Chapter 219: A Song Of The Past [12] (1/2)
”That's when you came to WaterWay?”
”Not at first. I wandered a little, busied my hands at different jobs before I ended up in WaterWay. But the Cradle.” Chang Chang shook her head. ”They'd never seen a dwarf woman pretty as me who could fight as hard as the boys they bet their coin on.”
Chang Chang smiled at Chang Chang's pleased expression. ”No one ever tried to make you grow a beard?”
”And they know better than to touch my hair,” Chang Chang said.
In the distance, Chang Chang could see the behemoth outline of Ferryman's Haven. Wraiths circled in an endless dance in the water, occasionally swirling up to curl their bodies sinuously around the broken masts of the inverted ship.
The leviathan's bones twined seamlessly with the rotting greatship. There was no flesh left to suggest what the creature might have looked like in its original form, but the thought of it driving the massive ship straight into the air was boggling. The leviathan's remains kept the Ferryman from plunging into the deep by sheer force of an old will, a need beyond death to remain locked in battle.
Chang Chang looked unimpressed by the sight. ”How you thinking of getting past them?” she asked, nodding at the wraiths.
Chang Chang closed her eyes. She hummed the familiar ballad to brace herself against the magic. The lost boy, trying to find his way home. She didn't look at Ju Feng to see his reaction to the song. She couldn't let herself be distracted.
”Find a path into the wreckage,” Chang Chang instructed them. She reached into her pouch for foci, careful this time to make sure they were the correct objects. ”When the wraiths scatter, make for it with all possible speed.”
Chang Chang snorted. ”They're not just going to let us glide in—”
”Quiet,” Ju Feng said. ”Let her work.”
Help me, Nelzun, Chang Chang thought. The raft drifted closer. One by one, the wraiths slowed their restless circling. They sensed a change in the chaotic usualness of their domain and turned their attention to the small raft and its three distinctly human occupants.
Chang Chang finished the spell and threw her arms into the air. She released a handful of coin-sized stones, three in each hand. They soared high and burst into orange flame. She pictured them in her mind, the wild, soaring orbs, pulsing with arcane energy.
To the wraiths, arcane energy released from a body steeped in spellplague was like a bone cast in the path of starving dogs. Their bodies glowed in concert with the flames. They streaked after the orbs in clusters of three and four, leaving a clear path between the only three living souls on the water and a cavernous hole snugged between the wrecked Ferryman and the leviathan's bones.
The raft drifted up to a slash of sail draped across the upper half of the opening. Ju Feng pushed it aside with his oar. He maneuvered the raft between hull and rib and they floated on, into the Haven.
Cerest listened to Tau's report in fascination. ”You're certain it's only the three of them?” he said. Trik looked uncomfortable. Cerest narrowed his eyes. ”I'm sorry for the loss of Borion, but if you're lying, it won't go badly for just me. We've lost Guani and Dangong.”
Tau's eyes bugged out and he half-swayed on his feet. ”How?”
”Saragui's guards,” Cerest said. ”They caught them just after we split up. I underestimated their loyalty. But don't worry, Feston is safe. He's gone to get three more of your fellows to aid us.”
”Six of us,” Trik murmured. ”Six of us against three of them.”
”More than passable odds, if Chang Chang is willing to cooperate.”
Tau shook his head. He looked at Cerest in a way that made the elf's skin prickle with anger—disgust swimming in pity. But Tau wasn't looking at the elf's scars.
”You go find her on your own,” he said. ”Take the others if you want. Hells, they'll all fight 'til they're dead, if there's coin in it.”
He turned away, the torchlight burning his profile orange.
”Don't you want revenge?” Cerest asked him. ”They killed your friend.”
”And I killed hers, or near enough,” Tau said. ”I'm out of it.”