Shang-Li shook his head and it felt heavy and slow. “It was the Blue Lady.”
“She’s able to contact you while you’re awake?” Thava sounded more concerned.
“Her power over you is obviously growing,” Iados said. “That’s something we hadn’t considered.”
Shang-Li had, but he hadn’t wanted to bring it up. Even now, he didn’t know what to say, or how to tell them exactly when they would no longer be able to trust him.
Since no one could tell by the horizon or by the eventual fall of darkness how much time passed, the hours were marked by candles that burned in the canvas bubble. After everyone had six hours sleep, interrupted by a two-hour guard shift in the middle or at either end of the cycle, Captain Chiang roused his crew and the “day” began anew. The schedule was hard to keep because there was no way to mark time while away from Swallow.
Shang-Li, Iados, and Thava once more headed up the salvage party. They didn’t return to Bokhan’s Pearl. An infestation of sea shambles in the area nearby had been enough to dissuade them of that.
“I hate the way they watch us.” Iados stared bleakly at the inhuman things that stayed mostly hidden in the treeline. “I don’t know if they’re waiting on us to catch us unaware, or if they’re spies for the Blue Lady.”
Shang-Li shook his head and regretted it. For the last couple of days, he’d been plagued by ferocious headaches. His sleep and even an increasing number of his waking hours were interrupted by nightmares.
“I don’t know.”
“And where is this mysterious person the Blue Lady told you she would send?” Thava kicked at a scuttling thing that had crept too close and latched onto her boot.
“I wish I knew.”
“Because it’s not like we’re going to have friends down here,” Iados said.
“Have you had time to consider my offer, manling?”
Startled, Shang-Li glanced up into the shadows of the hold they were currently sorting through. The Blue Lady floated in the water in front of him, glowing with an incandescence almost as bright as the glowstones they’d hung in nets on the wall. Out of habit, Shang-Li reached for his fighting sticks and this time they fell into his hands effortlessly.
Amused, the Blue Lady smiled. “Still you cling to your desperation.”
“Would you have it any other way?” As he looked around, Shang-Li saw that he was alone. Iados, Thava, and the others were no longer in the hold. He hadn’t seen them leave.
“No. Desperation drives you, manling, but it is an elixir to my kind. You work so hard, dream so big, and yet you live so small and so quickly.”
Shang-Li tried to keep his thoughts focused on the Blue Lady and not think of the gamble they were putting together to raise Swallow.
“I know all about your pathetic ship, manling. You’re only foolishly wasting your time trying to get it from the sea bottom. I brought it down here, and it shall remain here. You can do all that you may to fight me. In the end, your frustrations and panic will only feed me more.”
Emboldened by his own fear because it turned him numb, Shang-Li strode toward the Blue Lady. “You say you laugh at us, at our efforts to free ourselves. But we haven’t been down here over eighty years, have we?”
“Careful, manling.” Dark fire flashed in the silver eyes. All amusement slid from the Blue Lady’s beautiful face. “Don’t overestimate your value.”
“What does it feel like to be trapped so long?” Shang-Li stopped within striking distance. “At least I’m here with my own kind. My friends and family. What do you have?”
“You brought your friends and father here to die with you, manling,” she said. “Does that knowledge really make you feel all that smug? Is that something you can take pride in?”
Despite his pain and uncertainty, Shang-Li made himself meet her gaze and hold it steadily. “Not pride. Solace. I won’t die alone. Can you say the same thing?”
The Blue Lady moved so suddenly Shang-Li didn’t even see the blow coming until he was struck. Nearly knocked unconscious by the blow, Shang-Li sailed backward and was slowed by the water until he drifted to the bottom of the hold.
“You will have only a short time to prove yourself now, manling. If you cannot do what I wish for you to do, I shall take great joy in breaking you.”
Slipping into and out of focus, Shang-Li watched the Blue Lady fade away. Then Thava’s face was in his. Concern pulled at her features.
“Shang-Li. Are you all right?” Thava turned his face to survey the damage that was surely there.
Tasting blood, Shang-Li tried to sit up. The dragonborn restrained him.
“Easy.” Thava pulled a cloth from her pack and wiped at his face. “What happened to you? I didn’t see you fall.” She looked over her shoulder. “Did anyone see what happened to him?”
One of the sailors stepped forward. “Didn’t see anyone hit him. He crossed the hold, talking like he was talking someonesomeone I couldn’t seethen he was flying backward.”
“It was the Blue Lady.” Shang-Li fought free of Thava and sat up. Groggy, he got to his feet. “You didn’t see her?” He looked at the sailor.
