Wrath of the Blue Lady

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The watch sergeant gave the command to her men to take their prisoners from the tavern. Outside, a crowd had gathered to watch now that the violence had come to a halt. A few even dared to come in and have a look around. Lukkob immediately informed them there was a charge for gawking. Some of them still stayed and chose to pay the price.

Thava crossed to Shang-Li and grabbed him in a bear hug that crushed the air from his lungs. “It’s good to see you again, my friend.”

Shang-Li patted her on the back, then took a deep breath when she finally released him. “I’ve missed you as well.”

“You’ll have to tell me of your adventures.” Thava smiled, but a dragonborn’s features never looked entirely devoid of threat. “I’m certain you have plenty to tell.” She reached over and casually righted a table with one massive hand. “We can sit here.”

Kwan Yung cleared his throat, managing to sound like as obnoxious as a strangling goose.

“Thava,” Shang-Li said, “may I present my father, Master Kwan Yung of the Standing Tree Monastery. Father, this is Thava, a paladin.”

Thava’s iridescent eyes focused on Kwan Yung. “This is your father?”

“Yes.”

“But he looks so … so … small.”

“Small?” Kwan Yung raised offended eyebrows and stretched himself to his full height, barely topping Shang-Li’s shoulder. “I am not small.”

“No, of course you aren’t, Master Kwan,” Thava said quickly. “My humblest apologies. But from Shang-Li’s description of you, I’d just expected someone much larger, more fierce, and possessing the temperament of an owlbear.”

“That was his description of me?”

“No. It was more the … manner he said you had regarding him. The interpretive image was my own.” Thava smiled. “But I see I was mistaken. Hail and well met, Kwan Yung, father of my friend. I am most pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Shang-Li didn’t know if his father was more upset over the description or by the bone-bruising hug Thava insisted on giving him. When she sat him down on the floor again, his father glared indignantly at Shang-Li.

“Please forgive my companion, Master Kwan,” Iados said smoothly as he stepped into the mix. “I am Iados Lockhyr. A … traveler and entrepreneur.” He bowed. “Your son has spoken of you with nothing but the utmost respect.”

“You are a much better swordsman than you are a liar,” Kwan Yung said.

“I respectfully beg to differ,” Iados objected. “I’ll wager that you’ll find I am a most excellent liar, this topic notwithstanding.”

“Lying is not one of his most endearing qualities,” Thava said. “But I feel obligated to let you know that he is one of the best liars I have ever seen. Do not overtrust him.”

“Thank you, Thava.” Iados looked confused, obviously wondering if he’d been complimented or condemned, but he gestured to the table Thava had righted. “Shall we sit?”

“Aren’t you concerned that the men you fought earlier might return?” Kwan Yung asked.

Thava and Iados looked at each other and smiled. Then Iados said, “No. Not really. And if they do, if would be their mistake. We’ve already paid for the damage to the tavern.” He turned to Lukkob. “If I’ve paid for the tavern, perhaps I could get some service.”

Lukkob grinned at him. “Aye. And I’ll even name one of the new rooms in your honor when I have them built.”

“You’re much too kind,” Iados replied dryly.

One of the servers brought over a bottle of ale for Iados and Thava and fresh tea for Shang-Li and his father.

“Would you like supper as well?” Lukkob asked. “At least the oven is still of a piece.”

“Gentlemen?” Iados asked. “Thava and I had just sat down to eat when we were interrupted.” He leaned forward and pretended to speak so that Thava couldn’t hear. “But I must warn you: it isn’t safe to let a dragonborn get too long between meals. If you know what I mean.”

“I take offense at that,” Thava said.

“Do so,” Iados warned, “and you’ll be washing dishes for your supper.”

“Perhaps I’m not as offended as I’d first thought.” She drummed her large fingers on the table top.

“Supper would be good,” Shang-Li said. “We have much to discuss.”

His father looked at him doubtfully.

“Lukkob sets a fine table,” Iados said, picking up on the unspoken question. “If you’ve been aboardship for the last few days, you’ll find yourself rewarded. And it will be my treat.”

