Fuergar feeding tunnels were rough. The rodents didn’t care about even floors and walls, and they would leave thin spots that their small bodies easily scampered over, while heavier creatures, like humans and kobolds, broke right through. There was also no predicting how large the tunnel might be; it just depended on the size of the ore vein that had once been there.
Fortunately for Raff, this vein must have been quite large indeed. Probably copper, if Kaz were to guess, but there was no way to be sure, since the foul beasts had devoured every speck of metal. It must have taken them generations, but it explained why there were so many of them.
Kaz had no idea how long they crawled through the empty vein. Long enough for Raff to start complaining, and Kaz suspected that if he wasn’t so far ahead of the large human, the male would have grabbed him and taken him back to Gaoda, whether he liked it or not. Fortunately, Kaz could easily fit through spaces where Raff barely scraped through, so he stayed just out of reach, though he didn’t leave the human behind. He had a feeling he would need all the help he would get when he reached the nest.
Which was why he was so surprised when he heard Rega’s voice. She sounded tired, but calm, and when Killik answered, the male, too, sounded unafraid. The voices came echoing down from a dozen thin, branching tunnels, rendering them unintelligible, but the familiar sound was unmistakable.
Kaz darted ahead, his hand pressing against the stone as if he would open a tunnel to his aunt. “Rega?” he shouted.
The voices halted, and he called again. This time, the single word that came back was clearly his own name, though the competing echoes made it difficult to discern the tone. Surprise, yes, but also happiness? Or was that disappointment?
“Kaz!” Loud banging followed his name, and Kaz turned his head, filling his ears and his nose with all the information available in the air around him. He found his head turned toward a particularly large passage, so he took it, then another, and another, ignoring Raff’s grumbling behind him until a sharp crack followed by a yell told him that the heavy human had broken through a thin spot again.
He turned back, running in a slight crouch until he reached a hole which was illuminated from below by Raff’s glowing stone. Looking down, he saw that the warrior was already back on his feet, sword drawn, staring at the ring of kobolds surrounding him, stone knives out and teeth bared.
“Lek!” Kaz yelped at the young, green-furred male who had been one of Kaz’s playmates until he went on his spirit hunt just a few months before.
Lek looked up, muzzle opening in surprise and pleasure as he spotted Kaz. He pointed his stone blade at Raff. “Kaz! Do you know this thing? It said your name!”
Kaz nodded. Cautiously, he shifted so his legs dangled from the edge of the hole, then dropped the ten feet or so to the floor. He reinforced his legs and feet with power, easily absorbing the force of the landing, though he wouldn’t have dared use the power so blatantly even a day before. When he looked up, everyone was staring at him, and he quickly shifted their attention back to Raff.
“This is a human. His name is Raff. He’s… all right.” He looked at Raff. “This is my tribe, or,” he swallowed hard, seeing how few of the familiar faces surrounded him, “what’s left of them?”
Lek responded to the questioning tone by looking away. His ears and tail drooped. “You should talk to Rega,” he said.
Kaz nodded eagerly. “Where is she? Is she with the females and pups?”
Lek’s hand clenched around the hilt of his knife, and he turned away, motioning for Kaz to follow. “She can tell you herself.”
Kaz and Raff exchanged glances, but Raff slid his weapon into its sheath, after which the males surrounding him did the same, though not without hesitation. Lek was the strongest male there, however, despite his youth, and kobold hierarchy left no room for disobedience.
The tunnels stank of fuergar, almost entirely masking the smell of kobold, even while Kaz walked right past half a dozen members of his tribe. They all looked tired and worried, and Kaz’s heart grew cold in his chest as he wondered just how bad whatever had happened had been.
The scent of kobolds and blood grew stronger as they went, though it was still far weaker than it should have been. Whatever was suppressing the odors was still active, and Kaz was beginning to suspect that his aunt might have something to do with it, though she had never done anything like it before.
At last, Lek stopped in front of an opening to their left. He held up a hand, ducking inside. “Rega,” Kaz heard, “Kaz has come. Katri is not with him, but he has a… human?”
A low rumble answered, and Kaz’s eyes widened. Rega almost never growled, but he was certain that was her, and she was definitely not happy. “Send Kaz in,” she barked, her voice strangely breathless. “Just Kaz. Killik, go outside.”
