Wrath of the Blue Lady

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Shang-Li swam with a heavy spear clutched in one hand. Given their present circumstances, the spear seemed a better choice than his fighting sticks. Thava and the sailors who followed him also kept their weapons out, ready for the Blue Lady’s creatures to attack.

Iados swam and scouted a head of them. The tiefling’s tail twitched like a cat’s as he surveyed the sea floor. They’d already learned many creatures liked to conceal themselves in the loose silt and the brush. And all of them appeared ravenous.

The forest continued on as far as Shang-Li could see. He’d never seen anything like the environment he watched around him. As a ranger, he’d been trained to feel at home in the forest. But though he’d tried to find some familiar bits of this one, there was no closeness, no safe harbor. The forest just felt wrong. It didn’t feel dead, but it felt something close to that.

Ahead, Iados waved and indicated that he’d found the first shipwreck of the day. Dodging through trees and brush, Shang-Li swam forward and Thava picked up her pace. The rest of the salvage crew trailed after them.

Holding the spear in both hands, Shang-Li dropped toward the sea floor near the ship wreckage. The vessel hadn’t fared as well as Swallow. She lay broken almost in half, her masts broken and splintered, and her deck largely gone. Cracked timbers and shattered planks lay beside the ship.

“She’s a cargo ship, isn’t she?” Iados asked. Like Shang-Li, he carried a heavy spear.

“I believe so.” Shang-Li used his spear to test the ground in front of him. He stabbed the long blade experimentally into the silt to see if anything lurked beneath the debris.

Curious fish swam nearby, and a few of them fell prey to the tentacled things that hid in the nearby brush. The hunters brought the writhing fish to their maws and ate greedily. Sharks had followed the scavenging crew from Swallow and now circled lazily overhead. The predators were patient hunters but every now and again one would drop down and hit the unseen barrier. Whatever force contained them discouraged them time after time. Shang-Li hoped that continued to be the case.

Thava stood at the keel and brushed away the algae that covered the bowed planks. “Her name was Bokhan’s Pearl. Does that mean anything to you?”

“No,” Shang-Li replied. “The ship we’re searching for is called Grayling.”

“Judging from the shape of most of the ships that the Blue Lady took under,” Iados said, “I wouldn’t hold out hope that you’ll find much of her.”

“I don’t need to find much of her,” Shang-Li replied. “I only need the captain’s cabin to be intact.” And somehow airtight, he thought, gods willing. “Let’s see what we can salvage.” He swam down toward the broken ship but remained vigilant.

He touched down on the ground a short distance from Bokhan’s Pearl. With Thava on one side of him and Iados on the other, Shang-Li boarded the ship.

The interior was dark. Cargo lay broken open and in disarray. Nothing looked as if it had been disturbed since the ship settled on the sea floor, but the damage from the storm that had taken the vessel down was apparent.

Skeletons, their bones picked clean and gleaming in the blue glow that permeated the area, lay scattered around the hold.

“What killed them?” Iados shifted one of the skeletons with a foot, making certain it didn’t rise up to grab hold of them.

Shang-Li knelt next to the nearest one and surveyed the remains carefully. The skeleton was intact and didn’t show any signs of combat damage or residual harm from the ship’s sinking. Tattered clothing clung to the skeletal legs and ribcage. An amulet hung around the dead man’s neck.

“I don’t see any signs of past wounds,” Shang-Li said.

“This one suffered combat injuries,” Thava said from a few feet away. “Axe blows. A sword thrust through the ribs. But all the bones show signs of healing. This person lived through those attacks. Whatever killed them wasn’t violent.”

“Storms are violent,” Iados observed. He remained on guard and watched the ocean around them.

“They didn’t die in combat,” Thava said.

“Then how?”

“Drowning would be my guess,” Shang-Li answered, and he felt the grim reality of the situation close in on him.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Iados shook his head. “Why did they drown if we don’t?”

“I don’t know,” Shang-Li replied. He didn’t bother to point out that could at any moment since he felt certain the thought lingered constantly in their minds. “Perhaps they drowned before they reached the blue light. Maybe the Blue Lady chose not to help them.”

