Chi Yincang didn’t wait for Kaz, but that was all right, because the tunnel was clear of anything living except for the fulan. Corpses littered the passage, in varying stages of decay, and it was all Kaz could do to avoid stepping on them as he ran through.
He followed his own directions, only once having to stop to avoid a battle between a female kobold and an iron fuergar. Kaz could see that the female kobold’s core and channels still blazed with power, but she used teeth and claws instead, ignoring both her innate ki and the knife that hung at her waist.
Kaz spun to the side, scurrying into a crevice between two flowstone formations as soon as he saw the two combatants, but they had no interest in anything except each other. The kobold’s eyes were dark green, matching her fur, and the fuergar’s were gray, but both pairs were equally glazed, and only guttural grunts emerged from the female.
Even though the kobold wasn’t a member of his tribe, Kaz still felt a compulsion to aid her, but that compulsion died as she used her claws to rip open the fuergar and immediately began to eat it, ignoring its increasing feeble squeaks and thrashing. She dug her claws into its belly, not pausing until she pulled out what looked like a small, gleaming sphere that glowed with white ki. With a triumphant growl, she thrust it into her mouth, swallowing it whole.
Instantly, the light in her abdomen flared, burning brighter than any Kaz had seen in a kobold before. She doubled over, whimpering in pain as she clawed at her own belly, leaving trails of fresh blood in the gore already drying in her fur. Spasms shook her, and then she straightened, a demented grin stretching her mouth so it seemed as if her face would split open. She leaned back and let out a terrible howl, raw and crazed, then her head snapped around, eyes glaring madly.
Kaz’s breath froze in his chest as she seemed to stare straight at him, but a moment later she dropped to all fours and bounded away, all dignity lost to whatever madness had taken her. Only once her continuing howls had faded a bit did Kaz dare take a breath, and realized that he had unintentionally answered one of his own questions. He had instinctively pushed ki into his lungs just before his last gasp, and at least four minutes had passed before he felt the need to breathe again.
He saw nothing but death and fulan until he reached the fall of flowstone he’d told Raff to look for. There, he found Chi Yincang standing guard over Lianhua and Gaoda as they argued in low voices. Kaz had been able to hear them for a while, but between the dripping of water over the flowstone and the constant background noise of howls and screams, the words remained unclear until he was almost upon them.
As he entered the long cave in which they stood, Chi Yincang nodded to him, neither surprise nor pleasure on his impassive face , but Lianhua and Gaoda spun around, revealing a kobold collapsed on the stone floor beyond them. It was a male with near-black fur and a visibly broken arm. He, too, rolled his head so he could see Kaz, so he wasn’t too far gone to respond to the approach of a possible threat, but he made no attempt to rise.
Lianhua looked relieved to see Kaz, and started toward him.
Gaoda’s hand shot out, catching her arm. “Cousin,” he snapped, “the shield!”
Lianhua’s expression instantly turned to frustration, but she didn’t pull away as she usually would have. Kaz could see the shimmering globe circling her, and both Chi Yincang and Gaoda were inside it with her, though the strange kobold wasn’t. The bubble was almost completely translucent in some areas, and Lianhua’s skin and eyes were all but colorless again.
Kaz hurried forward, intending to give the female a bit of his own power, but Chi Yincang lowered his weapon to block Kaz’s path and said, “Speak.”
Kaz frowned. “What should I say?”
That seemed to be enough, because the weapon lifted out of the way again, and Chi Yincang turned his attention back to scanning their surroundings.
Lianhua shook her hand free of Gaoda’s and extended it to Kaz. Not without trepidation, he accepted it, though only for a moment. It was long enough, and he could see her back straighten as his strength flowed into her.
The dragon clinging to his shoulder gave a soft whistle of complaint as she had to balance their cycles again, and Kaz withdrew his hand so he could reach up to stroke her back. He was starting to become concerned at her placidity. He was used to hearing her clicks and whistles, and seeing her look around at everything as she sent him images or pulses of feelings, usually covetousness or curiosity, whenever she saw something interesting. She’d been too quiet ever since the bag went over her head, other than her small protests about helping him manage his ki.
