by Mel Odom
“No. They were placed there to get them out of the way.”
“The Blue Lady doesn’t strike me as a caretaker.”
“No, but she might get them out of her way after she’s taken the salvageable cargo. And when she’s able to escape this place and begin attacking the coastal cities, gold and other goods would help her raise a mercenary army and navy.”
Thava lifted an arm and pointed. “Someone is down there.”
Straining his eyes, Shang-Li took only a moment to spot the men milling around the pile of broken ships. They moved raggedly, wary but untrained in the ways of warriors as they formed a loose perimeter. Then Shang-Li spotted a familiar figure and his heart leaped.
“Iados.” Happiness resonated in Thava’s voice. “He lives.”
“As do many of the crew. But I don’t see my father among them.”
“Your father isn’t frail, my friend. He can take care of himself. We will find him.”
Shang-Li wished he shared Thava’s certainty. But finding Iados and a dozen crewmen was a good start. As he walked down the hillside, he felt more hopeful.
“Shang-Li! Thava!” Iados trotted forward, shaking a tentacled thing from the end of his sword. Blood streamed through the sea around him. The tiefling’s face split into a smile. “I knew if I had survived that, surely fortune would favor the two of you as well.”
“We’ve had to work at it.” Shang-Li pointed to the corpse that tumbled through the water from the end of Iados’s sword. “There are plenty of those things about, and several others besides.”
Iados frowned and cursed. “Too many, if you ask me. It’s a wonder that they haven’t started eating each other.” He paused and looked at the treeline. “Or perhaps they have and this forest would be overrun with them otherwise.”
“Have you seen my father?”
Iados shook his head. He nodded toward the men with him. “We met up with each other along the way and decided to see what we could salvage in the way of weapons and stores from these ships. For the most part, our efforts have been largely unrewarded.”
“You mean you haven’t found any treasure.” Thava grinned.
Iados scowled. “I’d had hopes. But these ships have been picked clean.”
“The Blue Lady does have a use in mind for the treasure she’s finding.” Thava snorted. “She’s no better than a pirate.”
“Perhaps not, but she’s more powerful than any pirate I’ve ever crossed blades with.”
“Are the crew armed well enough?” Shang-Li glanced at the sailors as they crept along the ships.
“I believe so. But weapons aren’t going to turn them into first-class fighters.”
“I know. But maybe they will give them enough of an edge to stay alive.” Shang-Li peered up into the constant blueness. “I haven’t found any way to tell north.”
“Nor have I.” Iados glanced around. “We’re going to have to map by landmarks. And there’s no way of knowing how much time passes down here either. I haven’t a clue how long it’s been since we sank.”
“We don’t know how big the Blue Lady’s domain is either.” Thava stared at the ships. “Though with as much damage as she has done, I would say that her range is quite large.”
“Iados!” One of the sailors screamed in terror. “Over here!”
Quickly, the tiefling drew his weapon and trotted to the man.
“Oldyr and a couple of the others went over there! They were attacked by those things!”
Shang-Li drew his sword and scanned the nearby forest. A flurry of activity in the brush line along the ship’s prow drew his eye. One of the sailors had gotten seized by a man-shaped creature. At first Shang-Li thought the sailor had gotten trapped by his opponent’s ropes, then he saw the “rope” writhing and knew that they were tentacles.
Despite his efforts to free himself, the sailor remained stuck fast. He dug his heels into the ground but was dragged slowly toward his captor.
Blue lightning flickered in the man-shaped thing’s body.
“Spellscarred,” Iados growled.
A tremor of unease shivered up Shang-Li’s spine. During his travels he’d seen a few of the spellscarred, those people and things warped by an encounter with the plaguelands, remnants of the terrible Spellplague.
A change wasn’t always for the betterment of the individual. In Chondath, one of the Spellscarred had been left without his bones. He lived as a blob in a butcher’s tub for all to see. Yet another boy had been changed by the plague-lands and given the ability to heal almost instantly from wounds that would have killed another man.
