Wrath of the Blue Lady

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Iados,” Shang-Li called.

“I see her,” the tiefling replied. “Go.” His blade lashed out and plunged through a man’s eye. Iados yanked the corpse in front of Shang-Li to create a momentary barrier.

Taking advantage of the brief respite, Shang-Li retreated to the mainmast while sheathing his sword over his shoulder. He pushed off the mainmast with his feet and vaulted up into the yards. When he grabbed the nearest one, he flipped and propelled himself toward the stern. He ran lithely across one of the lines, then hurled himself at the nearest canvas on the aft mast.

Catching hold of the canvas, Shang-Li flipped between the sails and landed in the concave surface. When he let go the canvas, he slid down toward the sterncastle just as three Nine Golden Swords warriors closed on Amree.

At the bottom of the sail, Shang-Li hit the boom with both feet and threw himself forward. He cleared the stern railing with ease and ripped free his sword in mid-air. He had the blade in his fist by the time his feet touched the deck.

Amree gestured and spoke a word that vibrated through Shang-Li’s skull and stomach. In response, a wave curled over the ship’s side and swept her three attackers over the railing.

“The last time I faced them, I was out of my element,” Amree said fiercely. “This is the sea, my chosen home. They don’t have the same advantage over me.”

Shang-Li nodded, but there was no time to talk. New attackers clambered over the railing as the two ships met again.

Suddenly, a wave of incredible pain blazed through Shang-Li’s head. He tried to push it away, but it speared through his temples and took away his balance and strength. He dropped to one knee on the deck and struggled to keep the sword up in front of him.

The sky clouded over instantly, or maybe it was a dark fog. Shang-Li tried to figure out which it was, but by then the sea was a roiling mass of water and icy wind that snapped yards and tore canvas.

The Blue Lady’s voice reverberated inside Shang-Li’s skull. You have come back, manling. Despite my wishes and my generosity in sparing your life.

The sea geysered at the ships’ sterns. When the gray-green mist cleared, the Blue Lady stood atop a column of water.

“By the gods,” Thava whispered as she took a fresh hold of her axe and set her shield before her.

Weakly, Shang-Li forced himself to his feet and faced the Blue Lady.

“I warned you,” the Blue Lady said. “I was gentle the last time. This time I will not be.” Then she spoke in a language that Shang-Li couldn’t understand.

The storm’s intensity picked up. Lightning flashed through the dark clouds and the winds howled. yards snapped like branches and ropes tore liked rotted thread as Lotus Bee and Swallow were stripped from the top down.

“Archers!” Captain Chiang roared. “Loose!”

The archers overcame their astonishment and fired a ragged volley of arrows at the Blue Lady. The Nine Golden Swords archers reacted even more slowly, but arrows filled the air.

None of the deadly missiles struck their intended target. The howling winds knocked the arrows off course or stopped them cold in mid-flight so that they dropped into the heaving sea. The waves rose higher, until they surged over the bows and the sterns of the ships. All warring between the crews was instantly forgotten as the men struggled simply to survive and remain on deck.

The Blue Lady spoke again, and this time a whirlpool formed behind the ships. Incredulous at her show of power over the Sea of Fallen Stars, Shang-Li watched as the whirlpool widened and pulled the two ships toward the center of the swirling waters. The roar of the surging current nearly drowned all noise.

Men screamed and shouted in fear. Panic rose in Shang-Li and he barely controlled it. He gazed back over his shoulder, searching for his father. Kwan Yung stood at the stern railing and clung fiercely. He spoke, but the gale winds ripping across Swallow’s deck made communication impossible.

Shang-Li looked at Amree but found the ship’s mage remained sure-footed even on the heaving deck. One of her spells kept her grounded to the craft and she walked the heaving wooden surface as easily as she might have crossed a tavern floor. She helped some of the sailors find better grips.

Amree gestured and spoke amid the whirling debris that tore free of Swallow. She threw her arms out to her sides and Shang-Li felt a violent wrench pass through the ship as it was pulled in two different directions. The exhausted look of defeat on her brine-soaked features told the tale of her efforts. Swallow was trapped.

The ship shifted and jerked as it slid into the whirlpool and the raging waters took her. She stood almost perpendicular in the water as she was pulled down.

“Hang on!” Shang-Li yelled.

Thava tore free of the railing she clutched. The combined weight of herself and the armor proved to be too much for the railing. Despite her predicament, the dragonborn warrior held tight to her shield and axe as she plummeted into the center of the whirlpool. Shang-Li cried out, but she was gone in the blink of an eye. Her armor would drag her to the bottom. She wouldn’t be able to escape it.

None of them would.

The realization struck him just as Swallow shot down the whirlpool as if she sailed under a full headwind. The ship bucked and bristled as she endured the rough ride. The aft mast snapped off only a few feet above the deck. Then the mainmast shattered in a great crack that shoved lethal splinters through nearby crewmen.

