not to let that happen, less because he cared about Ke Ming and his family, and more because they were dependent on the man’s expertise.

At least, that was what he kept telling himself. However, Elijah knew himself well enough – at least in the back of his mind – that he recognized that practicality was not his chief concern. Ke Ming might be a necromancer, but that didn’t necessarily make him a bad person.

So, as a bank of oars stretched out from the holes lining the ferry’s hull, and they pushed away from the dock, Elijah vowed to ensure things went off without a hitch.