Wrath of the Blue Lady (The Wilds) by Mel Odom

Author:Mel Odom [Odom, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780786956401
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2010-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

“You want us to do what?” Gorrick, Swallow’s ship’s mage, looked apoplectic. He was old and gray, a bent stick of a man in elegant robes. He didn’t have many friends on the ship because he was so demanding.

Several of the crewmen started muttering. None of them looked pleased at the prospect of going hunting for a ship sunken by a malevolent spirit or avatar of Umberlee.

Still, it was going better than Shang-Li had thought it might. None of them had charged up the sterncastle from amidships yet. He held up his hands and the crew gradually quieted.

“There is some risk.” Shang-Li kept his voice level. He’d had to tell the men what they faced. Captain Chiang hadn’t been happy about the venture when Shang-Li had told him in private, but the Captain also served the Standing Tree Monastery. The monastery owned the ship, and he believed in their efforts. Of course, Chiang had never been asked to willingly risk so much before.

“Some risk?” Gorrick shook a fist at Shang-Li. “You’d send us to your doom if you have your way.” He waved a bony hand at the coastline. “These taverns are full of talk of the Blue Lady and the ships she has dragged down.”

Iados leaned toward Shang-Li and whispered. “If I were you, I wouldn’t tell them about the dreams.”

Shang-Li silently agreed.

“I’ve been in Westgate for some time now,” Thava said. “Until today I’ve never heard of the Blue Lady.”

“I suggest that you don’t keep the same kind of company a sailing man keeps.” Gorrick’s beard quivered with his outrage.

“Way I hear it,” someone in the crowd said, “the paladin likes throwing sailors through windows.”

“I have been in those taverns—” Gorrick pointed again.

“Wenching and drinking ale, no doubt.”

Several of the crew tittered at that. Gorrick had quite a reputation as a would-be lothario.

Gorrick scowled at the crew for the interruption and they drew back from him. “While in those taverns, I’ve heard talk of the Blue Lady. They say she’s the ghost of a ship come calling for vengeance for the pirates that sunk her. They say she went down when the Spellplague came and somehow she was given form and command over the seas where she is.”

Several of the sailors spat and reached for sacred symbols.

“The mission we have undertaken on part of the monastery is very important.” Shang-Li leaned on the sterncastle railing and pierced each man with his gaze. “You’ve served on the ship they’ve given you, eaten of the larder they’ve provided, and enjoyed fairly comfortable lives. They need you—we need you—at this, our most desperate hour, to be the warriors and sailing men you are.”

“I’m not a warrior,” someone muttered.

“Aye, and as far as comfort goes, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t broken my back working on this ship.”

“Gorrick is a hard taskmaster.”

The ship’s mage glared around. “Who said that? Who dared say that?”

No one owned up to that.

“Think it over,” Shang-Li encouraged. “What we plan on doing—”

“Is getting killed,” someone interrupted.

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