Pathway

They gazed at each other, their faces inches apart. Something like admiration passed over Ju Feng's face. He started to speak, but suddenly his face was illuminated by a brilliant, arcane light.

Chang Chang looked down, and saw the source coming from the space of water between the boat and the raft. A second apparition glowed from the water, but this one shone clearer, and its form melded into a twisted mockery of a human face—

"Watch out!" Ju Feng shouted. He hauled her up, but it was too late.

The sea wraith burst from the water in a shower of wet and light. The force of its appearance blew the small boats into the air. Pressure, then fire shot up her right arm, but Chang Chang didn't dwell on that calamity. She felt her body leave solid ground—she was flying, the world tilting—and then the fetid water closed over her head, blocking out all sensation except cold.

Frantically, Chang Chang kicked in her bulky robe, propelling herself to what she hoped was the surface. She came up gulping air. Nothing but cold blackness surrounded her. Ju Feng's lantern had been extinguished.

Raising her hand above the water, Chang Chang recited arcane words, praying all the while that the weakness she knew would come would not render her unable to swim.

Light burst from her hand, transforming her arm into a makeshift torch. Nausea hit her hard in the gut. The queasiness in her belly combined with the stench and motion of the harbor proved too much. Chang Chang turned her head and retched, spitting water and filth. Her throat burned, but she forced herself to ignore it.

By the light of the spell, she saw a crooked gash running from her elbow to the middle of her forearm. There were splinters in the wound.

Ju Feng was swimming for his raft, which had been flipped upside down. He reached it, hoisted himself up, and pulled a knife from his belt. The thin blade bore a coat of rust. It was a not a weapon at all, but a gutting blade for fish. Chang Chang watched, incredulous, as Ju Feng brandished the copper blade confidently at the sea wraith. The apparition swooped down from the clouds to hover above the water.

He's completely mad, Chang Chang thought. The blade would not put much damage on the undead horror. Why not used the other sword?

A glint of silver on Chang Chang's left middle finger caught Ju feng's attention. She'd removed her glove, and he could see a ring glowing with arcane power, illuminating her pale flesh. Where did she get that from? Ju Feng wondered.

The glow spread down her arm, then flowed across her body like a weird, sped-up river. The light died away, except for where it illuminated the gutting knife. A single strand of silver lit the blade, eclipsing the rust. Chang Chang swam to the raft, searching her memory for some spell that might aid them. Holy light had been a harmless light trick. Gods, could she bring herself to remember how to call fire and ice? If she could, would it affect the wraith at all? She'd never faced anything like it before. 

Her father had purposefully guided her training to suit a woman traveling alone on the streets of Overworld. While her thoughts spun and her arm burned, Ju Feng moved with preternatural speed across the raft. His sword flashed, cutting into the creature where its shoulder might have been.

Chang Chang saw no wound, but she heard an unearthly screech issue from the wraith. The apparition twisted away, blasting through Ju Feng's body in its incorporeal form. For a breath, Ju Feng appeared to be treading water as the ghostly mass enveloped him. Then it passed, and the boy fell back onto the raft. Chang Chang was close enough to see his muscles bulging from the brutal exposure to the wraith's body. But no major effect on him.

She grabbed the raft with both hands and hoisted herself up next to Ju Feng's. The wraith circled above their heads, as if trying to decide which of the two posed the greatest threat. Chang Chang swung her glowing arm back and forth, trying to keep the creature's attention away from Ju Feng.

She could recall no bigger arts to fight the monster, but if she wanted to find them. They would Come to her. The arcane power, locked away in the topmost tower room of her mind, like a princess in a tale. She needed no spellbook to find them, only the will.

She could picture her farhe4's words of admonishment. This thing before you isn't alive, he would say. It has no warmth, no compassion. It seeks only death. When confronted with such creatures as this in the world, you have no choice but to deal death first.

The wraith, finally distracted by the waving light, swooped low across the water, its face inches from the rippling current. It was coming at her from the right. Chang Chang braced her feet, certain she'd be knocked from the raft if the thing hit her.

