“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-Li 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 crewincluding Amreehad 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.