“After all the disasters that have recently struck, and the amount of time they’ve had to wait for you to get to each problem, I think they’ll see the wisdom of each having their own Tomes on hand.” Shunlei gestured to the city beyond the sea of tents. “Liasa of Kovel might well hug you for suggesting it.”
“Ha! Good point.”
“And I have faith that you can find the right mages to train. You might have a harder time finding your replacement.”
“That always does seem to be the struggle.” She let her head rest on his shoulder for a moment. “But you’ll help me with it all.”
“Always,” he promised huskily.
And really, a future where the two of them weren’t constantly rushing out the door to battle some problem sounded blissful. It might mean more work in the immediate future, but Mei Li felt the trade-off would be well worth it.
It took a whole day to organize going back in. And it wasn’t just because it took that long to find enough soldiers to volunteer. The long-awaited flight of dragons had arrived that very morning, tired but thrilled to have gotten there in time to help. Shunlei had them rest for the entirety of the day and sleep well that night, as the next day would prove to be grueling.
They were up before the sun, as Mei Li wanted every trace of sunlight she could possibly squeeze out of the day to work with. The failing light had set them back last time. Hopefully it wouldn’t happen again.
Everyone ate a very hearty breakfast, gathered up tools and determination, and took to the skies.
It was an impressive sight, a full array of forty-eight dragons, just as many passengers—many soldiers—and a ship sailing ahead of them filled with supplies. If this didn’t get the docks back in order, then Mei Li didn’t know what else to throw at the problem.
There had been no improvement to the docks since she’d last seen it. With the sea channels only partially built and the one sigil only half done, that wasn’t any surprise. They landed on the docks, some of the dragons shifting to give others room to land. Land and get to the street, that was the game plan.
Now that Vaow knew what to look for, what Mei Li needed done, she snagged the woman by the elbow and forged ahead.
“Let’s at least locate the sigils first, see what shape they’re all in. I fear every single one on this street was destroyed in the renovations, but we might get lucky. It could be that the base of a few still exist.”
“You’re really optimistic, aren’t you?” Vaow asked even as she moved, matching Mei Li’s pace.
“No, I’m lazy. I want less work.”
Vaow let out a laugh, sounding like a husky, predatory cat. “I’m all for less work. Alright, let’s find these things. Who’s our guard, again?”
“Jacobs is leading our group. Captain Jacobs!”
The captain stood only a few feet in front of her. At her hail, he turned and gave her a wave forward. “We’re ready and waiting on you, Tomes.”
They certainly had lined up quickly, as expected of guardsmen. The city guards were augmented by Bai, Tengfei, and Rone.
Shunlei was on the front line of defense with the others, trying to clear the streets around the northern section of the docks, where the sea channels were being put in. It felt odd to not have him directly at her side, but they both agreed that the wraiths were a serious problem. And he had to hunt down that fallen deity before it killed anyone. Out of all the dragons here, he was one of the few who had experience hunting fallen deities. It was a tricky, tricky thing, and a younger, inexperienced fighter would stand a slim chance of survival.
Shunlei would battle the deity and give the youngsters with him some experience. He was good at teaching what he knew to the rising generation. Hopefully, they wouldn’t burn the city down in the process. Mei Li trusted him, though. She had enough on her plate and no room to worry about what he was doing.
Alright, she might be a little worried. Fallen deities were no joke. Even a dragon as old as Shunlei wasn’t impervious to them.
She shook the thought off. This wasn’t a place that was forgiving to the distracted.
Right. Sigils.
There was a grunt of impact as something quick and lethal hit a guardsman’s shield. Whatever it was, they quickly dispatched it, and after a moment’s hesitation, they continued on.
Rone had stayed in dragon form, and she lowered her head a moment to speak to Mei Li directly. “Shadow imps are swarming in packs. They look lean enough I can count every rib. Their hunger is forcing them out into this dawn lighting and making them attack us.”
