Shadow Walker

The Cormorant

Dec woke in a room that smelled faintly of sweat and brine. White light poured through a small, round window inset into a stipple blue veneer wall opposite, burning his irises. He blinked, squinted and looked around. He was lying on a sprung mattress, atop a scratchy grey blanket, head propped on a hard pillow. His throat was so parched, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"You're awake."

He jerked his head towards a woman standing in the doorway, hands behind her back, a stern expression on her face. She wore dark blue pants, a white sleeveless shirt with a golden cormorant embellished into the pocket and a white peeked cap. It took him a moment to realise it was Rain. Her hair was pinned into a tight bun at the base of her neck, giving sharpness to her otherwise round features. She looked at him with an impenetrable expression one might give to a stranger.

Wariness forced his groggy mind awake, and he struggled to sit up. When he spoke, his voice came out in a smoker's croak. "Where am I?"

"You're onboard the Cormorant," Rain said, voice as stern as the starch in her clothes. "In one of our upper deck cabins."

The Cormorant? Why did that name sound so familiar? And why wasn't he more shocked to find himself in the presence of the Northerner from the cemetery...

Recognition lapped at the edges of Dec's mind before inundating him like a freak wave, leaving him gasping for air. The Cormorant was the name of the merchant navy vessel that Rain's boss, Angus Reid, captained. Rain had told him of it during their conversation in the tunnel—the conversation that had led to him stumbling into the storm and receiving a sharp jab to the back of his neck.

"What did you do to me?" he said, attempting to stand, then falling back on the mattress as the ground preceded to tilt and spin.

Rain crossed her arms, serving to make her appear larger and more formidable than she already was. "I did what needed to be done," she said. "And you were being inconsolable."

"Inconsolable?" Dec said, looking around for something to use as a weapon should he need it. "You knocked me out—"

"Calmed you down," Rain interrupted. "You should thank me. I saved you from being buried alive."

Dec's head snapped up as he remembered why he was in the tunnel in the first place. "Where's Adele?"

"I took her to the hospital once the storm cleared up. I believe she is in a stable condition. The storm was a good enough excuse for the police as to why she hadn't come back to your house. As for you, the Captain's lawyer is taking care of everything. If Montague tries to pull you aside for questioning, you have every right to refuse him."

Dec's mind chugged over this information like an engine on low fuel. So Dirk Regulski was the Captain's lawyer. He'd been right about Rain and Dirk having some kind of connection.

His mind buzzed with a confusing muddle of questions, none of which he managed to vocalise before Rain stepped into the corridor and turned to walk away. "I'll tell the Captain you're awake."

"Wait!" he said, hating how his voice rose with a desperate kind of pitch. "What does he want from me?"

"That's beyond my knowledge," Rain said evenly.

"What if I don't want to speak to him?"

Rain shot him a look that one might send a petulant child. "You had a choice to follow his orders before. You ignored him. Now, there'll be no choice."

She stepped into the corridor.

"And what does this mean if you are no longer be employed to follow me?" Dec blurted, cheeks blazing. "Are you finally going to leave me alone?"

Rain half-turned her head, but didn't look him in the eye. "Unlike the captain, I cannot and will not force you to act against your will. I only ask that you do not mention what I have told you about Shadow Walking to anyone. Nobody will believe you. And if they do, and knowledge of the art form gets into the wrong hands ..." She let the sentence hanging in the air between them, heavy with insinuation. Then, she walked away, footsteps reverberating on the steel access platforms outside the door.

Dec stared at the spot she'd been standing, too stunned to move. He should've been relieved to have been rid of her. But for some reason, he could feel nothing more than an impounding sense of doom—that perhaps he'd made a bad decision to tell her to stay away.

His dread cut short when his attention was taken by the wide open door Rain had left behind. He was about to meet the Captain—the man who'd bailed him out of jail, and hired a Northerner to keep an eye on him. An image flashed in his mind of a man with a shark's smile and guns hanging from a waist belt. He didn't think navy officers had guns, but he imagined the Captain would.

He pushed himself to his feet, taking a measured step towards the open door. Perhaps he should make a run for it? Leaving the cabin would be easy. But then what? The ship could be huge. They could be out on the water, in the middle of an ocean. He would be trapped and it would only be a matter of time before he was found.

While his mind ticked over his diminishing escape options, he surveyed his surrounds. Besides a sad halogen fixed into the roof and the saggy mattress upon which he sat, the room was unfurnished—grey vinyl covered floor, stipple blue walls, grey ceiling. His gaze kept gravitating back to the circular window in the far wall, the one he assumed had been lit by very bright halogens from outside. It was ringed with a sturdy brass frame and had a painted metal cover that was currently hinged open.

An incredulous thought occurred to him. If Rain had said he'd been asleep for a whole day and night, that meant it was now day time. Which meant the light streaming in from the window could be ...

He crept forward and placed his hand on the glass. It was warm to touch and raised goosebumps on his arms. He brought his face close, nose touching and waited for his eyes to adjust to the glare. And there it was, a glimpse of blue. The brightest blue he'd seen in almost two years. The blue of the sky.