Lianhua wanted all the books. She lamented that she couldn’t fit them all in her pouch, and then she struggled with her conscience, which told her that these were the treasures of another people, and she couldn’t take them even if they would fit. Still, she fidgeted from foot to foot in front of the open-sided hut, her gaze flickering between the shelves and the male standing in front of her.
“Two hours?” she asked, glancing around at the rows of bodies the Goldblades and Goldcoats had spent the last several minutes gathering.
Chi Yincang nodded, but his dark eyes seemed to twinkle as they watched her. “Great Lord Long gave me the best supplies in order to protect you,” he said solemnly. “The soporific I used will last two to three hours, at least.”
Kaz had expected a simple ‘yes’, so he was startled when full sentences and an explanation came from the male’s mouth. It seemed that Lianhua had managed to unlock at least part of his ability to speak when she rejected Gaoda and then refused to allow Chi Yincang to quietly take over.
Lianhua seemed almost as surprised as Kaz, blinking several times as she took in the words. After a moment, she simply said, “All right,” and Chi Yincang stepped back into a shadow, ‘vanishing’ instantly. Both Lianhua and Kaz knew he was still there, Lianhua because she could sense his ki, and Kaz because he could see it, but Lianhua muttered, “Yingtao was right. Yingtao is always right,” and shook her head.
Kaz tilted his head curiously, but didn’t ask. He was becoming more and more convinced that Chi Yincang used his bland facade to tease others without them realizing he was doing it, and if so, asking what Lianhua meant while he was still within hearing distance would only encourage him.
Instead, Kaz stepped past Lianhua and took out the book Ija claimed had belonged to Rega. Ija told him that once he took a mate and joined the Magmablades, she would teach him to read it, but there was no way that was going to happen. He was going to learn to read, but in the meantime, he knew someone who would do it for him.
“I was told this book belonged to my mother,” he said. “Can you tell me what it says?”
Lianhua accepted it, looking intrigued. “This was Oda’s?”
“No,” Kaz said. “Rega’s. She was my real mother.” Warmth filled him as he was finally able to repudiate the female who had insulted and rejected him his entire life, and instead claim the one who had helped him when he was hurt, and taught him almost everything good he knew.
Amethyst eyes opening wide, Lianhua turned to the first page of the book. It was filled with neat, careful runes, each one precisely drawn, as if the writer was afraid of making a single error. Lianhua’s fingers hovered over the page as she sat on the ground with a thump, her robes twisted around her. Usually, she would straighten them so they fell in graceful folds, but this time she ignored it, her eyes tracing over the words.
When she didn’t say anything, Kaz realized he had lost her to the runes and sighed, pressing down his impatience. He should have known this would happen. Lianhua entirely lacked self-awareness when she found something that fascinated her, and the things that fascinated her most were written words.
Kaz looked up at the distinctive sound of Raff’s approaching footsteps, and stared at the large human. He had volunteered to help gather the fallen Magmablade kobolds, so the Goldblades could go search the nearby area for gatherers, guards, and anyone who might be trying to flee or hide. At first, Raff had carefully carried the unconscious kobolds one by one, but now he just tucked them under his arms like so many yumi reeds, and this time he had four under each arm.
“Can ya help me out here, Blue?” he asked plaintively. “I don’t wanna drop ‘em on their heads.”
Kaz chuffed a laugh and reached out to take the first kobold, laying the purple-furred male on the ground next to another one with fur of a similar color. He was helping Raff separate the males and females, since the human still couldn’t tell them apart. They were hoping that if they weren’t together when they woke, each group would be willing to listen before attacking, if only to protect the other group. A male guarding a female couldn’t be convinced to stop until he was dead or too injured to continue, so keeping them apart was the best chance they had to keep things peaceful, at least until they found Ija.
Kaz looked at each kobold as he laid them out, finding none familiar. He had hoped to see Ija and Qhurg among the fallen, but so far there was no sign of them. All of the huts had been checked, and most, if not all, of the sleeping kobolds retrieved. It looked more and more like Ija had run as soon as she realized they were under attack, and when Kaz saw the gap on the bookshelves where the oldest books once stood, he realized why.
Once the last kobold was laid out, resting as comfortably as Kaz could arrange, he looked up at Raff, shaking his head. “Still not them.”
Raff sighed, running his hand through his hair so it stood up wildly. At Kaz’s look, he sighed again, even more deeply, and smoothed it back down. “I thought for sure that one was her,” he said, pointing to a male with bright red fur.