“I’m trying to convince Gaoda that we should help this kobold,” she said, gesturing toward the male, “but he won’t speak, and Gaoda is convinced that means he’s been afflicted by whatever is causing the others to act rabid.”
Gaoda snorted. “That, and we have nothing to gain by helping him.”
Kaz reminded himself to ask what ‘rabid’ meant later, and turned toward the injured kobold. Stepping between Lianhua and Gaoda, he crouched, careful to remain just outside of easy clawing distance. Just because the male was hurt didn’t mean he was helpless.
He took in the wide leather belt with a thick studded section meant to protect the other kobold’s middle, as well as the hardened leather bracers on each arm, and not one but two finely crafted sheaths at his waist. Both were empty now, but Kaz suspected they had once held metal knives, not stone. The straps across the other kobold’s chest were equally sturdy, with wide metal buckles that would turn away claws or blades alike.
“I’m Kaz,” he told the male. “Of the Longknife tribe. I’m guiding these humans to the Deep. If you can help, we’ll bandage your arm and help you at least as long as our paths are the same. Are there any tribes left on this level or the next down? Do you know where we can find untainted food or water?”
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The male’s brown eyes met his with complete indifference, and then his head turned, facing into the darkness beneath the flowstone overhang. He remained silent, but Kaz had seen understanding in that gaze, so he stood back up.
“I think he just doesn’t want help,” he told her. “His necklace indicates he’s mated. Did you see a female nearby?”
She let out a sigh. “Several. All dead except one fighting an Ironfang Rat. Chi Yincang carried us past before I could tell if she was infected as well.”
Kaz’s ears lowered. “I saw her as well. She was… damaged. Whatever is going on had most certainly affected her.”
Gaoda clicked his tongue in vindication. “I told you so, cousin. We should go on before your shield falls, or we could be contaminated or infected as well.”
Lianhua’s lips pinched. “Not without Raff.” She turned a glare on Chi Yincang, who ignored her completely, continuing his scans of the cave.
Kaz shook his head, looking down at the kobold on the floor. Lianhua’s gentle heart was something he could appreciate, though not all kobolds would, but this time Gaoda was right. Whether this madness was caused by the fulan or not, he would feel much better once they were out of the drifting fog of spores.
He was already worried about the twenty or thirty minutes he’d spent outside of the shield, and the fact that they had left Raff in the thick of not only the fighting, but a horde of possibly diseased kobolds and creatures. Diseases were rare in the mountain, but not unknown, and kobolds took them very seriously. If a deadly illness struck a tribe, that tribe was usually put to death and their den burned, down to every last pup and hut.
The fallen kobold was still staring into the darkness, and Kaz finally realized that he wasn’t just looking away from the group of interlopers, but toward something else. Kaz crouched again, narrowing his eyes as he pushed more ki into his vision. The darkness seemed to melt away, revealing a single outstretched hand protruding from the narrow tunnel beyond.
Kaz let out a low whine and started forward, only stopping at the last moment, when he realized he’d been about to leave the shield again. Looking back at Lianhua, he said, “There’s someone in there.”
At this, the wounded kobold finally reacted. Snarling, he lashed out at Kaz, catching the younger male by the leg and trying to pull him down, within reach of his snapping teeth.
Kaz yelped, pulling away, and the other’s weakened grip released him fairly easily.
“Stay away,” the male growled, trying to roll over onto his good arm. “Leave her!”
Kaz’s ears and tail were tucked by now, but he softly asked, “Your mate?”
The male’s head jerked in an affirmative, and he whined softly as he managed to sit up. “She was the last. I was supposed to take her back, keep her safe, but-” He choked off, eyes returning to the darkness as he edged closer to the flowstone, leaving a carmine smear on the stone behind him. His injuries were more severe than Kaz had realized. The dark fur was probably concealing other wounds.