You’ve just won my father’s heart, Shang-Li thought.

“Very well,” Kwan Yung said as he moved to take one of the chairs at the table. “Thank you.”

Supper came and went, and it wasn’t long before the candles on the table guttered in the wind that blew through the broken windows. Lukkob had covered the empty spaces with pieces of sailcloth for the time being, but the bitter wind slipped around them carrying the stink of salt and dead fish. The heat from the fireplace didn’t quite fill the room and there was just enough warmth to make Shang-Li long for more.

“You plan to find the shipwreck and the Blue Lady?” Iados asked after Shang-Li had finished his tale.

“I’d rather find only the shipwreck,” Shang-Li said, “but I have the feeling that I won’t find one far from the other. Given that she has proven to be dangerous in the past, I thought it might be a good idea to look for you two while we were here in Westgate.”

“How do you propose to do this?” Thava leaned forward, intent and attentive.

“I’ve got the coordinates where Grayling went down. Ships tend to drift through the ocean when they go down, so I don’t expect to find the wreckage there, but it gives us a point of origin to begin with.” Shang-Li marshaled his thoughts. “I’ve dived for shipwrecks before. Sometimes you get lucky and find them in a short time, but you need to know that this could take a while.”

“Shipwrecks also mean the possibility of salvage.” Iados grinned. “I’ve dived a few of those myself. If you have good information to begin with and stick to the effort, the time you put into the exploration can be quite lucrative. I’m willing to invest some time after everything you’ve told me. Grayling isn’t the only ship that’s been taken in that area.”

“No.” Shang-Li remembered all the ships he’d seen broken and scattered across the sea floor. “But that’s part of the problem. This woman-whatever she is-is incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous.”

“Then why is she appearing in your dreams?”

Shang-Li shook his head.

Iados leaned back in his chair, which creaked under his weight. “If she has the book, and the potential to read about these portals, why would she need you?”

Although his father hadn’t been comfortable with telling Iados and Thava everything about Liou’s books, Shang-Li had make it a sticking point of their continued joint efforts. In the end, it had been Thava and her gentle ways that had won over his father.

His father spoke quietly. “In the seventy years she has had Liou’s books, she hasn’t opened a portal. We can assume that she hasn’t yet learned the power to do so.”

“Or that the information was wrong and the spell doesn’t work.” Iados’s tail flicked casually across the floor.

“The information is correct.” Kwan Yung didn’t raise his voice, but the authority resonated in his words.

“Of course, Master Kwan. I meant no disrespect.” Iados inclined his horned head.

“No disrespect taken, Iados. But the spells are a danger if they fall into the wrong hands. I cannot stress that enough.”

“And if the Blue Lady thought the spells were deficient, she wouldn’t be interested in attracting Shang-Li to her.” Thava fixed her gaze on Shang-Li. “But she is. And since she is, I want to point out the possibility that perhaps she needs you to translate Liou’s books. You said they were all written in code.”

Shang-Li nodded. “They are. I don’t know if I can read them. My father and I-and the Standing Tree Monastery-only want to secure those books before they fall into the wrong hands.”

Iados took in a breath and let it out. He scratched at the tabletop with a long talon. “What must books like that be worth?”

Thava frowned at him.

“What?” Iados did his best to look innocent but the horns didn’t help him pull that effort off. “I was just thinking.”

“In going to rescue those books, you also pose a serious threat to them.” Thava studied Shang-Li. “Maybe it would be better if you stayed out of this.”

“Sit back and wait to hear?” That appalled Shang-Li. He’d never been one to sit when there was action.

“It would be safest.”

Kwan Yung shrugged. “My son and I are also the only authorities on Liou Chang’s works. We cannot risk that forgeries are found instead of the real books. We have no choice about going.”

“We are at an impasse then.” Thava nodded. “There is no way to do this or not do this without risk.”

“Exactly as I see it.”

“All right.” Iados leaned forward again. “So we stock the ship for a long voyage and we begin searching for Grayling. What’s left of her. What do we do about the Blue Lady?”

