“Drowning would be my guess,” Shang-Li answered, and he felt the grim reality of the situation close in on him.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Iados shook his head. “Why did they drown if we don’t?”
“I don’t know,” Shang-Li replied. He didn’t bother to point out that could at any moment since he felt certain the thought lingered constantly in their minds. “Perhaps they drowned before they reached the blue light. Maybe the Blue Lady chose not to help them.”
“And where is she?” Iados asked impatiently. “If it was so important for her to have us down here, why hasn’t she come to claim her prizes?”
Shang-Li couldn’t answer that either.
“I’m tired of waiting,” the tiefling declared with an angry snap of his tail.
“Until we know more about her,” Thava stated, “you’re only waiting for your death. Better we should take this time and learn. The battle will come.”
Most of the ship’s cargo was ruined, contaminated by the ocean or strung out in pieces across the floor. Some of it lay half-buried in the silt.
Shang-Li prized at one of the planks near the ship’s stern. The wood remained good, but the vessel had been constructed well and intended to stay in one piece.
Shang-Li braced himself against the ship’s hull and managed to rip the plank free. Handling it in the water was much more difficult than on land. Whatever magic allowed him to move and breathe beneath the ocean didn’t apply to the things they scavenged from the ship. The plank moved slowly through the water and made the job hard.
However, the water made the heaviest prizes easier to manage. Two sailors carried a mast that would have taken a block and tackle and a crew of stout men to raise on land.
A short distance from the ship, Shang-Li dropped the plank on a pile of others that had been salvaged. Thava stacked another.
“How long do you think we’ve been at this?” the paladin asked. “The men are tired, and they’ve been through a lot today. If it is still the same day.”
Shang-Li nodded. No one needed to be overtired, but the need to finish the task Amree had set before them remained on his mind. Staying focused was hard when he thought about the Blue Lady and how she might close in on them at any time. When he let himself get fatigued, he couldn’t help thinking she was deliberately letting them labor on their escape just so she could yank it away from them at the end. “Let’s finish up with what we have, tie it off, and get back to Swallow.” Thava nodded.
Swimming up, Shang-Li called the salvage crew in. They sorted through the timber, canvas, and cargo they’d gathered. Then they swam in freight teams to haul their salvage back.
Shang-Li held onto a corner of sailcloth and swam. The weight of pots and barrels weighed the center of the sailcloth. It also slowed progress because it fought the ocean in an ungainly fashion.
But it went.
Although he glanced around him and saw no one, Shang-Li couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.
Shang-Li tracked the darting shadows all around him as a matter of course. Never before had he noticed how restless marine life seemed to be. It was always moving.
What are you doing, manling? The Blue Lady’s voice lay chills all along Shang-Li’s spine.
Looking around, Shang-Li realized he could no longer see his companions or the load he’d been tugging along. She has you in her thrall, he thought.
You’ve had time to think over my offer, manling. Now I want to know if you’re worth the time I’m taking to keep you alive.
“You’re not keeping us alive.” Shang-Li thought of the dead sailors they had lost over the last couple days. “We’re keeping ourselves alive.”
I’m keeping you from dying more quickly.
Shang-Li didn’t answer. No matter what he said, she would only turn it against him.
Do you see your friends? Are you even awake?
Hesitantly, Shang-Li hung in the water. He didn’t know if he was awake, or what had happened to the others or the salvage.
There is someone I’d like you to meet. He is my guest “Prisoner, you mean?” and I expect you to treat him with respect once I introduce you. If you harm him, I will kill everyone that is there with you.
Shang-Li didn’t have a response for that. “Who is the guest?”
You will know him. He will test you, your knowledge, and see if you are the one I need. If not, I will kill you and let my pets have you. But at least it will go more quickly.
Anxiety twisted Shang-Li’s guts but he kept his focus and forced himself to be calm. They were running out of time. “When is he coming?”
Soon.
Pain flooded Shang-Li’s temples as her power filled him. Then she was gone, and the sorrow of her leaving left him almost shattered him. He breathed through the feeling and it quickly went away. When he blinked again, he found Iados glancing in direction.
“Are you all right, Shang-Li?” Iados had him by the shoulder.
“Yes. I… what happened?’ As he looked around, Shang-Li saw they’d spilled the canvas with him.
“I don’t know. It was like you were in a trance.”
Shang-Li shook his head and it felt heavy and slow. “It was the Blue Lady.”
“She’s able to contact you while you’re awake?” Thava sounded more concerned.
“Her power over you is obviously growing,” Iados said. “That’s something we hadn’t considered.”
Shang-Li had, but he hadn’t wanted to bring it up. Even now, he didn’t know what to say, or how to tell them exactly when they would no longer be able to trust him.
Since no one could tell by the horizon or by the eventual fall of darkness how much time passed, the hours were marked by candles that burned in the canvas bubble. After everyone had six hours sleep, interrupted by a two-hour guard shift in the middle or at either end of the cycle, Captain Chiang roused his crew and the “day” began anew. The schedule was hard to keep because there was no way to mark time while away from Swallow.
Shang-Li, Iados, and Thava once more headed up the salvage party. They didn’t return to Bokhan’s Pearl. An infestation of sea shambles in the area nearby had been enough to dissuade them of that.
“I hate the way they watch us.” Iados stared bleakly at the inhuman things that stayed mostly hidden in the treeline. “I don’t know if they’re waiting on us to catch us unaware, or if they’re spies for the Blue Lady.”
Shang-Li shook his head and regretted it. For the last couple of days, he’d been plagued by ferocious headaches. His sleep and even an increasing number of his waking hours were interrupted by nightmares.
“I don’t know.”
“And where is this mysterious person the Blue Lady told you she would send?” Thava kicked at a scuttling thing that had crept too close and latched onto her boot.
“I wish I knew.”
“Because it’s not like we’re going to have friends down here,” Iados said.
“Have you had time to consider my offer, manling?”
Startled, Shang-Li glanced up into the shadows of the hold they were currently sorting through. The Blue Lady floated in the water in front of him, glowing with an incandescence almost as bright as the glowstones they’d hung in nets on the wall. Out of habit, Shang-Li reached for his fighting sticks and this time they fell into his hands effortlessly.
Amused, the Blue Lady smiled. “Still you cling to your desperation.”
“Would you have it any other way?” As he looked around, Shang-Li saw that he was alone. Iados, Thava, and the others were no longer in the hold. He hadn’t seen them leave.
“No. Desperation drives you, manling, but it is an elixir to my kind. You work so hard, dream so big, and yet you live so small and so quickly.”
Shang-Li tried to keep his thoughts focused on the Blue Lady and not think of the gamble they were putting together to raise Swallow.
