04 Wrath of the Blue Lady by Mel Odom

Author:Mel Odom [Odom, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Where's the cynicism I'd hoped for? Something to balance out the desperation I'm feeling?"

"It's concentrating on this long, boring walk through the heat of the day." Iados sidestepped a couple of sailors sprawled in the alley sleeping off rough nights.

"You shouldn't have slept so late. We have a job to do."

"I'm in for a percentage. That, at the very least, makes me a partner. As such, I'm entitled to privileges."

"Like sleeping late?"

"Definitely."

Shang-Li turned the corner by a bakery that filled the immediate vicinity with the pungent aroma of yeast. "Why doesn't this ship's mage have a ship?"

Iados hesitated a moment. "Do you really wish to know?"

"I'm really desperate. I keep seeing images of you, me, Thava, and my father in a rowboat in the middle of the Sea of Fallen Stars if we don't find a ship's mage."

Iados shuddered. "There's not enough ale in all of Faerun to supply that voyage."

"My point exactly. The ship?"

"It sank."

Cautiously, Shang-Li glanced over his shoulder at his father. Kwan Yung remained contented with Thava's company. Thinking back on it, Shang-Li believed the paladin was the first dragonborn his father had ever spoken to.

"Where did the ship sink?" Shang-Li asked.

"In the harbor."

"That doesn't sound very comforting."

"It could have gone down in the middle of the Sea of Fallen Stars."

Shang-Li shrugged. "When you put it that way, sinking in the harbor does sound better." But he didn't look forward to his father discovering that tidbit of information.

"No one died and the cargo had been offloaded. The vessel had come through serious storms and a sahuagin attack."

"So it wasn't her fault, but they blamed her anyway?"

"Captains and crewmen do like to blame others for their misfortunes. And she was the ship's mage. It was her job to hold the ship together."

"Evidently she held it together long enough to reach safety and get the cargo unloaded."

"Which is why I recommended her," Iados agreed.

"That and the fact that she's the only unemployed ship's mage you know of at present," Shang-Li said.

"Yes." Iados lowered his voice. "There is some talk of her being cursed as well."

Shang-Li swiveled his head around to look at his companion so fast that he tripped over a pothole in the crushed oyster shell street.

"The captain had to blame his misfortune of getting hit by a storm and the sahuagin on someone," Iados said.

"I'm supposed to go back to Swallow and tell Captain Chiang I've brought him a cursed ship's mage?"

"I definitely wouldn't do that unless you intend to never lift anchor from that harbor."

Shang-Li walked in silence for a moment. "Maybe there's nothing to the curse rumor."

"Probably not." Iados shrugged. "You know how sailors like to talk."

¦©¦ ¦©¦ ¦©¦ <§>¦

According to the gossip Iados had overheard, the "cursed ship's mage" was currently rooming at the Splintered Yards, an inn so-named because it had gotten hit several times by storms in the past. A patchwork of timbers covered the exterior and the building held no illusions of pride or grandeur.

A dour old woman with her hair pulled back and a shapeless gray dress stood at the counter .

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