“I’m still working that out.” Shang-Li looked around the table. “So if any of you have any ideas, I’m open to them.”

The candlelight flickered along the tiefling’s horns, chipping away the shadows that had gathered in the tavern. The effect made him look even more demonic. His smile was chilling. No one in the Edge sat close by them.

“Sounds dangerous.” Iados pulled at his chin whiskers.

“She’s pulled whole ships to the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars,” Shang-Li said. There was no way to make that sound any less threatening.

“Dangerous is more expensive.”

“Nonsense,” Thava said. “You were telling me only a few days ago that you were tired of protecting caravans along the trade roads. You were longing for the sea. And we haven’t had a good adventure in several tendays.”

Shang-Li hid a smile. Iados had a restless nature and tended to always look for the next patch of green grass.

“I might remind you,” Iados said, “that our last adventure nearly killed me.”

“Would you rather die old and feeble?”

“I find the whole idea of dying unappealing, if you must know.”

Thava snorted. “You enjoy gold and spending gold too much to be careful.”

Iados sighed and swirled the ale in his tankard. “This is probably true. Careful doesn’t pay very well. And if you pursue safety, you might as well long for a pauper’s life.” He glanced at Shang-Li. “So how much are you willing to pay?”

“A percentage of everything we find.”

“This is not a treasure hunt,” his father said.

“Of course not.” Thava patted Kwan Yung’s hand. “We go to find lost history. That is a noble quest. But Iados?” She sighed and several men closest to them moved away because the noise sounded too threatening. “Iados must find his own reasons for doing things. It is a failing within him that you must accept. He is much more … superficial than we are.”

“Don’t be so sanctimonious,” Iados warned. “You know I have a low-retch threshold when it comes to such things. Especially after a big meal.”

“I can see why he and my son are such good friends,” Kwan Yung stated, “but I don’t understand your involvement with either of them.”

“I don’t question Bahamut’s motives for the people he puts in my life,” Thava said. “I only know that I was given Iados to look over-”

“I paid the bar bill,” Iados argued.

“-and sometimes look out for Shang-Li.”

“I thank you for that.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“I am going to be sick,” Iados declared. “At least tell me that Grayling had a rich cargo on her when she went down.”

“Not much of one, I’m afraid,” Shang-Li said. “She was on a mission of exploration.”

Iados drained his cup sourly.

“But while I talked with the Blue Lady,” Shang-Li went on, “I saw several other ships in the vicinity. None of them looked disturbed. There could be treasure aboard them.”

Iados leaned forward. “You said you had to recruit crewmen as well.”

“Yes. I’ve got the feeling that several of our crewmen have probably already jumped ship.”

“Not a brave lot, are they?”

“Obviously they prefer safe and secure lives,” Thava interjected. “Some people do, you know.”

Iados grimaced but refused to look at his companion. “Crew shouldn’t be a problem. There are many desperate sailors and mercenaries in Westgate these days. There are fortunes to be made if you’re strong enough and brave enough. And don’t hang about with paladins that long for pious poverty.”

“Every gold coin in your purse weighs you down with worry,” Thava said.

“If that’s true, we’re considerably less worried than we were a short time ago.”

“You’re welcome.”

“That wasn’t intended as a good thing.”

“Eye of the beholder,” Thava replied. She picked up a hambone and crunched it thoughtfully in her beak, then sucked out the marrow.

“You want us to do what?” Gorrick, Swallow’s ship’s mage, looked apoplectic. He was old and gray, a bent stick of a man in elegant robes. He didn’t have many friends on the ship because he was so demanding.

Several of the crewmen started muttering. None of them looked pleased at the prospect of going hunting for a ship sunken by a malevolent spirit or avatar of Umberlee.

Still, it was going better than Shang-Li had thought it might. None of them had charged up the sterncastle from amidships yet. He held up his hands and the crew gradually quieted.

“There is some risk.” Shang-Li kept his voice level. He’d had to tell the men what they faced. Captain Chiang hadn’t been happy about the venture when Shang-Li had told him in private, but the Captain also served the Standing Tree Monastery. The monastery owned the ship, and he believed in their efforts. Of course, Chiang had never been asked to willingly risk so much before.

