Kaz and Raff both stared at her, and even Li swooped down a little closer, though she didn’t land on Kaz’s shoulder. Lianhua continued grinning with a kind of wild glee as she stood, clutching the book tightly. Instead of explaining, however, she handed the book to Kaz with clear reluctance, then took out the next book on the shelf, opening it to the first page. Book after book she removed, then slid back into place with reverent hands, becoming more careful as the books grew older. Finally, she put one crumbling tome back on the shelf and looked up at the same gap Kaz had noticed.
“They took it,” she murmured, her expression going from elation to despair in the space of a single heartbeat. “Why did they take it? Them? Definitely them. That gap is too large for one book. That means two, perhaps three volumes filled with-” Her muttering continued as she reached up and began to pull fitfully at her hair, causing the smooth surface to fray and split.
“What?” Kaz finally asked, unable to hold back the questions any longer.
Lianhua’s eyes flickered to him, blinked, then focused. “Oh. Oh! Kaz!” Pink rose beneath her pale skin in a way that Kaz now knew meant that she was embarrassed. Holding out her hand, Lianhua gestured for the book Kaz was holding and, with as much reluctance as she had handed it to him, he gave it back.
She flipped open the first page, showing him the clear, careful writing there, then turned the book and gave it back to him, still open. Pulling out another book, apparently at random, she opened it as well, then stepped up beside him, holding the two books side by side.
Kaz heard Li coming before she landed on his pack with a soft thump. She immediately moved to the shoulder on the same side Lianhua was standing, glaring at the human, who just looked bemused and leaned away slightly. This pleased the dragon, who settled down with a soft series of hissing clicks, eyes darker than usual as she stared at Lianhua.
Lianhua cleared her throat, amusement lifting some of the disappointment from her face. “Look at the runes,” she said, her finger touching the symbols in her book. These weren’t nearly as neat as Rega’s, with visible smudges and even a fingerprint or two recorded for posterity. Lianhua wrinkled her nose, eyeing the page, but said, “The first several pages in every book are the same, just with different handwriting. This is a fairly common thing in certain parts of the world, where children are taught to read and write by copying a source text. In this case, the Magmablades seem to have copied the story passed down by their first chief.”
Her voice shifted, growing slightly deeper, enunciating each word precisely. “My true name is Tiyang Long, now called Tegra Magmablade. I was a princess, then a captive, and now a monster, and this is the true story of how those called ‘kobolds’ came to be.”
Lianhua looked up. “Ah, I’m guessing that this rune means kobold. I don’t know if she made it up, or if she learned it from someone, but it’s based on the rune for, um, ‘servant’, but with an extra ascending radical-” She saw the looks on their faces, and the pink flush returned to her cheeks. “And you don’t care. Let’s just say that I’m fairly certain this means kobold, based on later context.”
Both Kaz and Raff were looking more and more impatient, so almost tentatively, Lianhua asked, “Should I just… summarize?”
Even Li nodded vigorously, and Lianhua giggled, then looked even more embarrassed at having produced such a sound. “Yes, well,” she said, “basically, Tiyang Long was one of the last princesses of the Diushi Empire. We have extensive records of all the direct lines of descent from every emperor except the first and the fifth, and Tiyang was actually the sister of the last emperor. She was among those who were listed as lost when the Diushi vanished.”
Raff held up a hand. “I’ve been meaning t’ ask you about this, Lianhua. You keep sayin’ these Diushi ‘vanished’, but what does that mean? Obviously, your nation is still there, along with a buncha others who say they used to be part of the Diushi Empire, too. So what happened that made a whole Empire fall apart?”
Lianhua gave a pained smile. “If I could tell you that, there would be no mystery. According to the records that remain, everyone who lived outside the emperor’s palace simply woke up one day to find it empty. The emperor, his family, all of his brothers, sisters, even unmarried aunts and uncles, along with hundreds or thousands of servants, soldiers, and courtiers just disappeared. The treasury was empty, and a number of invaluable works of art were gone as well, which made them think it was an elaborate theft and hostage plot at first, but the Emperor and his guards were all at least mid-Iron and in the Core Formation stage of cultivation, and there was no sign that anyone even tried to fight back or run away.”
Raff’s eyebrows lifted. “Just, ‘poof’, gone?”
She nodded. “Just like that. And of course without a direct line of leadership or money, those remaining instantly turned on each other. At first it was subtle; otherwise healthy people dying of ‘heart attacks’ or ‘severe indigestion’. Then the nobles sent out their private military forces to ‘keep the peace’, and those who were wise fled to the countryside. The capital city burned to the ground within a month of the emperor’s disappearance.”
“Wise? Like your family?” Kaz asked. Lianhua tried to brush off her connection to the ancient emperors, but she had the same tribe name as they did.
Lianhua sighed. “In a way. The leader of the Long clan at the time was the grandson of the ninth emperor. His wife was expecting their first child, so he decided to take her away from the fighting. He stayed until the birth, by which time the worst was over, and there was nothing to go back to.”
