“So if Swallow goes up without ballast,” Iados said, “there’s no guarantee she’ll be right side up on the sea surface. Even with Red Orchid’s help.”
“Or, if by chance we do go straight up, she might not stay that way. If she falls over on her side in the ocean, we could right her again because we have longboats that weren’t destroyed. And we’d need to be able to shift ballast to aid in that.” Amree glanced at Shang-Li. “Though I would like one or two more longboats. Supply boats filled with food and water. Just in case the ship doesn’t survive and we do.”
Kwan Yung came out of the dry area and stood beside them. Still embarrassed by his mistake, Shang-Li found himself watching Amree intently, rather than catch his father’s eye.
“We’ll have to pull them into the dry area and get them properly stored before we try to ascend.” Amree bit her lip. “There’s also another problem.”
“We seem to be harvesting a veritable bumper crop of them as we sit here,” Iados commented.
“I don’t know how far down we are,” the ship’s mage said. “I’ve seen what happens to men who stay down too deep too long and come up too fast. Sometimes they die, but when they don’t they are left with withered and weak bodies.”
A chill passed through Shang-Li as he remembered the sailors he’d seen that had suffered the malady while helping with salvage operations or treasure hunting. They’d gotten caught out in the depths when their water-breathing potions had become exhausted and had swum as quickly as they could to the surface. Most hadn’t made it, but nearly all of the others had been left crippled. No one knew why the sickness struck.
“A person, maybe two,” Amree said, “I could protect from the sickness. But I can’t protect this ship’s crew from something like that.”
“We still have the water-breathing potions,” Shang-Li reminded. “We could all drink one of them before we begin the ascent. The potion should protect us.”
“Are you willing to bet your life on that?” Amree demanded. “The lives of this crew?”
Shang-Li looked into her eyes and remained calm. “I know that if we remain here,” he said, “we’re going to die. There are too many things in this place that are only too happy to hunt us.”
Amree gazed fiercely at the tarp. “I just wish I could create enough air now so I would know. One way or the other. I don’t like waiting. When I do, my mind has more than enough time to figure out all the things that could go wrong.”
Kwan Yung spoke softly but his voice drew all of them. “Once you have planned for everything bad to happen that you can, once you have made all preparations, it is always better to plan for things going right. Let planning take over whenand ifthere is need.” He nodded toward her. “You should get some sleep. We all should. The time will come when we will need it.”
“Awake, manling.”
Drowsy and worn, Shang-Li opened his eyes and was surprised to find that he was still in the hold. The light from the glowstones staved off some of the sea’s chill. He looked around and saw many sailors slumbering around him. His father sat at the table and read through Bayel Droust’s journals, though Shang-Li had read through enough of them that he was certain nothing of consequence to their present predicaments would be found.
The Blue Lady stood in the center of the hold and looked around with casual disdain. “So this is what has been occupying your time?” She walked toward the canopy of air that had swelled so large in the emptiness.
Swallow twisted at the ends of the ropes anchoring her to the sea floor. Over the last few hours, she’d threatened to pull free of the moorings twice. Only Red Orchid’s warning about the slack had prevented that.
The Blue Lady touched the air-filled bubble with a long-nailed hand. She smiled coldly. “You fight against the sea. I had to accept it as my home even though it fought me at first.”
Soundlessly, Shang-Li rose to his feet. His fighting sticks dropped into his hands.
“You would only be wasting your time, manling.” The Blue Lady peered at him. “And if you wake your friends, I’ll kill them here and now, and I’ll destroy this ship.”
Shang-Li forced his breath out. “What do you want?” He spoke softly so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping sailors or alert his father, though he didn’t understand how Kwan Yung could be unaware of the Blue Lady’s presence.
“I have masked myself and you to them. If anyone looks, they’ll see you still sleeping there.”
Shang-Li looked back at the spot he’d just vacated. He gazed in stunned fascination at himself sleeping there, and was surprised at how haggard and thin he looked. Cold and fearful, he turned back to the Blue Lady.
“I don’t want them to be harmed.”
“Good. Then you will come to me. Follow.”
Tucking his fighting sticks back into his sleeves, Shang-Li walked through the sleeping crew. No one, not even his father, noticed his passage. Nor did the guards Captain Chiang had assigned to their posts. Even brave Thava remained unaware of him as he passed by her.
Shang-Li had never seen a spell so powerful.
In the forest, the tentacled things and the sea shambles drew back from the Blue Lady.
“They know you are under my protection. They will not harm you.”
All the same, Shang-Li stepped warily and watched all the creatures as they trailed after him. He felt confident he could escape them if it came to that, but possibly not if one of them seized him first. And definitely not if more than one got hold of him.
Only a short distance farther on, the Blue Lady came to a stop and pointed her sharp chin at a man standing in the shadows of the swaying trees. “Follow him to my home. There we will see if I was wrong in keeping you alive. If I was, you will die to pay for my mistake. But if I was right, you can live to serve me.”
Shang-Li knew that would never happen, but he didn’t say so. He concentrated on the figure beneath the tree. There was something familiar about the man.
“Come forward.”
The man stepped from the shadows and Shang-Li recognized him.
“I am Bayel Droust.” The man spoke politely, but the fear of the Blue Lady was alive in him.
“You should be dead by now.” Shang-Li spoke before he thought about it. Instead, Bayel Droust only looked the same age he had in the drawings Shang-Li had seen of the man. He should have been old for a human, older than Shang-Li’s father.
The Blue Lady waved that away. “Long life is part of my gift to Bayel Droust for his continued obedience. But I shouldn’t reward all those years of failures. As you can see, I can be generous.”
Droust said nothing in his defense, only kept his head bent and his gaze resting on the sea floor. “Yes, lady.”
The Blue Lady turned to Shang-Li. “Follow him. I will be waiting for you. If you do not, I will bring doom to all of your friends.”
Without another word, the Blue Lady disappeared.
“You are Shang-Li.” Droust lifted his eyes. “Of the Standing Tree Monastery.”
“I am Shang-Li, but not necessarily of the Standing Tree Monastery. I work with them and with my father, but I am my own man.”
“She thinks you can decipher Liou Chang’s books.”
“Perhaps.” Shang-Li tried to temper his immediate dislike of the man and not think of all the deaths that might have been prevented if Droust had somehow gotten word to the surface world about the Blue Lady. Then he realized that wasn’t fair. He didn’t know what Droust’s circumstances were during the intervening years.
“Do you know what secrets the books hold?”
“The secret of portal travel, you mean?”
“I do.” Droust shook his head and frowned. “Though it would doom you, and perhaps me, I pray that you aren’t successful. If you are, all of the Sea of Fallen Stars is in danger. Perhaps all of Faerun. She will amass an army and bring war to our world from another plane.”
“I know that.”