An instant later, both Lek and Killik emerged. The male was tall, even taller and broader than Kaz, with rich reddish-brown fur. He was Oda and Rega’s half-brother, and after Kaz’s father died, he took over as the leader of the males. He spent most of his time guarding Oda, so Kaz had rarely spoken to him, though in the past year or so, Killik had begun giving the younger male pointers during training. He was gruff, but so long as Kaz did exactly what he was supposed to do, Killik never felt the need to physically assert dominance. Now, however, he gave Kaz a narrow-eyed look as he passed, before shifting that look to Raff.
Kaz waited until the two more senior males cleared the doorway, then darted inside, ignoring both Killik’s glare and Raff’s shouted, “Hey!” So long as they didn’t attack each other, the two males would be fine.
Rega lay on a pile of moss, not unlike the one Oda’s body rested on. Her brilliant red fur was dusty, and a deeper red-brown crusted her side. Webs wrapped her torso, holding in more moss, which was thickest just under the left side of her rib cage. She coughed, and when she swiped at her mouth, Kaz saw crimson on her hand.
Kaz stumbled to her side, falling to his knees on the edge of the moss. Tears filled his eyes as he bowed until his forehead touched her belly. A familiar hand rested on his head, tousled the thick blue fur, then tugged playfully at one of his ears. He looked up.
“Welcome back, pup,” she said. Her smile was weary, but warm, and he wished he was still young enough to curl up against her.
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“What happened?” he asked instead, straightening and shifting back to a more respectful distance.
Rega shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. After Oda joined the ancestors, I sent Katri to fetch you, while I and the other females began to prepare the body. Suddenly, there was… howling, or screaming. When Killik went to investigate, Gin and Kol were just missing. There was blood, so we knew they had been taken, but we had no idea how or by what.”
She sighed. “Killik howled everyone in, but it was already too late. None of the gatherers returned. We had only sent out one group, since we’re supposed to be in mourning, but after the fuergar ate our stores, we couldn’t afford not to forage at all.”
“Lis? Palla? Bik?” Kaz whispered the names of his friends, the other young kobolds remaining in the tribe.
Rega looked regretful. “Lis and Palla are gone. Bik is near enough to an adult that she was helping me with the ritual.”
Kaz whimpered, his whole body sagging, and Rega reached out to take his hand as she continued.
“I decided we needed to flee, and called for everyone left to come to my hut. They did, but… something followed.” She shuddered. “It whispered from the darkness, and wherever it was was always dark. I think there was only one, but it seemed to be everywhere, and it demanded ‘the dead one’. Oda.
“I,” her hand tightened on Kaz’s, “did what I had to do. The whole tribe brought Oda out, and left her, and then we fled.”
Kaz looked around. “But why here? And how were you hurt?”
Grimacing, Rega set a hand to her injury. The movement triggered another coughing fit, and again, Kaz saw blood in her palm as she lowered her hand. “We tried to go out the other way, but you remember a while ago, Oda decided that patrolling the escape tunnel was a waste of time? There weren’t enough males to guard her, the tunnel, the den, and watch over the gatherers, so she pulled Kol and put him at the entrance instead.”
Kaz nodded. Rega had argued that the ceremonial guard on Oda herself should be the thing to go, but Oda had refused. Having a guard was a symbol of her status, after all.
“Sometime after that, a lopo moved in. It attacked us as soon as we came close enough. I was in the lead, and it managed to impale me, but Killik and Lek severed the tentacle before it could pull me in. There was no way the few warriors remaining could take it down, so we returned to the den.” Her lip curled back. “It was filled with the stench of that thing, and Oda’s body had been desecrated.”
Sighing, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the moss. Her strength seemed to be waning, and Kaz was torn by a desire to let her rest, and his need to know the rest of the story. He started to stand, but her hand caught his before he could. He looked down, meeting her orange eyes.
“I used forbidden magic, Kaz,” she whispered. Her hand dropped away, and she gestured to one side of the cave. He turned, looking where she pointed, and saw a rectangular shape. The chief’s book.
Kaz turned back to his aunt. “Raff - the human - uses this word, too. Magic. He says the power doesn’t just belong to females, either.”