She lifted the book, pointedly turning the topic back to the story written there. “Tiyang Long was among those who vanished that night, and she says that when she woke, it was to find a bracelet locked onto her wrist.”
Absently, Lianhua reached up to touch her own neck, tracing the scars that marred the once-perfect column of her throat, then firmed her expression as she returned her hand to the book. “Over time, the air in the room where Tiyang was held was gradually filled with more and more of a red powder. She tried not to breathe it, but the bracelet prevented her ki from cycling properly, so she couldn’t form a shield. She was left there, completely alone, without food, the only water a stream that trickled from the rock. Then, after what she believed to be three or four days, an animal fell from the ceiling.”
Now, Lianhua turned to give Kaz a look filled with deep compassion. “That beast was a sort of canine, one she’d never seen before. It was too large for a dog, or even a wolf, and its eyes were filled with madness. Tiyang had a knife, and all of the emperor’s family were taught martial skills, so when it attacked her, she fought back, and won. Then she was overcome by a hunger such as she had never felt before, and ate the beast, sickened by her own actions even as she tore it to pieces. When she found its core, she ate that, too, and was overtaken by pain.”
Lianhua sounded almost reluctant as she went on. “When she woke, she was, in her own words, a ‘monster’. She had humanoid hands and torso, but her legs were those of the creature she killed and ate. She was covered in fur, had a tail, and, though she couldn’t see herself, she could feel that she had a muzzle, and the fur covered her face and neck as well.”
Carefully, Lianhua closed the book. “I think she went a little mad herself, then. She didn’t remember much for a while after that, except that she tried to kill herself, but a human came and stopped her. They used the bracelet, forcing her to obey their commands, and she was given some kind of potion. After that, everything played out as if it was a terrible dream, and when she woke again, it was to find herself surrounded by other creatures much like herself. They called her ‘Tegra Magmablade’, and when she tried to tell them her true name, she found that her throat closed on the words. The bracelet was gone, but it had been replaced by a necklace that she couldn’t bring herself to remove.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Together, all of their eyes turned to look at the necklaces around the throats of the kobolds lined up on the floor behind them. Each was different, but bore many similarities as well, and Kaz wondered if the tradition of creating and wearing them was based on something that had been forced on their ancestors unknown generations before.
“Tegra spent the rest of her life here,” Lianhua said, voice rough. “She took a mate, and bore puppies, but she couldn’t speak of her story. Everyone else, including the other chiefs, seemed to believe that they had all been born in the mountain, descended from many kobolds who came before, but everything seemed too new for that. It wasn’t until she was old that she figured out how to get around the restrictions built into the necklace, and the continuing commands she received from a voice that entered her head and told her what to do. The story written here, and copied by every Magmablade chief since, is her final defiance. The last lines are-”
Lianhua opened the book again, turning several pages filled with script that grew progressively less legible, then grimaced and put that book back, taking Rega’s book from Kaz instead. Unlike the other, Rega’s handwriting remained clear and perfect, and Lianhua cleared her throat and read, “Destroy those who think they can command the blood of the Diushi Emperor. Tear out their throats, and leave this cursed place.”
Silence fell, and when Lianhua closed the book again, the soft thump of the cover falling shut seemed far louder than it had any right to be.
Raff was the first to speak. “Doesn’t sound like any princess I ever heard of.” He shook his head. “Princesses in Holiander are supposed to learn to dance, embroider, speak a dozen languages, handle all the backroom politics, an’ look pretty while they do it. They definitely don’t go around rippin’ anyone’s throat out or eatin’ monster dogs raw. Uh, no offense, Blue.”
Kaz looked up and realized they were looking at him, and waved it off. “We’d already guessed part of this,” he said, resigned to the fact that everything he thought he knew about his own people was a lie. The dragon on his shoulder rubbed her head against his cheek, and he managed a crooked smile as he reached up and stroked her neck.
He looked up at Lianhua, taking a deep breath. “I’m glad you found your proof, Lianhua, but what else does the book say?”
Lianhua flinched. “What… else?”
Kaz nodded. “Ija told me each chief copied Tegra’s book, or at least the first part of it, then filled the rest of the book with their own words.” He ignored the look of rekindled excitement when she heard that this might not be all of the story, and went on. “So what does it say about Rega, Oda, and Ghazt?”
Lianhua bit her lip. “Kaz, I think it might be better to wait until you can-”
“Summarize it,” he said. “Please.”
The human female looked down, loose tendrils of hair falling around her face. “There were some runes I’m not sure of. That’s not unexpected. A closed culture like this would be expected to drift linguistically, especially-”
“Lianhua,” Kaz said.