More often than not, the plaguelands created monsters instead of granting power. But that fact didn’t keep some from seeking them out and trying their luck.
And then there were those unfortunates that encountered the plaguelands despite their best efforts.
Shang-Li swam forward. Iados and Thava already closed on the battle. A few other sailors took up arms as well, but they followed behind.
The shambling mockery of a man wasn’t alone. Three others lurked in the relative darkness of the brush. The cobalt flames coursed through their bodies as well. Closer now, Shang-Li felt certain they’d once been human. Their features had changed and ran together like melted wax, and the flesh had turned a mottled plum. But they wore the tattered remnants of clothing.
Their heads came to severe points, as if their skulls had been hooked by something and drawn upward. Yellow eyes peered out beneath a bony ridge of brow that curved into the creatures’ cheekbones. The squat, heavy bodies promised strength and durability. The tentacle had sprouted from the center of the thing’s hand.
“Help me!” the sailor squalled. He tugged fiercely at the tentacle that had roped him but couldn’t free himself. His feet stirred up small clouds of silt as he fought to keep his distance.
“Let him go,” Iados commanded.
The sea shamble—Shang-Li could think of no other name that fit—glared at the tiefling, but there was no indication of whether it understood. Turning its attention back to the imprisoned sailor, the sea shamble grabbed the tentacle with its free hand and hauled the sailor in closer.
Shang-Li swam down and drew his dagger with the intention of cutting the sailor free. A second sea shamble lurched into motion with surprising speed. It lifted its arm and pointed at Shang-Li. A blur launched from its palm and became the tangling spirals of a tentacle slightly thinner than Shang-Li’s little finger.
Before Shang-Li could avoid the tentacle, it wrapped around his right ankle and quickly climbed all the way up to his thigh. When it constricted, Shang-Li felt the blood flow to his leg shut down. A burning ache made him immediately wonder if the thing carried some kind of poison as well. His senses faded a little and he became convinced that it did.
He raked the dagger through the tentacle, sawing frantically through the muscular length. His senses continued to splinter, and double-vision filled his head. He unwrapped the tentacle from his leg, sickened by the way the thing continued to wiggle despite being severed from its host.
Iados blocked a tentacle from another with his spear, quickly tangling the obscene length around his weapon. He shoved the spear into the ocean bed and held on fiercely as the sea shamble sought to drag him in. Then he drew his sword and slashed the tentacle free. The sea shamble stumbled backward as dark purple blood spewed from its wounded appendage.
Feeling started to return to Shang-Li’s leg, and blinding pain knotted his muscles. He shoved the agony away and swam toward his opponent.
The sea shamble darted away as Shang-Li closed. It threw its other hand forward and a tentacle shot out of the palm. The sword vibrated in Shang-Li’s hand as he hit the tentacle, but the thing wrapped his weapon. Yanking his sword free, Shang-Li slashed through the tentacle, and swam toward his attacker.
Growling, the sea shamble launched itself at Shang-Li. The thing opened its hideous mouth and revealed jagged, curved teeth.
Shang-Li planted both his b
oots against the sea shamble’s chest. Rough hands grabbed Shang-Li’s ankles and the sea shamble tried to pull his feet into its mouth.
Rolling to his side, Shang-Li arched his body and stabbed the sword into the sea shamble’s face. Purple blood spewed into the water around the creature’s head. The blue fire scarring its body flickered brightly, then dimmed and finally went out.
Shang-Li swung his sword and cut the sea shamble’s head from its shoulders. The thing collapsed slowly and tentacled predators closed in on the corpse at once. Shang-Li turned to give aid to his companions.
Thava held a tentacle in her mailed fist. She yanked and the sea shamble flew through the water and landed at her feet. She placed a heavy boot at the center of its chest and bore down. Then she swung the battle-axe in both hands and cleaved the creature from crown to chest. A cloud of blood erupted into the water.
The sailor that had first gotten caught floated listlessly. His eyes stared sightlessly through the sea. One of his hands loosely held a couple of gold coins that worked free of his fingers and drifted down to the ocean bed.
