Chapter One hundred forty-three (Patreon)

They actually did rest for an hour or so. Kaz used the time to compress and release his core, building back up the ki the mountain had pulled from him to restore the stairs. Li ate a few chips of crystal Kaz pulled from his storage pouch, then spent the rest of the time sleeping. Some of her scales were starting to show the milky opaque gleam that meant she would shed again soon, which seemed to make her even sleepier than her usual rather lazy self.

When Kaz felt that his central dantian had refilled enough that he wouldn’t need to pull directly on his core if anything happened, he looked over at Lianhua. She was sitting on her cushion, legs crossed and hands resting palm up on her knees. He envied how easy the pose seemed to be for her, but his legs simply didn’t bend the same way hers did, and he had given up on trying. The focus and posture seemed to be more important than the exact position anyway.

As if feeling his eyes on her, Lianhua opened her own and smiled. She looked calmer than she had before, and some of the sadness had gone out of her gaze. “Are you ready?” she murmured, glancing at the snoozing dragon in his lap.

Kaz chuckled, then slid an image into Li’s dream. It was of an enormously overweight gold dragon, rolled onto its back and flailing all four stubby legs in the air as it ineffectually tried to roll over. Li’s real limbs thrashed, and she twisted her long body as she mimicked the motions of the dream-dragon, then woke with a little whistle and a loud click. Glaring up at Kaz, who she knew was the source of the image, because he greatly enjoyed teasing her about how many crystals she ate, she snapped her sharp teeth together.

“I know,” he murmured. “You would be just as beautiful if you did look like that, but fortunately you don’t, because you would never fit through the door.”

Li sent a sulky picture of herself simply bursting out of the hut, which blew a tiny Kaz through the air, head over tail until he landed against a wall, rump uppermost. In return, Kaz showed the pudgy dragon getting stuck in the entrance to a tunnel, her claws scratching futilely at the ground as she tried to pass through. Li gave him an image of herself, grown larger than the mountain, exploding out of encasing stone as hundreds of tiny kobolds flew into the vast sky beyond.

Giving in, Kaz laughed and stroked her head, scratching the itchy spot behind one of the horns now sprouting from the top of her head. She huffed, but leaned into it, and they both looked up as Lianhua giggled. It was a surprisingly light-hearted sound from someone who had seemed so solemn lately, and Kaz smiled.

Lianhua froze, as if caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to, and her expression closed down again. Kaz’s ears folded back slightly, and he asked, “Why do you do that?”

She blinked. “Do what?”

Kaz tilted his head, confused. Surely she had to be doing it on purpose. “You’ve been too serious lately. You don’t talk about ancient sages or books you read, and you almost never laugh.”

Pink rose in her cheeks, and she glanced away. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He sighed, and Li copied the sound, startling Lianhua into looking back at them. “You haven’t been acting like yourself since Zhangwo. I know you went through a lot while you were a captive, but I don’t think that’s it.” He paused, shook his head, and corrected himself. “I don’t think that’s all of it, anyway.”

Abruptly, a shimmer of tears rose in Lianhua’s eyes, and she sniffed deeply. A single tear trembled on her lashes, but she struck it away impatiently. “I just want to be a good leader. It took me so long to realize that Grandfather never meant for me to marry Gaoda, and that he was just a- A test, I suppose. Now, I have the chance to prove I can take care of myself and my party, and I want to show him that I can do it.”

Kaz shifted uncomfortably. He had never considered that he might be a leader someday, or even really need to make his own decisions.  He still didn’t want to be responsible for more than himself and Li, so he didn’t really understand what Lianhua was going through.

Slowly, he said, “O- My mother was a terrible chief. She ruled through fear and power, and it never made her happy, and didn’t serve our tribe well. Still, that was the only way I knew, and I thought it was right, because it worked, at least as far as I could tell. But since then, I’ve seen a lot of different leaders, and one thing I do know is that there’s no one right way, but there are many wrong ones. Technically, as long as the tribe is safe and together, a chief is doing her job, but if no one is happy, what’s the point?”

