by Mel Odom
The unexpected move caught the men by surprise and they ducked back, but not before Shang-Li slashed through one man’s sword shoulder to disable him. By then Thava had leaped from the ship’s side and crashed into the other three. They fell, bowled over by her armored size and weight.
Thava kicked one of them in the head to render him unconscious, then clove another man from crown to the nape of his neck. The remaining man ran for his life but he didn’t get far before the paladin brought him down with a throwing axe. The flat of the blade crashed into the back of his head and he crumpled.
“What do we do with the ones that still live?” Thava asked.
“If I had my way,” Iados said as he stepped from the brush that hugged the canyon wall, “we’d slit their throats and have done with them. Let the Blue Lady’s little beasties fill themselves up on them for a while and buy us some time.”
Thava shot him a look.
“Except that I know that isn’t your way,” Iados went on.
“And it never will be,” Thava vowed.
Iados sighed. “I must admit, I sometimes long for the simpler days before I became your traveling companion.”
“You’re fortunate that I saved you from yourself.” The paladin recovered her throwing axe.
“So what then does wise Bahamut say? Do we take these men as prisoners?” Iados gestured to the fallen Nine Golden Swords warriors.
“No.” Shang-Li took a fresh grip on his sword. “Now that we know these men are out here, we’ll try to steer clear of them.”
“That could be difficult.”
“I won’t have their murders on my hands. It’s one thing to kill a man in battle, but I won’t slit his throat when he’s helpless.”
“That’s why you should kill them in battle when the chance presents itself.” Iados flashed an evil grin. “I assure you, I took no prisoners, nor did I leave any that I crossed blades with that live to challenge us later.”
Shang-Li swam up over the ship and spotted the sailor that had waved him over to Grayling. The man floated slackly in the water. Blood flowed in streams away from the sailor’s slit throat.
“You can tell that’s what they were doing,” Iados said as they swam past.
“We’ll gather our people,” Shang-Li said, “get what salvage and cargo we can haul this trip, and take it back to Swallow. If we’re lucky, it will be enough to tide us over until Amree gets us to the surface.”
As they swam back within sight of Swallow, the first thing Shang-Li saw was the blue energy of the Spellplague flickering through the ship.
“She’s alive,” Thava said as she leaped up from the ground to see across the dense brush.
At the front of the ship, Red Orchid shifted and moved as if coming awake. Amree still floated before her, gesturing and using a wand that glowed orange and wavered like a flame. Shang-Li took solace in the fact the creature was still alive, but he checked his hopes. Just because Red Orchid had survived didn’t mean she was whole, or even that she could help them keep Swallow under control once they started for the surface.
And the Blue Lady’s messenger had still not appeared.
He chased the dark thoughts from his mind for the moment and continued swimming toward the ship.
Upon arrival at Swallow, Shang-Li swam into the hold and crawled into the air space Amree had created. The bubble was considerably larger and lines had been run to keep the ship from floating up from the sea floor prematurely. The feat buoyed the hopes of all aboard. But Swallow wasn’t yet seaworthy.
“You found Grayling?” His father abandoned the kitchen to one of the sailors, wiped his hands on his apron, and joined Shang-Li at a table they’d salvaged.
“Yes.” Shang-Li removed the oilskin pouch he’d found aboard the shipwreck. He hadn’t wanted to chance opening it anywhere else rather than chance the sea destroying the books after all these years.
“These are Liou Chang’s books?”
“Let’s find out.” Shang-Li untied the clever knots that kept the protective pouch sealed. It took effort to keep himself calm. He upended the bag and the books slid into his waiting hand.
All of them were journals written by Bayel Droust, and all of them were from times before Grayling had sunk beneath the waves.
“Regrettable.” His father clapped him on the shoulder.
Holding his anger and frustration in check, Shang-Li pushed the books away from him on the table. “They’re still out there. I failed.”