“And where is she?” Iados asked impatiently. “If it was so important for her to have us down here, why hasn’t she come to claim her prizes?”

Shang-Li couldn’t answer that either.

“I’m tired of waiting,” the tiefling declared with an angry snap of his tail.

“Until we know more about her,” Thava stated, “you’re only waiting for your death. Better we should take this time and learn. The battle will come.”

Most of the ship’s cargo was ruined, contaminated by the ocean or strung out in pieces across the floor. Some of it lay half-buried in the silt.

Shang-Li prized at one of the planks near the ship’s stern. The wood remained good, but the vessel had been constructed well and intended to stay in one piece.

Shang-Li braced himself against the ship’s hull and managed to rip the plank free. Handling it in the water was much more difficult than on land. Whatever magic allowed him to move and breathe beneath the ocean didn’t apply to the things they scavenged from the ship. The plank moved slowly through the water and made the job hard.

However, the water made the heaviest prizes easier to manage. Two sailors carried a mast that would have taken a block and tackle and a crew of stout men to raise on land.

A short distance from the ship, Shang-Li dropped the plank on a pile of others that had been salvaged. Thava stacked another.

“How long do you think we’ve been at this?” the paladin asked. “The men are tired, and they’ve been through a lot today. If it is still the same day.”

Shang-Li nodded. No one needed to be overtired, but the need to finish the task Amree had set before them remained on his mind. Staying focused was hard when he thought about the Blue Lady and how she might close in on them at any time. When he let himself get fatigued, he couldn’t help thinking she was deliberately letting them labor on their escape just so she could yank it away from them at the end. “Let’s finish up with what we have, tie it off, and get back to Swallow.”

Thava nodded.

Swimming up, Shang-Li called the salvage crew in. They sorted through the timber, canvas, and cargo they’d gathered. Then they swam in freight teams to haul their salvage back.

Shang-Li held onto a corner of sailcloth and swam. The weight of pots and barrels weighed the center of the sailcloth. It also slowed progress because it fought the ocean in an ungainly fashion.

But it went.

Although he glanced around him and saw no one, Shang-Li couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.

Shang-Li tracked the darting shadows all around him as a matter of course. Never before had he noticed how restless marine life seemed to be. It was always moving.

What are you doing, manling? The Blue Lady’s voice lay chills all along Shang-Li’s spine.

Looking around, Shang-Li realized he could no longer see his companions or the load he’d been tugging along. She has you in her thrall, he thought.

You’ve had time to think over my offer, manling. Now I want to know if you’re worth the time I’m taking to keep you alive.

“You’re not keeping us alive.” Shang-Li thought of the dead sailors they had lost over the last couple days. “We’re keeping ourselves alive.”

I’m keeping you from dying more quickly.

Shang-Li didn’t answer. No matter what he said, she would only turn it against him.

Do you see your friends? Are you even awake?

Hesitantly, Shang-Li hung in the water. He didn’t know if he was awake, or what had happened to the others or the salvage.

There is someone I’d like you to meet. He is my guest-

“Prisoner, you mean?”

– and I expect you to treat him with respect once I introduce you. If you harm him, I will kill everyone that is there with you.

Shang-Li didn’t have a response for that. “Who is the guest?”

You will know him. He will test you, your knowledge, and see if you are the one I need. If not, I will kill you and let my pets have you. But at least it will go more quickly.

Anxiety twisted Shang-Li’s guts but he kept his focus and forced himself to be calm. They were running out of time. “When is he coming?”

Soon.

Pain flooded Shang-Li’s temples as her power filled him. Then she was gone, and the sorrow of her leaving left him almost shattered him. He breathed through the feeling and it quickly went away. When he blinked again, he found Iados glancing in direction.

“Are you all right, Shang-Li?” Iados had him by the shoulder.

“Yes. I … what happened?’ As he looked around, Shang-Li saw they’d spilled the canvas with him.

“I don’t know. It was like you were in a trance.”

Shang-Li shook his head and it felt heavy and slow. “It was the Blue Lady.”

“She’s able to contact you while you’re awake?” Thava sounded more concerned.

“Her power over you is obviously growing,” Iados said. “That’s something we hadn’t considered.”