“She went mad,” Kaz finished for him, nodding to the arm that bent in four different directions. “Did she do that?”
“No! Yes, but… she never would. She valued me. Traded for me. Never would have hurt me.” The dark head rolled back, leaning against the stone as his good hand reached into the shadows, pulling out a limp arm. He grasped the clawed hand, closing his eyes.
Kaz crouched again. “What tribe? We can’t carry you back, but I’ll tell them your names so they can howl you to the ancestors.”
The other’s eyes opened, but only halfway. “Davik. She was Davik, and I’m Scov. Tell the Sharpjaws I… defended my… mate.”
Silence fell until Scov’s body finally slumped, and his grip on the hand relaxed, allowing it to fall back into the darkness. Kaz waited until he was certain the male hadn’t just lapsed into unconsciousness, then moved out of the bubble in spite of Lianhua’s inarticulate sound of protest.
Reaching out, he found Davik’s hand and pulled, tugging the female’s body out into view. She didn’t seem to be injured as badly as Scov had been, but there was a deep wound beneath her ribs, and Kaz could tell it had been a fatal blow.
Lianhua stepped up beside Kaz, bringing the shield to him in spite of Gaoda’s grumbling. She didn’t speak as he laid the bodies out. Davik’s eyes were open, so Kaz closed them and then laid her arms down by her sides. Scov’s arms went across his chest, and Kaz pulled his own half-broken knife from his belt and put it into the other male’s hands. Kaz couldn’t use it in battle anyway, since it could break at any time, and he had no idea how to combine the blade with the hilt in his pack, even if it was reasonable to do so.
Once the two kobolds were as prepared as Kaz could make them, he unbuckled his pack and pulled it off. Reaching inside, he took out a thick bundle of firemoss that he’d gathered when he retrieved his old pack, more out of habit than necessity, and spread it out across them as best he could. He didn’t have any jejing, nor did he have two days to wait, so this was the best he could do.
Just as he finished, they all turned at the sound of metallic footsteps moving toward them at a rapid pace. Raff ran in through the entrance of the cave a moment later, his face flushed and armor soaked with red.
“Gotta go,” the big man gasped. “Quick as a flea on Pellis’ holy arse. I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s fast, and it’s coming this way.”
They all looked at him, then each other, and then Gaoda was pushing Lianhua past the two dead kobolds, into the dark crevice beneath the frozen waterfall of stone. Chi Yincang followed silently, leaving only Kaz and Raff, who crossed the space with remarkable speed.
“Get on in, then, Blue,” the big male grunted, eyeing the gap that was very nearly too small for him. He stopped as he saw Davik and Scov, but his sharp eyes lingered on the moss around them instead of the bodies themselves.
“Isn’t that your fancy firemoss?” he asked.
Kaz nodded, opening his mouth to explain, but a bizarre roar sounded from the tunnel Raff had come from before he could speak. It was obviously produced by one creature, since it started and ended at one time, but it sounded like it came from a dozen different throats, high and low alike combining into uncanny harmony.
“Yep,” Raff said, “not the time.” Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out his stone with the fire rune on it, thrusting it into the moss on each body as he muttered a word. The firemoss caught, blazing up into a bright flare and then settling back to a slow burn that immediately began giving off roiling clouds of thick smoke.
The corners of Raff’s eyes crinkled as he grinned, then grabbed Kaz and shoved him through the crevice. A high-pitched screech came a moment later when his armor scraped against the stone walls as he pushed his way through.
Kaz scurried after the other three humans, glad to see that his memory hadn’t chosen this moment to play tricks on him. Once he got beyond the stone formation, the tunnel widened back out to something broad enough that Raff would be able to get through easily.
Another roar shook the air behind him, and something crashed into the stone, making small rocks and thin, tubular stalactites fall to the ground all around him. A strong arm scooped him up, and Raff took off, carrying Kaz away.