When Kaz looked more closely, he thought this one might have been one of the guards who brought him here, but since their scents had been suppressed, it was hard to be certain. “That’s a male,” he told Raff. “Look.” Crouching beside the warrior, he touched the necklace half-hidden by the long fur around his throat.
“When males go on their spirit hunts, they gather trophies of teeth and bones. When they return to the tribe, those trophies are made into beads for their necklace, and they wear the same ones for the rest of their lives. If a necklace is broken in battle, they can replace it in part or whole, but only with the exact same kind of bones and teeth.”
Standing, he walked over to a female, pointing at the necklace around her throat. “A female goes on her spirit hunt when she’s younger, and she’s not expected to kill anything but what she needs to eat or defend herself. Her hunt is more about accessing the power within her, growing comfortable with depending on it, than it is about proving her strength and skill. When she returns, she may have some trophies, but mostly she gathers things that have meaning to her. These may be stones or gems, or even certain kinds of plants. She gets the tribe totem, but otherwise, her necklace is usually made up of shiny, polished stone beads, or gems.”
Raff’s eyes sparked with interest. “Gems, huh?” He looked around at the females, who were separated from the males by several feet. “I don’t see any gems, though.”
Kaz’s ears twitched. These were females from the Deep, where gems could be found without much effort, though most of the ones in areas commonly used by kobolds had been taken for this exact purpose by now. Almost all of these females wore several gems made into beads and strung onto their necklaces.
Crouching, he pointed to a particularly large bead made of gray stone mingled with bluish and red veins. “This is turquoise,” he told Raff. “These pink ones are spinel, and the greenish-gray ones are emeralds.”
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Raff’s mouth fell open. “But they’re all just dusty an’ gray. Gems are supposed to be,” he waggled his fingers before finishing lamely, “sparkly.”
Kaz grinned, tail wagging slightly as he stood. “That’s only when they’re cut and polished. Some gems look a bit like that, even when they’ve just been mined, but most of them just look like slightly more colorful rocks if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Suddenly, Raff’s expression darkened, and he smacked one armored fist into the other palm, making a loud clanking sound. “Those Pellis-cursed miners tricked us!”
“Miners?” Kaz asked, confused at the sudden shift in Raff’s attitude.
Raff ground his teeth, then let out a deep sigh. “An’ we fell for it, fair and square,” he muttered, shaking his head. Looking back at Kaz, he explained. “Had a crew of miners hire us for protection two, three years ago. They said we could have ten percent of whatever they found, or twenty gold, whichever we wanted. It was one day’s work, and the wages were a little low, but my buddy and I figured, why not? Maybe they’d get lucky, and so would we.
“Turns out, the spot they wanted to mine was way down in a cave system, with a whole nest o’ screechers guarding it. Ah, that’s janjio to you. I wasn’t as strong then as I am now, and we had a heck of a time getting through. The miners didn’t care though, just dug in with their pickaxes like they’d never be back, and when we left, they showed us their haul. Mostly copper and iron ore, but there were a bunch of these dull-lookin’ colored rocks in there. They said we could take any ten percent we wanted, or they’d straight up give us our gold. Of course, we took the gold, since everyone knows it’s worth more than copper or iron.”
Not as far as Kaz was concerned, but he let Raff finish.
“A few days later, we heard they hit it rich. Found a bunch o’ gems, and they were set for life. We figured they must have gone out again after our little trip, while we were too busy recovering from getting beat up by the screechers. But now, I think those rocks must’ve been gems, and Miles and I just didn’t know enough to tell.”
Kaz winced. That sounded entirely too possible. It was hard to cut gems so they glittered, so most females didn’t bother. They were pretty enough once they were smoothed out, and if they were cut the wrong way, they could shatter or crack, so it generally wasn’t worth it. Still, all gatherers learned how to recognize minerals and gems as part of their training, because they were pretty, and many females used them as adornments or sewed them onto packs, loincloths, or belts.
Clearing his throat, Kaz looked around pointedly. “Are all of the Magmablades here now?” he asked.
Raff snorted a laugh at this change in topic, but nodded. “That batch was the last of ‘em. Good thing, too. I was getting tired of hauling ‘em out of your tiny little huts. Much more, and I just would have started taking off the roofs to get inside.”
Kaz’s eyes widened as he stared up at Raff. The human was at least two feet taller than Kaz himself, which put him more than a foot above the highest roof in the den, and Kaz was certain that Raff could do exactly that if he wanted to.
