Immediately, Kaz released his hold, internally relieved as the alarming red shade of the female’s skin began to fade back to iron-gray. He maintained a fierce snarl as he looked at Erith, however, and slid to the side so he stood between the male and Lianhua. Li was busy dragging her prize back to Lianhua as well, but Kaz didn’t think the husede had actually processed her existence yet anyway.
Showing unexpected bravery, Erith stepped toward Thabil, his dark eyes frightened but defiant as they met Kaz’s. He knelt beside her, pressing fingers to her throat, then looked relieved at whatever he found there.
Glancing between Kaz and Lianhua, the husede started to speak, then froze as he seemed to notice Li for the first time. The dragon had given up on prying the red crystals apart, and was now trying to eat the device whole, her little jaws stretched wide as she turned the object within it, trying to find an angle that would allow her to get it down her throat. With a yelp, Kaz reached out and grabbed her, holding her upside down as she clung stubbornly to the crystalline object, and he finally had to extract the device with his claws as she clicked and squawked at him furiously.
Erith watched this interplay, tension slowly draining from his broad shoulders until he finally relaxed enough to look away. With unsteady fingers, he began to untie the sash holding his robe closed, revealing a loincloth not dissimilar to Kaz’s underneath. Using Thabil’s sash as well as his own, he created pads which he bound against the unconscious husede’s wounds, and Kaz took the opportunity to examine the object he had taken from Li.
From a distance, it seemed to be a single solid crystal, but now that he held it, Kaz could see that it was actually many smaller crystals, bound together by what looked like ‘kintsugi’, a technique Lianhua had told Kaz about, which used enamel or melted metal to repair broken objects. The gaps between the stones had been filled with something that gleamed like gold, but was far harder when Kaz scratched a claw against it. He took out his knife and started to pry one of the crystals loose, curious what lay beneath it, when a thought occurred to him, and he looked up.
“Can you take off her collar with this?” he asked, pointing at Lianhua with the object.
Almost regretfully, Erith shook his head. “I’m a very junior jingli. That only controls the simple collars kobolds wear.” His eyes lingered on Kaz’s throat, where a sulking Li now lay.
Kaz’s eyes narrowed, and he looked at the other husede. She was clearly older than Erith, and female, though by now he had learned not to assume that meant she was higher in rank than the male. “What about her?” he asked. “Does she have one of these? One that could open Lianhua’s collar?”
Erith’s eyes darted to a pouch tucked into the now-open front of Thabil’s robe. The female wore a second robe, one made of lighter-weight fabric, beneath the first, and the red bag stood out starkly against the white cloth. It would have been immediately noticeable if not for the crimson blood soaking upwards from the husede’s injuries.
Kaz waved his knife threateningly, holding his free hand out, palm up. “Toss it to me. Carefully.”
Erith did so, and Kaz crouched to allow the object inside to roll out onto the floor so he didn’t have to fumble with his knife. Picking up the glittering item, he looked at it. The crystals making this one up were larger, and mingled among the red were a few chips of yellow and white. Experimentally, Kaz sent matching ki into the object, and Erith jerked as a small amount flowed out again, causing his collar to spark.
Kaz instantly stopped what he was doing, but Erith was already clutching his collar, staring at him. “How did you do that?” he asked wonderingly. “You’re a male, aren’t you?” He glanced at Kaz’s unclothed nether regions, and the kobold had to resist the urge to cover himself.
Reminded, Kaz said, “Take off your robe!”
The husede looked confused, fingers clutching protectively at his clothes, but when Kaz gestured with his very sharp knife, Erith reluctantly did as he was told. Kaz caught it, then quickly slashed a strip about eighteen inches wide from the bottom. Tossing the rest back to Erith, he turned to Lianhua.
Slowly, he unwrapped his loincloth from her arm, glad to see that it didn’t seem to have suffered any further injury. He strapped it back down with the piece of robe and wrapped his loincloth around his waist again, though he had to set his knife down in order to do so. As he did, he saw Erith glance at it, then at his still-unconscious superior, and visibly decide he wasn’t going to try anything.