Shang-Li had, but he hadn’t wanted to bring it up. Even now, he didn’t know what to say, or how to tell them exactly when they would no longer be able to trust him.

Since no one could tell by the horizon or by the eventual fall of darkness how much time passed, the hours were marked by candles that burned in the canvas bubble. After everyone had six hours sleep, interrupted by a two-hour guard shift in the middle or at either end of the cycle, Captain Chiang roused his crew and the “day” began anew. The schedule was hard to keep because there was no way to mark time while away from Swallow.

Shang-Li, Iados, and Thava once more headed up the salvage party. They didn’t return to Bokhan’s Pearl. An infestation of sea shambles in the area nearby had been enough to dissuade them of that.

“I hate the way they watch us.” Iados stared bleakly at the inhuman things that stayed mostly hidden in the treeline. “I don’t know if they’re waiting on us to catch us unaware, or if they’re spies for the Blue Lady.”

Shang-Li shook his head and regretted it. For the last couple of days, he’d been plagued by ferocious headaches. His sleep and even an increasing number of his waking hours were interrupted by nightmares.

“I don’t know.”

“And where is this mysterious person the Blue Lady told you she would send?” Thava kicked at a scuttling thing that had crept too close and latched onto her boot.

“I wish I knew.”

“Because it’s not like we’re going to have friends down here,” Iados said.

“Have you had time to consider my offer, manling?”

Startled, Shang-Li glanced up into the shadows of the hold they were currently sorting through. The Blue Lady floated in the water in front of him, glowing with an incandescence almost as bright as the glowstones they’d hung in nets on the wall. Out of habit, Shang-Li reached for his fighting sticks and this time they fell into his hands effortlessly.

Amused, the Blue Lady smiled. “Still you cling to your desperation.”

“Would you have it any other way?” As he looked around, Shang-Li saw that he was alone. Iados, Thava, and the others were no longer in the hold. He hadn’t seen them leave.

“No. Desperation drives you, manling, but it is an elixir to my kind. You work so hard, dream so big, and yet you live so small and so quickly.”

Shang-Li tried to keep his thoughts focused on the Blue Lady and not think of the gamble they were putting together to raise Swallow.

“I know all about your pathetic ship, manling. You’re only foolishly wasting your time trying to get it from the sea bottom. I brought it down here, and it shall remain here. You can do all that you may to fight me. In the end, your frustrations and panic will only feed me more.”

Emboldened by his own fear because it turned him numb, Shang-Li strode toward the Blue Lady. “You say you laugh at us, at our efforts to free ourselves. But we haven’t been down here over eighty years, have we?”

“Careful, manling.” Dark fire flashed in the silver eyes. All amusement slid from the Blue Lady’s beautiful face. “Don’t overestimate your value.”

“What does it feel like to be trapped so long?” Shang-Li stopped within striking distance. “At least I’m here with my own kind. My friends and family. What do you have?”

“You brought your friends and father here to die with you, manling,” she said. “Does that knowledge really make you feel all that smug? Is that something you can take pride in?”

Despite his pain and uncertainty, Shang-Li made himself meet her gaze and hold it steadily. “Not pride. Solace. I won’t die alone. Can you say the same thing?”

The Blue Lady moved so suddenly Shang-Li didn’t even see the blow coming until he was struck. Nearly knocked unconscious by the blow, Shang-Li sailed backward and was slowed by the water until he drifted to the bottom of the hold.

“You will have only a short time to prove yourself now, manling. If you cannot do what I wish for you to do, I shall take great joy in breaking you.”

Slipping into and out of focus, Shang-Li watched the Blue Lady fade away. Then Thava’s face was in his. Concern pulled at her features.

“Shang-Li. Are you all right?” Thava turned his face to survey the damage that was surely there.

Tasting blood, Shang-Li tried to sit up. The dragonborn restrained him.

“Easy.” Thava pulled a cloth from her pack and wiped at his face. “What happened to you? I didn’t see you fall.” She looked over her shoulder. “Did anyone see what happened to him?”

One of the sailors stepped forward. “Didn’t see anyone hit him. He crossed the hold, talking like he was talking someone-someone I couldn’t see-then he was flying backward.”

