Wrath of the Blue Lady (12 page)
Read Wrath of the Blue Lady Online
Authors: Mel Odom
“Haven’t you?”
His father sighed again but his features softened a little. For the first time Shang-Li noticed how tired his father appeared.
“I keep forgetting how long it’s been since you’ve done any original work at the monastery,” his father stated. “These … adventures you’re so enthralled with aren’t disciplined things.”
Shang-Li started to protest.
His father held up a hand and silenced him. “I would ask that you remember that you’re not dealing with one of those skilled amateurs you normally travel with. I am a trained researcher, and I work in a disciplined environment. If anything, I would have shown you disrespect by allowing you to watch me work.”
Immediately, embarrassment flushed through Shang-Li and chased away his anger. He had forgotten how two equals worked to solve a problem at the monastery. The monks didn’t work together. They worked independently, each assessing a manuscript or problem on their own, then coming together to present their thoughts and impressions for discussion.
Working together often tainted critical thinking. More was learned through independent research and discussions than through a joint conjecture at the beginning.
“I treated you as an equal,” his father said. “Otherwise I would have invited you to work with me.”
Shang-Li bowed his head in embarrassment. “I had forgotten.”
“Let us hope that you still retain some of the training we invested in you.”
Shang-Li knew that his father’s words were sharper then they needed to be, but he also felt deserving of his father’s ire.
“These books are very important, Shang-Li.”
“I know, Father. Liou’s books weren’t meant for anyone to read. There is too much dangerous knowledge written into those pages. I understand that.” Shang-Li thought about mentioning the dreams, but he wasn’t quite ready for that.
“I’ve left the paper in the cabin for you.” His father gestured over his shoulder. “I suggest you eat something as well. You need to keep up your strength. You can use the room if you’d like.”
“Thank you, but no. I’d prefer to work outside, by natural light, as long as I am able.”
His father nodded. “As you wish.” He turned and walked away. “We’ll talk again when you’re finished with your examinations of the document.”
As Shang-Li watched his father’s retreating back, sadness and angerboth of them new and oldwarred inside him. He didn’t know why they could find no peace between them. It wasn’t his elf heritage or the training that his mother had given him. There was just something between them that seemed insurmountable.
<5>
Shortly before sunset, Swallow made land. A storm was brewing on the open sea. Yugi shouted out the news of a land sighting, and they sailed a short distance
farther before finding a comfortable cove where the captain felt safe enough to drop anchor. Sailors went ashore only briefly as the storm closed in quickly.
However, the cove was one that had been used before by other ships. The shore party filled a few barrels with fresh water from a nearby spring to replace some of the water that had turned brackish over the last few days. They even managed to find a few succulent berries on bushes near the spring.
Shang-Li went with them long enough to allow Moonwhisper to hunt voles and eat his fill. While he waited for the owl to return, Shang-Li took shelter within a small cave. Wind whipped the trees around and fat raindrops splashed the stone mouth of the cave. Thankfully, the cave tilted up into the short cliff and no rain entered, but that didn’t keep out the cold draft.
Working while maintaining contact with Moonwhisper, Shang-Li laid dry wood he’d gathered while in the forest. Shortly after that, a cheery fire filled the cave. Smoke hugged the cave’s roof and the dancing flames revealed the crude drawings left by prior bored tenants.
Shang-Li smiled at the drawings. Some had been rendered by scratching a knife point into the stone while others had been created with simple paints made with grease and stone powders. No matter where he’d gone, inside caves and inside towns, men had left their marks. Perhaps the effort met a need to be noticed, and a desire to leave something of themselves behind.
Sitting cross-legged, Shang-Li reached into his back and withdrew the pale white sheet. Although he tried, he discerned no mark left by his father’s examination. Shang-Li wasn’t sure if he was disappointed. Some clue as to what his father was thinking might have been welcome.
Or it might have influenced your own conclusions, he reminded himself wryly.
He released his breath and focused on the paper. There
was more to it than the nonsensical writing. He was certain of that. A strong force lurked within the paper. The blue mark on his palm pulsed raggedly.
