Pathway

Ju Feng broke the surface a few feet away and waved a hand. Chang Chang experienced a renewed shock of weakness as she slogged through the water. "We're here," Ju Feng said. 

"Where?" Chang Chang asked.

"If you can hold on for a little longer, I'm taking us someplace safe," Ju Feng said. "Nine feet straight down there's a figurehead: the Blind Mermaid, they call her. She sticks up from the sand, so you can't see her fish half. She's buried along with the rest of the The Water Caller."

"The Water Caller?" Sull said. "You mean she was part of a ship? How do you know all that? You're not even from this world. "

"She still is," Ju Feng said. "And yes, I'm not from here, but I heard them talking about it earlier. Anyway, I figured something out. She has a more important job now. She's the guardian of a door, a secret door we're going to need. So we'll be paying her a visit." He raised a hand to forestall more questions. "When I go down, you'll follow a few feet behind. Don't be afraid of what you see, or how deep we go. Just keep following me."

Chang Chang nodded, but her hesitance must have shown. Ju Feng scowled and shook his head impatiently.

"This is important," he said, speaking to both of them. "You can't turn around. Once we go down, it's all the way. Or you'll drown. That's how they keep out the ones who aren't supposed to be there."

Isn't that us? Chang Chang thought, but she didn't give it voice.

"I'll follow you," she said. She'd decided to trust Ju Feng once, and now she seemed convinced of the boy. He'd saved her from the fire, risking his own life to do so. Well, she had saved him too before.

They dived. The water seemed darker here, a creature stretching out inky black arms to envelop them. When they got to the bottom, Chang Chang stayed back. Chang Chang pushed her drifting hair out of her eyes and strained to see what Ju Feng was doing ahead of them. Craning her neck harder, she saw the figurehead.

The wooden mermaid was covered in a shawl of seaweed, the thin, green streamers trailing behind her like a living cloak. Buried to the waist in sand, the mermaid stared up to the surface through her sightless eyes.

Ju Feng put his thumbs to both her eye sockets and pushed. The wooden orbs disappeared inside her skull, and Ju Feng back-stroked furiously, propelling himself away from the figurehead.

Light burst from the mermaid's eyes, beams of illumination that spilled over her wooden sockets and down her rigid face like tears. The rotting wood glowed golden, suffusing, impossibly, with life.

The mermaid's skin turned white, and her hair moved in the water, shifting colors from brown to blue-green. She uncrossed her arms from in front of her bare breasts, brandishing a trident in one hand, and a glowing green orb in the other. She turned her head at an odd angle to regard them. Though her body now throbbed with life, her eyes remained vacant.

She doesn't really live, Chang Chang thought. She's a construct of some sort. A guardian, Ju Feng had said.

"Welcome to the Haven," the mermaid spoke. The words reached Chang Chang's ears clearly, magically propelled through the water. "Those who seek entrance, come forward. But do no harm in Sanugai's depth, or face a slow death in the cuddle of the amber one."

With those cryptic words, the mermaid lifted her arms, crossing the trident in front of her. The orb flashed green, and the trident glowed in answer. She brought it down in one swift stroke, driving the weapon into the sand covering her lower half.

A deep rumbling echoed beneath them. Awestruck, Chang Chang watched the sand roil, parting on either side of the mermaid's body. Contained by magical essence, the tempest of sand and water swirled around the mermaid and revealed her glossy silver tail. Beneath the webbed fin, a dark space yawned.

Lit by spheres of magical radiance, the narrow passage led into the hull of what looked like an ancient sailing ship. The wood around the animated figurehead was rotting and caked with barnacles, but somehow it remained intact.

Ju Feng swam for the passage; Chang Chang followed quickly. Chang Chang's chest ached to draw breath, and as she swam down the dark tunnel, she realized what Ju Feng meant about not turning back.

The sand was already swirling behind them, sealing off the entrance. The mermaid resumed her frozen pose, her sightless eyes betraying nothing of what lay beneath her fin. There was no way out behind them. It was death or forward.

