dog shaking off water.
“Get out of the hold!” Shang-Li roared at the sailors still within the ship.
Most of Swallow’s crew had shied away at the sound of the figurehead’s voice and now hung in the water a short distance away. Three men swam from the hold to join their companions.
Shang-Li pushed off the deck and away from the tangle of broken ratlines and tattered sails.
The ship’s prow changed as Red Orchid melted into it. Her face formed in the wood, taking over the whole prow, and her mouth opened in a predatory smile. Blue flame crackled and rushed along the ship. Unbelievably, the ship surged forward a dozen feet across the sea floor. More timbers cracked and debris fell away from the ship like snow. A massive impact slammed into Shang-Li and knocked him backward.
“Go away,” Red Orchid admonished. “Go away or I will destroy you.”
“She’s crazed,” Iados said as he pushed up into the water near Shang-Li.
“Perhaps,” Shang-Li said. “Or maybe she only wants to be left alone.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Iados asked.
Shang-Li shook his head as he watched the beautiful face snarling defiance on the ship’s prow. “I haven’t even heard of anything like this.”
“It’s spellplague,” Thava said as she walked over to join them. “Maybe she was an animated piece of wood before, but now she’s realized into something more complete.”
“How would you know that?” Iados challenged.
“You can feel the life force within her,” the paladin replied.
She kept her battle-axe in her hands as she surveyed the ship. “I think she became more real once she was exposed to spellplague.”
“Leave her,” Shang-Li answered. “She’s got nothing aboard her that we require.”
“Doesn’t the idea of leaving a sentient being trapped in this place bother you?” Thava asked.
“Yes, but I don’t see any way to free her. Do you?”
Reluctantly, Thava shook her head.
“As far as we know,” Shang-Li continued, “we’re all trapped down here.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Swallow lay surprisingly intact amid the broken underwater forest. Other than the splintered masts and the cracked hull, she looked serviceable, and much of her crewincluding Amreehad survived the descent.
Shang-Li also happily noted that Moonwhisper sat on one of the remaining yards. Somehow the owl had managed to remain with the ship and hadn’t gotten lost in the swirling waters.
When Shang-Li briefly touched the owl’s mind, he discovered the fear and confusion within Moonwhisper. As best as he could, Shang-Li comforted Moonwhisper and left him perched there.
Several bodies lay in a heap in a clearing a short distance away. The clearing had been made by the ship as it caromed through the forest. Most of the dead were Nine Golden Swords warriors, but some of them belonged to Swallow’s crew. The bodies jerked and moved as they lay there and Shang-Li had at first thought some of them might yet live. Then he spotted the tentacled creatures burrowing through the tangled limbs and bloody torsos.
“Foul creatures,” Iados snarled as he stood on Swallow’s prow and gazed down at Shang-Li. “We can’t do anything more for the dead. If we tried to keep them here for a proper burial, they would only have attracted more carrion feeders.”
“More are going to come along soon enough,” Shang-Li said.
With a nod, Amree stepped from the prow and floated to the sea floor. She landed in a faint cloud of sand that quickly settled. “At least for the moment those dead men provide a distraction for those creatures. I take it you’ve discovered that we can’t swim toward the surface past a certain point?”
Shang-Li tried to mute the helplessness he felt. “I have. Whatever spell that’s in this land, or that the Blue Lady has laid, only provides air and light here.”
“Even without bars, it remains a prison.” Iados growled in his throat and flicked his tail irritably. “I hate prisons.”
“We’re not going to stay here,” Thava said.
Iados considered her. “If you were to shed that armor”
“I won’t. And even if I did, I still wouldn’t be able to swim to the surface. None of us could do that.”
Iados smiled at her grimly. “I suppose it is possible to walk back to the mainland to reach the coast. Though that would be a perilous and long journey.”
Shang-Li shook his head. “We can explore, but I doubt the spell that allows us to breathe underwater extends to the coast. Otherwise there would have been sightings of the Blue Lady in those places.”
Amree waved an arm toward the ship. “It’s also possible we could raise Swallow. If the three of you would get busy instead of standing around working your jaws.”
Shang-Li and the others turned toward Amree.
The ship’s mage gazed at them with perturbed expression. “Unless you want to just waste time around here and wait for the Blue Lady to kill you?”
“No one said she’s going to kill us,” Iados said.
“She didn’t drag us to the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars for a tea party,” Amree replied. “You can stick around for that if you want to, but I’d rather hold my destiny in my own hands.”
“You haven’t had your destiny in your own hands since we sank.” Iados smiled weakly. “I mean no offense, mage. I prefer to have a more”
Amree crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow. “Defeatist attitude?”
“Don’t mistake cynicism for giving up.” Iados gripped his sword hilt. “I’ll fight until I draw my last breath. But I have no intention of underestimating this creature.” He gazed meaningfully at the pile of dead men. “We weren’t as prepared as we should have been.”
“We didn’t have time to prepare. She hit us more quickly than we’d expected.” Shang-Li silently chided himself. “I should have known the Nine Golden Swords were in contact with her.”
“She was already in contact with you, Shang-Li.” Thava dropped her mailed hand heavily on his shoulder. “She already knew where you were. And whatever she wants from you”
“Liou Chang’s books translated.”
“that has saved our lives.” Thava shrugged. “And no one could have prepared for this. Even after all these stories we heard about her, I wouldn’t have thought she could do this.”
Iados stomped on a small tentacled thing that tried to sneak up on him. “If she wants Shang-Li, why hasn’t she come for him yet?”
“Maybe she’s just letting us get used to the idea that she has us exactly where she wants us,” Thava suggested. “Or maybe creating that whirlpool exhausted her.”
“Either way,” Amree said, “you can wager that she’ll be along soon. Our lives are only saved for the moment. And if you ask me, I’d rather die trying to get out of here than sit around like a sheep waiting to be butchered.” She looked at the surrounding terrain. “This may be a prison, but it’s ripe with possibilities. I intend to exploit some of them.”
Shang-Li nodded. “What do you need us to do?”
Amree gestured toward the sunken ships in the distance. “There’s a graveyard of preserved vessels out there. We need two masts and spare wood. Canvas and rope, if there’s any to be salvaged.”
“Maybe we could find a better ship than Swallow” Iados suggested.
“I’ve spent days putting magic into this vessel,” Amree told him. “I can’t just easily transfer that over to another ship. And I’d rather work with the strength I’ve laid into Swallow than hope for the best with another ship. She’s worth salvaging.”
“I agree,” Captain Chiang stated as he came up to join the ship’s mage. The captain certainly looked worse for the wear, but his spirits seemed intact.
“All right,” Thava said. “We’ll head up scavenging parties. We’ll also need a guard around the ship. There are