Still aware of Moonwhisper sitting in a tree with a full stomach only a short distance outside the cave, Shang-Li pushed away all thoughts and placed the paper on a stone in front of him. He held his open hand above the sheet and gave his senses over to the magic he felt inside the writing.
At first, nothing happened. Then a vortex swept him into darkness. He thought he heard Moonwhisper call out to him, but if the owl made a noise, it was lost in the sharp crack of thunder.
ake, manling.”
The imperious command focused Shang-Li’s attention. Lost in the soft darkness, the voice drew him like a beacon.
“Did you not hear me?” the voice asked again more sharply.
This time Shang-Li was certain the voice was that of a woman. He was also certain that he knew which woman it was, but he didn’t understand how that could be.
Without warning, a strong hand closed around his shoulder and yanked him forward. The blackness went away and was replaced by muted blue. Shang-Li noticed at once that his movements were uncoordinated, slower and heavier as he flailed for his balance.
During his travels in the Sea of Fallen Stars and along the Sword Coast, he had sometimes ventured to the sea bottom in search of sunken cities and broken ships. The gentle rolling hills reminded him of those experiences immediately. Brain coral and reefs dotted the ocean floor, and myriad fish swam all around him.
His breath locked in his lungs at once when he realized he was deep underwater. Frantic, he glanced up and wondered how far he was from the surface. The immediate dark pall above looked daunting.
Surely it was too far to swim.
Instead of gradually growing lighter as it should have, the sea turned pitch black overhead. A few glittering stars flashed in the distance, but from the way they moved he was certain they were luminous fish.
Despite the certainty that he’d never reach the surface, he leaped from the ground and started to swim. A strong iron band closed around his left ankle and jerked him to a stop. Precious air bubbled from his lips as he twisted to free himself.
The Blue Lady stood beneath him and seemed to hold him effortlessly with one hand. Cruelty filled her cold eyes and twisted her full lips into a smile. She looked as beautiful and deadly as Farsiak had described in his journal and as Shang-Li had dreamed her.
“You’ll not escape me too easily, minnow.” She yanked him back without apparent strain.
Desperate, Shang-Li opened his mouth, thinking maybe she had ensorcelled him. As deep as he was, and he thought he was perhaps deeper than he’d ever been before, the weight of the sea should have crushed him. Yet he lived.
When he opened his mouth, however, salt water trickled between his lips. The thick brine immediately turned him queasy and he thought he was going to be sick. He sealed his lips tightly against the sea.
“Are you drowning, manling?” She mocked gasping for air and took delight in his vulnerability.
Shang-Li doubled over and reached for slim hand that held him with incredible strength. He gripped her thumb in one hand and started pulling. No matter how strong an opponent was, bones still joined together in the same fashion. They still had weaknesses that could be exploited.
If they’re human, he told himself.
She yelped in surprised pain and released him. Fire burned within Shang-Li’s chest and he thought he could feel his lungs dwindling. He swam upward again, but from the corner of his eye he saw the woman gesture and heard a growled command in an unknown tongue.
Gray bodies knifed through the water around him. In the next heartbeat, the distorted images of six sharks appeared before him. One of them streaked for him and he was unable to get away in time. The hard muscled body slammed against him. His breath left his lungs and he felt hot scratches that scored his chest from the impact.
When he glanced down, he saw that the wounds were deep enough to draw blood. He knew the scent of the fresh blood in the water would send the sharks into a feeding frenzy. He shook his sticks into his hands and knew that he was about to be torn apart.
“Don’t try to be too much trouble, manling.” The Blue Lady stared into his eyes. “I find myself curious about you, but that won’t save you from my irritation.” She cocked her head and regarded him again. “You are not totally human.”
Shang-Li tried to swim away but wasn’t able to elude the sharks. Another collided with his side and scratched him again. He wasn’t sure if the impact had broken ribs, but it felt like it might have. The last of his breath escaped him in a cry of pain that slid from his mouth in a stream of silver bubbles.
The Blue Lady gestured toward him and passed her open palm over his face. “Breathe. If I had wanted you
dead, you already would be so. You’re worth much more to me alive at this point.”
