Chapter Two hundred thirty (Patreon)

Kaz and Yingtao exited the alley, and Kaz was proud that he only glanced back at the shining bond that connected him to Li a few times. He had expected to be interested and excited to learn more about the people who lived outside the mountain, but the more time he spent with them, the more he missed his home. The outside world was beautiful, but he longed for cool darkness and quiet.

A bulky male bumped into Kaz, barely glancing down long enough to mutter a vague apology. Kaz had to restrain a growl. Such behavior might have been considered a challenge among kobolds, who made every effort to avoid physical contact unless it was appropriate.

“You’re a quiet one,” Yingtao murmured, flashing him a smile. “That’s good. Being loud or belligerent won’t serve us well in the Bard and Bee. In fact, it’ll be best if you don’t speak at all, unless I indicate that you should.” She gave him a slightly anxious look. “Is that all right?”

Kaz almost laughed, but restrained himself to a nod. If she only knew that he’d spent most of his life being quiet. He had a great deal of practice by now.

The Bard and Bee was a large building, with two doors bracketed by large windows. Through one window, Kaz could see several small tables, with people sitting at them, eating or talking. Through the other window was a single long table, with simple, backless chairs arrayed in front of it. A young human sat on another of the little chairs, and in his - or her? - hands he held a wooden object with a stick on one end, and a sort of bowl on the other. Strings led from the bowl to the stick, and the human plucked these, making a very pleasant sound.

Kaz wished he had a tail so he could wag it. He’d never seen a human musical instrument before, and hadn’t been sure they knew how to make any. He was used to drums and music played on some of the rock formations found naturally in the mountain, but his people also tied stones together with finely drawn metal or long niu hairs, and plucked or tapped these to make different sounds.

He started to ask Yingtao about the human and his tool, but remembered that she didn’t want him to speak. He wasn’t sure if that was in general or only once they were inside, so he swallowed the questions and resolved to ask Raff or Lianhua later.

When Yingtao opened the door, quiet music poured out, along with a sweet, pleasant scent with only a hint of sourness beneath. The smell of food wasn’t as strong as Kaz had expected, and the interior was pleasantly cool and dark, almost making Kaz feel at home. He felt his shoulders relaxing, and had to remind himself that this was not a safe place.

Yingtao crossed to the long table, where a male - definitely a male, judging by the massive beard and total lack of hair on top of his head - was rubbing a cup with a clean, white cloth. The male looked up with a smile as the two newcomers approached.

“What can I do for you?” he asked cheerfully. “We’ve got an excellent ginger mead just in, or if you want something sweeter, our apple mead is the best in Cliffcross.”

Yingtao didn’t sit, instead leaning forward so she could quietly murmur, “We’re looking for Xtabentun. I heard this is the only place that carries it.”

The male’s brows lifted ever so slightly, but his smile didn’t slip. “Aye, that’s true, but we don’t have any today. I’ve got one bottle of anise mead left, if you’d be interested in that.”

An edge crept into Yingtao’s voice, and Kaz was reminded that she was Chi Yincang’s sister. Her hands disappeared into her sleeves, and Kaz saw a small flash of ki before they re-emerged, settling flat on the table in front of her.

When she slid her hands to the side, a metal disc peeked out, but to Kaz’s surprise, it was silver, rather than gold. He couldn’t see it well before the male human laid his cloth down across it, pretending to wipe the table. When the cloth lifted again, the disc was gone.

Slowly, the male set down the glass he’d been holding and tapped it with his fingernail, making it chime. At the sound, the human who had been playing music looked up, then set down his instrument and quietly left through a door to one side.

“Can’t make Xtabentun from thin air, I’m afraid,” the bearded male said almost regretfully. “But maybe we have something that will do. Why don’t you take a seat over there? Samara will bring you a menu.” He tilted his head to indicate the small individual tables, and Yingtao nodded  graciously, showing no sign of frustration or annoyance.

They sat down at one of the little round tables, and soon a female with hair almost as red as Raff’s came by, handing each of them a piece of paper covered in images and runes. The images were all of food, from a simple loaf of bread to something that looked like a fish head floating in a bowl. It actually looked good, and Kaz hoped they would actually get food.

<Only if you bring me some.>

Kaz started at the sudden voice in his head, though he’d known Li was watching. The dragon was bored, and a bored dragon was a dragon who was going to find trouble. Fortunately, she was somewhat distracted by looking through Kaz’s eyes, so she hadn’t acted on any of a half dozen impulses to fly away, start blowing fog rings, or dive down to see if she could make Mei scramble out of the way.

He honestly wasn’t sure if he would be allowed to take food away. On one hand, he would pay for it, but it would be in a bowl, and while he’s seen humans walking around with food, it was never in a container. They seemed to prefer meat and vegetables on what they considered disposable sticks, but he’d also seen them place all kinds of things between bread, which was a food item that had taken Raff quite a while to explain.

Li sent him an image of a fish head disappearing into his pouch, and Kaz sent her back cautious affirmation. It was true that technically he could pour wet things and liquids into the bag, but given the way things tended to come shooting out when he called for them, he had a feeling it could get to be very messy very quickly.

