Everyone knew that shades were dangerous creatures, wielded by selfish, power-hungry mages.

Wren had lost her parents and brother in the Settlement eight years ago because of the mages...she'd be damned if they were going to take her crew, too.

She pushed down her fear, sealing it up in a tiny box in her head. She'd deal with it later.

Ignoring the screams of terror all around them in the main hall, she grabbed Godfrey with one hand and Scarlett with the other. Her eyes darted around, trying to find the others.

"Where are Teddy and Abigail?" she hollered over the din.

"This way!" Godfrey cried, pulling them forward. "Hold on!"

Together, they fought against the crowd rushing for the door. Inch by inch, they moved further into the room.

"There!" Scarlett shouted. "I see them!" She lunged forward, pulling—until she slipped out of Wren's grasp!

"Scarlett!" Wren cried, reaching after her but finding only empty air. "Frey, I lost her!"

Being the slightly taller of the two of them, Godfrey stood on his tiptoes. He whipped his head around, trying to catch sight of her.

But the next instant, Scarlett was back, and she had the others in tow. Teddy held Abigail's arm in a tight grip. They were both white as sheets.

Wren's heart went out to Abigail, whose face was contorted in fear. She'd only been six years old when her family was killed on the Settlement. She wasn't scared of much in this world, but the mere mention of magic made her quake in her boots. "Is it t-t-true?" Abigail asked. "Is there a sh-shade?"

"Never mind that now," Wren told her. "Are you both okay?"

They nodded.

"Come on!" Godfrey called. "Let's get out of here!"

They turned towards the doors, but the crush of people in a mad rush had caused a bottleneck. A mere trickle of people was getting through, leaving the others to jostle furiously against one another.

"It's blocked," Teddy said, an edge of panic in his voice. "There are too many people!"

"This way," Scarlett said. "There's another exit. Follow me!"

The crew moved at a fast clip, moving in a line and keeping hold of one another.

Scarlett led them to the bar along the far wall. She pushed aside a blue curtain to reveal a simple wooden door, and yanked it open. Inside was a stairwell that went down, down, down...they rushed onwards, clutching the cold steel railing so they wouldn't fall—until finally, they fell, gasping, on the ground outside.

But even now, they weren't safe. News of the shade had spread like flames on a thatched roof, and they could already hear alarmed shouts in the distance.

Where there was a shade, there would soon be Paragon soldiers...and neither was good for the Dirty Countess crew.

Wren ran for the ship, beckoning the others to follow. "Come on! We have to get back to the ship!"

Together, they ran through the cobblestoned streets of Carnivale; for once, the atmosphere in the city was fearful and tense.

By the time they made it to the Dirty Countess, the ramp was already extended.

"Hurry up!" Titus shouted at them before disappearing inside. He, in particular, distrusted magic. Even though a mage had created the set of automatons in the first place, the other mages had seen them as abominations, and killed all they could find. Titus had been born into a bloodbath, escaping only by the skin of his teeth.

The crew and Scarlett ran on board the ship. Wren leapt into the pilot's seat and slammed the ship into gear. It rocketed into the air with the surrounding ships, some of which were just starting to warm up their engines. Thank the fog for Titus.

She heard the others behind her, gripping whatever they could to keep from falling over as the ship flew high into the sky.

Wren's hands were shaking. It had been a close call...one wrong move and they would have been caught between a shade and the Paragon. It was a stern reminder that one tiny misstep could mean their deaths.

She'd lost enough for a lifetime. They'd all lost enough, for several lifetimes. Wren should have known better than to risk an unplanned trip to Carnivale...and for what, an impromptu date gone wrong? She fumed at herself.

It was hard to wrap her head around the fact that they'd seen a shade.

Now that they'd put some distance between themselves and the shade, Wren leaned back in her seat and tried to focus. Tomorrow, this whole day will seem like little more than a bad memory, she told herself. The important thing is that we made it out alive. We'll fly straight to Capstone City and do the Reverend Mother's stupid vanity errand, and everything will be—

Abigail screamed.

Wren whipped around. The shade was hovering in the bridge, five feet away from them.

Her heart thudded in her chest, pure adrenaline coursing through her veins. In one swift movement, she pulled her gun out of the holster and aimed it at the door. She couldn't harm a shade with a bullet, of course, but mages, at least, were still human.

Godfrey had the same idea. He positioned himself protectively in front of the others and held his gun at the door. "Stay back!" he shouted. "We're armed, I'm warning you!"

"Did it follow us?" Teddy squeaked.

"Where's its mage?" Scarlett demanded, eyes darting all around them.

