Mel Odom - Wrath of the Blue Lady

“Haul that canvas down,” Amree shouted at the sailors she’d selected to trap the air in the canvas. “If you don’t keep that air in Swallow’s guts, we’re going to end up back at the bottom of the sea.”

Shang-Li hauled himself through the rent and stood once more in the warm moonlight. His heart sang for just a moment, then the Nine Golden Swords warriors, the sea shambles, and the tentacled things all surfaced and clambered up onto the overturned ship. Fighting sticks in both hands, Shang-Li advanced into the fray. He smashed creatures with the sticks, then used the blades to block the swords of the Nine Golden Swords warriors and pierce their hearts and throats.

He moved with surefooted grace on the slick hull, never making a faltering movement. He hammered a tentacled thing, ducked beneath the sword thrust of a warrior, and swung, flicking the blade out unconsciously. The point sank into his attacker’s temple and dropped him to the ground without a sound. He kicked the dead man free of the blade and moved to the next opponent.

With a harsh battle cry, Thava pounded past Shang-Li and rushed to the ship’s prow. Whirling her axe over her head, the paladin leaped from the ship and into the center of the squid Red Orchid fought. Fearlessly, Thava sank the axe into the creature again and again. A tentacle slid free, dismembered and wriggling, and sank into the sea.

The Blue Lady exploded from the ocean on a plume of water only a few feet from Shang-Li. She leaped and landed on the ship next to him, a spear clutched in one hand. Without preamble, she struck at him with the spear.

Shang-Li blocked her attack with the sticks, then stepped smoothly sideways and took the attack to her. He drove her back at first, then she took an extra step backward and threw a hand out at him. A sudden blow struck Shang-Li and knocked him from his feet to sprawl on his back.

“You’re a fool, manling.” The Blue Lady came at him with her spear. “You should have taken the offer I tendered to you. It was generous. At least you and your father would have gotten to live.” She thrust with the spear.

Shang-Li blocked the blow with a quick movement of his foot. The spear point bit into the hull and dug divots from the wood. The Blue Lady drew back to strike again and he knew he wasn’t going to be fast enough to prevent her from at least wounding him. Before she could strike, thick ropes of webbing formed in the air and wreathed around her. Shang-Li rolled and got to his feet.

The Blue Lady burst through the webbing, roaring with rage, and turned to face Amree. The ship’s mage spoke a spell and a whirling ball of fire filled her hand. She threw the fireball at the Blue Lady. Shang-Li felt the heat of the fireball as it sizzled past him. A massive wall of wind met the fireball only a few feet in front of the Blue Lady. The flames twisted and roiled around her, but they never touched her. She threw her hand out and blue-white beams sped from her fingers and became icy spears.

Iados joined Shang-Li and together they rushed the Blue Lady as Amree staggered back.

“Fools!” The Blue Lady shifted her attention to Iados and Shang-Li. “You only hasten to your deaths.”

Iados clutched a shield in front of him and leaped into the air as lightning shot from her hand and assumed a serpentine shape. The serpent-lightning lashed out and Iados managed to get his shield in front of it, but the impact sent him spinning backward ten feet along the pitching hull.

Shang-Li ran across the hull, thrown off stride by the shifting footing. The Blue Lady turned on him and threw a hand out. Kicking his feet out, Shang-Li slid across the deck under a glistening orb that suddenly burst and hurled razor-sharp projectiles in all directions. A few of the projectiles ripped into the back of his leather armor and one tore through the side of his neck. Warm blood flowed down into his armor and across his collarbone. When he reached the Blue Lady, she leaped over him, but he’d expected that.

Flicking the blades of the fighting sticks out, Shang-Li caught them in the ship’s hull to stop himself, but immediately caught a burst of blue lightning that knocked him up and away. Red Orchid was striking blindly at anyone trying to harm the ship. But her attack may have saved Shang-Li’s life because the Blue Lady thrust with her spear and pierced the nearby deck.

Blue energy crackled and lashed out at the Blue Lady, hammering her backward. Iados pounced quick as a cat, slashing at her with his sword. But his weapon only dulled on her spear and against her skin. The Blue Lady laughed at him and tossed a few snarled curses in his direction as she drove her spear at him.

“You can’t harm me with that weapon,” the Blue Lady stated.

“Perhaps not,” Iados replied grimly as he dispatched one of the sea shambles that had scrambled on board, “but I can be a distraction.”

“Only until you’re dead.” The Blue Lady lunged at him again as Shang-Li gathered himself.

Iados batted the spear aside with his shield and sword again and again, moving backward constantly and taunting her. “Perhaps you can’t harm me with that weapon either.”

Growling in rage like an animal, the Blue Lady continued her attack. Moonlight glinted from the force of her attacks. Amree attacked once more with a spell that seized the Blue Lady and lifted her from the ship in an invisible grip. The Blue Lady freed a hand and waved. Crackling waves of power dispelled the invisible grip and she dropped to the pitching hull.

Shang-Li closed on her, attacking with the enchanted blades of the fighting sticks. She managed to block most of the blows, but she gave ground at every attack and some of them got through. In seconds she was bleeding from a half-dozen small wounds.

She levitated from the deck and shouted, “Enough!” With a gesture, a storm gathered and black clouds obscured the pale moonlight. In the space of a drawn breath, gale force winds whipped across Swallow and tore at her exposed sails. Waves crashed against the hull. Timbers creaked and Shang-Li grew afraid the ship was going to be torn to pieces. Blue energy coursed down Swallow’s length again and again.

Amree touched a necklace tight against her throat, then flung out her other hand. Deadly red missiles streaked from her fingers and underscored the darkness surrounding them. The missiles crashed against the Blue Lady and jolted her, drawing forth screams of pain and rage. Amree prepared herself again, still clinging to the necklace. Then a sea shamble stood up on the hull and wrapped its misshapen arms around her.

“Iados!” Shang-Li yelled across the thunder and crash of the waves. “Get Amree!”

Without hesitation, the tiefling hurried to the side of the ship’s mage, but a dozen sea shambles stood up on the hull.

A small, lean figure struck out of the darkness. Kwan Yung launched himself from the deck and swung a sword at their foe. For a moment, the Blue Lady fell back, then she stretched forth a hand and invisible force wrapped around Kwan Yung and lifted him from the ship’s hull. She held him aloft and cursed.

Shang-Li’s heart sank. He had known his father wouldn’t be safe on the ship, but if things went badly, as they looked like they were going to do, he’d assumed he would be dead before he saw anything happen to his father. Standing bowed by the storm lashing Swallow , Shang-Li blinked through the stinging salt of the sea spray and tried to figure out his next move.

At the prow of the ship, Red Orchid and Thava still battled the squid-but it was impossible to tell how the battle was going. Thava either had hold of the creature by one tentacle and was fighting her way toward the center mass, or the squid held her and was drawing her toward its mouth.