the thing continued to wiggle despite being severed from its host.
Iados blocked a tentacle from another with his spear, quickly tangling the obscene length around his weapon. He shoved the spear into the ocean bed and held on fiercely as the sea shamble sought to drag him in. Then he drew his sword and slashed the tentacle free. The sea shamble stumbled backward as dark purple blood spewed from its wounded appendage.
Feeling started to return to Shang-Li’s leg, and blinding pain knotted his muscles. He shoved the agony away and swam toward his opponent.
The sea shamble darted away as Shang-Li closed. It threw its other hand forward and a tentacle shot out of the palm. The sword vibrated in Shang-Li’s hand as he hit the tentacle, but the thing wrapped his weapon. Yanking his sword free, Shang-Li slashed through the tentacle, and swam toward his attacker.
Growling, the sea shamble launched itself at Shang-Li. The thing opened its hideous mouth and revealed jagged, curved teeth.
Shang-Li planted both his boots against the sea shamble’s chest. Rough hands grabbed Shang-Li’s ankles and the sea shamble tried to pull his feet into its mouth.
Rolling to his side, Shang-Li arched his body and stabbed the sword into the sea shamble’s face. Purple blood spewed into the water around the creature’s head. The blue fire scarring its body flickered brightly, then dimmed and finally went out.
Shang-Li swung his sword and cut the sea shamble’s head from its shoulders. The thing collapsed slowly and tentacled predators closed in on the corpse at once. Shang-Li turned to give aid to his companions.
Thava held a tentacle in her mailed fist. She yanked and the sea shamble flew through the water and landed at her feet. She placed a heavy boot at the center of its chest and bore down. Then she swung the battle-axe in both hands and cleaved the creature from crown to chest. A cloud of blood erupted into the water.
The sailor that had first gotten caught floated listlessly. His eyes stared sightlessly through the sea. One of his hands loosely held a couple of gold coins that worked free of his fingers and drifted down to the ocean bed.
“Gods, these things are foul.” Iados swam back to join Shang-Li.
“There are more of them lurking there.” Thava freed her axe with a jerk. “Perhaps we’ve outstayed out welcome in this place.”
Shang-Li looked at the floating dead man and remembered his visits from the Blue Lady. “There’s no place down here where we will be welcome.”
Shang-Li, Iados, and Thava headed up the salvage party, taking turns scouting ahead as they retreated from the sea shambles. They found another shipwreck a mile from their last position, a warship. The deck was charred black, and the sails were scorched tatters that wafted on the ocean currents. Arrows and crossbow quarrels stuck out from her hull. An intricately carved woman hung at the mast, smudged in places by the same fire that had threatened the ship.
“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