He met her eyes. “You’re a member of the tribe, too. And I think you can be yourself while also being a leader. You don’t have to be like your grandfather or anyone else. It may take some time, and you’ll probably make mistakes, but if you have it in you to be a good leader, you’ll find your own way.”

Lianhua sniffed again, but a smile was playing around her lips. “If?” she asked.

He let his ears twitch, showing his amusement. “Not everybody should lead,” he said. “Gaoda, for instance, should probably never have been in command of anything more than making dinner.”

A burst of laughter escaped her. “Gaoda? Preparing a meal? Now that I would like to see. Though not at the price of having him in the party again.”

Seeing that she was feeling better, Kaz pulled on his pack, settling it into place as Li climbed his arm and slid between his head and the top of the bag. “What did Chi Yincang do to Gaoda? Is he dead?”

Lianhua’s eyes widened, and she shook her head vigorously. “No! That was an artifact used to save people who are too grievously injured to survive until they can reach a healer. It simply places them in a kind of stasis, then shrinks them so the remainder of the group can get them out safely.”

She wrinkled her nose as she stood. “Well, it’s not ‘simple’,” she admitted, straightening her robes. “We don’t actually know how they work. The artifacts are actually from the Diushi empire, and each one has a limited number of uses, since we also don’t know how to recharge them. There are only a few left, and as far as I know, they’re all in the hands of the Emperor or one of the powerful clans. I didn’t even realize Grandfather had one, much less that he sent it with Chi Yincang.”

Kaz stood as well, grimacing as he realized what she was saying. “So, Chi Yincang could just let Gaoda out at any time?”

Lianhua nodded. “My guess is that he won’t, unless Grandfather tells him to, or we need Gaoda’s strength, but it’s easy enough for the process to be reversed.”

Again, the dragon sighed, and Kaz nodded agreement. They had hoped they’d seen the last of the obnoxious human, but he supposed it was good that he could be called on in an emergency.

Lianhua lifted her chin, looking at the door. “I am a good leader,” she said, then shot Kaz a sidelong glance. “Or at least I will be. And there’s something I need to take care of.”

Stepping outside, she looked around, eyes unfocusing slightly until she locked onto the patch of shadow where Chi Yincang lurked. Kaz followed her in time to see her turn sharply, striding purposefully back toward the large hut that had been assigned to the two males. There, she knocked sharply on the door, then stepped back.

After a moment, Raff opened the door. He was wearing neither belt nor armor, but his sword was in his hand, ready to do battle with whoever was outside. He looked startled to see Lianhua, but then his eyes flicked around, looking for Chi Yincang, and he lowered his sword, settling into a stiff stance.

“Yes, m’lady?” he asked cautiously.

Lianhua pointed at him, then at the blob of ki that was Chi Yincang. “Both of you, stop this,” she said sharply.

Chi Yincang stepped out of the shadow, and even though Kaz had expected it, he still couldn’t see how it was done. One moment, there was simply a particularly deep patch of darkness, and the next the black-clad human was standing there.

“My lady?” he asked, as if confused, but his dark eyes were sharp and the corners creased ever so slightly.

“You have been letting me play leader, as if I were a child you were indulging in a game of pretend.” Lianhua set her fists on her hips, switching her glare to Raff. “And you have followed along. You treat me like I’m a pumped up popinjay or a fragile flower of femininity! Just be yourself! I want to hear your suggestions, and even your ridiculous jokes, and I do not want you checking with Chi Yincang before you do anything.”

Raff looked a little embarrassed, running his hand through his curls as he gave a lopsided smile. “Sounds good to me, m’la-” He broke off as Lianhua’s brows furrowed dangerously. “Lianhua. It’s just that I get paid for followin’ orders, and so far, Chi Yincang is the one with the gold.”

