Flux

the blanket and barely managed to get his head over the side of the boat before he was vomiting again, this time bringing up nothing but a string of yellowish bile. Miner patted his back helplessly until Ennek sank back down to the bottom of the boat, his head hanging low.
    “En?” Miner whispered. “Is it…. You’re real?”
    “I think so.” He sighed and looked up. He frowned as he noticed the messy splint and the slash in the arm of Miner’s sweater. “You’re hurt.”
    “Not seriously. But you! Your stomach, and…. What happened?”
    Ennek glanced down at his new scar and then out across the water. “Those bastards boarded the Eclipse . A couple members of the crew tried to fight them at first, but it was useless—they were merchants, not soldiers. They didn’t even have any decent weapons. Captain Eodore surrendered almost at once. Can’t blame him.”
    “But what happened to you?”
    “They were going to search for cargo and I knew they’d find you with that twice-damned collar.” He shrugged. “I tried to stop them. I didn’t think, Miner. I could have used magic, maybe I could have…. I don’t know. But I just rushed them like a fool and one of them gutted me. They threw me over the side.”
    “But…you’re alive.” Miner said it a bit hesitantly. Could this be Ennek’s ghost? But no, a ghost wouldn’t vomit, wouldn’t have felt so warm and solid in his arms.
    “I fell into the water and…I don’t even know how to explain what happened. It was nothing I did consciously. I only…the water is mine, you understand? I didn’t even have to call it. But I took energy from it to heal myself. You can’t imagine what that feels like, drawing on the power of the ocean like that, bringing it inside me!” His voice was hoarse and he stopped to lick dry lips. “I floated just under the surface in a sort of bubble. And my wound mended. But it took time, and when I was well enough to move again, both ships were gone. I found the Eclipse first—scared the crew nearly to death—and they told me you’d been taken. Their boats were gone, too. I had to swim to find you. But the water…it spoke to me. Told me where the pirate ship was. It bore me to you. Not soon enough, though. They hurt you.” He took Miner’s uninjured hand in his and kissed the back of it softly.
    “You rescued me. Again. And you were…I’ve never seen anything so amazing.”
    “I was angry. That they would take you away like that, as if you were nothing but a case of…of almonds! I lost my temper.”
    “You raised a storm. You sank their ship!”
    Ennek’s jaw tightened so much Miner could nearly hear it creak. In a small voice, Ennek said, “I killed them. They took you and they hurt you but…but I killed them all, Miner. I watched the sea swallow them and I was…I was gleeful . I would have ripped every one of them to shreds with my bare hands if I could have.”
    “You were rescuing me,” Miner said softly.
    “I might have been able to find a way to get you out of their claws without murdering them all. I certainly didn’t have to enjoy it. Gods, I’m just like him…just like Thelius.” He buried his face in his hands.
    Miner scooted closer and folded him into an embrace. “You are nothing like him, En.”
    But Ennek only sobbed, wetting Miner’s recently dried sweater with his tears.

    ***

    They shouldn’t have wasted moisture on tears. The vomiting hadn’t helped either. By the time the sun set, the bits of Miner’s exposed skin—his face, his hands—felt hot and sore, and both men were as dry as old paper. Ennek had slept most of the day, slumped against Miner’s chest, but as the sky alit with oranges and reds he stirred.
    “I’m sorry,” he said in a sandpaper voice.
    “For what?”
    “Not being…better. Stronger. Smarter.”
    Miner wasn’t sure whether to laugh at Ennek’s foolishness or cry at the man’s inability to see his own worth. He ended up doing neither, instead caressing Ennek’s back under the shredded shirt, murmuring nonsense syllables at him like a parent might to a distressed child. After a time, Ennek pulled away a little. His eyes were very shiny but he wasn’t crying. “I think we’re not far from land,” he said.
    “I saw a gull this morning.”
    Ennek nodded. “Good. I can try to steer us to shore. I’m not sure how soon I can row us there, though—”
    “You’re in no condition to row us anywhere,” Miner said, because Ennek was still