Chapter One hundred forty-two (Patreon)

Ratre was clearly exhausted by the conversation, so Kaz stood to leave as soon as the older male’s eyes drifted closed. With a nod to Jul, he headed for the door, but paused just before he pushed it open. Pointing to the table containing the pouches and containers of medicine, he spoke softly.

“Those five containers, with the colored runes, what do those hold?”

Jul’s ears twitched, but he reached out and plucked the jar with the gold rune from the top of its small tower of bags. “Certain powders can be used to strengthen the females of each greater tribe when they perform the tasks given by the mountain. My teacher trained me in the art of making them, and though I have no need for them myself, I teach each of the males I train how to do it, since they’re always traded up to a greater tribe as soon as they learn everything they can.”

Kaz’s eyes hungrily traced over the runes. “So those symbols represent each of the tribes?”

Jul nodded. “At least that’s what my teacher told me. I only know the runes for each type of medicine, since reading them is the fastest way to know which is which.”

Kaz started to push the door, but paused again when it was only open a few inches. “Why do you keep the one for the Woodblades?”

The healer picked up the jar, the smallest of the five, and turned it in his hand. “Someday we’ll have a Woodblade again. The mountain will make it so. When that happens, there will be healers who know how to make medicine for them, and those healers will be trained by my hand.” His chin lifted, and Kaz saw a confident pride gleam in his eyes. This kobold was the best healer in the Deep, or at least he believed he was.

Kaz gave a respectful nod and pushed back out into the light of the den. It was unusually clear and bright for a kobold den, with so many strong females available to create it, and he blinked a few times. When the shapes around him settled into Lianhua, Raff, and Chi Yincang, Kaz was startled to find all of them looking at him with varying levels of pity. Well, except for Chi Yincang, but Kaz thought even that male looked slightly less inscrutable than usual.

Tugging at his ear, Kaz said, “You heard everything we said, didn’t you?”

Lianhua and Raff nodded instantly, and Chi Yincang’s right eyebrow lifted an eighth of an inch, which was practically a scream from him.

Lianhua reached out as if to touch Kaz’s shoulder, but drew back when Li mantled protectively, curling herself around Kaz’s shoulders and throat as she lifted her wings. Kaz had no idea what the others saw when she did this, but Chi Yincang shifted his weight slightly, settling into readiness, while Raff’s brows nearly met his hairline.

Lianhua, on the other hand, just gave a small, sad smile and tucked her hands into her sleeves, taking a step back. In the process, she nearly bumped into the female kobold Berin had assigned to guide them. That female had crept closer than absolutely necessary, and looked slightly frustrated when they didn’t say anything further.

Kaz was certain that Jul would relay their words to Berin or Tezne, so it didn’t matter if Kibbiz had overheard what went on inside the hut, but he didn’t particularly want her to hear anything else, so he gave an exaggerated yawn, stretching with puppy-like enthusiasm.

“I’m tired,” he said, just in case anyone had missed his broad hint. “Should we rest for a bit?”

Lianhua’s expression lightened, and she nodded, while both Raff and Chi Yincang looked amused, in their own ways. They all turned to look at Kibbiz, who actually stumbled back a step before catching herself and lifting her chin.

“This way,” she said, and turned toward a particularly large cluster of huts not far away. As they drew closer, Kaz realized that one of them stood higher than the rest, which looked like puppies gathered around their den mother in comparison.

Kibbiz stopped outside of this hut, tail wagging proudly. “This hut was made for humans. Many of the tribes no longer maintain theirs, but the Goldblades told us that when humans returned to the mountain, they would come from above, and we should be ready.”

Lianhua looked at the single hut, then glanced at her companions. She didn’t say anything, but Kaz could tell she was wishing there was more than one. Still, she smiled and said, “Good. Is there perhaps someplace Kaz can rest as well?”

Kibbiz blinked, as if the idea that they wouldn’t all cram themselves into the single, albeit large, hut simply hadn’t occurred to her. Then a sly look crept over her face, and she pointed to a hut set a good distance from the first one. “He can sleep here. This one is for visiting Goldblades, so it’s perfectly suited for kobolds.”

Lianhua’s smile grew a little fixed, and she said, “Good. I’ll sleep there with him, then. I prefer smaller spaces, anyway.”