Titus was silent, his back arched and his metallic tail straight up.

"Show yourself!" Wren shouted, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. "Whoever you are!"

Nothing. The shade hovered in midair. No one came through the door.

At last, Titus spoke up. "Stand back," he hissed. "They're here for me. They missed one automaton, and now it's time to finish the job."

He stepped forward, ready to surrender, but Teddy was quicker. He grabbed the small fox, clutching him tight to his broad chest.

"Unhand me!" Titus made a half-hearted attempt to escape, scrambling but not striking out with his sharp claws.

Wren swallowed. Her throat was as dry as the Strand. "The coward won't come out. They want us to find them."

Godfrey shook his head violently. "No. We're staying put."

"We should stick together," said Scarlett breathlessly.

"She's right. We can't let them get us alone," Titus said, and his word was gold.

Leaving the ship to drift slowly through the air, the crew shuffled past the shade, pressing up against the wall to keep their distance. The corridor outside was empty.

They made their way into the galley. A pipe rattled, making Godfrey leap two feet in the air. Still, no one appeared.

"I-i-it's f-f-following us," Abigail whispered. Sure enough, the shade had drifted out of the bridge and was trailing at a distance. Colours shimmered on its strange, ever-changing body.

"We must be getting close," Wren whispered. "Get ready."

But as they made their way through the ship, they were only met by vacant rooms, exactly as the crew had left them earlier. They even searched the entire cargo bay to no avail, then stood in a semi-circle. The shade floated innocently a few feet away. It almost seemed to watch them.

"I don't get it," Wren said. The adrenaline in her body was waning, and now she felt immensely tired.

"It must have a mage," Godfrey said. "Every shade has a mage!"

"It didn't bond with any of you in Carnivale, did it?" Titus stared at them accusingly from Teddy's arms.

"No!" they all said together.

Godfrey shivered. "What a horrible thing to suggest..."

"Are you sure? No one felt a sudden, stabbing pain? No one lost consciousness?"

"I think we would've noticed, Titus," Wren snapped.

He flicked his tail at Scarlett. "What about you? You're the only new one here!"

Scarlett looked insulted. "No!"

"I would've seen it earlier," Wren said, coming to Scarlett's defence. "It's not Scarlett's."

"Hmm," Titus growled.

The crew couldn't hear anything. Not a peep, not a footstep, nothing. The shade hovered in the middle of the cargo bay—if it had a mage, it was certainly further than ten feet away in any direction.

"I think...I think it's alone," Wren said.

She lowered her gun.

"Wren, no!" Godfrey cried. He jumped forward, gun at the ready, expecting the mage to leap out of nowhere and attack...

But nothing happened.

The others slowly lowered their weapons, eyes wide and faces ashen.

"What if the shade really doesn't have a mage?" Scarlett asked.

Titus blinked. For once, the century-old mechanical fox was completely at a loss.

#

The group returned to the galley. Wren was back at the helm, lost in thought. The others stared nervously at the shade, which had, of course, followed them back.

"We are completely out of our depth," said Godfrey.

"Yup," said Wren.

"Is anyone hungry?" Teddy asked.

"Yes," Scarlett said gratefully, rubbing her stomach.

Abigail rocked silently in a corner, her knees pulled up to her chest.

"I have a thought," Wren said suddenly.

Godfrey groaned.

"I'm just going to come out and say it," she continued. The others were giving her their full attention. "I think we should sell the shade to the Mothers and buy our freedom."

There was silence, and then an eruption of opinions.

"We can't sell it—we can't even control it!" said Scarlett.

"No one has ever bought their freedom, Wren, it's just a fact," said Godfrey. "We should try to get rid of the thing! It's painting a huge target on our backs."

"We can't sell it!" Teddy protested. "It's a living thing."

Wren addressed Teddy first. "Yes, it's a living thing, and it will remain a living thing. You can't harm a shade—they don't feel pain. They don't even breathe."

She turned to Godfrey. "And I agree with you, it is painting a huge target on our backs. We will get rid of it...but why not get something in return?"

She turned to Scarlett. "You're right, we can't control it...all we need to do is hope it stays with us while we fly with it to the Strand."

The others stared at her.

"This is insane," Scarlett finally said.

"Hmm," said Titus. The others turned to look at him.

"You can't possibly be considering this!" Godfrey said in disbelief.

But Titus simply said, "Intriguing."

"Good enough for me!" Wren said, cracking her knuckles and reaching to change course. "It's settled, then. Gotta admit, it never crossed my mind that we'd buy our freedom with a bloody shade."