“Shadow imps, eh? I don’t like shadow imps.”
“I don’t know anyone who does.”
It was sort of a universal truth. The sun is warm, the grass is green, everyone hates shadow imps.
Mei Li was glad Rone seemed more comfortable speaking to her, now. In between all the madness, she’d not found a good moment to really repair that relationship. But Rone was apparently coming around in her own way. It gave Mei Li hope that after this madness was finished, she might be able to resume her friendship with the older woman.
Another impact against the shields, this one much harder and on the right side, forcing the soldiers back. There was a grunt of pain, and Mei Li had a hand on the long dagger at her waist, ready to fight back if something burst through.
Rone leaned over the soldiers and spat a short burst of flames. Something screamed, a high-pitched wail of pain, and then abrupt silence.
“Dragons are truly the best allies,” one of the men muttered gratefully. “Blessings on you, dragoness. Can you burn the path ahead of us clear?”
“I can only do short bursts,” Rone said apologetically. “The docks and buildings in this area will catch fire if I do anything more than that.”
“Even that will help,” Captain Jacobs assured her. “It’ll drive the shadow imps back into the alleys, at the very least.”
“Then I’ll do a few. Tengfei, join me. I’ll handle the right side, you handle the left.”
“Can do!” Tengfei sounded a little too happy to burn things.
Then again, all dragons were pyromaniacs at their core.
An area that normally would have taken ten minutes to walk across took nearly an hour. Mei Li appreciated the ring of protection around them on all sides, the men willingly putting their lives on the line to protect the mages and construction workers trying to get in. She hoped she would get to say a personal thanks to each of them at the end of the day. She hoped no one would fall before they could retreat out of here.
When they reached the sigil they’d been working on the day before, she felt such relief. Finally, they were close to the right area. They had a low-lying fountain built around the sigil now, something that could catch the water and let it flow properly. It wasn’t fancy, and no doubt someone would come back through and pretty it up, but it functioned. And all anyone cared about right now was functionality.
Mei Li turned in place and pointed directly south. “The seals should be aligned in a straight line. Go that way.”
Captain Jacobs led the way, Tengfei now striding alongside him, both on the lookout for anything that might attack them.
Over his shoulder, Captain Jacobs called, “Tomes, how far down?”
“Thirty-six strides, more or less. We’re not quite there. What do you see ahead of you?”
“Smooth pavement.”
“Curse them,” she said. “Curse whoever did the renovations on the street, and may a pox be on their souls.”
“Amen,” several guardsmen said.
Nice to know that everyone was on the same page.
Mei Li stopped, turning in place to look behind her, giving it all a rough measurement. “It should be here, more or less where I’m standing. Alright, everyone, stop! We’ll need to construct a new sigil here. Tengfei, guard me, I’m going to measure this out properly.”
“Give me the tape and let me fly there, much faster,” he argued, holding out a dragon claw.
That was true. Nothing could hit Tengfei when he was in flight; he was just too quick. She handed one of the measuring tapes to him and watched as he flew to the other sigil and marked it. He immediately hopped back to her, landing carefully.
“Thirty-six,” he confirmed.
“Thank you. It doesn’t have to be exact to the inch, fortunately. As long as it’s in the general area.”
She turned to ask Vaow to mark her position, only to blink down at the woman, who was using chalk to do just that.
Mei Li changed her question. “You still remember how to form the talismans?”
“I do. Let’s get this done quickly.”
Dolan and Scott already had their talismans out, so she moved to make room for them, setting down two talismans herself. The design was interesting, a circular swirling pattern like a tidal pool. Each one had to be laid out in layers, in a spiral with the talismans just touching along the sides. An interesting pattern to make with rectangular paper, to say the least.
Mei Li stepped back, saw the result, and nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Everyone, link up.”
Four mages put their hands in an array around the talismans, palms facing each other, and the talismans glowed golden-white as they activated, carving a new sigil right into the stone.
