Wrath of the Blue Lady (32 page)

Shang-Li looked back at the spot he’d just vacated. He gazed in stunned fascination at himself sleeping there, and was surprised at how haggard and thin he looked. Cold and fearful, he turned back to the Blue Lady.

“I don’t want them to be harmed.”

“Good. Then you will come to me. Follow.”

Tucking his fighting sticks back into his sleeves, Shang-Li walked through the sleeping crew. No one, not even his father, noticed his passage. Nor did the guards Captain Chiang had assigned to their posts. Even brave Thava remained unaware of him as he passed by her.

Shang-Li had never seen a spell so powerful.

In the forest, the tentacled things and the sea shambles drew back from the Blue Lady.

“They know you are under my protection. They will not harm you.”

All the same, Shang-Li stepped warily and watched all the creatures as they trailed after him. He felt confident he could escape them if it came to that, but possibly not if one of them seized him first. And definitely not if more than one got hold of him.

Only a short distance farther on, the Blue Lady came to a stop and pointed her sharp chin at a man standing in the shadows of the swaying trees. “Follow him to my home. There we will see if I was wrong in keeping you alive. If I was, you will die to pay for my mistake. But if I was right, you can live to serve me.”

Shang-Li knew that would never happen, but he didn’t say so. He concentrated on the figure beneath the tree. There was something familiar about the man.

“Come forward.”

The man stepped from the shadows and Shang-Li recognized him.

“I am Bayel Droust.” The man spoke politely, but the fear of the Blue Lady was alive in him.

“You should be dead by now.” Shang-Li spoke before he thought about it. Instead, Bayel Droust only looked the same age he had in the drawings Shang-Li had seen of the man. He should have been old for a human, older than Shang-Li’s father.

The Blue Lady waved that away. “Long life is part of my gift to Bayel Droust for his continued obedience. But I shouldn’t reward all those years of failures. As you can see, I can be generous.”

Droust said nothing in his defense, only kept his head bent and his gaze resting on the sea floor. “Yes, lady.”

The Blue Lady turned to Shang-Li. “Follow him. I will

be waiting for you. If you do not, I will bring doom to all of your friends.”

Without another word, the Blue Lady disappeared.

“You are Shang-Li.” Droust lifted his eyes. “Of the Standing Tree Monastery.”

“I am Shang-Li, but not necessarily of the Standing Tree Monastery. I work with them and with my father, but I am my own man.”

“She thinks you can decipher Liou Chang’s books.”

“Perhaps.” Shang-Li tried to temper his immediate dislike of the man and not think of all the deaths that might have been prevented if Droust had somehow gotten word to the surface world about the Blue Lady. Then he realized that wasn’t fair. He didn’t know what Droust’s circumstances were during the intervening years.

“Do you know what secrets the books hold?”

“The secret of portal travel, you mean?”

“I do.” Droust shook his head and frowned. “Though it would doom you, and perhaps me, I pray that you aren’t successful. If you are, all of the Sea of Fallen Stars is in danger. Perhaps all of Faerun. She will amass an army and bring war to our world from another plane.”

“I know that.”

“Then why did you agree to come?”

“Because I don’t want my friends killed.”

Droust muttered a curse. “She will only kill them anyway. She hasn’t let anyone go from this place. Even her lackeys, the Nine Golden Swords warriors she lures down here, are never freed. She doesn’t want the surface world to know anything about her.”

Shang-Li knew that, but having the possibility put into words was disheartening.

“We must go to her citadel.” Droust stepped up into the water and started swimming.

“I suppose it would have been too much trouble for her to bring us along when she left.”

“She was never here. That was only an image. Down here, she’s very powerful.”

“She’s powerful on the surface as well.” Shang-Li swam after Droust.

“Yes, but she’s more vulnerable the farther she goes from this place.” “Why?”

“The other eladrin that banned Caelynna from the Feywild tied her to this place. The curse they used was twofold. She is stronger here, but she’s tied to this place as well. Leaving her could kill her.”

“Stronger than she was there?” Sea shambles moved below Shang-Li but couldn’t keep up with the two of them. Tentacled things reached from the tree branches but fell short.

