Swallow.
The ship shifted and rocked on the undersea currents. Ropes tied to stakes driven into the sea bed and some of the nearby trees held her down. Shang-Li hoped Amree had been able to make enough air to allow them to surface. He swam toward Droust, grabbed the man by his shirt, and pulled him down toward Swallow.
Thava met Shang-Li as he dropped to Swallow’s forward deck. “How did you get up there? The last I saw you, you were sleeping. You’ve done so much lately that we let you sleep.”
“That wasn’t me. The Blue Lady took me and left an illusion behind. Get the others. We have to go. She’s on her way here now with an army.” Shang-Li ran to the prow and called the sailors in from their work on the hull. No more time could be afforded patching it.
He looked down at Red Orchid.
Red Orchid stretched herself on the prow and met his gaze. “We could have used more time, Shang-Li, but I am ready.”
“Mielikki willing.” Shang-Li quickly posted lookouts, then went below to find his father and Amree.
“We need more time.” Amree looked as though she was about to fall over as she stood within the air bubble she’d created inside Swallow’s hold.
“If I could make that happen for you, I would have. But all the Blue Lady was waiting on was the moon.” Shang-Li glanced at his father. “We brought Liou Chang’s books back with us.” He held out the bag that contained the books.
His father took the books and nodded. “You’ve done well.”
“Only if we live to tell of it.”
“No.” Kwan Yung shook his head. “Keeping the books from the Blue Lady was success enough. I would like to return them to the monastery”
“But if that doesn’t look possible, we have to destroy them.”
His father nodded and pain showed in his hazel eyes. “Of course, but I would rather concentrate on our escape.”
“So would I.” Shang-Li glanced around and saw Thava and Iados gearing up for contact.
“She’s coming!” someone yelled. “The Blue Lady is coming!”
Shang-Li dived through the bottom of the opening at the bottom of the hold and through the tear in the hull. The tear was much smaller, but it hadn’t been closed yet. They needed it for ease of access to get into the hold.
He shook the fighting sticks into his waiting hands and felt the power of them thrilling against his flesh as if they sensed the coming battle as well. His body flooded with blood and he cleared his head to ready himself mentally.
Over the top of the trees, the Blue Lady and her horde of creatures and Nine Golden Swords warriors swam toward Swallow. She rode the giant squid, which pulsed like a heart as it stayed at the forefront of the approaching danger.
“I see you have new toys.” Iados stood at Shang-Li’s side and nodded at the fighting sticks.
“Gifts.” Shang-Li brandished them and black lightning seemed to shimmer through the wood. “They’re supposed to be dangerous to the Blue Lady.”
“Gods willing.” Iados took a fresh grip on his blade.
“Remember the plan.” Shang-Li flicked the blades out of his fighting sticks. “We fight them off only as far as we can breathe. Then we have no choice but to crawl within the ship.”
Iados nodded grimly. “That’s one detail I won’t forget.” Captain Chiang stood in the sterncastle above. “Cut loose forward.”
Red Orchid picked up the command. “Cut loose forward.” Immediately Shang-Li cut three of the ropes holding
Swallow down. He grabbed hold of the last rope with one hand and quickly threaded it through the belt of his leather armor. Iados, Thava, and two of the sailors did the same. Swallow angled upward.
The Blue Lady and her group swam faster, closing inhumanly quick.
“Cut loose stern,” Captain Chiang ordered.
“Cut loose stern.” Red Orchid’s voice sounded strong and confident. Blue lightning threaded through Swallow and lit her up brightly in the water.
As soon as the lines were cut, Swallow rose toward the surface, slowly at first, but she gained speed quickly.
“No!” the Blue Lady shouted. She abandoned her mount and swam ahead of it.
“That squid is going to be a problem,” Iados grumbled. “You might have mentioned that she had that.”
The sharks reached Swallow first and attacked immediately. Shang-Li swung both fighting sticks, sinking the blades into the predators’ flesh again and again. Streamers of blood trailed through the water. Iados split one of the sharks open with his sword. Thava swung her axe and caught another in the teeth, then the heavy blade cleaved away the top half of the shark’s head.
The sailor in front of Shang-Li screamed in horror as a tentacled thing struck him in the face and a shamble grabbed him around the legs. Before Shang-Li could reach the man and offer help, the tentacled thing thrust an appendage through the man’s eye and deep into his brain. Racked by death throes, the man released his weapon and stopped fighting. Unable to do anything else, Shang-Li cut the dead man free.
Red Orchid grew large and fierce at the prow. Her arms reached nearly ten feet in length and she broke and ripped Nine Golden Swords warriors and sea shambles alike as she battled.
The Blue Lady swam for Shang-Li and avoided Red
Orchid. “How did you escape?” she howled.
Shang-Li ignored her. The water was already getting hard to breathe, and the darkness around him told him that they were rising out of the safe zone. He held onto his fighting sticks and slashed at a Nine Golden Swords warrior that tried to impale him with a sword.
The Blue Lady’s eyes blazed. She spun and threw a hand toward Swallow. Something shimmered through the water, then Swallow rocked violently onto her side. Blue lighting coursed through the ship as Red Orchid worked to right her.
“Shang-Li!” Iados scrambled up the line that led back into the ship’s hold. “Come on!”
“You’ve doomed yourself, manling.” The Blue Lady swam and effortlessly paced the rise of the ship dragging Shang-Li after it. “If you want to liveif you want your father to liveyou’ll surrender yourself and the books to me now. You can’t get away.” She threw another spell at Swallow. This time, in spite of the sea, part of the hull caught fire.
Amree swam from the hold. She had a rope tied around her upper body. She gestured toward the hull and another shimmer quieted the flames, leaving only scorched planks behind. Then the ship’s mage spun toward the Blue Lady and flung out her hands. Bright sparks shot from her fingers and raced across the distance.
Before the spell reached her, the Blue Lady waved again. Something glimmered in front of her and the bright sparks extinguished with horrific cracks less than a foot in front of her. The bright explosions and sound seemed to leave her dazed. Recovering, she hurled another spell at Amree, but blue electricity from the ship’s hull streaked out to intercept it.
Choking on the black water, Shang-Li watched as the squid wrapped its tentacles around Red Orchid and tried to pry her from Swallow. Red Orchid fought valiantly, but Shang-Li knew the squid was too large and too strong. Red Orchid would be ripped free of the ship and destroyed.
Brazen and bold, confident that she couldn’t be hurt by him, the Blue Lady closed on Shang-Li. “I can let you live, manling. Give me what I desire, give me the secrets of those books and I will let you live. You and your father can be liaisons for me with the surface world. You can have good lives.”
No longer able to breathe, Shang-Li couldn’t answer. Instead, he struck with one of the fighting sticks. The Blue Lady put up an arm instinctively to block the blow and keep it from her face. The blade glowed with black fire, and cut deeply into her arm.
Howling in pain and surprise, the Blue Lady fell back. She clutched her wounded arm to her and glared at Shang-Li with murderous rage. “Now you have failed. There will be no mercy. I will destroy you all.”
Shang-Li grabbed the rope and started up toward the ship. Swallow tossed and jerked out of control as Red