The sails tore free and brought a snarl of rigging and broken yards with it. As Shang-Li stared into the yawning horror of the whirlpool, a tangled mass of canvas and rope struck him and knocked him from the ship. Unable to fight free of the knot of destruction, he fell into the water.

Time slowed down just for an instant as he struck the water. Sound changed as the sea filled his ears. He thought about the sapphire-colored water breathing potions he’d purchased while in Westgate and wished that he had one of them now. He held his breath and tried to swim up, but the snarl of rope and canvas bore him steadily down.

All around him, Swallow seemed to come apart. Crewmen fell from her deck, as did broken yards and weapons. Her hull cracked and barrels and crates poured out into the sea. All of it fell slowly in the water, and most of it fell at different speeds depending on individual buoyancy. But it all went down. The noise of the destruction echoed curiously in Shang-Li’s ears.

He searched for his father but couldn’t see him. He hoped that his father had somehow managed to fight free of the stricken ship before it had gone under. He doubted that had happened. And even if his father had somehow gotten free, Kwan Yung would be left to the merciless nature of the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Shang-Li took his knife from his boot and sawed at the rope that bound him. The whirlpool wasn’t slowing or losing strength. Everything that had been on top of the water was now pulled toward the sea bottom. Nothing and no one escaped.

Shang-Li’s lungs felt like they were going to explode as he slashed at the ropes. Every time he cut a strand, it seemed like he found three more. The water grew gradually bluer and darker as he sank. The light above retreated. Shang-Li didn’t know how far down he’d gone, but he felt certain that it might already be too far to recover.

He finally got the strands figured out and slashed his way through just as he plunged toward the blackest depths. Several of Swallow’s crewmen floated in the sea then disappeared into the darkness below him. He glanced around but could only make out shapes. Finding his father was out of the question.

Then the heaviness of the sea closed in around him and swept away his senses.

Shang-Li woke slowly and saw the impossible world of the sea floor all around him. He didn’t know if he’d drawn a breath while he slept, but he didn’t now. Desperate, he stared up at the blackness above him and wondered if the sea’s surface was up there or if this was death.

Lungs aching for air, Shang-Li pushed up from the sandy sea floor and floated in the water. Despite the knowledge that he’d never make the surface, he swam up all the same.

“Shang-Li. Wait.”

Turning at the sound of Thava’s distorted voice, Shang-Li spotted the dragonborn standing near a jutting cliff’s edge. The paladin still had her shield and sword.

“Take a breath,” Thava said. She demonstrated, inhaling and exhaling easily. “It’s all right. You can breathe down here.”

Unable to hold his breath any longer but still horrified by the thought of drowning, Shang-Li sipped a breath and expected the taste of brine to fill his mouth. A salty tang tainted the air, but there was no water. Strange tentacled creatures the size of small boulders that crawled on the ground, then at schools of multi-colored fish. They were definitely underwater, but they could breathe and move easily.

“I thought you had drowned.” Shang-Li swam to Thava’s side and dropped to the sandy floor.

“So did I.” Thava glanced around uneasily. “I don’t know that we’re any better for not drowning.”

One of the tentacled creatures speared a passing fish. A brief explosion of blood colored the water and the fish fought for its freedom, but the predator stood on its tentacles and hauled its prize into its gaping maw. As it chewed, bits of the fish floated out into the water and other fish darted in for the tidbits. The creature managed to hit two of those before they got away.

“Loathsome things,” Thava said. “They thought they could eat me.”

Only then did Shang-Li spot the crushed carapaces of the tentacled things lying in the sand only a short distance away.

“Have you seen my father?” Shang-Li asked.

Thava shook her helmed head. “You are the first living person I found. And when I found you, I feared you were dead as well.”

Some of the fear inside Shang-Li’s stomach unknotted. If he had survived, then his father could have as well. For the moment he chose to believe that.

“Who were the dead?”

“Four Nine Golden Swords warriors and two of our crew. None of them drowned. All were dead from wounds suffered in battle.” Thava paused. “I hated leaving our comrades unmourned and unburied in this harsh place, but I had to seek out the living.”

Shang-Li nodded. “Did Swallow sink all the way as well?”

“Yes.” Thava pointed with her sword. “In that direction. I didn’t see her touch the sea floor. But this landscape is strewn with dead and our cargo. None of it is neatly together.”

“Ships never simply sink,” Shang-Li said automatically. He ran his hands over his gear and found all of his weapons except his longbow. “When they go down, they can coast through the water for long distances, all the while losing crew and cargo.”

One of the tentacled creatures crept toward Shang-Li. The thing kept a low profile, barely a hand’s breadth above the sand.

“Watch out,” Thava said. “Evidently they’re not convinced that you’re not prey.”