Rega’s eyes shifted to the entrance. “A human,” she murmured. “I haven’t seen one in decades.” She met Kaz’s eyes, her voice dropping even lower. Too low for even sharp kobold ears to pick up from more than a few feet away. “He’s right. Anyone can have the power, though among kobolds, it’s exclusively female. Except for you.” Her gaze was knowing, and he shrank back.
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “I’ve known for years. Don’t you remember when I told you the story of the female who could give part of her power to plants and animals, to help them grow stronger, faster? I could see that you were losing control, and if Oda found out,” her head rolled to the side, “I was frightened of what she might do.”
Her hand lifted, pointing again. “Get the book. And the bag.”
Kaz’s legs still felt weak, but he did as he was told, driven by a lifetime of training. Crossing to the dark mass of the book, he rested his hands on it for the first time since he was a very small pup. Once, as a curious pup, he had dared to try to open it, and Oda had beaten him soundly for his temerity. As he lifted the surprisingly heavy tome, a cloth bag which had been tucked against it shifted and fell. He picked it up, too, and brought both items to his aunt.
With obvious effort, Rega struggled to sit up again. “Did Katri find you?”
Kaz nodded. “Yes, but-”
Rega coughed, and he stopped speaking until she was done. “Is she safe?” Rega asked, before he could try to tell his own story.
“I… think so. She’s with the other humans, and they’re strong. They-”
A spark of Rega’s usual lively curiosity lit her eyes, but just as quickly faded again. She managed a rough laugh, cutting him off. “I want to know. But there isn’t time. Take the book and the rest of our tribe to Katri, then go to the Longtooths. She must beg them to take her in, along with the rest of the Broken Knives. The book should be enough to exchange for her life, so long as she promises never to challenge Mital.”
Kaz opened his mouth, but closed it again at the look she gave him.
“The knives… are yours,” she said, her breaths becoming more shallow. Fresh red soaked through the moss and the webs that wrapped her torso. “The whole one… was your father’s. It was always… meant for you. When you grew up.”
Collapsing back against the bed of moss, she managed, “The broken one… is the shame… of our tribe. The reason… for everything.” Tears filled her eyes and overflowed, soaking her bright fur until it was nearly as dark as her sister’s. Clearly unable to speak, she lifted her hand.
Falling to his knees, Kaz let the book and the bag tumble to the ground as he clasped it. “Killik!” he howled. “Killik!”
The male ran into the room, his face twisted as he, too, knelt on the ground beside Rega. It was over in a moment, and Kaz knew the instant Rega joined the ancestors because all the scents that had been held at bay by whatever ‘forbidden magic’ Rega used came flooding back in. The stink of fuergar was still strong, but if there was something hunting kobolds by smell, it would certainly be able to find them now.
Killik’s teeth ground audibly, but he held back the howl that would usually follow the passing of any tribe member, but especially the chief. He looked at Kaz. “She said when this happened,” he growled, “I should find you and Katri. If I couldn’t, or if you were dead, we were to go to the Longtooths and give ourselves to them. Let the Broken Knife tribe die, so that we could live.”
Kaz nodded. His voice was choked. “She told me the same. Katri… is already there. I’ll tell you the story on the way.” Gently, he laid Rega’s hand at her side. “What do we do with-”
The other male stood as well, his broad shoulders lifting into his usual stiff posture. He didn’t look down at the body. “She said to leave her here. If that thing comes hunting, it may be delayed by… her. She said to go immediately.” His gaze was direct. Rega’s wishes would be followed to the letter, regardless of what Kaz wished.
Reaching out, Kaz put the bag into his pack, then gathered the large book into his arms. He stood and nodded. “Then we go,” he said. He looked at the entrance.
Raff and Lek had poked their heads in, though there was no room for the tall human inside. While Lek’s ears were flat with sorrow, Raff’s eyes were cold as they passed over Rega, though they lingered on the book in Kaz’s arms.
“Sorry, ‘bout that, Blue,” the human said, “but good timing. We need to go.”
A stab of fury stole Kaz’s breath. How could the human dismiss Rega’s death like that? Though, to Raff, it probably just simplified things, since he was supposed to kill Rega if she refused to come, anyway. Now, Rega was out of the way, and the Broken Knives were going exactly where the human wanted them to go.
Kaz just nodded, but he reminded himself that the human wasn’t a friend. Wasn’t even an ally, really, and Kaz could never, ever trust him, or any of them.