“It was the Blue Lady.” Shang-Li fought free of Thava and sat up. Groggy, he got to his feet. “You didn’t see her?” He looked at the sailor.

The man shook his head. “There was nobody there.”

“She was here.” Iados touched Shang-Li’s face and the pain caused him to flinch.

“I didn’t see her,” the sailor said.

“None of us saw her.” Iados growled irritably and flicked his tail. “It’s not going to do a lot of good posting guards if she can come right in unseen.”

“There are still plenty of other things out here that we need to be on guard against.” Thava watched Shang-Li. “Are you sure you can stand?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“What happened?” Iados asked.

“I think she’s growing less fond of me.” Shang-Li wiped at his mouth and it came away stained with crimson that quickly lifted into the water.

“Well, that can’t be good.”

“No,” Shang-Li said. “I would agree.”

“Did a shipwreck fall on you?” Amree stared at Shang-Li when she came to join him at eveningfeast.

Shang-Li brought her up to date on his latest visit from the Blue Lady. He was grateful the fish fillets and crabmeat was so tender because his jaw still ached and was swollen. Despite his hunger and fatigue, he hated wasting time eating and trying to sleep when the Blue Lady was looming ever nearer. But he knew he couldn’t keep up the salvage work without dropping. Sitting there and lying there still felt like wasted time, and time was growing precious.

“Maybe she’s all threat.”

“If she were,” Shang-Li said, “we wouldn’t have as many sunken ships to choose from.”

“True.” Amree picked at her bandages for a moment.

“The canvas is coming along.” Shang-Li nodded at the canvas lining the interior of the hold. “Is it airtight?”

“It will be. Long enough for us to get to the surface. After that, we have to hope the repairs we did to the hull holds. Otherwise we’ll be back down here again.”

“If we don’t drown.”

“We’ve rescued some longboats as well.” Amree pointed at the collection of them in the hull. “Before we attempt to leave, I’m going to have those lashed to the upper decks. If we can’t hold Swallow together, we’ll put to sea in the longboats.”

Shang-Li frowned at the thought of that.

“I know.” Amree grimaced. “It’s not what I would want either. But I don’t want to come back to this place.”

“I would imagine that would be the end of us. We’re barely tolerated now.”

“You’re barely tolerated. I’m surprised the rest of us are allowed to live.” Amree shuddered. “And I’m beginning to have serious misgivings about that.”

“Why?”

“Killing us would be easier. If she’s keeping us alive, maybe there’s another reason for it.”

“Like what?”

Amree shrugged. “I don’t know. But I know people like the Blue Lady don’t do anything without a purpose. There was a reason she saved as many of us as she did. And why she hasn’t had her pets close in on us before now.”

“I hope you’re wrong about that.”

“Me too.” Amree smiled at him bravely. “But I don’t think that I am.”

Shang-Li’s meal was even less appetizing that before with that thought on his mind, but he forced himself to eat.

“I do have another idea,” Amree said after a few moments. “The ship you and the others found? The living one.”

“Red Orchid.”

Amree nodded and looked thoughtful. “I’ve been thinking about her a lot.”

Shang-Li had too. He felt bad about leaving the ship trapped in the Blue Lady’s domain.

“One of the hardest things we’re going to have to do is keep Swallow upright as she floats to the surface. The currents are too unpredictable, and we have little control over her ascent. But I was wondering if Red Orchid might have more control.”

“Because she’s alive?” Shang-Li thought the idea was intriguing.

“Yes. I need to find out if Red Orchid the being is the whole ship or just the figurehead. If she can control the ship’s movement the way she does its shape, she would be ideal to help guide Swallow to the surface. If we could transfer her to this ship.”

“You don’t know if that’s possible.”

“Not until I ask her.”

Shang-Li shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of you being gone from the ship.”

Amree arched an eyebrow at him. “Because I won’t get things done? Your father-”

“Because you won’t be safe.” Shang-Li gestured past the ship’s hulls. “You haven’t seen everything out there. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

“Oh, and handling a ship on storm-tossed seas during a battle isn’t?”