Two tentacles shot toward Shang-Li’s midsection. He stepped to one side to avoid the first, then slapped the second away with the palm of his hand. He freed his sword and slashed at the thing. The creature tried to get away, but the long sword sheared through most of its body, splitting it open and revealing thick white meat inside. Instantly two of its fellows charged toward it and hooked gobbets of flesh from it with the tentacles.

“Evidently they don’t care what they feed on,” Thava growled.

Keeping his long sword in hand, Shang-Li gazed around. In the distance, two bodies twitched and moved on the sea bottom, but that was from the misshapen things that fed on them. No tracks marked the fine sand that covered the terrain.

“Which way did you come from?” Shang-Li asked.

Thava pointed toward the dead men with her sword. “Back that way.”

“You saw no one else?”

“Only the dead.”

“Were they in a straight line?”

She thought about that for a moment. “More or less, yes.”

Shang-Li got his bearings and turned in the opposite direction. “And Swallow lies in that direction?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll go there.” Shang-Li pushed against the sea floor and swam upward.

“I can’t swim in this armor.” Thava beat a mailed fist against her breastplate. The sonorous bong beat against Shang-Li’s ears.

“I’m only going up a short distance,” Shang-Li said. “I can see better from up here.”

“Stay close.”

Shang-Li nodded and swam slowly while Thava plodded across the undersea terrain. Hanging in the water above her, he had a far better view of the strange landscape.

“I’ve been here before,” he said.

“When you spoke with the Blue Lady?”

“Yes.”

“I’m no expert in undersea lands,” Thava said. Her large feet stirred puffs of fine alabaster sand from the sea floor that quickly settled and left no trace of her passage. “But none of these plants, with all the color and height, seem like they belong here.”

“They don’t,” Shang-Li agreed. He’d ventured beneath the waves on several occasions. He knew the underwater world fairly well.

“I know the Spellplague has twisted and changed things on land. I assume it’s possible that the same thing happened beneath the sea.”

“The worlds were rejoined. That didn’t take place just above the sea.” Shang-Li glanced around at the trees and fauna that seemed so misplaced here on the ocean floor. “I don’t think the Spellplague can be blamed for all of this.”

When he reached the cliff’s edge, he peered over the side. The bottom dropped away at least a hundred paces. Swallow lay broken and on her side nearly a four hundred paces away. Seeing beyond that distance was impossible. Whatever lighted the land vanished. Men gathered around the stricken ship, standing on the sea floor amid the forest of strange trees and bushes as well as swimming overhead.

Shang-Li tried to spot his father, but the distance was too great. He wanted to swim ahead but he didn’t dare leave Thava behind because there was safety in numbers.

“Others survived.” Thava stood at the cliff’s edge.

“Some at least,” he said, still searching for Kwan Yung.

A body tumbled lifelessly from above and landed somewhere in the foliage. Judging from the lack of reaction, Shang-Li suspected the latest arrival was dead. How long would the sea rain dead men from the surface? It was a grim thought and he didn’t like thinking it.

He turned his attention to Thava and searched for a way down. The cliff was too steep to walk down, and it ran a long distance on either side. On land he knew he would have been able to see much farther.

“I think I can jump,” Thava said. “I may not be able to swim, but the sea should slow me.”

“If it doesn’t, that’s a long way to fall.”

“Trying to walk around this cliff could get us into other danger we don’t yet know about,” Thava said. “There’s safety in numbers, and I’d rather chance a fall than whatever predators might lurk out there.”

Shang-Li swam over to her. “Take my hands.”

Thava chuckled. “I’m too heavy for you to lift.”

“Perhaps on the land, but we’re not there now. At least I should be able to help control your descent.”

Thava took another glance over the cliffside, then hung her axe and shield over her shoulder and reached up for his hands. Shang-Li closed his fists around her mailed gauntlets.

“Together then,” Thava said.

Shang-Li nodded. As she stepped over the edge, he kicked his feet and swam up. Her weight and the weight of her armor took him down at once with dizzying speed. They slammed against the cliffside with bone-jarring force twice, and once Shang-Li took the brunt of it. His lungs emptied of air and felt curiously heavy for a moment, then he drew his next breath.

They landed amid ochre and orange trees in a clumsy tangle of arms and legs. Thava flattened two of the trees and crushed several bushes. Shang-Li’s head collided with the trunk of another tree and he almost passed out from the impact.

“Well,” Thava growled as she got to her feet, “that could have been better, but we are still alive.”

Shang-Li groaned as he tried to get to his feet. His head reeled from the collision, but he could have sworn the ground moved beneath him.

Then it yanked from beneath him as a twenty-foot spread of leathery membrane erupted from the sea floor. He only had time for a brief impression of a bat-shape leaping up in front of him as he tumbled backward. Then the creature flipped over in an amazing display of dexterity and came for him. A razor-lipped mouth filled with serrated teeth opened along the front of the creature.