Once Kaz was dressed, he picked up his weapon again and began to pry crystals from Erith’s control device, feeding them one after another to the dragon on his shoulder. She immediately ceased sulking, snapping them up eagerly.
“Have you ever seen one of these collars removed?” Kaz asked, staring at Erith as his sharp blade made easy work of what he suspected was an extremely hard gold-mithril alloy.
Erith’s dark skin paled, and he swallowed hard, nodding once. “When a husede dies, a mosui comes and takes their collar off, so they can be free in death as they weren’t in life.”
Kaz’s ears twitched. He suspected the mosui just wanted to be able to reuse the collars, but the young male’s words held the sound of oft-repeated and rarely questioned wisdom, so he didn’t argue. Instead, he asked, “What’s different about the device they use? From this one?” He waggled Thabil’s control device, and Li, who had just finished the last chip of Erith’s, eyed it hungrily. By now her belly was actually a bit distended, however, so Kaz didn’t plan to take it apart right away.
Erith shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a bit larger.”
“Does it have these?” With a claw, Kaz indicated the small pieces of yellow and white crystals. It was a little awkward, since he had to use the thumb of the same hand holding the object, but he wasn’t ready to put his knife away yet.
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The husede’s expression dissolved into something that might have been awe. “No,” he said. “It had all five colors. I remember, because when my grandmother died, all I could think was that that was the first time I had ever seen a blue crystal.”
Kaz nearly closed his eyes in exasperation. Was that it? Was the secret so simple? How had he not guessed? He tucked the control item under his belt, ignoring Li’s disappointed whistle, and reached out to touch Lianhua’s collar. Carefully, he sent a tiny, balanced bit of all five colors of ki into it, and with a click, it opened, the two halves falling to the ground on each side of her neck.
Erith and Lianhua gasped at the same time, and Kaz watched with satisfaction as the ki flowed freely through the human female’s channels for the first time since he’d found her. A faint flush of healthy pink rose up beneath her pale skin, and only a moment or two later, her long lashes fluttered open. The amethyst eyes were hazy and confused, but when they focused on Kaz’s face, hovering over her own, she smiled.
“Hello, Kaz,” she said, voice scratchy and raw. “I’m so, so glad to see you.”
Kaz’s tail began to wag wildly behind him, and he grinned at her. “Fair howls, Lianhua. I’m pleased to see you as well.”
On his shoulder, Li clicked grumpily, and Lianhua’s focus shifted as she said, “Hello, Li. Thank you. You saved me.”
Li settled back, fairly oozing gratification, and Kaz almost chuckled at how well the human female already understood his little friend. He looked up, however, when he heard a throat cleared nearby.
Realizing that he had completely lost track of his surroundings, Kaz shifted, lifting his knife from where he had unconsciously placed it on the ground beside him. When he saw Erith, however, he realized that the husede had lost all interest in attempting to flee or fight. His fingers were wrapped around his own collar, and his expression was that of a puppy who had just realized that the den-mother was holding a big, juicy bone.
“Can you take mine off, too?” he asked, and Kaz could almost see a tail wagging furiously behind him.
Kaz hated the collars, so he stretched out his fingers to do exactly that, then hesitated. Trying to still his own tail and recover his threatening demeanor, he said, “You have to take us to these ki-cannons. Immediately,” he added as the walls shuddered around them.
“And show me how to disable them. Or-” His eyes lit up as another idea occurred to him. “Show me how to fire them at Zhangwo.”
Erith’s face paled again, and he fell back half a step. They both jumped as a voice almost as weak as Lianhua’s rose from the floor.
“Yes,” Thabil said, dark eyes locked on Kaz’s. “I’ll show you. Just take off our collars, and promise you’ll speak to the humans on our behalf. Ours and all the husede. We don’t serve the mosui because we want to. If you can free us, we’ll tear them apart.”
She rolled to her side, pale but making no sound as she managed to sit up. Fresh blood soaked her robe, but only a little, and Kaz thought she would be fine as long as she had a chance to rest. It seemed she wasn’t going to take that chance, however, as she reached out to Erith and allowed him to help her to her feet.