Shang-Li closed his mouth and curbed his immediate response. He waited a moment. “I could talk to Red Orchid.”

“You’re not a ship’s mage. You don’t speak the language of ships.”

“I spoke to her before. Red Orchid speaks Common quiet well.”

She looked at him. “Shang-Li, you’re doing the best that you can do, but you can’t do it all. I’m a ship’s mage. Red Orchid, for whatever else she may be, is a ship. There’s no one down here with us that speaks ship better than I do.” She paused. “And I want to meet her.”

Shang-Li hesitated for just a moment. “All right.”

Standing close by with his spear in his hand, Shang-Li watched as Amree approached Red Orchid. The figurehead’s eyes watched the ship’s mage and shifted across the prow of the ship.

“She’s going to talk to the ship?” Iados sounded as though he couldn’t believe what Shang-Li had told him.

“That’s what she said.”

Amree stopped a good dozen paces from the figurehead. The prow already bowed a little like it was about to change shape again.

“Hail and well met, Red Orchid,” Amree greeted. “My name is Amree. I’m a ship’s mage.”

“Hail and well met, Amree Ship’s-Mage.” Red Orchid glowered over Amree at Shang-Li and Iados. “At least you’re more polite than the others.”

“I’ve had time to prepare to meet you.”

Red Orchid shifted, relaxing a little. “You wanted to meet me?”

“I’ve never even dreamed of something like you. Of course I had to meet you.” Amree looked at the figurehead. “May I come closer?”

“Of course. I am not afraid of you.”

Amree ran her fingers along the prow. “Are you the ship or the figurehead?”

“I’m whatever I wish to be. I … am.” Red Orchid shifted a little, like someone that realized she suddenly intrigued someone else.

“Were you yourself above the water?”

“I remember bits and pieces of things of those times.” Red Orchid frowned, and the disappointment seemed to carry in every line of the ship. “But I do not know that.”

Amree continued walking around the ship. “What are your earliest complete memories?”

“Only this place.”

“I was told you can change your shape.”

“I can.” Red Orchid the ship quivered like a wet dog. The prow melted into a the stunning face of a woman again.

Even at the distance from where Shang-Li stood, he saw the smile on Amree’s face.

“That’s incredible.” Amree trailed her fingers over the ship’s chin. “You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Red Orchid said smugly.

“Now see,” Iados whispered to Shang-Li, “you could have won her over with charm.”

Shang-Li shook his head.

“Do you wish to sail again?” Amree asked.

“I can’t master the shape long enough, and I don’t quite know how to fix the damage I’ve received.” Red Orchid’s “face” disappeared and was replaced by the shape of the prow again. “During the years I’ve lain here, I’ve tried to reassemble myself. Even if I could, though, I can’t empty the water from myself.”

“Could you leave this ship?” Amree stood in front of the ship’s figurehead.

Red Orchid hesitated, as petulant as a child. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried that. I’ve never had any reason to.”

“I have another ship. One that has a place for you. If you can separate from this one.”

The figurehead’s eyes grew large in concern. “How would I do that?”

“Could you pull yourself into the figurehead?”

Red Orchid shook her head. “Then I would be so small.”

“It would only be for a short period of time. I promise. Then you could be part of a larger, healthier ship.”

“I don’t suppose Amree asked Captain Chiang about this,” Iados grumbled. “Swallow is his ship.”

“His ship happens to be sitting on the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars.” Shang-Li snorted. “I think the captain would make a deal with the Bitch Queen herself if he could get his ship above the waves again.”

“Why do you come to me if you have another ship?” Suspicion was etched into Red Orchid’s words.

“We have another ship, but she is just a ship. She’s timbers and iron, blood and sweat, but she doesn’t have your strength or your awareness. You are more than a ship, Red Orchid. I think you’re strong enough to help us keep control of Swallow when we lift her to the surface.”

“What if we fail?”

Amree placed her hand on the ship and smiled. “Would it be any worse than where we are now?”

Red Orchid paused. “What if separating from this ship ends me? What if I am actually all of this ship?”

“I don’t know.” Amree drew her hand along the prow as though comforting a child. “I do know that the only way we can find out is to try.”

