That m, he went down to breakfast early to make sure he didn’t miss an opportunity, so he was still w his way through a mug of watered-down beer and a pte of biscuits and sausages half drowned in a peppered gravy wheher meraries came down. The gossip about st night started almost immediately, though Simoeo ig.

  It sounded like a couple of guys were w themselves up to challenging ‘that fatass’ to a rematch because the honor of the Butcher’s Bill was at stake. That only came to a stop when a man sat dowo Simon and introduced himself as Kell. Simnized him; he should have, of course. He’d seen the man with Freya st time he was here.

  “I heard you kicked Hodge’s ass st night,” Kell said, pretending to sound impressed. “Quick fight, too. Not a lot of people say that. What’s your secret?”

  The leader of the merary pany was a tall, handsome sort, and Simon could see the blonde man’s natural charisma from the first moment. There was a sehat he’d seen him somewhere before, but at this point, Simon got that all the time, especially in Schwarzenbruck, so he ig.

  “Goblins mostly,” Simon nodded. “I’ve cashed iy of ears over the years, and they’re quick little bastards.”

  “They are,” Kell agreed. “Got any tips omen? Near as we figure, that’s what we’re up against for our little stretch.”

  “I heard about that,” Simon nodded. “Why do you think it’s beastmen and not something bigger, like an ogre?”

  “Nah, ain’t been nothing that big in the northern nds in an age,” Kell said with a smirk. “It’s just a few farmholds and a lonely road until the hills give way to the mountains. Nothing more sic than the occasional s, and if we get as far as the Bahamed Pass and the fort up there, well, then it's a northern Kingdoms’ problem, and we let those desert dwellers deal with it. King Wilden’s charter only covers to the edge of Brin, so if we go that far and find out it's a civil war or something, well - we get paid just for showing up. Ied?”

  Simon doubted very much that it was something as simple as a few beast men sag trade caravans. In fact, he was almost certain it was zombie pying out, just like before, but on a slightly different timeline, and in a slightly different way.

  He didn’t say any of that, though, because it would sound crazy. Instead he just said, “Well, I’ve rooted out a couple den’s of gnolls. ’t be much different than that. You just gotta pick yround and bait 'em, and they fall easy enough.”

  “Good to hear!” Kell said, shaking his hand.

  They chatted a while longer and agreed on a 3% stake, which retty good sihe man had tried to talk him into a 1% cut on at of him being so new. Fortunately, for all his talk about how easy this was going to be, some part of Kell seemed to think they didn’t have enough people for whatever it was they were up against.

  Still, Simon retty good about the whole thing until Freya came down and kissed the man on the cheek. He introduced her as Frey and described her as the most vicious shield maiden you ever did see, but Simon wasn’t really listening. Instead, he was shaking her hand with wooden fingers while he willed his expression into something approag normalbsp;

  He avoided her after that and fell into line somewhere he rear with Hodges while they crossed the wide stone bridge and started heading north. Simon had gohis way before once, so he mostly khe way. Still, it took several days to reach the pce he thought they’d find trouble. There, at least, he wasn’t disappointed.

  In their slow trip north, he chatted with the guys and did a little sparing. He even taught some of the guys a few things and started the long, slow process of making new friends, one joke at a time. All that came to an end when they found signs of a fight, and damaged buildings.

  They all stopped to iigate the first burned-out farmstead. It showed plenty of damage and blood, but no sign of corpses, which fit Simon’s zombie theory precisely. When tracks were pointing further north, they all agreed that it was the right move to follow them.

  “These don’t look like beastmen to me,” Simon said, pointing out the fw in their assumptions. “Not uhey’ve learo wear boots.”

  Boots on a beastmen was literally impossible, of course, and that gave everyone pause. “Maybe it’s bandits, then,” he ventured. “They don’t usually get this brave, but then this would hardly be the first time that we’ve had to take bandits doeg, is it?”

  The men rgely agreed with that, and even though Simon pointed out that the beastmen might take the corpses, but the bandits would only take their valuables, he was rgely ignored. Only Garth asked him what he thought it was after they started moving again.

  “Well, a man wearing boots that doesn’t leave corpses behind…” Simon said like he was trying to think. “Either we’ve got some deranged ibals, or maybe something worse than that.”

  “Worse than deranged ibals?” Garth ughed. “Like what?”

  “We’ll, there’s lots of things worse than ibals,” Simon shrugged. “I’d rather fight a dozen ibalistic highwaymen than a single orc. Those things are insanely strong. In this case, though, I was thinking… what if it’s like a warlock? What, however, is killing these people is taking the bodies for some other purpose.”