“Some risk?” Gorrick shook a fist at Shang-Li. “You’d send us to your doom if you have your way.” He waved a bony hand at the coastline. “These taverns are full of talk of the Blue Lady and the ships she has dragged down.”

Iados leaned toward Shang-Li and whispered. “If I were you, I wouldn’t tell them about the dreams.”

Shang-Li silently agreed.

“I’ve been in Westgate for some time now,” Thava said. “Until today I’ve never heard of the Blue Lady.”

“I suggest that you don’t keep the same kind of company a sailing man keeps.” Gorrick’s beard quivered with his outrage.

“Way I hear it,” someone in the crowd said, “the paladin likes throwing sailors through windows.”

“I have been in those taverns-” Gorrick pointed again.

“Wenching and drinking ale, no doubt.”

Several of the crew tittered at that. Gorrick had quite a reputation as a would-be lothario.

Gorrick scowled at the crew for the interruption and they drew back from him. “While in those taverns, I’ve heard talk of the Blue Lady. They say she’s the ghost of a ship come calling for vengeance for the pirates that sunk her. They say she went down when the Spellplague came and somehow she was given form and command over the seas where she is.”

Several of the sailors spat and reached for sacred symbols.

“The mission we have undertaken on part of the monastery is very important.” Shang-Li leaned on the sterncastle railing and pierced each man with his gaze. “You’ve served on the ship they’ve given you, eaten of the larder they’ve provided, and enjoyed fairly comfortable lives. They need you-we need you-at this, our most desperate hour, to be the warriors and sailing men you are.”

“I’m not a warrior,” someone muttered.

“Aye, and as far as comfort goes, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t broken my back working on this ship.”

“Gorrick is a hard taskmaster.”

The ship’s mage glared around. “Who said that? Who dared say that?”

No one owned up to that.

“Think it over,” Shang-Li encouraged. “What we plan on doing-”

“Is getting killed,” someone interrupted.

“-is important to our safety. The battle you flee from by not coming with us will only be fought at some later date. And it will be worse. Much worse.” Shang-Li was convinced of that.

Chiang stepped forward. “You’ve known me as your captain for a long time, most of you. I’m going with these men to try to find that ship. I would like you to go with me, but I’ll understand if you choose not to.”

“Because they’re a cowardly lot,” Iados muttered. Then he let out a painful breath when Thava elbowed him.

Chiang dismissed the crew and it was the most somber leave-taking aboard Swallow Shang-Li had ever seen.

That night, Shang-Li woke once more in a dream and trapped at the bottom of the sea with the Blue Lady. He floated in the water as the sharks danced around him.

“Your crew is going to abandon you,” she said.

“Possibly.” Shang-Li tried to draw his sword but found that his hand passed straight through the weapon.

“Come with me, manling.” The Blue Lady arrowed to the surface where a ship was held in the thrall of a storm. Canvas snapped yards and flapped in the powerful winds that keened over the decks. The crew tried to put lifeboats out as the ship started breaking up. One lifeboat did reach the sea, and even filled with crewmen, then a large wave rolled over them and they disappeared.

Shang-Li struggled to be free of the dream. He couldn’t bear to watch men dying.

“Do you see them?” the Blue Lady demanded. “Do you see how weak they are in my power?”

Shang-Li said nothing.

“That is you, manling. That is how weak you are. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, I will find you.”

Steeling himself, Shang-Li strode toward her. “Are you trying to scare me away? Is that what this is about?”

Light blazed in the Blue Lady’s dark eyes, and she smiled. “No. I don’t want you to go away, manling.”

“Because I’m coming for you.” Shang-Li spoke calmly despite the fear that raged within him.

“Because of the books?”

“Because you’re an abomination and I won’t suffer you to live. There will be an accounting.”

