Wrath of the Blue Lady

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Strength flagging, Shang-Li tried to hang onto the rope that shivered like a captured snake seeking escape. He hauled with one arm and reached with the other. The sea pressed against him now as the magic protecting the Blue Lady’s lands waned. Pressure built up in his ears and he grew afraid they would burst. Pain throbbed through his skull and his lungs threatened to turn him inside out.

Then the rope jerked forward. For a moment he thought Swallow had shifted and nearly knocked him loose. With the next jerk, he realized that something-someone-was hauling him in. He focused on conserving his strength as the ship took shape before him. The huge shape of the monstrous squid wrapped around Red Orchid like some kind of obscene growth. Blue lightning flickered along the ship’s hull.

Just when he was certain he could no longer hold his breath and his strength was fading, Shang-Li banged against the edge of the broken hull and slid inside. His head broke the water and he sucked in a lungful of air. Before he could recover, Thava yanked him up with one big hand and handed him a flask with the other.

“Quickly.” The dragonborn pressed the flask against Shang-Li’s lips while he was still taking deep breaths. “The water-breathing potion.”

Remembering the damage that could be taken during a swift rise from the depths, Shang-Li took the flask and drank the contents. Almost immediately his breath turned to normal and the pressure in his ears from the ocean pressure subsided.

Swallow jerked again.

“The giant squid has Red Orchid.” Shang-Li started for the hold, then saw that the air-filled canvas blocked the way.

“You can’t go that way.” Iados scowled. “We’ve got to hope she can hold her own until we reach the surface.”

“She will.” Amree spoke confidently. “Red Orchid is strong.”

Two heads, both of them belonging to sea shambles, thrust through the opening in the hull. A sailor harpooned one of them and forced it back outside. Thava stomped the other shamble’s head flat, breaking bone and smearing blood on the hull. The corpse slipped back through the water.

Shang-Li stumbled through the water and over the loose ballast covering the ship’s hull as Swallow tossed. “Red Orchid’s taking a beating.”

“She’s keeping us right-side up.” Amree watched the air-filled canvas with concern.

“How much longer before we reach the surface?”

“I don’t have any idea of how deep we were or how fast we’re rising.”

Iados cursed. “Not nearly fast enough.”

Kwan Yung stood nearby. He locked eyes with Shang-Li and nodded. Another blow, this one from the Blue Lady Shang-Li was certain, rocked Swallow. All of them save for Kwan Yung and Amree feel to the floor. A half-dozen or more sea shambles clustered around the hull break like barnacles and tried to force their way inside. Shang-Li seized the fighting sticks and joined the battle. In short order the sea shambles were dispatched.

A moment later, pale light dawned against the canvas straining against the hold.

Swallow popped up, then settled back down into the water and rolled over onto her starboard side. The rent in the ship’s side showed a patch of blue sky and white clouds.

“We made it.” Iados’s words sounded like a cheer.

“Not yet.” Shang-Li climbed the floor of the ship and up the wall until he reached the rent. Thava and Iados followed at his heels.

“Haul that canvas down,” Amree shouted at the sailors she’d selected to trap the air in the canvas. “If you don’t keep that air in Swallow’s guts, we’re going to end up back at the bottom of the sea.”

Shang-Li hauled himself through the rent and stood once more in the warm moonlight. His heart sang for just a moment, then the Nine Golden Swords warriors, the sea shambles, and the tentacled things all surfaced and clambered up onto the overturned ship. Fighting sticks in both hands, Shang-Li advanced into the fray. He smashed creatures with the sticks, then used the blades to block the swords of the Nine Golden Swords warriors and pierce their hearts and throats.

He moved with surefooted grace on the slick hull, never making a faltering movement. He hammered a tentacled thing, ducked beneath the sword thrust of a warrior, and swung, flicking the blade out unconsciously. The point sank into his attacker’s temple and dropped him to the ground without a sound. He kicked the dead man free of the blade and moved to the next opponent.

With a harsh battle cry, Thava pounded past Shang-Li and rushed to the ship’s prow. Whirling her axe over her head, the paladin leaped from the ship and into the center of the squid Red Orchid fought. Fearlessly, Thava sank the axe into the creature again and again. A tentacle slid free, dismembered and wriggling, and sank into the sea.

The Blue Lady exploded from the ocean on a plume of water only a few feet from Shang-Li. She leaped and landed on the ship next to him, a spear clutched in one hand. Without preamble, she struck at him with the spear.

Shang-Li blocked her attack with the sticks, then stepped smoothly sideways and took the attack to her. He drove her back at first, then she took an extra step backward and threw a hand out at him. A sudden blow struck Shang-Li and knocked him from his feet to sprawl on his back.

