Shadow Run - Episode 15

There had been no sighting of the ghost ship, or the Shadow Ship as Essenin thought of it. Maybe the stories had been just stories, though they didn’t dare hope for that. They leaned on the rail, watching Zie assist the winds while the helm tacked toward the harbor. The crow’s nest had called down about sighting land an hour before—the Cape of Haroes with its step-terraced, bright green lighthouse.

The lighthouse mirrored the land around the harbor that rose gently up from the docks and warehouses in steps, through the town and on into the terraced fields of marsh grain that decorated the hills in patchwork squares of varied greens and blues. As harbors went, Haroes was definitely one of Essenin’s favorites.

Zie’s comfort level with the sails had grown swiftly every time the captain needed him. A quick mind, a faultless memory, and a powerful affinity for wind certainly helped, though something in the grimly determined way Zie approached each new task made Essenin wonder if he’d spent his entire life trying to prove himself. To his parents, to clan elders, to his lost sibling--who he’d tried to impress was harder to deduce, but it seemed an ingrained habit.

Other ships’ sails came into view as they approached land, arriving, departing, with ships small enough to enter the harbor proper waiting for pilots to guide them to the docks. It was a relief to see so many others, helping to banish the constant, nagging dread. Essenin tipped their head back, letting the sun warm their face…

And the wind died. 

They jerked upright in alarm, heading toward Zie instinctively. The sylvas had frozen, hands still extended for wind work though he had let his magic drop. Only his head had turned, away from the sails as he squinted toward the far horizon.

“Zie? Are you…well?”

With a gasp that sounded as if he were surfacing from a long dive, Zie turned to them, growing paler by the moment. “Tell the captain they’re coming,” he whispered. “I don’t see them yet, but I feel it. They’re coming.”

“Where?” Essenin didn’t have to ask who or what. That was all too obvious. They tried to reach for Zie, but he whirled and hurried toward the cabins.

Essenin would’ve followed, but the captain was already stalking toward him, her eyebrows raised in inquiry. “What’s happened? Why has he deserted his post?”

The denial was on their tongue, but they swallowed it. If Zie was right, the ship and possibly the harbor were in peril. “He says they’re coming, Captain. The ghost ship.”

“Ridiculous,” she muttered, though she drew her spyglass from her coat and peered through it in the direction Essenin had pointed. She scanned slowly, and tensed.

“Ma’am?”

“There’s a ship coming in fast. Her sails are in ribbons. She shouldn’t be making any sort of speed, and yet…” Captain Unav snapped her spyglass shut and rounded on Essenin. “No long stories now and no prevarications, sea child. Is that ship coming for us?”

“It’s…” Essenin’s jaw worked for a moment, the shock that she somehow knew what Zie had been hiding stole his words. “Yes, ma’am. It might very well be.”

“Then I need my wind mage on these sails,” she snapped. “Go and drag him out here if you have to!”

Essenin turned to race for their cabin only to be nearly swung off his feet by a strong hand closing around his arm.

“What’s going on?” The worry lines on Davs’ forehead said more than the soft question.

“The ship’s coming,” Essenin leaned in close to whisper. “Shadow ship. I have to—”

But they never finished that sentence either as Zie reappeared on deck with his long blue coat billowing in the breeze and his backpack on. He jogged toward them, his face a perfect, blank mask as if he’d turned into a ceramic doll.

“Zie, don’t you dare,” Davs growled before Essenin could intervene.

“I think you both know how I feel about you.” Zie carefully avoided meeting either of their eyes as he stood on tiptoe and offered a quick, fierce kiss to Davs and a softer one to Essenin.

“Stay. Zie, please.” Essenin stroked his face, putting every grain of tenderness in the gesture he could muster. “You’re better off with us than without us. You must know that by now.”

Instead of answering, Zie ducked under their arm, danced back a few steps, and leaped up on the ship’s rail. “I can’t watch you die.”

“Grab him!” Davs bellowed as he lunged.

Essenin managed just to snag the edge of Zie’s sleeve, torn from their grasp when Zie jumped from the rail, plummeting toward the waves. He didn’t hit the water, though, landing on a wave top and sprinting off across the water.

“Mother’s fucking tits!” Davs stomped in frustration, his angry expression laced with concern as the Shadow Ship, now visible without the help of a spyglass, turned to follow Zie’s path as he headed not for the harbor but for the cliffs farther along the shore.

They both twitched when Captain Unav spoke from behind them, “After him specifically, then. Knew he was running from something, but ghosts? Poor bastard.”

“Worse than ghosts, Captain. Living shadows,” Essenin said as they edged toward the rail. “He’s saving the ship by leading them away. Davs, do you remember the Brightwarre Inn outside of Nersa?”

“What? Yes…but, what are you talking about?”

“I love you.” Essenin vaulted the rail before Davs could catch on, calling out as he dove, “Meet us there!”

Davs’ bellowed cursing chased him down to the water, cut off as Essenin hit the waves. They kicked up and into a sprinting stroke, the fastest they could manage. They didn’t have any illusions about catching Zie while he ran over the wavetops, but they would either reach him at the cliffs or they’d be there if Zie stumbled and fell into the sea again.

So far, Zie had been running with only the slightest hint of a plan. When Essenin caught up to him, after a Very Stern Talking To, that was going to change.

Episode 16