Mei Li could hear scuffling sounds behind her as a fight waged, but she trusted her back to the fighters. Her concentration could not waver, otherwise it would destroy their efforts here and they’d need to start over. That had been the problem on the first day, her concentration cracking. She was trying to learn from that mistake and not repeat it today.
It was a relief when the sigil was formed perfectly. The talismans had burned up during the casting of the spell.
“Looks great,” Finn remarked with a wide smile. “Alright, let’s build our fountain base.”
A dragon landed nearby, one that Mei Li barely knew, as they were part of the most recent flight to arrive. Li Xiu, if memory served.
“Tomes,” the blue dragon started, tone urgent, her wings still half unfurled as if she were ready to take flight again at any second. “There’s a problem with the sea channels. They won’t connect to the fountain, for some reason. There’s no water pushing through.”
Mei Li stared at her for a full second. “What,” she demanded flatly.
“Please come, we’re unable to determine what is wrong.”
Mei Li growled out a curse. “The sigil connects to any underground water channel, this is automatic. Ugh, fine, I’ll come over there. Everyone, are you confident enough to carry on without me?”
Dolan urged her on. “We’re fine, we’ve got this.”
She trusted that was the case. She’d handpicked these people for a reason, after all. “Go on, then. I’ll be back, uh, hopefully shortly. No promises.”
Rone shifted as she moved out of the circle of protection. “Let me escort you there. If anything happens to you, Shunlei will have all of our heads.”
“Heh. You’re not wrong.”
“Maybe a short flight there?” Rone suggested, eyeing the distance. “It’ll be safer and quicker.”
“I’m alright with that.”
Rone offered her a hand, and Mei Li climbed into it, securely settling down under the loosely clenched claws. With a huge leap, the purple dragon sailed into the sky, only to land just short of the wooden docks. It had, indeed, been a very quick hop. Li Xiu landed right next to Rone, then turned, guarding their backs so both could safely maneuver down to the water’s edge.
Mei Li left the claw and scrambled down, around the demolished section of the dock and to the base of the sea channel. To the work crew perched on the rocks, she demanded, “What’s going on, exactly?”
“I have no idea,” Haverty answered with exasperation. He threw up his hands to indicate the half-complete sea channel. “You’d think a big thing like this would be pouring water straight into the pipes we’ve laid out. But noooo, it only lets in a trickle.”
“Wait, what?” Mei Li finally got low enough that she could see what he meant. Despite the fact that the bottom half of the sea channel should have been underwater, and the whole thing was big enough for four carts to go through it abreast, it had barely any water in it. A trickle, as he said.
She looked around her, carefully, as the stones here were very wet and slippery. She was completely baffled. Mei Li had given them specific talismans to hold the sea water back so they could work, granted. Those talismans had been very temporary, though, and not meant to last more than forty-eight hours. It had been long enough that the talismans should have failed and washed out to sea by this point.
“Obvious question. Uh, has anyone checked to see if the water-barrier talismans are still around?”
Alina gave her a dismissive wave. “First thing I checked. They’re long gone.”
“So, it’s not that.” Mei Li stared at the area again. “I don’t see a trace of magic. And yet the water is so receded here that it can’t even go above the lower rim of the stone. Why…? The water was up to dock level just yesterday! It should be filling the channel to the roof right now.”
“That’s what we want to know. Tomes, I have to tell you, the water level being this low is unnatural. It’s always been at dock level, for as long as this city has stood.” Totherow ran a hand over his thinning hair, making it stand out like a shaky halo around his head. “It’s not because of the work you’ve done on the seals above, is it?”
“No, that wouldn’t do anything to the sea’s tides.”
“Then I can only think some creature is responsible for this.”
Mei Li had to agree, but at the same time, she couldn’t think of a single thing that would do this. That had the power to do this—or the interest. It really made no sense.