Kaz knew very well that she did not, in fact, prefer the low ceilings and tight quarters that made kobolds feel safe, but she was the only one of the three humans who would fit in it, and she didn’t want him to be alone. Without Gaoda there to assert his irrational requirement that Lianhua sleep alone, she could now do as she wished. Kaz simply hoped that she didn’t snore as loudly as Raff.

The brown-furred female’s tail stopped wagging, and she looked distinctly annoyed, but she nodded agreement. “Of course,” she said. “But perhaps… Kaz? Would like to rest while I guide the rest of you to the pools? Our water cavern was created by a Waveblade, and it’s far better than anything you’ll have seen above.”

Lianhua looked intrigued, but sighed and shook her head. “As much as I’d like to wash up, I find myself quite tired as well. I think I’ll take a nap, and perhaps I can bathe after dinner.”

Again, Kibbiz’s ears lowered in a flicker of irritation, but she nodded. “As you wish. Guests and females eat at the circle where we met. You’ll hear the bell when the meal is ready.”

Now, Kaz glanced around before asking, “Where are the other six males who arrived with us? We agreed to bring them to the city in the Deep.”

Genuine confusion crossed the female’s face, and she looked around as if six strange male kobolds might suddenly appear from thin air. “I assume they’re in the huts used by unmated males, but I’ll find out. I’m sure they’re being cared for. Perhaps I could take you to them later?”

That didn’t particularly reassure Kaz, but he couldn’t do much about it. If necessary, he would track them by scent, though it would be difficult to pick out scents he wasn’t very familiar with in such a large and busy den.

“Thank you, Kibbiz,” Lianhua said, tone dismissive. “We’re fine now.”

Kibbiz glanced from Lianhua to Kaz once again, then gave an awkward little nod and scampered off, back the direction from which they had come. No doubt she would report to Berin, who would in turn interrogate Jul, at least if she was as interested in their group as she seemed to be. Actually, Kaz wouldn’t be surprised if the six males were being questioned at that very moment, and hoped they either knew nothing about the fall of the mosui, or were smart enough not to say too much.

Lianhua glanced between the hut beside them, which was large enough that even Raff should be able to stand up straight in it, and the much shorter one she would share with Kaz. Sighing, she said, “I suppose we might as well see where we’ll be sleeping.”

Chi Yincang bowed wordlessly, though they all knew he would spend his time lurking outside Lianhua’s hut, rather than inside his own. Kaz had still never caught the human doing anything that might be considered relaxing, and wondered if he had given up speech in exchange for no longer needing to sleep. Or perhaps he shunted his tiredness off to Lianhua’s grandfather, who spent his days snoozing in any convenient location, like the elderly kobolds in Rega’s earliest stories, when they were still told for amusement as much as education.

Raff, on the other hand, flicked his hand at his temple in a brief farewell and turned to enter the hut with visible relief. He was still trying to hold back his natural vigor and tendency to ramble whenever he was walking, and it was obviously a strain. Eventually, Lianhua would need to talk to him about it, but it seemed obvious to Kaz that if Gaoda had been a test set by Lianhua’s grandfather, this was as well, and he had no interest in interfering.

Lianhua looked after Raff, then gave Chi Yincang a brief glare, which he ignored entirely. When she turned and headed for her hut, both Kaz and Chi Yincang followed, though Chi Yincang vanished between one step and the next, disappearing into a shadow and a smudge of black and white ki.

Lianhua ducked into the low door, the top of her head brushing against the bone that formed the top. As Kaz followed, he glanced up, then paused halfway through. The bone wasn’t a bone, but rather a dried yumi reed, and as Kaz entered the dim interior, he saw that all of the supports holding up the leather walls were yumi. Straight and long, they looked sturdy, with none of the bulky joints created by binding two shorter bones together to form one of the needed length.

On the floor were two kobold-sized cushions woven of niu fur, and when Kaz pressed his hand against one, the softness and the way it bounced back told him that it was filled with the fluff taken from the tops of ripe yumi, rather than moss. A low, flat stone served as a table, but it was made of carved stone, rather than simply being a conveniently shaped slab of rock. On it sat actual metal bowls, probably silver, from the color and the bare hints of tarnish.

“Oh,” Lianhua said, sounding pleased. “This is actually quite nice. My feet will barely hang off the bed, and I can almost stand up straight.”

