“You are all right?” his father asked.
Shang-Li nodded. “It was a close thing.”
Above, Moonwhisper spread his wings and landed in the rigging.
Several of the sailors worked together to hoist the bodies of kuo-toa from the deck. Only a few of the creatures had reached the ship. None of them had survived. All of them got thrown back into the sea.
Captain Chiang joined them. Gray touched the temples of his long hair, which he wore pulled back in a queue. He was somewhere in his middle years, between Shang-Li and his father. The right side of his face held two long scars. He was fit and trim, and had a reputation for being a man who lived by his honor. Both the blades he wore dripped crimson.
“Where did the kuo-toa come from?” Chiang asked quietly. Though his ship had suffered and several of his men were dead, he acted calm and focused.
“I didn’t see,” Shang-Li said. “The sound of the attack drew me.”
“They came out of the water, captain,” one of the survivors from the shore patrol replied. “You didn’t disturb them?”
“No. We were just loading the water barrels and they attacked us.”
Chiang leaned on the railing and surveyed the harbor. “I’ve stopped here several times. Other than the occasional pirate ship, these waters have always been safe. I’ve never before encountered kuo-toa.”
“Maybe it was aboleths,” one of the crewmen suggested.
The man’s words instantly reminded Shang-Li of Bayel Droust’s fate aboard Grayling. But there had been no talk of aboleths during that attack, no hint that these kuo-toa served the psionic behemoths that ranged over the Sea of Fallen Stars.
“If it was aboleths that put the kuo-toa onto us,” another crewman said, “they would have turned us to servitors.”
Several of the men shuddered at that. When a human succumbed to the power of an aboleth, he was changed. His outer skin turned into a slimy membrane that allowed him to live better beneath the sea and serve the aboleths. The monsters’ appearance was frightening because of their great size and rounded bulk, but few things were as gruesome as the servitors.
“Aboleths didn’t have anything to do with it,” Shang-Li said confidently.
The captain and crew looked at him. Even his father studied him and waited for him to continue.
“They knew we were there.” Shang-Li took the blue stone device from his pouch and held it for all to see in his palm. Even resting there, he felt the magic vibrating within. “One of the kuo-toa monitors wore this.”
“What’s that?” Chiang made no move to touch the stone.
Several of the crewmen drew back.
“I believe this belongs to the Blue Lady.” Shang-Li indicated the device carved onto the stone. At one time, the stone had held the forked wave that was Umberlee’s symbol. But that symbol had been carved over, replaced by the image of rain falling from a cloud. “This is her symbol.”
“You think they took this from her?” Chiang asked. “No. I think they’re in league with her.” “Why?” his father asked.
The stone grew colder in Shang-Li’s hand. A wave of fatigue rolled over him.
“Because I talked to her,” he answered. “She’s not a myth. And she’s not gone. She’s still down there.”
That announcement started tongues wagging immediately. Chiang silenced most of the men around him with his stern gaze, but they only retreated to talk among themselves farther away. Most of the men didn’t believe him. They hadn’t heard of the Blue Lady previously, and they hadn’t been privy to the conversation Shang-Li had had with his father. Nor had any of them suffered through the dreams she’d woven for him.
“It’s unfortunate that you stated that where everyone could hear,” the captain said softly. “Some of them may believe you.”
“Perhaps,” Shang-Li acknowledged. “But they deserved to know. This isn’t going to get any less dangerous.”
“As you say,” Chiang replied. “But such candoreven if well-intentionedis going to make recruitment hard in Westgate. Even if they don’t believe you, most of them will not be willing to follow a madman around. Or someone chasing ghosts. Some of the men aboard this ship now might not come back.” He walked away and began attending to his crew and ship.
Without a word, Shang-Li’s father took the stone from his hand, wrapped it in a cloth that was woven as much from magic as it was from material, and put it in his pouch.
Shang-Li knew that was wasted effort. Even though the stone was out of sight, it remained malignant and evil. It waited. Just like the Blue Lady.
CHAPTER NINE
Shang-Li stood in the ship’s prow and watched Westgate, Old Town and Tidetown, grow steadily closer. When the Sea of Fallen Stars had been full, Westgate had enjoyed a natural deep water port. With the shrinking of the sea, the harbor had fallen away, and the city had needed to rebuild its docks and warehouses closer to the new shore. The new area of the city, the “Tidetown,” had ended up squatting in the shadows of the old city.
Because there was no longer much of a natural shoreline, one had to be created. Or rather, the original had needed to be expanded. Those who had built Tidetown worked at their craft. Docks stabbed out into the water and allowed for the transfer of goods. Businessestaverns, and inns, and warehouseslay along the abbreviated shore, part along a network of wooden walkways, and part inside caves.
Shang-Li wondered what it would have been like to have seen old Westgate in all its grandeur.
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” Yugi stood attentive and ready beside Shang-Li. “Just to Tidetown? Or have you been all the way to old Westgate?”
“I’ve been to the old city as well. You?”
Yugi shook his head. “Not me. I never got up from Tidetown. The watch doesn’t allow rabble or visitors into old town. Especially lowly sailors. So who invited you?”
“No one. And I left old Westgate faster than I went in.”
Despite the losses of friends and shipmates only a few days ago, the young man smiled at that. “Sounds like a tale begging to be told.”
“For another time.”
“I’ll hold you to that when we put this place behind us.” “You’re planning on shipping out with us?” “Of course!”
Shang-Li didn’t know how he felt about that. After seeing the Blue Lady, after the attack by the kuo-toa, he knew they would be heading into danger. It didn’t seem right to bring Yugi along.
As if sensing what the young monk had on his mind, Yugi said, “I don’t have anywhere else to go.” He nodded at the city. “You think it would be any safer for me there?”
Thinking of the rough trade that went on in Tidetown, as well as the degenerate tastes that were too often entertained in old Westgate, Shang-Li knew Yugi would be no safer there.
Yugi cleared his throat. “So who are we here to see?”
In spite of the danger that waited ahead of him, Shang-Li smiled at the thought of who he was there to see. “Good friends. True friends. Some of the best friends I’ve ever made.”
And he was going to lead them into a blue hell waiting at the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars. The realization didn’t set well with him.
That night, while the ship lay in harbor, Shang-Li dreamed of the Blue Lady again. He returned to that blue world beneath the sea. For a time he wandered through the forest and horrible things darted out to challenge him. He held a sword in his fists, ready to do battle, but none of the creatures closed on him.
“They won’t attack you, manling.”
Shifting smoothly, Shang-Li turned to face the Blue Lady across naked steel. She didn’t appear to be impressed.
“For the moment, you are under my protection.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to come see me.” “Why would I do that?”
The Blue Lady smiled. “I have that which you seek: The books of Liou Chang.”
Unease swept over Shang-Li as he considered the possibilities that declaration brought with it. He wondered how much she knew about the books and what they contained.