"Cough it out, Chang. Good, that's good." Ju Feng smacked her on the back, forcing up more of the loathsome harbor water than Chang Chang thought possible for anyone to swallow.

She crouched on the floor of the lowest deck of The Water Caller, Ju Feng stood on either side of her. Behind them, a wall of water stretched weirdly from floor to ceiling, kept from rushing into the cabin by an invisible magical field that faltered and sprayed jets of water at random intervals.

In front of them, a trio of large, armored guards stood with drawn swords, the unfriendly ends pointed at each of their throats. The one pointed at Chang Chang bobbed uncertainly as she threw up around it. Chang Chang tried to appear as contrite as she could, under the circumstances.

"Where are we?" she asked when she could speak again.

"Well, as I said earlier. I believe this is the back door," Ju Feng explained. "They'll check our weapons here, as I've learned." As he said it, the guards stepped forward to search them. They took nothing from Ju Feng since he had nothing on him except the small spatial sac. Chang Chang saw the glint in his eyes, but he said nothing.

Chang Chang allowed them to take the pack off her back without resistance. She saw one guard's eye linger on the gold box buried at the bottom.

"What's in it?" he asked.

"An heirloom," Chang Chang said, "bequeathed to me by the last of my family."

"Open it," the guard said.

Chang Chang looked at Ju Feng uncertainly. He knew what she was thinking. She'd not yet opened the mysterious box, found buried beneath the floorboards of Chang Wei's shop. Who knew what it might contain?

"Sarugai's rules state that no one may lose their possessions while under the protection of his hospitality," one of the guards said. Chang Chang wondered whether his words were for her benefit, or themselves.

The man glared at the other guard and spat on the deck. "I know the rules better 'an you, keep quiet." He looked at Chang Chang. "I said open it, girl."

Chang Chang took out the box and laid it in her lap. She ran her fingers along the edges until she found the clasp. Thank the heavens it wasn't locked. Releasing the catch, she lifted the lid. Red velvet lined the inside of the box, but it was frayed and soaking wet from their swim. Nestled in the small space was a stack of folded parchment sheets, tied together with a black ribbon. The parchment and the ribbon were dry and perfectly preserved, obviously via some magical means. "Chang Chang" was inked on the top sheet.

"They look like letters," she said. She traced her name and felt a stab of disappointment. She had hoped Chang Wei's words would be on the pages, but she didn't recognize the thick, black script proclaiming her name so boldly.

"Some heirloom." The guard sniffed. His fellows chuckled.

Chang Chang clutched the letters and tried not to let her anger show. It would be foolish to provoke these men.

Ju Feng laid a hand on the closest guard's arm. Immediately, the other two raised their swords.

"Step back," the largest of them warned.

"My apologies," Ju Feng said. He smiled easily and removed his hand. "I couldn't help but notice how cold your friend's skin is."

The guard he'd touched paled. Reading the mocking light in Ju Feng's eyes, he gripped his sword as if he might strike out at the boy.

"Get on with you," he said, his teeth gritted. "Though if it were up to me, I'd stick your head through that wall and let you breathe seawater."

Chang Chang quickly sealed the box and stood up. She wished she could read whatever was in the letters, but this was not the place. Palpable tension thickened the air. She had no idea what Ju Feng had done to offend the guards, but they stared at him now with murder in their eyes.

"You know the way," the guard said, still eyeing Ju Feng hatefully. "He's expecting you."

"You know this Saragui figure?" Chang Chang asked when they were past the guards. "I hope he likes you better than that lot."

"From what I heard,  Saragui was the leader of The Water Caller," Ju Feng said, "a mercenary vessel for twenty years. When his ship finally went down, he'd strung it with so many magics salvaged from old cargo that the ship stayed intact. It drifted into the harbor and stayed here, resistant to water and, mostly, to time."

"What is The Water Caller's purpose now?" Chang Chang said.

"Without a ship, Saragui had to turn his hand to another profession," Ju Feng said, running his hand along the wall.

"The Haven?" Chang Chang said, echoing the mermaid's words. "Sounds awfully harmless for a mercenary, but we know that can never be."