Red Orchid was silent for a long time. Then she turned her face up toward the surface. “What does it feel like to run before the wind? I can scarcely remember.”

“It’s the most beautiful sensation in the world.”

Red Orchid smiled. A dreamy look relaxed her face. “I am ready to be free of my grave, ship’s mage. One way or the other.”

“Carefully!” Amree cursed as Shang-Li jerked on a pry bar to loosen the figurehead from the ship. Wooden dowels shrieked in protest and at least two of them broke with vicious cracks.

Chastened, Shang-Li stopped what he was doing and looked up at Red Orchid. “Are you all right?” he asked.

Pain turned her face pale and made her features look azure in the blue light. The unintended echo of the Blue Lady’s appearance left Shang-Li slightly unsettled. He almost expected the Blue Lady to talk to him and tell him it was all a trap, that they were wasting their time while she closed the net around them.

“I’m fine.” Red Orchid stretched a bit on the prow, then became still again. “Becoming so small is hard. I feel more trapped than ever.”

“It won’t last long.” Amree took the figurehead’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I promise. No longer than we need take to get from this ship to ours.”

Red Orchid nodded and they continued.

“Gently,” Amree admonished Shang-Li.

“I know.” Shang-Li set the pry bar and began again. He worked at the figurehead, but couldn’t help feel that the task was taking far too long to do.

“What’s wrong with her?” Shang-Li stared up at the figurehead mounted on Swallow. Since they’d disconnected her from her original ship, Red Orchid hadn’t spoken.

“The toll of moving her was higher than we’d expected.” Amree floated in the water before Red Orchid and worked with various things she had from her craft.

Shang-Li didn’t know what the items were that the ship’s mage used, but he knew they were things a ship’s mage used to put strength and power into a craft. He felt the surge of something that emanated from Amree’s efforts, and he knew it was stronger, more focused, than anything she’d done aboard Swallow before.

“She had to … diminish herself to fit within the figurehead.” Amree took a black pearl from her pouch and held it in her hand. When she closed her hand, her fist glowed with purple light that bathed Red Orchid. “She’s never done that before.”

During the swim back from the ship to Swallow, Red Orchid had finally stopped speaking and seemed unable to hear. Even while getting hung on Swallow, she hadn’t uttered a word.

“Is she going to be all right?” Thava asked.

Amree shook her head irritably. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like her. Maybe more of her remains within the ship we left behind. Maybe she wasn’t able to squeeze all of herself into the figurehead.”

“Wouldn’t she have known that?”

“She doesn’t know what she is either.” Amree sounded discouraged. “This is new for both of us.”

“Perhaps all she needs is time.” Kwan Yung leaned over the railing over the prow and peered down.

Shang-Li looked at the inert figurehead and Swallow’s only partially repaired broken hull, and he thought about the increasing strength of the Blue Lady’s visits. “Unfortunately, time is the one thing we don’t have.”

Another salvage crew swam toward Swallow.

“This can’t be good.” Iados turned to face the approaching group. “They started out after we did.”

Yugi, the young lookout, swam at the forefront. He was excited and out of breath as he coasted up close to them and stopped. “We found Grayling.”

Grayling was nestled in a canyon that was hard to see while swimming. Broken merchanters, warships, and fishing boats littered the ocean floor under the canopy of strange trees. Tentacled creatures hung like obscene fruit from the branches of the trees. When anyone ventured too close, the creatures launched their tentacles and pulled their prey in to them.

Shang-Li and the others battled the creatures and drove them back from the trees nearest the canyon. Even in those depths, the blue light coming from the land chased away the gloom after a fashion.

The first ship lay on her side. Shang-Li took some of the glowing coral Amree had created from her kit and held it to shine around the vessel. Barnacles covered her stern but he found part of a name. He used his dagger to clear away the barnacles and found:

Wavecutter.

“Do you know her?” Iados asked.

“A merchanter,” Shang-Li said. “She was in the documents we researched. She went down a few years after Grayling.”

“Shang-Li.” Thava called from ahead, waving her glow-stone to get his attention.

Shang-Li swam over to her and saw a few fresh corpses lying on the ground near another ship. They’d been savaged by predators and most of the soft parts of the bodies were gone.