The man shook his head. “There was nobody there.”
“She was here.” Iados touched Shang-Li’s face and the pain caused him to flinch.
“I didn’t see her,” the sailor said.
“None of us saw her.” Iados growled irritably and flicked his tail. “It’s not going to do a lot of good posting guards if she can come right in unseen.”
“There are still plenty of other things out here that we need to be on guard against.” Thava watched Shang-Li. “Are you sure you can stand?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“What happened?” Iados asked.
“I think she’s growing less fond of me.” Shang-Li wiped at his mouth and it came away stained with crimson that quickly lifted into the water.
“Well, that can’t be good.”
“No,” Shang-Li said. “I would agree.”
“Did a shipwreck fall on you?” Amree stared at Shang-Li when she came to join him at eveningfeast.
Shang-Li brought her up to date on his latest visit from the Blue Lady. He was grateful the fish fillets and crabmeat was so tender because his jaw still ached and was swollen. Despite his hunger and fatigue, he hated wasting time eating and trying to sleep when the Blue Lady was looming ever nearer. But he knew he couldn’t keep up the salvage work without dropping. Sitting there and lying there still felt like wasted time, and time was growing precious.
“Maybe she’s all threat.”
“If she were,” Shang-Li said, ” we wouldn’t have as many sunken ships to choose from.”
“True.” Amree picked at her bandages for a moment.
“The canvas is coming along.” Shang-Li nodded at the canvas lining the interior of the hold. “Is it airtight?”
“It will be. Long enough for us to get to the surface. After that, we have to hope the repairs we did to the hull holds. Otherwise we’ll be back down here again.”
“If we don’t drown.”
“We’ve rescued some longboats as well.” Amree pointed at the collection of them in the hull. “Before we attempt to leave, I’m going to have those lashed to the upper decks.
If we can’t hold Swallow together, we’ll put to sea in the longboats.”
Shang-Li frowned at the thought of that.
“I know.” Amree grimaced. “It’s not what I would want either. But I don’t want to come back to this place.”
“I would imagine that would be the end of us. We’re barely tolerated now.”
“You’re barely tolerated. I’m surprised the rest of us are allowed to live.” Amree shuddered. “And I’m beginning to have serious misgivings about that.”
“Why?”
“Killing us would be easier. If she’s keeping us alive, maybe there’s another reason for it.” “Like what?”
Amree shrugged. “I don’t know. But I know people like the Blue Lady don’t do anything without a purpose. There was a reason she saved as many of us as she did. And why she hasn’t had her pets close in on us before now.”
“I hope you’re wrong about that.”
“Me too.” Amree smiled at him bravely. “But I don’t think that I am.”
Shang-Li’s meal was even less appetizing that before with that thought on his mind, but he forced himself to eat.
“I do have another idea,” Amree said after a few moments. “The ship you and the others found? The living one.”
“Red Orchid.”
Amree nodded and looked thoughtful. “I’ve been thinking about her a lot.”
Shang-Li had too. He felt bad about leaving the ship trapped in the Blue Lady’s domain.
“One of the hardest things we’re going to have to do is keep Swallow upright as she floats to the surface. The currents are too unpredictable, and we have little control over her ascent. But I was wondering if Red Orchid might have more control.”
“Because she’s alive?” Shang-Li thought the idea was intriguing.
“Yes. I ne 3d to find out if Red Orchid the being is the whole ship or just the figurehead. If she can control the ship’s movement the way she does its shape, she would be ideal to help guide Swallow to the surface. If we could transfer her to this ship.”
“You don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Not until I ask her.”
Shang-Li shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of you being gone from the ship.”
Amree arched an eyebrow at him. “Because I won’t get things done? Your father”
“Because you won’t be safe.” Shang-Li gestured past the ship’s hulls. “You haven’t seen everything out there. It’s incredibly dangerous.”
‘ Oh, and handling a ship on storm-tossed seas during a battle isn’t?”
Shang-Li closed his mouth and curbed his immediate response. He waited a moment. “I could talk to Red Orchid.”
“You’re not a ship’s mage. You don’t speak the language of ships.”
“I spoke to her before. Red Orchid speaks Common quiet well.”
She looked at him. “Shang-Li, you’re doing the best that you can do, but you can’t do it all. I’m a ship’s mage. Red Orchid, for whatever else she may be, is a ship. There’s no one down here with us that speaks ship better than I do.” She paused. “And I want to meet her.”
Shang-Li hesitated for just a moment. “All right.”