Shang-Li guided the canvas down to the bottom of the hold. “Nothing’s marked,” he told the sailor. “These might be anything.”
“Anything’s better than nothing. I will hope for a cask of wine that has not yet soured.” The sailor smiled. “Do you have any idea how long the ship this is from has been down?”
“I’ve never heard of her. The name didn’t turn up in the research my father and I did.”
“We will hope it has not been overlong. If there is anything to be had.”
“Where can I find my father?”
The sailor pointed toward the mass of coral lighted in one corner of the hold. The light blazed through a sheet of canvas.
“Amree has managed something of a ship’s galley there where we can eat and drink,” the sailor said.
Shang-Li thanked the man and swam up toward the hold. Thava and Iados joined him and they floated above the floor of the cargo hold.
Tentatively, Shang-Li pressed his hand against the belled canvas. Surprising strength pressed back against his palm.
“Is there not a way in?” Iados asked.
“Go under,” Amree called. Shadows moved across the rounded canvas. “If you pull apart the canvas, we’ll lose the air.”
Shang-Li swam under and immediately spotted a rectangle cut out in the center of the floor. Catching hold of the opening, Shang-Li hauled himself up and through. As soon as he emerged into the air, he felt drenched. His sodden clothing dripped all over the floor. He looked down at the mess he’d inadvertently made and was fascinated.
“You’ve dived before?” Amree sat on the floor in the corner of the small area created by the canvas. Fatigue darkened her eyes. A bloody bandage wrapped her right hand.
“Yes,” Shang-Li responded as he made way for Iados and then Thava, who both experienced the same waterlogged effect he’d suffered. “Many times. Nothing like this, though.”
“Nor have I. “
Kwan Yung sat on a wooden cask and grilled fish fillets over heated coals. A large pot of clam chowder simmered on another set of coals. He worked quickly to keep the food coming.
Sailors sat on the floor and scooped thin wine from an open cask. They ate quickly from bowls, tearing at the fish with their fingers and drinking the chowder. Then they headed back out to keep the rotation going. The canvas covered area was filled to near bursting.
“One of the sailors that came in earlier said you were attacked,” Amree said.
“We encountered a group of spellscarred humanoids,” Shang-Li said. “I think they were changed by the wild magic.”
“From this world or hers?”
Shang-Li shook his head. “They wore remnants of sailors’ clothing, but there was no way to identify them.”
“There wasn’t much left of any humanity in them,” Thava said. “They were little more than predators.”
“That seems to be the way of everything in this place,” Amree said. “Did you find any salvage?”
“Planks. Sailcloth. Some goods, though we don’t know what they are yet.”
“You’ve given them to the quartermaster?” his father asked.
“Yes.”
His father handed them three bowls, then quickly ladled soup into them.
For the first time Shang-Li noticed that he smelled the food. “Why couldn’t I smell the food outside?”
“It’s part of the spell I used to create this bubble.” Amree laid her head back against the canvas. It shifted and rolled slightly, marking the constant movement of the sea that Shang-Li hadn’t noticed while in the water. “I drew the air from the ocean and I have to cycle the good air in and the bad air out. Otherwise the air in this place would make us sick.” She smiled a little. “It’s strange to know that the bad air we gather in here could be more harmful to us than the sea outside.”
Kwan Yung took fillets from the coals and passed them out. There was enough for Shang-Li, Iados, Thava, and all the sailors presently inside the canvas to have one.
“Have you found any sign of Grayling?” his father asked.
“Not yet. But we didn’t go any farther than the ship we found today.”
“How big is this place?” Amree asked.
Shang-Li shook his head. “It would take days to find the edges, and we’d lose too many in the forests. Finding Grayling is going to be difficult.”
“Yet it must be found,” his father said, tugging on his beard. “You cannot fail in this.”
“I know.”
“If we do not take back the journals of Liou” “Father, I know,” Shang-Li said. He stood, irritated and exhausted. What did he have to do to get his father to see he was doing what he could? The weight of the missing books lay heavy on his thoughts. The others were staring at him.
“I’m going to sleep,” he said, and abruptly left the air pocket, still seething.
Shang-Li sat up on the floor of the cargo hold, his heart pounding and his mind jumbled with thoughts.
Around him, the ship creaked and rolled with the constant movement of the ocean. Several small fish had invaded the ship and pestered sleeping sailors. Every now and again a startled yelp would wake everyone as a sailor discovered a crab had wandered into his clothing. Thankfully the guards posted at the cargo hold entries had turned away most of the tentacled things that tried to creep in as well.
“They keep getting in.” Shang-li turned to see Amree sitting on a crate, watching him.
“You should sleep” she said. You’re going to need your rest.”
“And you don’t?”
Amree sighed and folded her arms. “I’ve got a ship to watch over, and she’s currently in unsafe waters.”
Shang-Li glanced at the canvas-covered air bubble in the corner. “Does that spell strain you?”
Amree shook her head and her red tresses floated on the water. “No. It’s set. Maintaining it isn’t necessary. It’s self-sufficient for the moment.” She paused. “What is going to be difficult is expanding that air bubble to bring the ship to the surface.” She gazed around the hold. “Even if we manage to get enough canvas to hold the air necessary to lift the ship, we’re not going to lift quickly. Nor will we be able to steer Swallow. She’ll go where she has need to, mostly up, but there will be some drift with the currents and the tide. More than likely we’ll still be far out to see and away from any help. We may even drift into the territory of the sahuagin. Or the aboleths.” She pulled at the bandage on her hand.
“Let me see your hand,” Shang-Li said.
“My hand is fine.”
“Has anyone tended to it?”
“No one’s had the time.”
“Not even my father?” Shang-Li found that hard to believe.
“Your father,” Amree said, “has been busy feeding everyone. He’s still up there now taking care of that. He’s the one you should be worried about.”
The sharp ache of guilt twisted in Shang-Li’s stomach. He hadn’t given a second thought to his father’s chosen task.
“Where is the ship’s cook?” Shang-Li asked.
“Lost. Somewhere in the sea. A few of them were, you know.”
Shang-Li did know. He also knew more had been lost to the predators in the strange forest.
“May I please see your hand?” he asked.
“Now you’re a cleric?”
“I’m a monk,” Shang-Li replied. “One of the first things we’re trained to do is care for the body. Our own or someone else’s.”
Gently, noting how tense the young woman was, Shang-Li took her hand and guided her to a sitting position in front of him. He carefully unwrapped the cloth from her hand. The fact that the cloth didn’t feel saturated still amazed him, especially when he considered how wet it would be when she entered the air bubble.
