provocation or invading their territory, and the ones that slyly lay in wait in camouflaged areas. Amidst the bones of humans, they also found the remnants of several sea creatures. He wondered how heavy the toll was on the environment with all the predation of the strange things that lurked and hunted in the Blue Lady’s domain.
“This place is an abomination.” Thava kept her voice low. “I’ve been in ghoul-infested crypts that were safer than these waters.” The paladin shifted her axe and kept watch. She didn’t act nervous, but she appeared more wary than Shang-Li had seen her in some time. “Have you a plan for getting us out of here?”
“Not yet.” Shang-Li glanced at the sharks circling overhead. “Even if we were able to avoid the sharks, we’re too deep to simply swim up. We’d never make it.”
“As Iados says, things are never impossible. Some of them just take miracles to get done.” Thava smiled crookedly “We’ll find a miracle, Shang-Li. Or we’ll make one.”
“I know.” But what he hoped for most of all was that the others were still alive. He trudged up a long, sloping hill, deciding to keep with Thava now that the forest was so thick he sometimes lost her when he swam above it.
At the top, he peered down into a ragged canyon and saw several wrecks cracked and broken on top of each other, like tinder laid for a fire.
“They didn’t fall like that.” Thava peered down at the scene as well.
“No. They were placed there to get them out of the way.”
“The Blue Lady doesn’t strike me as a caretaker.”
“No, but she might get them out of her way after she’s taken the salvageable cargo. And when she’s able to escape this place and begin attacking the coastal cities, gold and other goods would help her raise a mercenary army and navy.”
Thava lifted an arm and pointed. “Someone is down there.”
Straining his eyes, Shang-Li took only a moment to spot the men milling around the pile of broken ships. They moved raggedly, wary but untrained in the ways of warriors as they formed a loose perimeter. Then Shang-Li spotted a familiar figure and his heart leaped.
“Iados.” Happiness resonated in Thava’s voice. “He lives.”
“As do many of the crew. But I don’t see my father among them.”
“Your father isn’t frail, my friend. He can take care of himself. We will find him.”
Shang-Li wished he shared Thava’s certainty. But finding Iados and a dozen crewmen was a good start. As he walked down the hillside, he felt more hopeful.
“Shang-Li! Thava!” Iados trotted forward, shaking a tentacled thing from the end of his sword. Blood streamed through the sea around him. The tiefling’s face split into a smile. “I knew if I had survived that, surely fortune would favor the two of you as well.”
“We’ve had to work at it.” Shang-Li pointed to the corpse that tumbled through the water from the end of Iados’s sword. “There are plenty of those things about, and several others besides.”
Iados frowned and cursed. “Too many, if you ask me. It’s a wonder that they haven’t started eating each other.” He paused and looked at the treeline. “Or perhaps they have and this forest would be overrun with them otherwise.”
“Have you seen my father?”
Iados shook his head. He nodded toward the men with him. “We met up with each other along the way and decided to see what we could salvage in the way of weapons and stores from these ships. For the most part, our efforts have been largely unrewarded.”
“You mean you haven’t found any treasure.” Thava grinned.
Iados scowled. Td had hopes. But these ships have been picked clean.”
“The Blue Lady does have a use in mind for the treasure she’s finding.” Thava snorted. “She’s no better than a pirate.”
“Perhaps not, but she’s more powerful than any pirate I’ve ever crossed blades with.”
“Are the crew armed well enough?” Shang-Li glanced at the sailors as they crept along the ships.
“I believe so. But weapons aren’t going to turn them into first-class fighters.”
“I know. But maybe they will give them enough of an edge to stay alive.” Shang-Li peered up into the constant blueness. “I haven’t found any way to tell north.”
“Nor have I.” Iados glanced around. “We’re going to have to map by landmarks. And there’s no way of knowing how much time passes down here either. I haven’t a clue how long it’s been since we sank.”
“We don’t know how big the Blue Lady’s domain is either.” Thava stared at the ships. “Though with as much damage as she has done, I would say that her range is quite large.”
“Iados!” One of the sailors screamed in terror. “Over here!”
Quickly, the tiefling drew his weapon and trotted to the man.
“Oldyr and a couple of the others went over there! They were attacked by those things!”
Shang-Li drew his sword and scanned the nearby forest. A flurry of activity in the brush line along the ship’s prow drew his eye. One of the sailors had gotten seized by a man-shaped creature. At first Shang-Li thought the sailor had gotten trapped by his opponent’s ropes, then he saw the “rope” writhing and knew that they were tentacles.
Despite his efforts to free himself, the sailor remained stuck fast. He dug his heels into the ground but was dragged slowly toward his captor.
Blue lightning flickered in the man-shaped thing’s body.
“Spellscarred,” Iados growled.
A tremor of unease shivered up Shang-Li’s spine. During his travels he’d seen a few of the spellscarred, those people and things warped by an encounter with the plaguelands, remnants of the terrible Spellplague.
A change wasn’t always for the betterment of the individual. In Chondath, one of the Spellscarred had been left without his bones. He lived as a blob in a butcher’s tub for all to see. Yet another boy had been changed by the plaguelands and given the ability to heal almost instantly from wounds that would have killed another man.
More often than not, the plaguelands created monsters instead of granting power. But that fact didn’t keep some from seeking them out and trying their luck.
And then there were those unfortunates that encountered the plaguelands despite their best efforts.
Shang-Li swam forward. Iados and Thava already closed on the battle. A few other sailors took up arms as well, but they followed behind.
The shambling mockery of a man wasn’t alone. Three others lurked in the relative darkness of the brush. The cobalt flames coursed through their bodies as well. Closer now, Shang-Li felt certain they’d once been human. Their features had changed and ran together like melted wax, and the flesh had turned a mottled plum. But they wore the tattered remnants of clothing.
Their heads came to severe points, as if their skulls had been hooked by something and drawn upward. Yellow eyes peered out beneath a bony ridge of brow that curved into the creatures’ cheekbones. The squat, heavy bodies promised strength and durability. The tentacle had sprouted from the center of the thing’s hand.
“Help me!” the sailor squalled. He tugged fiercely at the tentacle that had roped him but couldn’t free himself. His feet stirred up small clouds of silt as he fought to keep his distance.
“Let him go,” Iados commanded.
The sea shambleShang-Li could think of no other name that fitglared at the tiefling, but there was no indication of whether it understood. Turning its attention back to the imprisoned sailor, the sea shamble grabbed the tentacle with its free hand and hauled the sailor in closer.
Shang-Li swam down and drew his dagger with the intention of cutting the sailor free. A second sea shamble lurched into motion with surprising speed. It lifted its arm and pointed at Shang-Li. A blur launched from its palm and became the tangling spirals of a tentacle slightly thinner than Shang-Li’s little finger.
Before Shang-Li could avoid the tentacle, it wrapped around his right ankle and quickly climbed all the way up to his thigh. When it constricted, Shang-Li felt the blood flow to his leg shut down. A burning ache made him immediately wonder if the thing carried some kind of poison as well. His senses faded a little and he became convinced that it did.
He raked the dagger through the tentacle, sawing frantically through the muscular length. His senses continued to splinter, and double-vision filled his head. He unwrapped the tentacle from his leg, sickened by the way