“No, my son.” Kwan Yung’s voice was soft and carried only to Shang-Li’s ears. “If this mission meets with failure, it is our failure. Not yours to bear alone.” He paused. “Besides, the books are still out there, as you have said. We haven’t failed yet.”
Shang-Li returned to the world outside, feeling more tense, more anxious. Amree was still using her magic to soothe Red Orchid. A dozen sailors were checking nad tightening the lines. If they didn’t find the journals of Liou Chang, all the efforts would come to nothing once the Blue Lady used the portal spells to escape her prison.
He approached Thava and Iados, who were explaining to Captain Chiang how they had found the Grayling and been attacked. Captain Chiang nodded to Shang-Li as he came near.
“Do you know where the Nine Golden Swords’ ship is?” Captain Chiang asked.
“No,” Shang-Li said. “We didn’t see them again after we left the canyon.”
“Gods willing,” Iados growled unpleasantly, “the ones we left behind became meals for some of the monsters we’ve seen down here.” He glanced at Thava. “I suppose you have no objection to that?”
“As long as I don’t have to watch, no.” Thava lounged against the ship’s hull with her helm next to her.
“Then we don’t know if our enemies are near or far,” Chiang stated. He didn’t look happy.
“Near enough,” Shang-Li said.
“But we don’t know if they’ve a mage that has figured out a solution to eating and drinking while underwater.” Chiang smoothed his beard. “They could be in dire straits. Desperate men make mistakes.”
“Desperate men,” Iados said, “also do desperate things. And they didn’t act like men thirsting to death. They were fit, able. We’ll do well to post extra guards until we’re clear of this situation.”
Chiang nodded. “Agreed. I’ll amend the roster. It will cut back on the amount of sleep the men are getting. They’re not going to be happy about that.”
“It beats waking with a knife in your throat,” the tiefling pointed out.
Chiang gave him a thin smile. “It would have been better if the survivor you brought back was a warrior. Or, gods willing, a wizard. That way we would have had more defensive capability instead of just another mouth to feed.”
“Perhaps, but I think it’s going to be a while before we see better.”
Amree swam toward them. The ship’s mage looked worse than she had the last time he’d seen her, worn down and exhausted, but she was no longer favoring her injured hand.
“How is Red Orchid?” Shang-Li asked.
“Better. Getting stronger. I think she’s acclimating to the ship well. She seems to be herself and says her strength is quickly coming back.”
“How soon before we can float the ship?” Shang-Li asked.
“Come see,” she said, and led them back into the hold. Treated canvas, coated with tar so it was virtually airproof, covered the ceiling.
“We’ve nailed over the holds to contain the air as I make it,” she said. “And I’m continuing to make air every day, but I can’t do that and make repairs at the same time. Attending to Red Orchid has also set me behind in my schedule, but I think the good she will do will offset that.” Seated on a crate, she drew her legs up and encircled them with her arms. “However, as I’ve considered our situation, I’ve realized we have a new problem I hadn’t counted on.”
“What?”
“Ballast. In order to get Swallow to float faster, we’re going to have to rid her of the ballas
t. I can’t make enough air to overcome all that weight.”
Shang-Li looked at the rocks that covered the bottom of the cargo hold.
“What’s the problem?” Iados asked. “Getting rid of the rock only makes sense. There’s less weight to lift. Seems like the only set back there would be having to move all of it.”
“That will be a chore,” Amree agreed. “But ballast aboard a ship is important.”
“Only if you’re attached to all those rocks.”
“Those rocks,” Chiang said, “keep the ship balanced while in the ocean. If a ship is not properly weighted down, she would turn over every time the wind blew. She’d float like a cork on the water and have no control. Every time we take on cargo, it has to be carefully configured. We take on more cargo, we offload ballast. We don’t take on enough cargo, we have to load ballast.”
“So if Swallow goes up without ballast,” Iados said, “there’s no guarantee she’ll be right side up on the sea surface. Even with Red Orchid’s help.”