  Garth shuddered at the thought and made the warding sign against evil with his hands as he said, “Well if you think that, why aren’t you telling the boss. Kell o know.”

  “He does,” Simon agreed, “But he probably doesn’t he new guy to try showing him up by telling him in front of everyone.”

  The man got the hint and nodded sagely. They didn’t speak of it again, but that night, Kell informed everyohat, based on the signs he was seeing, they could be dealing with something more evil than man or beast and that, somehow, the risen dead might be involved in all of this. He took plete credit for the idea, but Simon didn't mind as long as people were warned about what was ing.

  The stories that night around the campfire were told in hushed tones, and the guards were extra vigint. That was good, because the first arm rang out some time after midnight.

  Simon was on his feet immediately, with a sword in hand. His first thought was to use a word of light to illumihe situation, but he khat with everyone so on edge, being branded a warlock would make for a bad end. Instead, he ran to the fire, pulled out a burning brand, and tossed it in the dire of the guard who was calling for help, thehe words of minor fire to set the underbrush on fire so that he and everyone else could take iuation.

  The result painted a grim picture. The group had left behind the ft nds and camped on top of a hill, almost a day’s walk north of the trade road. It was a good, defensible spot, with good sight lines in all dires. That wasn’t enough to deter the mob of at least two or three dozen zombies advang on them in a wide arc, though.

  There lenty of room to retreat, theoretically, but Simon didn’t think that they were too terribly outnumbered, and thought it robably worth the fight. “You take their head’s off!” he yelled to the other men struggling to wake up and figure out what the hell was going on. Even as they did, though, he was charging the zombies.

  He’d killed plenty of these bastards and was no longer afraid of them. Holy, he was happy to put them down. His only regret was that with so many other people present, he couldn’t use words of force to scythe them down like the pests they were. Still, he hadn’t gotten to use his mace mu a long time, and the siing ch that each of the zombies made as they fell before him was very satisfying.

  Part of him had worried this was going to be a massacre for these men, but it would seem that aside frs, who’d been the man on watch, everyone else was fi turned out that his call of warning had been his st, and moments ter, his throat had been ripped out by an almost skeletonized ghoul.

  While the rest of the Butcher’s Bill mourned him and discussed what they should do , Simohrough the bodies. This was both to make sure that they were really and truly dead, but also to see what he could learn. He reized a few a dead from the barrows, but there were what looked to be bandits, soldiers of Brin, and more than a few farmers. There were even children among the bodies. Those were the ohat weighed on his heart the most.

  “How did you know there would be zombies?” he heard Freya ask behind him.

  “Why do you think I know anything about anything?” Simon pyed dumb, not turning around to look at her as he tio study the corpses because he didn’t trust his expressions where she was involved.

  “Don’t py dumb with me. I heard what Garth told Kell over lunch,” she said, sounding more pointed and direct than he ever remembered her being in all their lives together. “He as much as said that you khere was going to be a warlod zombies ing up.”

  “Know is a strong word,” Simon said, finally rising and turning to face her. “Let’s say I had a feeling, and we’re lucky someone listeo it. Otherwise, it could have been a real bad time.”

  “It was a bad time fs at least,” she said with a sad shake of her head like she was disappointed in him. “Wasn’t there more you could have done?”

  “You put together panies like this, and people die,” Simon shrugged, ign the fact that there was a lot more he could have done. “I had a feeling and shared what I khanks to that, almost everyone lived. You’re wele.”

  She opened her mouth again, thought better of it, and closed it. It wasn’t until much ter after the sun had risen, that Kell got him alone and said, “Well, it looks like we lucked out bringing you along, Simon. Tell me, where do you think all this is going? Do you think there’s an evil wizard somewhere up ahead? ”

  Simon could see the suspi in the man's eyes. He was looking for someoo bme, and Simon was determined not to be it, more than that, though, that phrase, ‘evil wizard’ rebouhrough his mind giving him a terrible sense of deja vu.

  Then it hit him. Kell was the asshole that had tried to kill him during the run he’d solved this level, and he was the guy that had opehe gate the time that Simon had been stuck as a zombie. For a moment, he was filled with rage, not just because he had to help this loser but also because Freya ended up with him.

  Whoever said life wasn’t fair never met Hedes, he thought to himself. If they had, they would have said that life was the opposite of fair.

  Simon didn’t say any of that. Instead, he gestured at the bodies and said, “There’s plenty of clues here to a careful eye. We should study them before we burn them.”

  “Burn them?” Kell said. “That could take all day.”

  “It could,” Simon nodded, “But better than this spreading, and having to deal with even more zombies, right?”

  “Fine,” he agreed. “Now tell me what you see.”