“You’re a fool, manling.” The Blue Lady came at him with her spear. “You should have taken the offer I tendered to you. It was generous. At least you and your father would have gotten to live.” She thrust with the spear.

Shang-Li blocked the blow with a quick movement of his foot. The spear point bit into the hull and dug divots from the wood. The Blue Lady drew back to strike again and he knew he wasn’t going to be fast enough to prevent her from at least wounding him. Before she could strike, thick ropes of webbing formed in the air and wreathed around her. Shang-Li rolled and got to his feet.

The Blue Lady burst through the webbing, roaring with rage, and turned to face Amree. The ship’s mage spoke a spell and a whirling ball of fire filled her hand. She threw the fireball at the Blue Lady. Shang-Li felt the heat of the fireball as it sizzled past him. A massive wall of wind met the fireball only a few feet in front of the Blue Lady. The flames twisted and roiled around her, but they never touched her. She threw her hand out and blue-white beams sped from her fingers and became icy spears.

Iados joined Shang-Li and together they rushed the Blue Lady as Amree staggered back.

“Fools!” The Blue Lady shifted her attention to Iados and Shang-Li. “You only hasten to your deaths.”

Iados clutched a shield in front of him and leaped into the air as lightning shot from her hand and assumed a serpentine shape. The serpent-lightning lashed out and Iados managed to get his shield in front of it, but the impact sent him spinning backward ten feet along the pitching hull.

Shang-Li ran across the hull, thrown off stride by the shifting footing. The Blue Lady turned on him and threw a hand out. Kicking his feet out, Shang-Li slid across the deck under a glistening orb that suddenly burst and hurled razor-sharp projectiles in all directions. A few of the projectiles ripped into the back of his leather armor and one tore through the side of his neck. Warm blood flowed down into his armor and across his collarbone. When he reached the Blue Lady, she leaped over him, but he’d expected that.

Flicking the blades of the fighting sticks out, Shang-Li caught them in the ship’s hull to stop himself, but immediately caught a burst of blue lightning that knocked him up and away. Red Orchid was striking blindly at anyone trying to harm the ship. But her attack may have saved Shang-Li’s life because the Blue Lady thrust with her spear and pierced the nearby deck.

Blue energy crackled and lashed out at the Blue Lady, hammering her backward. Iados pounced quick as a cat, slashing at her with his sword. But his weapon only dulled on her spear and against her skin. The Blue Lady laughed at him and tossed a few snarled curses in his direction as she drove her spear at him.

“You can’t harm me with that weapon,” the Blue Lady stated.

“Perhaps not,” Iados replied grimly as he dispatched one of the sea shambles that had scrambled on board, “but I can be a distraction.”

“Only until you’re dead.” The Blue Lady lunged at him again as Shang-Li gathered himself.

Iados batted the spear aside with his shield and sword again and again, moving backward constantly and taunting her. “Perhaps you can’t harm me with that weapon either.”

Growling in rage like an animal, the Blue Lady continued her attack. Moonlight glinted from the force of her attacks. Amree attacked once more with a spell that seized the Blue Lady and lifted her from the ship in an invisible grip. The Blue Lady freed a hand and waved. Crackling waves of power dispelled the invisible grip and she dropped to the pitching hull.

Shang-Li closed on her, attacking with the enchanted blades of the fighting sticks. She managed to block most of the blows, but she gave ground at every attack and some of them got through. In seconds she was bleeding from a half-dozen small wounds.

She levitated from the deck and shouted, “Enough!” With a gesture, a storm gathered and black clouds obscured the pale moonlight. In the space of a drawn breath, gale force winds whipped across Swallow and tore at her exposed sails. Waves crashed against the hull. Timbers creaked and Shang-Li grew afraid the ship was going to be torn to pieces. Blue energy coursed down Swallow’s length again and again.

Amree touched a necklace tight against her throat, then flung out her other hand. Deadly red missiles streaked from her fingers and underscored the darkness surrounding them. The missiles crashed against the Blue Lady and jolted her, drawing forth screams of pain and rage. Amree prepared herself again, still clinging to the necklace. Then a sea shamble stood up on the hull and wrapped its misshapen arms around her.

“Iados!” Shang-Li yelled across the thunder and crash of the waves. “Get Amree!”

Without hesitation, the tiefling hurried to the side of the ship’s mage, but a dozen sea shambles stood up on the hull.

A small, lean figure struck out of the darkness. Kwan Yung launched himself from the deck and swung a sword at their foe. For a moment, the Blue Lady fell back, then she stretched forth a hand and invisible force wrapped around Kwan Yung and lifted him from the ship’s hull. She held him aloft and cursed.