Kaz chuffed a laugh, reaching up to unbuckle his pack. He had gotten a new one from Dax before they left, and for once he didn’t have to worry that it would split a seam or develop a hole, dropping all of its contents over the ground.

“I wonder what the great tribes’ dens are like,” he mused, setting the bag on the table. It was larger than a warrior’s pack, but smaller than a gatherer’s. Dax had offered to get him one made of niu fur, but not only would that attract too much attention, Kaz liked the feeling of the thick, hardened leather against his back. He felt protected with it there, and soft cloth wouldn’t be the same at all.

Lianhua’s face brightened. “Xen Wei said it was almost like being in a human settlement. They use tables and chairs just like ours, all made from reeds. They wear more clothing, too, not just loincloths, and they have real streets, with four-horned ox - or niu, I suppose - drawing simple carts.”

Her expression clouded again. “But didn’t you-?”

He held up his hand, then quickly drew the rune for ‘silence’ between them. Lianhua had only used this one once, since she said it was possible that other ki-users could sense it, and she didn’t want to make Gaoda any more paranoid than he already was. Now, however, both Raff and Chi Yincang were aware that Kaz could use ki as well, though Kaz thought that Raff, at least, didn’t really understand just how bizarre that was. In any case, Kaz didn’t want any kobolds listening to hear them speaking, even if it was only muffled murmurs. Better that they believed he and Lianhua had simply gone straight to sleep.

He pushed more power into the rune than it probably needed, and the dome that sprang up around them was almost opaque to his eyes. Lianhua looked around, startled, no doubt able to feel the strength of the rune with her own unusual ability to sense ki.

Sighing, Kaz sat down on the nearest cushion, enjoying the way it gave beneath him without being itchy or poking him with any particularly thick fronds. He had seriously considered taking the cushion he slept on in the mosui city, but in the end decided against it only because he wasn’t sure how much space was inside his storage item, and the cushion was quite large.

Across from him, Lianhua also sat, eyes glued to him, though she smiled as Li slid down from her increasingly precarious perch atop his shoulders and settled into his lap instead. The dragon could stretch from one shoulder to the other now, wrapping around the back of his neck so she rested against the top of his pack, and whenever he removed that pack, she had to hang onto his fur in a way that was almost uncomfortable. Now that she was growing, she was quickly making up for lost time, and soon she would have to walk beside him, rather than being carried.

“I was no more than four when we left the Deep,” Kaz said, allowing himself to sink into memories that he usually kept tucked away. He avoided them not because they were painful, but because they were the happiest time of his life, and in comparison, the rest was almost too grim to bear.

“Mother and Father never slept in the same hut, not the way other mated couples do, and Katri and I stayed with Rega, rather than either of them. We always had enough to eat, and, yes, I do remember wearing more.”

He smiled, one hand lifting from where it was stroking Li to trace across his chest. “Here, and here, too.” He tapped his legs, remembering the tubes of soft niu-fur fabric that had encased them, covering him down to his knees. Raff wore something like it, though his seemed to exist mainly to keep his skin from being pinched by or chafing against his armor, and went from his waist to his ankles.

“Pants,” Lianhua supplied. “And a shirt?”

Kaz shrugged. They had just been what he wore, at least once he was old enough that he wore anything at all. Aunt Rega had dressed him, mostly, though Katri had already begun asserting her independence by insisting on clothing herself. More than once, this had resulted in the hole for her tail being in the front, but she just took them off and put them on the right way, stubbornly refusing aid every time.

“My tribe had several dens, that I know, though I was never allowed to visit any of them. Oda sometimes took Katri with her when she went to the city, but the only person I was allowed to leave with was Ghazt, my father.”

Lianhua gasped softly. “Ghazt? Isn’t that the name of the male Ratre said Oda was courting? I thought he was dead!”

Kaz’s shoulders hunched, so he was leaning in toward Li, his arms wrapping around the warmth of the dragon’s body as she stretched up her long neck to lay her chin on his shoulder. A picture of the large golden dragon that was her self-image came into his mind, her body coiled around that of a small, shivering blue kobold, concealing him from sight.

Half-amused and half-comforted, Kaz imagined himself pushing back her scaly tail, then climbing out of her protective embrace. He appreciated the support, but he wasn’t so weak that he needed her to hide him entirely.