The Blue Lady laughed in his face. “And you think you’re strong enough to give that accounting? Then come, manling. Come and die.” The Blue Lady gestured at the ship and it broke in half. She turned back to Shang-Li. “There were others that thought they could kill me. My own kind exiled me here. But they’re going to regret that because I’m going to come back stronger than I was. And when I do, I’m going to have an army at my back. I will invade those lands and take what is rightfully mine. I will take more than that. They will beg for my mercy. And I will not give it.”

Horrified, Shang-Li watched as the ship’s crew died by the dozens.

“I promise you this, manling. If you come to me, your death will be quick. I will not prolong it. Your foolish courage will be rewarded. But in the end you will still die.” The Blue Lady gestured again.

This time a waterspout licked up from the heaving sea surface and curled around Shang-Li like a python. It pulled him beneath the sea, and this time he couldn’t breathe. He fought and fought but couldn’t escape.

Then he woke in his hammock sucking in wind and covered with feverish sweat.

“We have a problem.”

Shang-Li looked up from where he’d been fitting a plank into place on Swallow’s port side. He hung in a rope harness with tools at his waist. Cool wind sweeping in from the sea warred with the hot sun overhead and his skin was alternately warmed and cooled. He’d sweated so much that his shirt and pants stuck to him.

“If it’s about Thava …” Shang-Li said.

“No. The crew, what we have of them, seemed to be more pleased about the prospect of having the dragon-born aboard than fearful. They’re more afraid of the Blue Lady.”

Shang-Li couldn’t blame them. “We haven’t lost any more crew, have we?” Nearly half of the original crew had fled in the night.

“No. But we have lost our ship’s mage.”

“Gorrick left?”

“He … found more profitable employment.” Chiang pulled a folded note from inside his blouse.

Shang-Li took the note and quickly read it. Gorrick’s tone was apologetic throughout. But he also pointed out that they were all fools soon to be dead. Finished, Shang-Li returned the note.

“I suppose there’s no getting him back?”

Chiang shook his head and put the note back under his blouse. “The ship he took berth on sailed this morning. I was only just given the note by a boy Gorrick hired for the task.”

Shang-Li thought about that. Losing the ship’s mage wasn’t something he’d even remotely considered. And sailing back in the Sea of Fallen Stars without one, even without looking for the Blue Lady, was a foolhardy proposition. “Does my father know Gorrick is gone?”

Chiang hesitated.

“He doesn’t, does he?” Shang-Li asked.

“I thought maybe he might take the news better from you.”

“No.” Shang-Li leaned into the harness that supported him on Swallow’s side. “He won’t. He’ll blame me.”

“I know your father is committed to recovering those books-”

“Very committed. As he explained to you, the spells contained within those books could allow the wrong person to change all of the Sea of Fallen Stars.”

“-but I don’t feel comfortable sailing back out there to face what we have to face without a ship’s mage.”

“I agree.” Shang-Li hadn’t thought about trying to recover the lost books without a ship, but he knew his father would have him out on the sea in a rowboat if it came to it. That wouldn’t have appealed to Iados’s larcenous heart at all. Shang-Li sighed and stared at the plank. Only moments before, he’d felt the carpentry had been hard. Now he knew how easy it had truly been.

“Ship’s mages, good ones, are as hard to find as hen’s teeth,” Chiang said.

“Much harder than that.” Shang-Li gave the plank he’d fitted into place a few more taps. Everything seemed water tight. “Are Iados and Thava around?”

“Thava has busied herself helping around the ship. I don’t think Iados has made it up from bed yet.”

“Manual labor isn’t one of Iados’s interests.”

“No. I surmised as much last night when he wasn’t impressed with his lodging aboardship.”

Shang-Li hauled himself up the harness and flipped over the railing to land on his feet. He glanced at Westgate.

The city had come to life, filling the streets with pedestrians and carts. Hawkers called out their wares. Hoarse orders, frustrated yells, and curses floated over the placid waters around the docks. Reefed sails snapped and popped in the wind. “If there’s a ship’s mage to be found in Westgate, Captain Chiang,” Shang-Li promised, “we’ll bring one back to you.”

“A good one,” the captain said. “Gods know where we’ll be going, we’ll need a mage that knows his business.”