Shang-Li’s heart sank. He had known his father wouldn’t be safe on the ship, but if things went badly, as they looked like they were going to do, he’d assumed he would be dead before he saw anything happen to his father. Standing bowed by the storm lashing Swallow, Shang-Li blinked through the stinging salt of the sea spray and tried to figure out his next move.

At the prow of the ship, Red Orchid and Thava still battled the squid-but it was impossible to tell how the battle was going. Thava either had hold of the creature by one tentacle and was fighting her way toward the center mass, or the squid held her and was drawing her toward its mouth.

The Blue Lady turned her beautiful face toward Shang-Li and smiled. “I still have use of you, manling. I can still be generous. I will let you live if you lay down your arms and swear allegiance to me. But I will no longer spare your father.”

True fear pierced Shang-Li. All those years Kwan Yung had appeared implacable and invulnerable. But Shang-Li knew that wasn’t so. His father was mortal, and he was the bravest, most stubborn man Shang-Li had ever known. He couldn’t imagine a world without his father in it.

“Or,” the Blue Lady said, “you can trade your life for his. Perhaps he’s as good a scholar as you are when it comes to deciphering Liou Chang’s books.” She paused and gloated as sea shambles and Nine Golden Swords warriors clambered over the hull and massed for an attack. “Lay down and die, manling, and I will let your father live. Choose!”

Shang-Li focused and drew the calm into his body that his father had always instilled in him, and he drew upon the stubbornness that he knew came from his mother and her people as they lived unfettered in the forests of their homeland. Both had taught him skills, and neither had raised someone that would quit. He felt the turbulent power coursing through his fighting sticks.

“No,” he said. “You’re going to have to choose.” He joined the fighting sticks into the staff as he sprinted forward.

Just in front of the line of sea shambles and Nine Golden Swords warriors, Shang-Li planted the staff and vaulted over their heads. The storm winds howled and crashed into him as he left the ship’s hull. He landed atop a sea shamble, ran across two more, then flipped into the air. He flicked the blades out at both ends of the staff and thrust it toward the Blue Lady’s heart.

Surprised by the attack, the Blue Lady drew back in the air, unmoved by the winds that she had summoned. Her hold on Kwan Yung failed and he dropped to the ship’s hull.

Shang-Li dropped to the deck and gathered himself again. Then he sprang once more to the attack, chasing the Blue Lady forward toward the prow and the writhing mass of tentacles that Thava and Red Orchid battled.

“You forfeit your life, manling.”

Remaining focused on the Blue Lady, Shang-Li bashed a Nine Golden Swords warrior from his path, knocking the man back into the rough sea, and gaining speed. Swallow moved more sluggishly beneath him and he knew she was taking on water. Either the canvas air pocket ripped or the sailors hadn’t been able to keep the opening sealed.

More red missiles struck the Blue Lady and lit her up in scarlet fire for a moment. Shang-Li took heart in the knowledge that Amree still lived, and if she lived there was hope that Iados did as well.

Hurt and distracted, the Blue Lady searched for Amree and threw out a hand. By that time, Shang-Li had reached the ship’s prow and ran out of hull. Surefooted as a deer, he leaped for one of the squid’s rising tentacles and caught it with one hand. As the creature flicked its tentacle, Shang-Li took advantage of the power and movement and launched himself at the Blue Lady. He gripped the staff in both hands and aimed one of the blades at her heart.

The Blue Lady moved at the last instant and the staff missed piercing her heart, instead passing through her chest just below her shoulder. No longer able to maintain her levitation because of Shang-Li’s additional weight or the pain from the wound, she dropped into the sea.

Shang-Li clung fiercely to the staff as he plunged below the waves. At first he held his breath, then he remembered the water-breathing potion was still in effect. He breathed in easily and moved with fluid grace despite the water.

The Blue Lady flailed at him, striking his face and smashing his cheekbone. Shang-Li’s eye swelled shut immediately and he breathed through the incredible pain. He kept his fists locked around the staff. As they sank in the depths, the Blue Lady drew a dagger and attacked him, plunging it through his leather armor into his chest, seeking his heart. No effort was made to keep him alive now. The dagger bit deeply.

Afraid that if he pulled the staff from her he would lose her and she would be free in her element, Shang-Li separated the staff into fighting sticks again. One of them held fast to the Blue Lady, and the other came free in his hand. Both of them glowed with black fire.

They struck again and again as they sank. Blood streamed around them as they dropped toward the azure glow of the Blue Lady’s realm. Finally, she stopped moving, and Shang-Li didn’t have the strength to strike again. He had no strength left in him and knew blood spewed from him. Sharks circled and drew near.

Then strong arms wrapped around him from behind and a soft cheek pressed against his face. Amree disengaged Shang-Li from the Blue Lady, then swam up with him toward the surface. With his head back, Shang-Li saw the moonlight growing brighter. Then he saw nothing at all.