Trembling, walking on legs that he felt certain would betray him and collapse beneath him, he walked toward the cabin door. When he pulled on it, the door moved slowly and he felt a lot more resistance to his effort than he should have. He could move freely under the water, but the door couldn’t. Whatever the spell was that allowed him to breathe and walk normally, it didn’t have the same effect on the ship.
Outside, Droust peered up at the blue, blue water. At some distance, he wasn’t certain how far, the blue turned to black. There was no hint of the sun. He had no idea to what depth he had sunk. High above, sharks and other things circled through the water. Ivory bone, limbs as well as skulls, lay half-buried in the sand and vegetation that had a stranglehold on the sea bottom.
“Droust.” The familiar feminine voice drew the scribe’s attention at once.
When he glanced up, he saw the Blue Lady standing on the sterncastle of the wrecked ship. A tentacled monstrosity Droust couldn’t identify lay coiled and restless on the deck behind her. Its great eye kept watch on him and never blinked.
“Yes.” Droust wanted only to flee, but he knew he wouldn’t get far.
“I have given you your life that you may serve me.”
Droust swallowed hard. “I understand, lady.”
She gestured and the water around Droust seized him and lifted him to the sterncastle. Droust didn’t try to fight. He was still bruised and battered from his harsh treatment at the hands of Grayling’s crew. He came to a rest in front of her. The monster lying behind her flicked out a tentacle with blinding speed and stopped within inches of his flesh.
Droust stared at the suckers that lined the underside of the tentacles. “What is it you would have me do?”
“I have walked your dreams. I know you for what you are. You are a scholar. I have learned much from you, but I would know more.”
“Anything, lady.” Droust was so scared he thought he was going to throw up.
“This is my realm.” The Blue Lady waved at the strange land spread out around them and the shipwrecks scattered about it. “What little I have left of it. This world is new to me. You will be my guide as I secure my empire. More than that, you shall help me find a way to leave this place once I’m ready.”
“Lady?” Droust peered at her in confusion.
The Blue Lady frowned and anger radiated from her. “Those who cast me forth from the Feywild bound me to this piece of land they sent with me. Only a powerful spell can set me free.”
“I’m no mage, lady. I’m but a scribe.”
“I know that. But you read books.” The Blue Lady waved to the sunken ships. “Aboard these ships, there are books. You will locate and read those books. Some of those books will have spells.”
“Spells like that won’t be revealed in just any books. “
“I know that. I have brought down mages as well as ordinary sailors and merchant ships. Somewhere in those books, you will find the knowledge that I need.”
“Lady, there was one such book that I had in my hands, but I don’t know if it had the magic you seek.”
“What?”
Immediately, the beast flicked out a tentacle and wrapped it around Droust. The cold flesh lay hard and heavy against him.
The Blue Lady shoved her cruel, beautiful face into Droust’s. “You had such a book? Where is it?”
“I don’t know, lady. I swear. Perhaps it’s still aboard Grayling. It’s a history, perhaps more, by a Shou monk named Liou Chang. He wrote histories about his people and the monastery. He also knew the secret of opening magical gates that allowed people to travel from one place to another. I was studying his books. They’re very precious. Few of them remain in existence. The monastery was attacked and razed to the ground at one point by General Han, a man who swore vengeance against the monastery and the Standing Tree Order. Han knew the secret of opening the gates to transport his troops.” “The monk wrote of this?”
“Yes, lady.” Droust was squeezed so hard that he almost couldn’t get his answer out. “I believe that Liou wrote down Han’s secrets. The monk was the last man to talk to Han before he was executed.”
“You had this book and you let it slip away?”
“Lady” Droust thought quickly. He didn’t want to point out that her decision to sink the ship, and the crew’s intention of keelhauling him, had removed him from those books. “Perhaps those books are still aboard Grayling.”
The Blue Lady waved her hand and the monster unwrapped its tentacle from Droust. The scribe fell to the deck and gasped for his breath as fish swam impossibly around him.
“Find your ship, manling. And find those books.”
“But you have to know that the sea may have harmed the books.” Droust peered up at her. “If they are ruined, I can’t read them.”
“I allowed no harm to come to any books.”
SSSo- SSSSSS SSS
Only a short time later, they stood on Grayling’s deck, the ship lay broken in pieces in a canyon. All hope of finding the books by Liou Chang that Droust had brought with him instantly disappeared. A thorough search of the cabin only frustrated the Blue Lady and alarmed Droust.
“They were lost, lady.” Droust stood before the Blue Lady and prayed for a quick death.
“Then you will find them.” The Blue Lady’s face held threatening anger like an unleashed storm.
Unable to stop himself, Droust gazed at the wide open sea in dismay. “Lady, those books could be anywhere.”
“You will find them. There is not another reason I would suffer you to live. Do you understand?”
“Yes, lady.”
“Then get busy.” Without another word, the Blue Lady launched herself into the sea and swam away.
Feeling an inch from death, Droust watched her go, then he looked at the immense forest and tried not to think that the task she’d set before him was impossible. Then he started his search for books, beginning with the immediate area around him. The books couldn’t have fallen far,
Unless they were caught in a current or still afloat with the wreckage above. Or any of a dozen other reasons Droust could think of.
Captain Porgad’s body had landed on the deck of this ship at the foot of the mizzen. Small scavengers were already at work on his body, feasting on his eyes and crawling through the gash at his throat. Droust couldn’t help feeling that could be him at any moment.
CHAPTER TWO
Pirate Isle Sea of Fallen Stars Year of the Ageless One (1479 DR)
I told you they were Nine Golden Swords warriors.” Kwan Shang-Li gazed at the group of rough looking men standing in the gloom gathering in the alley behind Ottard’s Alehouse. The night truly hadn’t gotten off to a good start and it looked like things were going to get worse.
“Feh,” his father grunted. “Those thugs could be anyone’s.”
The Nine Golden Swords was a criminal organization that operated out of Westgate. They robbed, raided, and sold protection to businesses. According to his father, they were far too coarse to have any interest in Shang-Li and his father’s plans, and were nothing to worry about.
However, there was no mistaking the identity of the warriors. To anyone that would know, the tattoos on the arms and necks branded them as Nine Golden Swords warriors. Shang-Li discreetly pointed these out.
“Evidently they like the alley as a staging point for burglary as much as we do.” Shang-Li glanced up the tall, crooked tower not far from the alley.
“If this book wasn’t as important as it is, I’d say leave them to it. Let them deal with the wizard. He will kill them all.”
“Do you think Kouldar’s defenses are that good?” A slight trickle of fear ran through Shang-Li, but he felt excitement as well. His father had always considered that mixed feeling as a failing. Shang-Li lived for the rush of