“Gods, these things are foul.” Iados swam back to join Shang-Li.
“There are more of them lurking there.” Thava freed her axe with a jerk. “Perhaps we’ve outstayed out welcome in this place.”
Shang-Li looked at the floating dead man and remembered his visits from the Blue Lady. “There’s no place down here where we will be welcome.”
Shang-Li, Iados, and Thava headed up the salvage party, taking turns scouting ahead as they retreated from the sea shambles. They found another shipwreck a mile from their last position, a warship. The deck was charred black, and the sails were scorched tatters that wafted on the ocean currents. Arrows and crossbow quarrels stuck out from her hull. An intricately carved woman hung at the mast, smudged in places by the same fire that had threatened the ship.
“She went down hard,” Iados remarked quietly. “Hard to say if the fight was one she won or lost.”
“The shape she was in from the fire, I’d suggest you could probably split the difference,” Shang-Li said.
“I doubt there’s any cargo left aboard her,” Thava said.
“We should look all the same.” Shang-Li swam toward the ship. “At the very least I’d like to know her name so I can perhaps get word to her home country. If she went down recently, there may be families that still wish to know the fates of the crewmen.”
Strangely, even underwater Red Orchid stank of smoke and death, her crew’s demise clinging to her.
Shang-Li swam over the ship with his spear in his hand and landed on the charred deck. Charcoaled wood splintered and floated away. He stamped on the deck and listened to the empty echo. Her bottom had been ripped away either by the attack of the Blue Lady or her ill-fated descent underwater.
Her crew hadn’t been spared either. Many skeletons lay scattered across the deck and on the sea floor nearby. Several of them still clenched weapons.
“They also drowned,” Iados said softly. He knelt by a dead man sprawled beneath the mainmast. “Why? Why did they drown and we did not?”
Shang-Li shook his head. “Because the Blue Lady wanted us to live.”
“How long would you say this has been down here?”
“Since the Spellplague,” Shang-Li answered. “Otherwise it would be somewhere else.”
Iados flicked his tail, obviously irritated with himself. “Yes. I wasn’t thinking.”
The sailors cautiously entered the hold. Most of them had learned in the past that any sunken vessel quickly turned into a habitat for sea creatures. They’d also learned that everything in the plaguelands came equipped with huge, bloodthirsty appetites.
“You do not have permission to come aboard this vessel,” a female voice boomed.
Shang-Li took a step back and readied his spear. Iados freed his sword and plucked a dagger from his belt with his tail.
“You need to leave this ship at once,” the voice insisted.
“That’s not the Blue Lady,” Iados commented.
“Definitely not,” Shang-Li agreed. He tried to find out from which direction the voice came from, but the sea dispersed the sound.
“Shang-Li,” Thava called from the ship’s prow. She had remained on the ground and in close proximity to the ship.
“Yes?”
“I told you to get off the ship,” the female voice continued. “You need to see this.”
Shang-Li swam forward and dropped down to the prow. The deck there was almost burned as badly by the fire as the rest of the ship.
Thava stood in front of the ship and gazed at something below Shang-Li. “What’s going on?” Shang-Li asked.
Wordlessly, the paladin extended a hand and pointed at the ship’s figurehead.
Her head was just below the prow, her hair swept back and scalloped into the hull over her out flung arms that held the ship as if to ward it from danger. Her feet crossed at her toes. Flickers of blue flame danced along her wooden flesh.
“Well,” Iados said, “whoever carved it had an appreciation for the feminine form.”
Shang-Li silently agreed, but he focused on the blue flames that twisted within the figurehead.
“She is the one talking.” The paladin held her battle-axe at the ready.
“You were told to leave this ship,” the figurehead stated. “If you don’t do so now, I will take action.”
“A talking figurehead isn’t so unusual.” Iados leaned calmly on the railing and peered down. “I’ve seen them before. Usually they’re spelled to act as lookouts for the ship’s captain. A parlor trick and a decent enough security effort.”
The figurehead looked up and the wood creaked as it moved. “I am no parlor trick.”