“They haven’t been down here long. Not long enough to have come down with Wavecutter.” Shang-Li swam to one of the men and held the glowstone closer. Crabs and other small carrion feeders scuttled away as he turned over the body.

Only shredded gore remained of the man’s features. Even if Shang-Li had once seen the man, he wouldn’t recognize him now.

“Someone’s alive inside!” a sailor called out.

The man lay on the floor of the captain’s quarters. He was human, in his middle years, and scarred from life at sea. He was pale, close to death.

Weakly, he held his hand up to ward off the brightness from the glowstone. His swollen tongue protruded from his cracked lips despite the water that surrounded him.

“Who?” he whispered.

“No one who means you harm.” Thava held out her empty hands but her great size still made her threatening to see.

The man glanced at Iados. “Devils? Come to fetch me to some pit and torture me?”

“No,” Shang-Li answered. “Where’s your captain?”

“Dead. Thirsted to death.” The man grabbed at a dagger near his hand three times before securing a hold. “Like all the rest of the crew. I think I’m the only one left.”

“We have water.”

The man laughed weakly but it quickly turned into a cough that racked his body. “We’ve got water too.” He waved toward the ship. “But we couldn’t drink any of it because of the curse on this place. Blasted spellplague,” the man said. “Keeps us alive down here, but fouls out water before we can drink it. Every mouthful you take is tainted with brine. Makes you sick.”

“We can get you a drink,” Shang-Li said. He reached into his bag of holding and pulled out a large bladder normally used to carry spice powder. It was airtight and contained some of the air Amree had created back at Swallow.

One of the sailors found an empty barrel, lined it with tarp, and tied it to the mainmast. Shang-Li pushed the bladder into the barrel and squeezed the air out. Huge bubbles formed and collected at the top of the barrel, then the space grew bigger.

Thava picked up the sick man and carried him to the barrel. Once he was inside, once he’d discovered the air pocket trapped inside, he gave a glad cry of understanding.

“Gods, let me drink,” he croaked. “All this wet around me, and me parched as a frog in the desert.”

Shang-Li handed over one of the bladders of water they’d brought with them. “Go easy with it or you’ll make yourself sick.”

The man took the water in his shaking hands. “I’ve been without water before. I know to pace myself.” Even so, his past experience didn’t help him now. A moment later, he emerged from the barrel and threw up. The bile formed a cloud in the water that immediately attracted a small school of fish to feed on the debris.

“My name is Kulher,” the man said a short time later. Looking better rested and more healthy, he sat cross-legged in front of Shang-Li. “This ship is Lysinda, named for the captain’s oldest daughter. We were a cargo ship until the Blue Lady decided to pull us under.”

“Do you have any idea why she picked you?” Iados asked.

“No.” Kulher shook his shaggy head. “We’ve run these waters for years. We knew to stay away from the domain of the Blue Lady, even though most of us were convinced she was a legend captains with ill luck blamed for losing their ships.”

“You saw the Blue Lady?” Shang-Li asked.

“Only for a moment, before the storm struck us, broke us up, and dragged us under.”

“How long have you been down here?”

Kuhler shrugged but shivered. “Long enough for a lot of men to die from thirst.”

“Probably only a few more days than we have,” Iados said.

“We should have thought of the trick with the water barrel.”

“Unless you could have made air,” Thava said gently, “it wouldn’t have done you any good.”

“The ship’s mage died when the Blue Lady took us. We’d barely entered the water when a shark snatched him and bit his head off.” Kuhler looked forlorn. “I lost me a lot of good friends on this voyage. Men who have stood with me through bad times and hard times.” He paused. “I feel guilty for asking, but do you have a way to get out of here?”

“We’re working on it,” Shang-Li said.

“Why does she bother to bring the ships down if she’s not going to do anything with them?” Iados asked as he swam beside Shang-Li back toward Swallow. He flicked his tail in annoyance.

“The next time I see her, I’ll ask her.”

Iados regarded him. “You would, wouldn’t you? It would probably be the last thing you did before she killed you.”

“She hasn’t killed us yet. I remain hopeful about that.”