“Or, if by chance we do go straight up, she might not stay that way. If she falls over on her side in the ocean, we could right her again because we have longboats that weren’t destroyed. And we’d need to be able to shift ballast to aid in that.” Amree glanced at Shang-Li. “Though I would like one or two more longboats. Supply boats filled with food and water. Just in case the ship doesn’t survive and we do.”
Kwan Yung came out of the dry area and stood beside them. Still embarrassed by his mistake, Shang-Li found himself watching Amree intently, rather than catch his father’s eye.
“We’ll have to pull them into the dry area and get them properly stored before we try to ascend.” Amree bit her lip. “There’s also another problem.”
“We seem to be harvesting a veritable bumper crop of them as we sit here,” Iados commented.
“I don’t know how far down we are,” the ship’s mage said. “I’ve seen what happens to men who stay down too deep too long and come up too fast. Sometimes they die, but when they don’t they are left with withered and weak bodies.”
A chill passed through Shang-Li as he remembered the sailors he’d seen that had suffered the malady while helping with salvage operations or treasure hunting. They’d gotten caught out in the depths when their water-breathing potions had become exhausted and had swum as quickly as they could to the surface. Most hadn’t made it, but nearly all of the others had been left crippled. No one knew why the sickness struck.
“A person, maybe two,” Amree said, “I could protect from the sickness. But I can’t protect this ship’s crew from something like that.”
“We still have the water-breathing potions,” Shang-Li reminded. “We could all drink one of them before we begin the ascent. The potion should protect us.”
“Are you willing to bet your life on that?” Amree demanded. “The lives of this crew?”
Shang-Li looked into her eyes and remained calm. “I know that if we remain here,” he said, “we’re going to die. There are too many things in this place that are only too happy to hunt us.”
Amree gazed fiercely at the tarp. “I just wish I could create enough air now so I would know. One way or the other. I don’t like waiting. When I do, my mind has more than enough time to figure out all the things that could go wrong.”
Kwan Yung spoke softly but his voice drew all of them. “Once you have planned for everything bad to happen that you can, once you have made all preparations, it is always better to plan for things going right. Let planning take over when—and if—there is need.” He nodded toward her. “You should get some sleep. We all should. The time will come when we will need it.”
“Awake, manling.”
Drowsy and worn, Shang-Li opened his eyes and was surprised to find that he was still in the hold. The light from the glowstones staved off some of the sea’s chill. He looked around and saw many sailors slumbering around him. His father sat at the table and read through Bayel Droust’s journals, though Shang-Li had read through enough of them that he was certain nothing of consequence to their present predicaments would be found.
The Blue Lady stood in the center of the hold and looked around with casual disdain. “So this is what has been occupying your time?” She walked toward the canopy of air that had swelled so large in the emptiness.
Swallow twisted at the ends of the ropes anchoring her to the sea floor. Over the last few hours, she’d threatened to pull free of the moorings twice. Only Red Orchid’s warning about the slack had prevented that.
The Blue Lady touched the air-filled bubble with a long-nailed hand. She smiled coldly. “You fight against the sea. I had to accept it as my home even though it fought me at first.”
Soundlessly, Shang-Li rose to his feet. His fighting sticks dropped into his hands.
“You would only be wasting your time, manling.” The Blue Lady peered at him. “And if you wake your friends, I’ll kill them here and now, and I’ll destroy this ship.”
Shang-Li forced his breath out. “What do you want?” He spoke softly so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping sailors or alert his father, though he didn’t understand how Kwan Yung could be unaware of the Blue Lady’s presence.
“I have masked myself and you to them. If anyone looks, they’ll see you still sleeping there.”
Shang-Li looked back at the spot he’d just vacated. He gazed in stunned fascination at himself sleeping there, and was surprised at how haggard and thin he looked. Cold and fearful, he turned back to the Blue Lady.
