Mel Odom - Wrath of the Blue Lady

Kwan Yung walked up with a cleric’s kit. “Come.” He gestured at Shang-Li. “Let me rebind your wounds.” He waved to the deck. “Sit.”

Shang-Li sat and held still as his father checked the stitches. The flesh was raw and abraded. Thankfully there didn’t appear to be any permanent damage, but healing would take time.

“This may hurt,” his father warned. “Do not cry. I don’t want you to shame me.”

In spite of the pain and everything they’d been through, Shang-Li laughed. For a moment. His father smiled at him. Then Kwan Yung started working on his wounds and the real pain began.

“Do you regret coming with me on this quest?” his father asked.

Shang-Li thought about that for a moment. “No. It made me remember.”

“Remember what?”

“When we used to do things together.”

His father shrugged. “Sons turn into men. You can’t be someone’s son forever. We will argue and disagree. We will see the world differently.”

“Or,” Shang-Li said, “we could start seeing some of the world together and find things we can agree on.”

His father looked at him and smiled. “Sometimes the son can teach the father new things. I would like that. I find the monastery too lonely at times.”

Quietly, Shang-Li reached forward and gave his father a hug. To his surprise, thought it was in public and such things weren’t supposed to be done in public if at all, his father hugged him back.

His father patted his shoulder. “But do not think I will let you forget you spilled that sauce on purpose in the Pirate Isles, Shang-Li.”

“Of course you won’t.”