“Remove our collars, kobold,” she said, “and you will have the everlasting gratitude of Thabil Lothitsdottir.”
Her gaze was direct and held no hint of equivocation, so Kaz simply reached out. Taking a step forward, she bowed, though bending at the waist had to be agonizing, and rested her throat in his hand. Dark grayish-purple bruises were already forming there, and Kaz winced slightly at the sight, even as he wondered at the absolute power she was giving him. He could rip out her throat with a single bite, and she wouldn’t even have time to cry out.
Instead, with a pulse of power, the ring fell to the floor, the two halves spinning and chiming. All eyes followed them until they settled to the ground with a final trill of bell-like tones. Thabil straightened, expression full of indecipherable emotions, and tugged Erith forward for a repeat performance.
Once all three collars lay in pieces on the ground, Kaz helped Lianhua to her feet. She turned even whiter than usual when she tried to move her arm, but only gave a single soft whimper. Kaz wished he had some mamu lichen to numb the limb, and then remembered the little pouch he had tucked into his pack. Perhaps there was something in there she could use to help with the pain.
Sheathing his knife, he unbuckled and pulled off his pack, which was straining at the seams. He wasn’t quite ready to turn his back on the husede, or upend the contents of his pack all over the floor, but fortunately Lianhua’s pouch was one of the last things that had gone in, so it was very nearly the top.
He took out a small metal container covered in delicate filigree, then a rolled scroll no longer than his hand, which fairly hummed with suppressed power. Ignoring what would otherwise be fascinating items, Kaz triumphantly removed Lianhua’s bag and handed it to her. The female’s face lit up as she accepted it.
“Kaz, I have no idea how you do it, but you always seem to save me.” She looked up as she finished tying it to her belt, and smiled wryly. “I promised to protect you, but I’m fairly sure you no longer need my help.”
Kaz shook his head. “I need you to teach me, and stand between me and others of your kind. Kobolds listen to kobolds, and humans to humans. When we leave the mountain, your words will keep me safer than any action you could take.”
Looking thoughtful, Lianhua dipped her fingers into her pouch, pulling out a small vial made of deep blue glass. She broke the soft red seal and poured out a single white object, something that looked like a tiny, flattened egg. With a grimace, she popped it into her mouth, and a moment later, her ki flared, burning through her body like a batch of firemoss oil had been set ablaze within her.
Tipping her head back, she groaned loudly, and Kaz watched in amazement as the ki shrank back down, smaller and smaller, until it was less than half the size of his own core. It sat in the center of her lower dantian, right where her core would be, if she had one, and when she released a shuddering breath, the power swelled, spinning up into a brighter, faster version of her usual cycle.
Leaning forward, Lianhua hacked and coughed, finally spitting out a single glob of stinking black goo onto the stone. Twin obsidian tears trickled from beneath her lids, and she wiped them away with a moue of distaste.
All four of the others were staring at her by now, but only Kaz was willing or able to ask, “What did you just do?”
Reaching up, she pulled off the sling Kaz had made from the strip of Erith’s robe. With a bit of a smirk, she handed it back to the stunned husede, who accepted it, looking down at his damaged robe and knobby, bare knees with chagrined dismay.
“That was a cultivation pill,” Lianhua told Kaz. “Grandfather gave me one to use if I was badly injured. They speed up cultivation, but taking them can also weaken your foundation, because if you haven’t learned to properly control the ki you already have, gaining more only makes it harder to learn. It’s better to take your time and master each stage before moving to the next. Reaching the next level of cultivation heals the body, however, and we have no time for me to recover from serious injuries right now.”
Lifting her arm, she looked at the scrolls wrapping it, eyes lighting up with excitement as she realized what they were. She unwrapped them, and at first Kaz thought she might start reading them then and there, but instead, she tied them up with the cords and slid them into her pouch.
As another crash and boom caused a crack to shoot down the wall from overhead, she looked at Thabil. “Now, let’s go save whoever’s left to be saved.” She slid a glance at Kaz, and he had a feeling she was thinking the same thing he was.
If they were lucky, maybe it was already too late for Gaoda.