“It’s possible, I suppose, that Oda simply found another male with the same name, but given the cobalt shade of his fur, I doubt it,” Kaz said dryly, taking refuge in humor. “Either Oda took him and then caused the explosion to hide what she’d done, or the accident was real, but Ghazt was injured, and she took him afterwards.”

He tapped his own shoulder, tracing down and across his chest. “My father had a wide scar here, though it was mostly concealed by fur. I knew about it because he used to carry me on his shoulders, and I could feel it. He told me a different story about it every time I asked, so I never knew the truth.”

Lianhua’s expression was compassionate, but she said, “So you really are a Woodblade? And a Magmablade?”

Kaz nodded. “I’m almost certain. Maybe that explains why I can-” he gestured around them, indicating the dome that she could sense, but not see.

“Maybe,” Lianhua said, but she looked doubtful. “If males with cores were common, or even uncommon but possible, among the greater tribes, surely someone would have guessed by now. Even Thabil seemed to think that she must have imagined at least half of what you could do, and even though you charged the arch and repaired the stairs to this level, Senge seemed to dismiss it as something I did.”

Leaning back, Kaz looked up at the dark leather ceiling above him. “I used to worry that someone would guess what I could do - what I am - if I wielded the slightest bit of power in front of them. Now, though, I think I could use ki-bolts to kill half a tribe and the survivors would somehow convince themselves that you were standing behind me as I did it.”

Lianhua bit her lip. “Do you mind?” she asked softly. “Do you… want to stay here after all? It sounds like you could have a wonderful life, with a mate you chose, probably part of a great tribe. Your children might even be the first of a new Woodblade tribe.”

Kaz shook his head stubbornly. “Never. I want to take Li back to her family, and I want to see the world outside the mountain.” An image filled his mind, of a broad blue sky filled with puffy white clouds, clear light streaming down to play over the gleaming scales of a golden dragon who twisted and spun among those clouds. He wanted to see that with his own eyes, and no matter what came after, he was determined that he would.

Relaxing, Lianhua smiled. “Then do we even need to meet the Goldblade chief or go into the city? I admit I’d like to see it, but the more we learn, the more it seems like it would be a dangerous place for you. Unlike the traders who used to come here, we’re not interested in gold, precious metals, or gems. We just need to find Nucai, ask him our questions, and then leave.”

Kaz blinked. He hadn’t really thought of it like that. Lianhua’s stated goal had always been to reach the Deep, but her real desire was to find out about the Diushi, and find proof that they had come here after abandoning their empire. He still thought she had found enough in the mosui city that she should be satisfied, but she obviously wasn’t, which was why they had continued downward.

“Nucai told me to find the Irondiggers,” he said slowly, realizing that between his own exhaustion and Lianhua’s obsession with reading everything Zhangwo left behind, he had somehow never told her this. “They’re a tribe of kobolds with no den. They take in those no other tribe wants, and wander from level to level, trading for goods and food that can’t be found everywhere. They also carry news from the bottom of the mountain to the heights, though I think even they don’t go as far as we Broken Knives did. The only thing left for tribes who reach the very top is death or becoming Fallen Ones, and tribes like that have nothing left to trade.”

Lianhua frowned. “Fallen Ones? That’s what you called kobolds outside the mountain, right? Why are they called that?”

Awkwardly, Kaz shrugged. “I don’t know, they just are. You and Raff both said that the kobolds you’ve met or heard of are little more than beasts, except those here. Maybe there’s something about the mountain itself that affects us, or maybe it’s just that tribes who leave are forced to do things we normally wouldn’t, in order to survive.”

Now Lianhua looked worried. “If your intelligence is the result of living in the mountain, what if you start to change when you leave?”

That hadn’t really occurred to Kaz, but somehow he wasn’t worried. He was already a very unusual kobold, so why expect that to change?

“If I start to behave like an animal, capture me and bring me back,” he suggested. “But if all kobolds immediately descended into monsters the moment they stepped out of the mountain, there wouldn’t still be kobold tribes outside. Raff said he’s fought them before, so whatever happens must take time, even if it affects all of us.”

The human still seemed concerned, but she nodded. “All right. Then we just need to find these Irondiggers and go to Nucai, skipping the city in the Deep entirely. But if they wander around, how do we locate them?”

Kaz thought about the eight males they had brought with them, all battered, worn, and scarred by their experiences, and all likely to be spurned by any tribe to whom they weren’t related. “Leave that to me,” he said, and smiled.