“Or foolish without just cause,” Iados growled. “She may be busy with other things, or we’re so insignificant she doesn’t care. Maybe she derives pleasure from watching her captives thirst to death in the ocean.”

Shang-Li showed his friend a lopsided grin. “You’re such an optimist.”

“Well, down here the glass would always be full, wouldn’t it?”

“She said she planned to break away from here. So whatever the Spellplague has wrought also binds her to this place.”

“She has a very big cage,” Iados commented. “Still, once you know where the walls are, size doesn’t matter. You’ll still feel the confinement.”

Shang-Li swam deeper to examine the other shipwrecks. The goods aboard Lysinda would stand them in good stead for days, and the salvage potential seemed enough to finish making repairs on Swallow. He focused on finding Grayling, wondering if the presence of Wavecutter harbored some hope of finding the ship in the tangle of dead ships lying in the canyon.

He found two other ships, Garnatok and a slave ship that had dozens of skeletons in her cargo hold, but not Grayling. As he approached the next ship, Yugi called out to him.

“Shang-Li! Over here.”

Heart pumping a little faster, Shang-Li told himself not to get his hopes up. Even if Yugi had found the ship, chances were good that everything aboard her-including the precious books-were ruined.

Upon first sight, Shang-Li’s hopes diminished. The ship lay broken in two, and much of her starboard side was ripped away. Not even much remained for salvage. Still, he landed on her broken hull, took a fresh grip on his spear, and freed the glowstone from his bag.

“Is this it??” Yugi asked as he came to stand behind Shang-Li.

Shang-Li held up the coral so the light played over the prow where the ship’s name was proudly displayed. The paint had faded over the long years, but it was still legible: Grayling.

“Yes.”

“All this for books?” Yugi asked. “Truly? That’s the only treasure you want?”

Cautiously, Shang-Li shined the glowstone down into the hold. Things moved below, but they were fish and other scavengers, nothing large enough to offer him much threat.

“It is,” Shang-Li replied. “You’ve seen my father, and you know that he serves the Standing Tree Monastery. They don’t search for treasure.”

“I’ve heard that they don’t turn it aside when they find it neither,” another sailor said.

Shang-Li didn’t argue the point. The monastery was self-sufficient but they did a lot with what they were given. When the monastery did well, the villages around them prospered as well.

“No gold aboard this ship?” the sailor asked.

“She was an explorer.” Shang-Li stepped over the side and swam down into the hold. The lighted coral barely held back the darkness. “The only gold she might have been carrying will be in the captain’s strongbox and perhaps in the pockets of her crew.”

“Could be worth a look.” Two of the sailors split off and swam toward the ship’s waist where crewmen slept.

“If an air pocket remains aboard this ship, I want to know about it,” Shang-Li said. “And don’t open anything that could be watertight. We can’t lose those books.”

He swam through the darkness, usually only able to see a few feet in front of him. The darkness seemed to magnify the darkness, make it appear to be larger and deeper than it actually was. He went through the cabins one by one. All of them were open and flooded. He had to swim down to enter the ones on the starboard side and up to enter the ones on the port side because Grayling lay on her side.

Sand had filtered in as well and provided a layer of lighter coloring in the shadows. Eels slithered across the sand and bared the wood in places. A squid squirted away into hiding.

Bayel Droust’s cabin was easy to recognize once Shang-Li got there. A fine powder of sand had drifted over the writer’s tools and ink bottles, but they looked otherwise unharmed.

Shang-Li put the glowstone on the edge of the overturned desk behind, gathered those things, and put them into his bag. He couldn’t imagine Droust leaving the items behind out of choice.

He found an oilskin bag that felt like it contained a sheaf of paper Droust would have used to send letters. But under a tangle of loose clothing, another oilskin pouch held a stack of what looked like books or journals.

Shang-Li felt the shape again with his hands to reassure himself of his immediate conjecture. He smiled in the shadows and couldn’t wait to get back to Lysinda’s water barrel to confirm his suspicions. As he shoved the bag into his own, he noticed a shadow on the wall in front of him.

Someone had followed him into the room and now stood in front of the glowstone. The light played over a naked blade.