She sighed. “I think, but can’t be certain, that the Magmablades have been hiding their real chief for years. After they failed to take over the Deep, and the chief at the time was killed, they started making it look like one female was chief, while another actually gave the orders. That way, if they were caught again, they wouldn’t lose… something. I didn’t understand the glyph at all, and I think someone made it up entirely, and then the others just kept using it. It was almost more of a pictograph than a-”
“Lianhua,” he said again.
“Oda wasn’t really chief,” Lianhua said. “She never was, until the Broken Knives were forced to leave. It was one of her aunts, and then Vega. It was also Vega who set off an explosion that killed Ghazt’s group, hoping that if he was dead, her sisters would stop fighting over him and fall into line again. But Oda had been following Ghazt around, and she found him, unconscious but alive. She tried to nurse him back to health herself, but she didn’t know how, so she went to Rega for advice. Oda wasn’t exactly subtle, so Rega got suspicious and followed Oda back to where she had hidden Ghazt.
“Rega waited until Oda left, then snuck in and stole Ghazt again, making it look like a beast found and killed him before dragging his body away. She planned to take him back to his tribe when he recovered, but by then, she was-” Lianhua cleared her throat, her whole face turning redder than Kaz had seen it since she nearly overheated in the bath.
“They-” She tucked the book beneath her arm and tapped her forefingers together, utterly unable to meet Kaz’s eyes. “It’s her diary, you know, so she says some- Well, you’ll read it someday, but the gist is that Rega got pregnant, and Ghazt refused to leave her. They believed that after everything that had happened, the Woodblades wouldn’t want to acknowledge Rega and her pups, and they didn’t want to go to the Magmablades, so they dyed Ghazt’s fur, and he and Rega moved to a smaller sub-tribe, giving the excuse that Rega was taking their chief’s son as mate. That made the Magmablade chief angry, but she was sick by then, and died soon after, letting Rega and Ghazt slip through the cracks.”
Her expression brightened, and she smiled, looking at Kaz again. “They were happy for a few years. The chief who took them in was old, and when she died, Rega became chief, which she’d never wanted, but it was a small, close-knit tribe, so she didn’t mind much. But then the Woodblades died.”
Lianhua bit her lip again, harder this time. “The Magmablades began preparing for war, and Vega called in all of the subsidiary tribes, including Ghazt and Rega’s. They couldn’t refuse, and eventually Oda found out Ghazt was alive. She didn’t go so far as to try to break the mate bond, but she told everyone Ghazt was her mate, not Rega’s, and she even officially adopted their puppies. I guess that’s something the chief can do when they don’t have pups of their own, and they need an heir?”
Kaz nodded reluctantly. “It’s rare, but if the chief has no pups of her own, she can take in one or more puppies to raise. The original parents are usually honored, and they can see the pups often, so it’s more of a formality than anything else.”
Lianhua shook her head. “That’s what Oda did, then, and Rega couldn’t really do anything about it. You can tell she was heartbroken, and not everything she says makes sense. She calls Vega the ‘hidden chief’, or maybe ‘secret chief’ or ‘chief in hiding’. The rune is a little different than anything I’ve seen before, probably as a result of the natural drift-”
Kaz cleared his throat, and color rose in Lianhua’s cheeks. “Anyway, Vega did something that made her really, really strong, and your mother knew that even if she was willing to fight, there was no way she would win, so she couldn’t challenge for the tribe. Telling everyone the truth might have helped in the short term, but it would only attract attention to them, and all of the tribes were already scrambling to gather anyone who had Woodblade heritage in the last few generations. Oda convinced her that at least this way, she could see Ghazt and her puppies, but that if the great chiefs found out Ghazt, a pure Woodblade male, was alive, they would take him and the pups away.”
“So she just let it happen,” Kaz said bitterly, remembering his gentle aunt. She had never liked killing, even for food, and her greatest defiance was when she continued teaching Kaz how to heal, rather than one of the female pups.
Lianhua nodded. “There’s not a lot written after that. I think it took a few more years for the other chiefs to figure out the death of the Woodblades wasn’t just a terrible accident. Then Vega ordered some of the weaker tribes to attack, while telling the other three great chiefs that Oda was behind everything. Vega probably didn’t count on the Magmablades losing their knife or their position as a great tribe, but at least she was able to stay in the Deep along with most of her strongest supporters.
“Rega was still afraid of what would happen if she tried to go to the other chiefs with the truth, so she and Ghazt went along with Oda. She left her book behind, though, so at least future Magmablades would know the truth. I’m sure Vega had no idea the book was here, right under her nose, or she would have had it destroyed.”
Kaz wanted to go off with Li somewhere private, somewhere he could process what he’d just been told. At least he knew the truth, but he desperately wished he could go back in time and blow up Vega again. If not for her, would he have lived a full, happy life with two parents who loved and supported him, here in the Deep? Would he have gone on his spirit hunt, taken a mate, perhaps even have a pup of his own on the way by now?
A soft scrape followed by a groan told him that he would have to think about the ‘what ifs’ another time. He turned, and saw that the Magmablades were beginning to wake.