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Kaz said. “This seems like a good den, and I hope these kobolds will be able to stay, once a new chief is selected.” He doubted it, especially since Idla claimed this was Goldblade territory now, but it would be terrifying to wake from unconsciousness to find half of your den had been dismantled while you slept.
Both males looked up as a tiny but ferocious roar echoed through the den, seeing Li swooping and flying high overhead. The ceiling was a good twenty feet up, unusually high for kobolds, since it would be difficult to reach any lopo who tried to move in, but not only did this tribe have many strong females, as far as Kaz knew, no lopo remained in the Deep. This meant that the dragon had plenty of room to explore her new freedom, and she was taking advantage of it.
Raff shook his head in amazement. “Was I the only one who didn’t know?” he asked, looking up at the dragon swooping and diving above them.
Kaz shrugged, not even pretending to misunderstand. “Gaoda didn’t, and I honestly don’t know about Chi Yincang. Lianhua guessed, and gave me the ring that made her look like a fuergar.”
“Her?” Raff asked, lifting a brow.
Kaz nodded firmly. “Her name is Li. She’s… we’re bound, somehow. I saved her life when she was still in the egg. She was too weak to hatch on her own, I think. Then I fed her, took care of her, and we saved each other, more than once. She’s my friend.”
“And you can use magic,” Raff said, the second brow joining the first.
Sighing, Kaz nodded again. “I can. I thought it was strange, since male kobolds don’t usually have power, but Idla said some of the Woodblade chiefs were even male, and I know now that my father was a Woodblade.” He gave a rough laugh. “I hid my power because I thought I’d be killed as a monster if anyone found out, but it turns out I was more likely to be stolen and forced to take a mate.”
Raff clapped a hand on Kaz’s shoulder. “I understand that more than ya might guess, my friend,” he said, smiling wryly. “Was Lianhua the only one to guess that, too? With her little-” He waggled his fingers by his ear for some reason, but Kaz knew he meant Lianhua’s ability to sense ki, even when it was hidden.
“She did, but I’m certain Chi Yincang knew as well. I used ki to help Lianhua when she was poisoned by the lopo, and I think he figured it out then. Gaoda definitely didn’t know, though,” Kaz told him.
“Ki, huh?” Raff said, rubbing his chin. “Guess it makes sense you’d use their words, since you’ve been talking to Lianhua about it. I still think magic and mana make a lot more sense than all this ki, and cultivation, and refinement business. This lot make everything more complicated than it has to be, though. You either got magic, or you don’t, and if you use it, you get better until you can’t anymore.”
That was interesting, since Kaz didn’t really know much about how pure mana worked. Raff might well be right, but the human had no way of knowing that what he used and what Kaz used were the same but also very, very different.
Kaz looked down from his happy dragon friend, meeting Raff’s gaze. He had one question he needed answered, and this was as good a time as any to ask it.
“You’re not angry?”
Raff immediately shook his head, then hesitated, but shook it again, more slowly this time. “Maybe a little, at first. Mostly because I felt like a fool for not figuring it out. But really, who would guess that the kobold they were traveling with managed to make friends with a dragon, of all things? Plus, you said it yourself: male kobolds don’t have magic. I’ve only run into a few tribes outside Mount Scarabus, and if you don’t mind me saying so, the warriors are little better than animals. They can barely hold a stick, much less use tactics. The females are much smarter, but their cores are almost always these little gray pebbles, not like that monster ruby inside the Magmablade.”
Pursing his lips, Raff let out a long, low whistle. “I don’t even know what that thing would be worth. Haven’t seen a core that large and clear since I participated in a wyvern eradication a year or so ago.”
That surprised Kaz. Vega had certainly been strong, but Idla was just as powerful, and even Sika wasn’t that much weaker. In fact, two of the females lying on the ground in front of them were strong enough to be chiefs in any other tribe, and most of the rest could lead a tribe in the heights. None of the adult males had a core, but even little Gram was as strong or stronger than the females Kaz was used to.
“Only very weak tribes leave the mountain,” Kaz told Raff, but he was beginning to believe there was something more at play here. The only ‘gray’ core he had ever noticed was inside Chix, and he was certain by now that it looked like that because it wasn’t producing enough ki to support itself. Was it possible that every female who left the mountain had such a poorly-functioning core, or did something happen to make their cores, or perhaps the cores of their descendants, break down over time?
Li trilled a high sweet tone that sounded like the chime of a bell just as Lianhua looked up from her book. The human female’s expression was alight in a way Kaz had never seen it before, and she grinned as she said, “Kaz, this is it! There’s no doubt now. The Diushi were here, and after they left Sheng!”