“I believe so, though I don’t know for sure.”

“Do you know why they exiled her from the Feywild?”

“Because they weren’t able to kill her.” The land elevated slightly and some of the terrain looked familiar. “She made enemies. Powerful enemies. Other than that, I don’t know.”

Shang-Li looked at the other man. “All these years you’ve been down here, you’ve never learned more than that?”

Droust rolled over in the water to face him. “For the last seventy years,” he said in a harsh voice, “I have spent every waking hour of every day wondering if I was going to live. I’ve seen thousands of people die in that time, or stumbled over their corpses when I searched shipwrecks at her orders. I haven’t had the luxury of learning much more than how to stay alive, and how miserable such an existence can be.”

Chastened, Shang-Li decided not to ask any more questions about Droust’s motivations. His actions spoke even more eloquently of the terror he’d been subjected to. The man had trouble making eye contact and constantly searched all around him for creeping things.

“I wasn’t trained for this.” Droust resumed swimming. “Not fighting. Not survival. I’m a scribe. A good one. And

I couldn’t even translate Liou Chang’s books. I’ve failed at the one thing I’m good at.”

“I might not be able to translate it either.”

Tve consoled myself with thoughts that my failure could possibly be the greatest thing I’ve ever done. But if you translate those books and find that spell, you need to know she’ll kill you. And probably me as well. And definitely your friends. She’ll use them as she has used others.”

“What do you mean?”

Droust took a breath and let it out. “Caelynna, the Blue Lady, sometimes sacrifices groups of those she has allowed to survive their plummet into the sea because she can use them for other things.”

Cold dread squirmed within Shang-Li’s stomach.

“That’s right,” Droust whispered. “She hasn’t let them live just because she wanted you to have company. She was waiting on the moon cycle. Tonight it will be full. And when it is, she can have her creatures descend on those people in that ship and kill them all. The ritual requires blood and power, and it allows her to reach into the Feywild for things—creatures as well as plants. She transplants them here and lets the spellplague residue change some of them into even more dangerous things.” He glanced at Shang-Li. “Perhaps some of your friends will come back as those morbid creatures.”

“The sea shambles?”

“I hadn’t heard them called that, but the name is a good one. As far as I know, they have no other name.” “How long is it until moonrise?”

Droust shook his head. “I only know that Caelynna has been preparing for the ritual for the past few days. I knew she wouldn’t do it with you there. Not until she was certain you weren’t able to translate those books.” He paused. “And she may decide to replace me with you. Otherwise she’ll kill you.” He looked at Shang-Li. “I don’t know which to hope for.”

The citadel looked exactly as Shang-Li remembered it. Tumbled down and scattered, with only a few sections remaining, the edifice didn’t look grand or imposing, though a hint of past majesties remained.

“Did this come from our world? ” Shang-Li asked. “Or from another or the Feywild?”

“I don’t know. There’s writing on some of the buildings, but I don’t recognize any of it. And there are three iterations of the same language, possibly generational changes, or there are two languages, and one possibly has iteration. I’m not certain.”

Shang-Li’s curiosity rose immediately, then died just as suddenly as he spotted the squid-looking thing lurking behind the main building. “What is that thing?”

Droust looked, then shook his head. “It’s another of Caelynna’s possessions that has no name.” “She created that as well?”

“No. It was here from what I gather. She conquered and enthralled the creature. Now it does her bidding.”

Shang-Li looked at the creature. “But it’s not free?”

“Nothing,” Droust said morosely, “that lives within this place is free.”

Shang-Li swam after Droust. Together, they swam through the sunken remains of the citadel. What remained of the buildings was beautiful. The stone was mostly white and pale pink even in the blue glow. None of it was cut; all of a natural shape and size, chosen specifically to fit into the structures. Long covered walkways, some of them broken, ran on different levels from one section of the building to another, allowing for many outside areas that probably once offered magnificent views of the building and the grounds.

“I have another place where I work.” Droust alighted on a balcony that overlooked the collapsed center of the building. In the past, it might have overlooked a flower garden, judging from the space before it. “But this is where Caelynna keeps Liou Chang’s books under lock and key and guard.”