She turned and looked the area over again. They really had to figure this out, and quickly. All of their efforts to restore Kovel would be in vain if the sea channels didn’t power the sigils. Not to mention, the docks had to function, otherwise commerce would die here completely.
There wasn’t a trace of magic to be found, so it had to be something else. She pondered for a moment before saying, “The only thing I can think to do is a seeking spell. It will tell me what else is in this area. Maybe it’ll show us what we need to combat.”
“Do it,” Haverty urged.
“This will take a moment,” Mei Li cautioned. “I don’t have anything like this drawn up. Rone, can you lift me back up on the dock? I need something flat to draw on.”
“Of course.”
It took her several moments, but Mei Li was quick. Once she had it drawn out, Rone lowered her back down again, onto the same slick stone that she’d been standing on before.
Mei Li couldn’t just toss the talisman into the sea water, she had to be close enough to activate it, which meant getting farther down. She walked a little lower, carefully, as she had no desire to be dunked into the ocean.
It was only when she had safely reached the water’s edge that she breathed out in relief. Good, good, that potential disaster had been avoided. It did mean getting her shoes a little wet, but the area forced her into that. Hopefully they’d dry out soon. And her heating charm could keep the shivers down. The water was cold. How it was still water and not ice was beyond her.
She tucked her skirts up and in between her thighs, keeping them out of the water. Squatting onto her haunches, she leaned forward enough to put the talisman in the water, but not fully. Just the tip of it, grazing the water.
Opening her mouth, she barely got a single word out before a wave splashed over her.
Mei Li spluttered and dragged hair out of her face, shivers wracking her body from head to toe. “REALLY?! Sea, you and I need to have a talk, that was not cute.”
The next wave came quickly, and Mei Li scrambled to put her feet under her, get out of the way before it washed over her completely as it had before. She barely stood before the water reached her.
But this time, it didn’t wash over her
, as it had before. As any wave would naturally do.
This time, it covered her from head to toe. And yanked.
In seconds, Mei Li was lost to the sea.
Mei Li sometimes had nightmares about the sea water closing over her head. After living through a shipwreck, that was natural. She steered clear of the ocean whenever possible and tried to forget about it, and on a day-to-day basis that worked pretty well.
But in this moment, she felt like she was reliving that day completely. The water was freezing cold, so murky that it obscured her vision completely, and she barely had any air in her lungs. It was that terrible day all over again, and she could feel panic taking over her mind.
She struggled, wriggling about in all directions, trying to break free of whatever had her in its grip. She had to get to the surface, quickly. The farther down she went, the harder that would be. Her skirts clung and wrapped around her legs, heavy and thwarting her efforts. Her lungs started to burn from lack of oxygen, and the more she struggled, the less air she had. Still, Mei Li kept trying to fight free.
Whatever had a grip on her, it was a strong, intangible force. She kept getting pulled rapidly toward the bottom. And no matter how she wriggled, the momentum didn’t lessen.
Dark spots started dancing in front of her eyes. Mei Li’s terror climbed up her throat, choking her. Please, please, let me loose, she silently begged. I can’t drown now.
I can’t leave him alone like this.
Her feet touched air, the absence of water startlingly warm.
And then she dropped, suddenly, with nothing to cushion her fall. She landed in a wet splat on hard ground, legs going in every direction, and felt the bruises start forming immediately.
But with those sensations came blessed air, and she drew in heavy breaths, her lungs starved for it.
The panic didn’t recede by much. She looked around frantically, trying to get her bearings. Where was she? Why was there a bubble of air on the ocean floor? She had to be on the ocean floor—she could see hints of fish swimming about in the water all around her. The ground under her feet was firm, dry, but there was evidence of ocean life even here—shells and driftwood. And as far down as this was, there seemed to be light coming from all directions, more than enough to illuminate the area. This place smacked of magic, but not of a sort she could easily put a finger on. She wrapped both arms around herself, shivering hard.
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