Kaz blinked, not entirely sure what gold had to do with it. The humans talked about it as if it were as valuable as adamantium, and all the old stories said that gold was the main thing they wanted when they came to the mountain. Did they make it into furniture, like the mosui? It was impractical even as jewelry, except as a small part of an alloy, so this was one of the things that still confused him about his companions.

It obviously made sense to Lianhua, whose face went slack with surprise, then comprehension. She rubbed her temple. “Of course you do, and of course he is. What a silly thing for me to forget.”

Heaving a deep sigh, she plunged her hand into the pouch at her waist, pulling out a cascade of flat, round pieces of gold, which fell to the floor and spun, making a series of high-pitched, resonant chimes as they finally settled to the ground. Another handful followed the first, then a third, though Lianhua stuffed this one back into the bag, rather than dropping it with the others. Then she stood, looking slightly awkward as everyone stared at her.

As the last disc finally stopped, Lianhua cleared her throat, then said softly, “Raff, as the leader, your wages are my responsibility. I promise you’ll be paid well and properly. In fact, you can, um, consider this a down payment.”

Raff stared at her, then let out a deep chuckle that became a roaring laugh. He crouched, picking up the scattered gold, and after a moment, Kaz leaned down to help. Li immediately leaped down and grabbed one, stuffing it into her mouth, and she was large enough now that Kaz couldn’t get it back from her before she could choke it down.

Grabbing the unrepentant dragon, Kaz stood back up, returning her to his shoulders. He sent her an image of an angry kobold in the same position Lianhua had assumed while chastising the males, and made it shake its head exaggeratedly. The gold had no ki in it, so as far as he could tell, that meant it wouldn’t actually help her grow. That, in turn meant she’d eaten it purely because she wanted to, like a puppy stealing a raw jiyun grub because he liked the way it popped in his mouth. 

Looking down at Raff, Kaz sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m sure I can find you some more gold before we leave the mountain.” He was certain that if he could locate his old den, he could also find some of the ore veins Ghazt had shown him. At least one had had a good amount of gold in it, and kobolds didn’t use the metal for much other than trade with humans, so it should be relatively untouched, even if another tribe had taken over the territory.

Raff picked up the last of the coins and stood, tucking it into his own belt. He eyed Kaz consideringly, then grinned his old, carefree grin. “Sounds good, Blue. I’ll take you up on that. Don’t worry about it too much, though. Adamantium or mithril would work fine, too.”

Kaz nodded seriously. “Those are rarer, so do you need as much? And does it have to be in the little discs?”

Raff’s mouth opened, then closed again, and he shook his head. “No, it was- I was just-” He coughed slightly, looking at Lianhua for help.

The female smiled. “Even a tiny amount of either of those would be worth Li’s weight in gold. Raff was just joking. I’ve got it.” She took another round of yellow metal from her pouch and handed it to Raff.

Raff winked at Kaz as he put the gold in his own pouch, and Kaz’s shoulders slumped in relief, making Li scramble for a more secure grip. Both adamantium and mithril were actually used by his people, so while his father had taught him the path to a hidden vein, he doubted if it was still intact.

“All right,” Kaz said. “I’ll definitely get some gold for you, th-”

It was his turn to stumble over his words as he caught a flash of bright pink from the corner of his eye and spun, staring straight at a young female kobold. She had been creeping between two tunnel mouths, her ears flat and tail tucked as she glanced around, looking guiltier than any puppy he’d seen since Gin caught Palla eating the tanuo patch clean.

What truly captured his attention, however, was the color of her fur. If blue was rare, pink was also incredibly uncommon, and this puppy’s coat was the same shade as his sister Katri’s, though instead of lying flat, it sprang up in wild tufts all over her body.

As everyone else turned to see what had caught his eye, the female paused as well. Slowly, as if dreading what she was going to see, she peered back over her shoulder, clear golden eyes looking into Kaz’s blue ones. With a yelp, she spun, racing as quickly as she could for the tunnel that led out of the den.