“Of course,” the tiefling said in a much quieter voice, “she could also be a spy for the Blue Lady.”
“And I am no spy,” the figurehead insisted. “I protect this ship. The Blue Lady sank us in the middle of a battle while we were on our way back home.”
“Who are you?” Shang-Li asked.
“I am Red Orchid.”
“The ship is called Red Orchid.”
The figurehead fixed him with her obsidian eyes. Blue flames swirled within the depths of her gaze. “I am the ship. If I could free myself, I would destroy the Blue Lady. She killed my captain and my crew.”
“When?”
“On the last day I ran before the wind,” Red Orchid replied.
“How long have you been down here?”
The petulant look of a troubled child framed her face. Then anger pushed the expression from her lovely wooden face.
“You ask too many questions,” Red Orchid snapped. “You have been warned to leave the ship. Do so now.”
“And if we choose not to?” Iados inquired politely.
“Then I will make you.” The blue flames twisting within Red Orchid’s wooden body blossomed.
The ship rocked violently beneath Shang-Li. Timbers cracked and burnt planks snapped and fell away like a dog shaking off water.
“Get out of the hold!” Shang-Li roared at the sailors still within the ship.
Most of Swallow’s crew had shied away at the sound of the figurehead’s voice and now hung in the water a short distance away. Three men swam from the hold to join their companions.
Shang-Li pushed off the deck and away from the tangle of broken ratlines and tattered sails.
The ship’s prow changed as Red Orchid melted into it. Her face formed in the wood, taking over the whole prow, and her mouth opened in a predatory smile. Blue flame crackled and rushed along the ship. Unbelievably, the ship surged forward a dozen feet across the sea floor. More timbers cracked and debris fell away from the ship like snow. A massive impact slammed into Shang-Li and knocked him backward.
“Go away,” Red Orchid admonished. “Go away or I will destroy you.”
“She’s crazed,” Iados said as he pushed up into the water near Shang-Li.
“Perhaps,” Shang-L
i said. “Or maybe she only wants to be left alone.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Iados asked.
Shang-Li shook his head as he watched the beautiful face snarling defiance on the ship’s prow. “I haven’t even heard of anything like this.”
“It’s spellplague,” Thava said as she walked over to join them. “Maybe she was an animated piece of wood before, but now she’s realized into something more complete.”
“How would you know that?” Iados challenged.
“You can feel the life force within her,” the paladin replied. She kept her battle-axe in her hands as she surveyed the ship. “I think she became more real once she was exposed to spellplague.”
“Leave her,” Shang-Li answered. “She’s got nothing aboard her that we require.”
“Doesn’t the idea of leaving a sentient being trapped in this place bother you?” Thava asked.
“Yes, but I don’t see any way to free her. Do you?”
Reluctantly, Thava shook her head.
“As far as we know,” Shang-Li continued, “we’re all trapped down here.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Swallow lay surprisingly intact amid the broken underwater forest. Other than the splintered masts and the cracked hull, she looked serviceable, and much of her crew—including Amree—had survived the descent.
Shang-Li also happily noted that Moonwhisper sat on one of the remaining yards. Somehow the owl had managed to remain with the ship and hadn’t gotten lost in the swirling waters.
When Shang-Li briefly touched the owl’s mind, he discovered the fear and confusion within Moonwhisper. As best as he could, Shang-Li comforted Moonwhisper and left him perched there.
Several bodies lay in a heap in a clearing a short distance away. The clearing had been made by the ship as it caromed through the forest. Most of the dead were Nine Golden Swords warriors, but some of them belonged to Swallow’s crew. The bodies jerked and moved as they lay there and Shang-Li had at first thought some of them might yet live. Then he spotted the tentacled creatures burrowing through the tangled limbs and bloody torsos.
“Foul creatures,” Iados snarled as he stood on Swallow’s prow and gazed down at Shang-Li. “We can’t do anything more for the dead. If we tried to keep them here for a proper burial, they would only have attracted more carrion feeders.”