A sharp arc, and the wraith was up and over the side of the raft— Suddenly, Ju Feng sprang up between them. He'd only been pretending to be injured. He planted the bronze sword in the wraith's chest and held on. The wraith thrashed and screeched and lifted Ju Feng off his feet. For a scant breath, they hung suspended over the water. Ju Feng jerked, tearing ghostly flesh. He jerked again, and the wraith spun, flipping the thief over its body to shake loose his grip.

The move worked. Ju Feng's fingers slipped from the knife, and he plunged into the murky water. His hat floated to the surface, but Ju Feng did not reappear. Alone on the raft, Chang Chang at last found a spell. Calmly, she waited for the wraith to circle again. She watched it come, a ghastly glowing arrow running parallel to the water. Ju Feng's fish knife protruded from its chest, but the light had faded from the blade. As the creature glided closer, Chang Chang saw the blade and handle crumble, sprinkling ashes over the water.

This time the wraith would not be distracted from its prey. Ju Feng was either drowned or too far down in the water to help her.

Trembling, Chang Chang extended both hands out from her body. Pressing her thumbs together, she chanted the dusty words and prayed that she would not be burned alive.

"Begone!" she screamed

Nothing happened. The cone of flame that should have spread from her hands manifested as a feeble yellow sparking at her fingertips. The palms of her hands grew faintly warm, but the heat soon died.

"Get down!" Ju Feng shouted from somewhere to her left. Chang Chang was too shocked to react. She saw the wraith bearing down on her, but she couldn't think or move. There came a rush of air, and the creature enveloped her.

Light blinded Chang Chang. She closed her eyes, but it was all around her. Cold. A bitter, biting freeze crawled over her skin like wet snakes, immobilizing her limbs. She tried to take a step. Her boots scraped the raft. She opened her eyes, desperately seeking escape.

Hollow eye sockets stared back at her. Ghostly flesh clung to the wraith's lipless mouth. It was nothing more than a parody of a human face, but the body was smothering her, freezing her to death. In the faint gray light between consciousness and oblivion, her teacher's words came to her, propelled from her memories with a life all their own.

"If, heavens forbid, you ever have to fight a monster in the wilds, remember that it does you no good to think like a human woman. Each being responds differently to magic, and some can resist even the most potent arts."

"How will I be able to survive," Chang Chang remembered asking, "if I'm too weak to fight?"

"By being smart before you are powerful," her teacher said. "Certain creatures owe their existence to magical perversions. They are drawn to the Art, and can be distracted by it. Remember that."

Sucking in a ragged, painful breath, Chang Chang choked out the simplest spell she knew, one that always worked and never caused her pain. Long ago, she'd used it to mend tears in her clothing.

An invisible pulse of energy engulfed her hands as she finished the casting. Every successful spell she'd ever cast brought the sensation. Her teacher explained it away as one of the physical effects of magic on the body. Since the bloodplague, arcane energy was in a constant state of flux, manifesting in different forms for different wizards. This was hers.

According to Ju Feng, the wraith was a slave to the spellplague. Her distorted spell energies, however slight, might be enough to get its attention. Chang Chang prayed her simple spell would be enough.

Arcane energy sparked inside the wraith's incorporeal form. Whether from surprise or some other effect, the creature recoiled, forcing her out of its body.

Chang Chang stumbled back, but she was too weak to steady herself. She managed one feeble breath before she fell into the water. After her brush with the wraith, the harbor actually felt warm. Chang Chang tried to swim, but her arms were still clutched into tight claws at her sides. She couldn't get her limbs to function.

Black spots popped in front of Chang Chang's vision. A part of her mind urged that drowning would be a better option than returning to the surface to face the wraith. Her lungs disagreed. She expelled her breath in a rush of bubbles. Above her, she could see the wraith's darting light. It was back in the water again, disoriented, searching for the arcane energy it craved. But the creature and its light were growing smaller the farther she sank.