“I intended no disrespect.” Feeling suddenly foolish, Shang-Li sheathed his sword. “Then we have a deal?”
“No, we don’t have a deal,” the woman replied. “If you came here thinking I was cursed, and you were determined to attempt to hire me anyway, I have to wonder what you’re planning to do. Do you think I’m foolish enough to just go with someone that desperate?”
Iados chuckled and drew the ire of them both. “Oh,” the tiefling said politely, “excuse me. Something in my throat. Do carry on. I find this whole discussion fascinating. But you may have to cut it a little short.”
“Why?” the woman demanded.
“It appears our victory here hasn’t gone unnoticed.” Iados pointed out into the street where more Shou wearing the tattoos of the Nine Golden Swords had started to gather. “Maybe we should consider escaping, then working out the details.”
Sword in hand, Shang-Li led the way down the stairs. As they reached the first floor, the Nine Golden Swords warriors arrived in force. He leaped from the stairs and hurled himself into their midst, taking several of them to the ground with him. As he rose, he reached out and tripped others into each other, adding to the confusion.
The old woman at the desk fled.
Thava shouted her battle cry and heaved herself over the railing as well. She surged past Shang-Li with her arms outspread, knocking several of the Nine Golden Swords warriors from him and tearing through the front window of the inn in a shower of glass and wooden lattice work.
The ship’s mage joined Shang-Li and looked up at him with golden eyes that complemented her copper colored tresses. “Well, I have to say you and your friends know how to fight. We’ll have to talk more about this ship of yours.”
Shang-Li admired how she kept her calm in the face of so much danger. It made her even more attractive than her looks did. Together, they walked out of the inn, trailed by Iados and Kwan Yung. Then she turned and faced another group of Nine Golden Swords coming down the street. She gestured and spoke, then the patch of ground beneath the running warriors’ feet turned to ice. They slipped and fell, tangling themselves.
“Westgate is filled with these idiots these days,” the mage said.
“I know.” Shang-Li knocked aside a thrown spear, then blocked a sword before skewering the warrior wielding it. “And they tend to run long on memory for enemies.”
She drew back her hand and threw a small pellet at another group. As soon as it struck, the pellet transformed into a cloud of gray mist that coated the Nine Golden Swords warriors with frost.
A pair of Nine Golden Swords archers unleashed arrows at them from nearby rooftops. Shang-Li knew he could deflect at least one of them, but the other might strike the mage. He stepped in front of her, hoping to offer her the safety of his leather armor. Instead, she shoved him away and held up a hand.
Instantly, a glowing patch formed in the air in front of them. The arrows thumped into the patch and shattered. Then the mage pointed at the archers and semi-visible arrows shot from her hand to strike both of the Nine Golden Archers warriors, knocking them backward.
“When did you say your ship is leaving?” the mage asked as they continued hurrying down the street.
“As soon as I’ve secured a ship’s mage and squared away the ship.”
“Sounds good.” She offered her hand. “I’m Amree. Contrary to the popular opinion of Westgate these days, I’m an excellent ship’s mage.”
Looking at the carnage that lay behind them, Shang-Li nodded and gave her his name. “If you’re as good on a ship as you are in a fight, I’d say you were a fine ship’s mage.”
Amree smiled at him. “And I’m an even better ship’s mage than I am at fighting.”
“Where we’re going, you’ll probably have to be both.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I thought the Blue Lady was a myth.”
Shang-Li paced at Amree’s side. Clad in close-fitting pants that allowed her to climb unimpeded, she had inspected all the ship’s rigging while she’d worked her spells to strengthen wood, canvas, and rope.
She wore roll-top boots of expensive leather Shang-Li knew that because the boots were one of her initial demandsa bright green sleeveless shirt, and carried a dagger sheathed at her side. Copper bands with warding sigils wrapped her upper arms. A pouch with her tools and supplies hung across her shoulders.
“She isn’t,” Shang-Li said. “I’ve seen her and talked to her.”
“And she has the ship you’re looking for?”
“It’s down there where she is. I wouldn’t say she’s laid claim to it. There are a great number of ships.” And many other things, he almost added before he stopped himself.
Amree trailed a hand along the ship’s railing. Shang-Li knew she paid attention to him, but most of her senses were involved in divining any weakness Swallow might yet have. She had kept the ship’s crew busy for the last three days going over things they thought they’d already done.
Still, none of the crew griped too much about the extra work because all of them knew their lives depended on the ship. She was more demanding than Gorrick, the old ship’s mage, had been. But she didn’t hesitate to help do the manual labor, often joining in with some of the worst of it.
Amree glanced at him and drew the blue stone and necklace Shang-Li had taken from the kuo-toa monitor from a bag at her waist. “I’ve also managed to work out what this is.” She laid it in his palm. “It’s a speaking stone. Powerful spellcraft. It allows the wearer to speak to whomever has a like stone. But this one only works when it’s in the same body of water as the other stone or stones.”
“These can be used for communication?”
“Yes.” Amree frowned. “I don’t understand all the spell-weaving that’s been done to it, that’s beyond my limited means, but I’ve been able to ferret out some of its secrets.”
“That’s more than we’ve been able to do.” Shang-Li closed his hand over the stone. “So the other stone can’t track us?”
“Not until it’s in the water.”
“Thank you.” Shang-Li dropped the stone and ground it to dust beneath the heel of his boot. “That was foolish.” He looked at her. “Why?”
“That stone was worth a small fortune to a mage interested in that kind of spellcraft.”
“I’m not interested in fortunes, or in the possibility of the Blue Lady somehow tracking us.” Shang-Li scuffed away the blue powder left of the stone.
“Thava says you’re a monk.”
“I was raised at a Shou temple by my father. My mother was an elf. I was also trained in the ways of the forest as a ranger.”
“Yet you’re determined to try to die at sea. That seems awfully strange.”
Shang-Li didn’t know what to say about that. “Well, Master Shang-Li”
“I’m no master,” Shang-Li quickly interrupted. The last thing he needed was for his father to hear that mistake uttered. “I am just Shang-Li.”
Amree nodded. “You are certainly an interesting individual.”
“Thank you.”
“I have to admit, when you told me what you wanted to do, I thought you were an idiot. But Thava vouched for you. For whatever reason, she considers you one of her best friends.”
“Yes. As is Iados.”
“So, I’ll accept you’re not an idiot. But are you prepared? Have you ever heard of why the Blue Lady is there at the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars?”
“No. I’d never heard of her until a few days ago. The stories aren’t written down anywhere I’ve seen.”
Amree smiled, and Shang-Li liked the expression. During the last three days she’d been alternately stern and pensive. She had been robbed of her assets and her reputation by the Nine Golden Swords. Recovering from that was going to be hard, forgetting about it was surely impossible.