For a moment longer, Shang-Li tried to hold his breath. He didn’t trust the Blue Lady, and he didn’t want to take anything from her. Characters in stories oftentimes became cursed for eating or drinking or taking gifts from a malicious host. And he was certain the Blue Lady meant nothing good.
Then, when he felt about to pass out and his head thudded painfullyno longer in control of his body, he took a breath. He expected to feel the cold rush of the sea fill his lungs and spin his senses away.
Instead, he breathed air. The heaviness and slowness left him as well. When he moved through the water now, he could move as well as he could on dry land. He knew he’d been spelled. He had a ring in his bag that allowed him the same kind of freedom underwater.
“If you try to leave me again,” the Blue Lady told him imperiously, “then I will remove my protection from the sharks. And you will once again drown. But I don’t think the sharks will let you live long enough to do that.”
Shang-Li gazed at the predatory creatures circling him. The black eyes and severely curved mouths left him no doubt about what they would do to him. They were more agitated now, and he knew the blood scent in the water affected them.
Gracefully, Shang-Li swam back down to face the Blue Lady and landed just beyond her reach. He knew the sense of safety brought about by the distance was false, but he chose to take comfort in it anyway.
“Why did you bring me here?” He met her gaze with effort because she seemed so threatening.
“Why do you come seeking me?”
“I’m not seeking you.”
She smiled mirthlessly at him. “Yet our paths converge.”
“I don’t even know where we are.”
“You are there, on that ship. Headed for here. I know this.”
“How?”
“Don’t try my patience, manling.” Though her voice was sweet, the Blue Lady’s tone dripped with threat.
At her mercy, knowing all she had to do was withhold her spell so he could no longer breathe the sea, Shang-Li nodded. “Lady, I’m looking for books that Bayel Droust had.”
“Why? What makes those books so special?”
“The monastery I serve searches for those books. They are important histories.”
His form of address and his apparent willingness to tell the truth pleased her and her smile held a bit more warmth.
“Do you know Bayel Droust?” Interest flickered in those silver eyes.
“No. He died long before I was born.” Shang-Li didn’t bother to correct her reference to Droust. She hadn’t spoken of him in the past tense. Common obviously wasn’t a tongue she was used to.
“Where are these books you seek?”
“They went down in the ship that Droust sailed on all those years ago, lady.”
“How many years?”
Surprised at the strange question, Shang-Li hesitated.
“Come now,” the Blue Lady rebuked him. “Surely you know how many years it’s been. Manlings have a love of counting years gone by.”
“Over seventy, lady.”
The sharks continued to circle. Shang-Li still bled into the open water. They tasted him, but they couldn’t have him. “A pittance,” the Blue Lady said. “A lot to my people.”
“Half of your people, don’t you mean?” She reached out and delicately stroked Shang-Li’s left ear tip with her fingers. The touch seemed casual but was delicious. Shang-Li felt as though he were about to melt. “You are elven.”
There was no denying that. Nor would he want to. He took pride in both of his heritages. “My mother was an elf.”
“I knew of your elven nature. I could sense that about you.”
Shang-Li remained silent as the sharks continued to swim around them.
“What makes these books so important that you have to come looking for them seventy years gone?” she asked.
“As I said, they’re part of a history of interest to my people.”
“The elves?”
“No, Lady.”
“These are books that manlings are interested in?” “Yes, Lady.”
“Why did Bayel Droust have the books?” “He was studying them.”
The Blue Lady frowned and her sharply arched eyebrows knitted. “He has not mentioned these books to me.”
The constant referral to Droust in the present tense was unsettling to Shang-Li.”Perhaps there was no time.”
“There is time now.” The Blue Lady grabbed her seaweed robe and whirled around. “There is time now. Come.” She started walking away.
Shang-Li thought momentarily of breaking away and trying to swim for the surface. The sharks crowded in, though, and made it obvious that they weren’t going to let him swim away.
This is a dream, Shang-Li told himself. All you have to do is wake up. He tried, but in the end he trailed after the Blue Lady.