Yingtao was looking at her paper as well, and now she gave a soft, “Ah,” of satisfaction. When the human female who had brought the papers returned, Yingtao pointed to something on the page. The other female didn’t even look at Kaz to see if he wanted anything, which was disappointing. Perhaps males weren’t allowed to buy anything in this place, and that was why Yingtao told him not to speak?

Long moments stretched as the people around them shifted in place, some speaking quietly while others focused on eating. Meanwhile, Li was growing more and more restless, until she finally did create a particularly large ring of water vapor, which she proceeded to dive toward. Kaz and the dragon were both watching the approach of the puffy white circle, so Kaz jumped as someone moved a third chair to their table and sat down.

Blinking, Kaz focused on the newcomer, who was a female with black hair that stood up in curls all around her head, and skin almost as brown as Raff or Jinn’s. The woman ignored him, turning to smile at Yingtao.

“I hear you’re looking for Xtabentun,” she said, voice pleasantly raspy.

Yingtao nodded. “I… had some at a friend’s a few times, and it was suggested to me that if I ever wanted any more, I should come here.”

The curly-haired female lifted a brow. “You can’t get more from your friend?”

Yingtao’s eyes dropped, just for a moment, but the strange female’s sharp eyes narrowed. “My friend is unavailable,” Yingtao said, meeting the other female’s eyes again.

Breath hissed between the female’s teeth, and then she moved like she would slap the top of the table with her palm. She barely restrained herself, rolling her eyes as she said, “I hate all this skulduggery. You’re the doc’s friend, right? I heard some folks’re looking for you. Big, mean folks.” Her eyebrows waggled meaningfully, and Yingtao covered a smile with one hand.

“Yes,” Yingtao agreed. “Ad-” The other woman held up her own hand, and Yingtao amended her words. “A friend of his visited a few times while I was there. She seemed to look kindly on me, and said that if I ever needed her help, I should come here.”

“And you need help now.” It wasn’t a question.

Yingtao drew in a deep breath and nodded. “Very much. And we need it to be discreet.”

The stranger snorted. “Discreet is what we do, darling. Can you meet me at the back door in, say, fifteen minutes?”

Yingtao glanced at Kaz, who nodded. It would take a good part of that to get back to where the others were waiting, but if Li led them this way, they could meet in the middle and be back in time.

The female didn’t miss this interaction, and lifted a brow as she looked at Kaz, taking in his messy hair and dirty clothes. They’d all done their best to wipe off the dirt and ash so they didn’t attract too much attention, but there was nothing to be done for the spots of blood on his shirt.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked. “I heard about you, and some of your other friends, but this one is new to me. Haven’t met many people with blue hair before. An elf, once, and a girl who colored it that way.” She looked straight at Kaz. “You don’t look like an elf.”

He started to answer, then closed his mouth and looked at Yingtao. She smiled slightly, pushing back her chair. “We’re meeting some friends soon. I’ll see you later, ah…” She held out her hand, drawing the other female’s eyes away from Kaz as he, too, stood up.

The curly-haired female rose as well, her large hand engulfing Yingtao’s. “Genevieve,” she said. “You can call me Eve.”

As Kaz and Yingtao made their way back toward the rest of the group, Li flew down to Lianhua’s shoulder and began guiding her and the others. Kaz and Li had created a system by which Li bit Lianhua’s ear to tell her which way to turn, and though it had only been used once before, Lianhua remembered quickly, especially after Li gave her a particularly hard chomp for turning the wrong way.

When the two groups met on the street, Kaz started toward Li, but Yingtao caught his arm and shook her head. “We don’t know them,” she murmured, and walked past, looking in a window at a particularly bright yellow dress hung on what Lianhua called a dress form, and Kaz at first thought were headless human bodies.

<I don’t like this,> Li grumbled as Lianhua walked past with the others trailing behind her. <Why can’t we be together?>

Kaz had no idea, but as soon as Raff, who was in the back so his large body blocked sight of the females walking ahead of him, turned the corner, Yingtao pulled him away from the window and began to follow along behind. As they walked, together but separated by at least twenty feet at all times, Li complained constantly, saying that Lianhua’s ear tasted like dirt, and her hair smelled of… something that Li couldn’t identify, but it was very unpleasant nonetheless.

When they reached the Bard and Bee again, Yingtao and Kaz went left, circling around the block behind it, while Lianhua and the others took the street to the right. They all met up again at a door opening into the back of the building, and Li gratefully flew over to perch on Kaz’s shoulder, where she promptly demanded a chip of ki crystal.

“You just ate a crystal the size of my fist,” Kaz muttered, then clapped a hand over his own ear in order to avoid the not-entirely playful nip she directed there.

As Yingtao moved up to the door, lifting her hand to knock, it opened, and she froze, staring into the face of a female with long hair the same golden shade as Gaoda’s. The female stood there, framed by the door, looking at the fist hovering in front of her face.

Finally, she grinned and said, “I know I told you to find me if you were ever interested in picking up where we left off, little Tiger, but I didn’t expect you to actually hit me this time.”

Yingtao’s hand, which had been lowering to her side, rose again and punched the woman in the nose.