As soon as they entered the hallway, a group of Nine Golden Swords warriors waited with swords in their fists.

“Ah, the monk,” one of the Nine Golden Swords said. A predatory smile stretched across his face. “I’d heard you survived. For now.”

Shang-Li ignored the man as he walked past, but he listened to the man’s breathing to see if there would be a shift that noted movement on the man’s part.

“Another time, monk,” the warrior promised. “When you aren’t a protected plaything of the Blue Lady.”

Almost immediately, Shang-Li dismissed the man from his mind. The Nine Golden Swords were the least of his worries at the moment. Above the sea, the day was draining

and the full moon would wax. He couldn’t stay inside the citadel without warning his father and his friends, and he couldn’t leave Liou Chang’s books in the hands of the Blue Lady.

The hall continued for some distance before turning to the right. Droust pointed to a door flanked by four Nine Golden Swords members. They bared their weapons at Shang-Li’s approach but offered no direct threat.

“They don’t like you.” Droust halted in front of the door and waited as one of the Nine Golden Swords members used an ornate key on the lock.

“We share a long and blood-soaked history,” Shang-Li said. “I have never cared much for thieves and murderers. Obviously the feeling is reciprocated.”

The Nine Golden Swords warriors merely grinned and cursed him. One of them spat at Shang-Li, but the effort was wasted under the ocean.

Droust led the way through the doors into a large, ornate library lit by massive glowstones. The sea remained locked outside the doors as though a wall of glass separated the interior of the room from the hallway. One of the Nine Golden Swords warriors stuck his head through the opening and his wet beard dripped onto the floor as he grinned evilly.

“Caelynna understands she has to keep this room dry if I am to work.” Droust walked behind a dressing screen, then pointed to another on the other side of the room. “You’ll find dry robes there. Get out of your wet clothing. You can’t get the books fouled.”

Shang-Li walked behind the other dressing screen and reluctantly took off his leather armor. He didn’t like being left so unprotected and unarmed in the midst of the Nine Golden Swords, but he didn’t want to ruin the books either. Once he was dressed in the simple gown, he joined Droust at a large marble table in the center of the room.

Despair filled Shang-Li as he looked at the empty shelves that lined the walls.

“I know,” Droust said. “I felt the same way. When I was given this room, the shelves were full of books.” “Where are they now?”

“Molded. Ruined. A long time before my arrival. Caelynna chased the water from this room and set it up for me to work on Liou’s books. I had to throw away the old books. Nothing of them could be saved. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve worried for years about all that was lost of whomever lived here.” The scribe peered around the room. “I’d never thought I’d ever be cloistered away for so very long in one place.” He glanced at Shang-Li. “But you’re probably used to that.”

“No.” Shang-Li had loved the monastery, but he had loved the forests and even the cities more. Mostly he had loved the adventures, the new experiences that came on a nearly daily pace. “Where are the books?”

Droust hesitated. He crossed the floor and took a crystal from a gold chain around his neck. As he pressed the crystal near a blank section in the bookshelves, a keyhole appeared. The scribe thrust the crystal home and twisted.

A moment later, a thick stone door opened on a stone box that suddenly appeared. Droust reached into the box with reverence and took out two books. He turned and carefully brought them back to Shang-Li.

Handling the books delicately, Shang-Li placed them side by side on the table and began flipping them open one at a time. With them juxtaposed, he hoped that he could pick up any redundancies Liou Chang might have used in his code work.

The passages were written in script that Shang-Li didn’t recognize from any of the languages he knew or was familiar with.

“They’re written in artificial languages,” Droust said.

“I know.” Shang-Li carefully turned the neatly lettered pages. “I’ve read some of his other books. Mv father made

me translate much of Liou’s work while I was growing up at the monastery. He’s an authority on Liou Chang.” “Then why isn’t he here?”

“Because my father is an excellent academician, but I’m better at breaking codes. Besides that, the Blue Lady wanted me here.” Shang-Li looked at Droust. “I’m going to ask you a simple question, and I want you to think about your answer before you give it. Do you understand?”