“I don’t want them to be harmed.”
“Good. Then you will come to me. Follow.”
Tucking his fighting sticks back into his sleeves, Shang-Li walked through the sleeping crew. No one, not even his father, noticed his passage. Nor did the guards Captain Chiang had assigned to their posts. Even brave Thava remained unaware of him as he passed by her. Shang-Li had never seen a spell so powerful.
In the forest, the tentacled things and the sea shambles drew back from the Blue Lady.
“They know you are under my protection. They will not harm you.”
All the same, Shang-Li stepped warily and watched all the creatures as they trailed after him. He felt confident he could escape them if it came to that, but possibly not if one of them seized him first. And definitely not if more than one got hold of him.
Only a short distance farther on, the Blue Lady came to a stop and pointed her sharp chin at a man standing in the shadows of the swaying trees. “Follow him to my home. There we will see if I was wrong in keeping you alive. If I was, you will die to pay for my mistake. But if I was right, you can live to serve me.”
Shang-Li knew that would never happen, but he didn’t say so. He concentrated on the figure beneath the tree. There was something familiar about the man.
“Come forward.”
The man stepped from the shadows and Shang-Li recognized him.
“I am Bayel Droust.” The man spoke politely, but the fear of the Blue Lady was alive in him.
“You should be dead by now.” Shang-Li spoke before he thought about it. Instead, Bayel Droust only looked the same age he had in the drawings Shang-Li had seen of the man. He should have been old for a human, older than Shang-Li’s father.
The Blue Lady waved that away. “Long life is part of my gift to Bayel Droust for his continued obedience. But I shouldn’t reward all those years of failures. As you can see, I can be generous.”
Droust said nothing in his defense, only kept his head bent and his gaze resting on the sea floor. “Yes, lady.”
The Blue Lady turned to Shang-Li. “Follow him. I will be waiting for you. If you do not, I will bring doom to all of your friends.”
Without another word, the Blue Lady disappeared.
“You are Shang-Li.” Droust lifted his eyes. “Of the Standing Tree Monastery.”
“I am Shang-Li, but not necessarily of the Standing Tree Monastery. I work with them and with my father, but I am my own man.”
“She thinks y
ou can decipher Liou Chang’s books.”
“Perhaps.” Shang-Li tried to temper his immediate dislike of the man and not think of all the deaths that might have been prevented if Droust had somehow gotten word to the surface world about the Blue Lady. Then he realized that wasn’t fair. He didn’t know what Droust’s circumstances were during the intervening years.
“Do you know what secrets the books hold?”
“The secret of portal travel, you mean?”
“I do.” Droust shook his head and frowned. “Though it would doom you, and perhaps me, I pray that you aren’t successful. If you are, all of the Sea of Fallen Stars is in danger. Perhaps all of Faerun. She will amass an army and bring war to our world from another plane.”
“I know that.”
“Then why did you agree to come?”
“Because I don’t want my friends killed.”
Droust muttered a curse. “She will only kill them anyway. She hasn’t let anyone go from this place. Even her lackeys, the Nine Golden Swords warriors she lures down here, are never freed. She doesn’t want the surface world to know anything about her.”
Shang-Li knew that, but having the possibility put into words was disheartening.
“We must go to her citadel.” Droust stepped up into the water and started swimming.
“I suppose it would have been too much trouble for her to bring us along when she left.”
“She was never here. That was only an image. Down here, she’s very powerful.”
“She’s powerful on the surface as well.” Shang-Li swam after Droust.
“Yes, but she’s more vulnerable the farther she goes from this place.”
“Why?”
“The other eladrin that banned Caelynna from the Feywild tied her to this place. The curse they used was twofold. She is stronger here, but she’s tied to this place as well. Leaving her could kill her.”
“Stronger than she was there?” Sea shambles moved below Shang-Li but couldn’t keep up with the two of them. Tentacled things reached from the tree branches but fell short.