The first to become aware of his surroundings was a large bluish-green male a few rows down from Kaz. He rolled to his side, struggling to stand, as a low growl rumbled from his throat. Not far away, another male groaned, and across the gap between the groups, a female curled up, clutching her belly. Kaz kept an eye on her, noting the way her core was spinning. He wasn’t sure if she was really sick, or if she was readying herself for an attack.
Kaz let out a loud bark, alerting the other kobolds who were wandering the den, looking for anyone who might still be hiding, and heard several yips of acknowledgement. Until Idla and the others arrived, however, he was the only kobold there, so he stepped forward. Behind him, the humans spread out, and even Chi Yincang became visible, his weapon already in his hand.
The kobolds stilled as they came to their knees, eyes flitting between the humans and Kaz. He could almost see them decide that he was the easiest target, until Li lifted from his shoulder, glaring imperiously at them as Kaz created a ki-light and set it to hover over his other shoulder, glowing brightly.
“Vega is dead,” he said bluntly, and several of the kobolds flinched as if his words were a physical blow. “Ija is alive, and so are the puppies. They, and you, will stay that way as long as you yield.”
“Yield to who?” a female with brownish-red fur demanded. “You and-?” Her eyes traveled over the humans, clearly confused.
“Me,” Idla said, emerging from behind a hut. “The Magmablades have violated their vow to peacefully continue performing their function, and now I and the other great chiefs will have to determine your punishment. If you cooperate, those of you who have family in other tribes may be allowed to stay.”
Another female, this one a little older, was still looking around as most of the others focused on Idla. “Where are the puppies?” she demanded, struggling to get her paws to obey.
“They really are safe, Acha,” Sika said soothingly, stepping out of another hut. Gram’s little blue snout poked out of the door behind her, but she closed it on him firmly. “Kaz Woodblade protected them.”
“Woodblade?” Acha asked, turning to stare at Kaz, seeming to finally take in both his blue fur and the ki-light. Her gaze snagged on Li, but she didn’t seem to know what to do with a dragon any more than humans, so she just looked at Sika again, asking, “Chix?”
Sika stepped through the small crowd of kobolds still climbing to their paws, and tried to help Acha up. Sika herself wasn’t that steady, but Acha clung to her anyway. Gently, Sika held Acha’s hand, and Kaz realized that the two looked quite similar, other than the color of their fur.
“Chix is well,” Sika said. “Better than well. Kaz found a way to help him, and he’s sleeping comfortably.”
The female who spoke first was watching this with her ears flat and teeth bared. “It doesn’t matter if your puny weanling is alive, Acha,” she growled, hunching her shoulders as she glowered at Idla, ignoring Kaz completely. “If these Goldblades take this den, everything we’ve gone through will be-”
Kaz didn’t even see Chi Yincang move. One moment, the male was standing near Lianhua, expression impassive, and the next he was beside the female, blowing a puff of bright green smoke into her face. She drew in a deep, startled breath, and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped to the ground again. The very corner of Chi Yincang’s mouth twitched in a satisfied smile, and then he jumped straight up, twisting and vanishing as soon as he reached the shadowed area above the flickering orb light.
“Show-off,” Raff muttered, but only Kaz was close enough to hear.
Idla cleared her throat, looking around at the captured Magmablades. “I will guarantee the life of anyone who yields, and the first one to explain what Vega Magmablade was planning will be allowed to join one of the Goldblade tribes, along with their family.”
Silence fell, and then Acha stepped away from the others. Her eyes flickered to the hut where the pups waited, then resolutely turned away, looking straight at Idla. “Not all of the Woodblades died,” she said.
One of the red-furred males lunged toward her, teeth and claws bared, but Idla knocked him back with a ki-bolt, barely bothering to look his way. “Continue,” the Goldblade chief said.
“Vega can - could,” she corrected, with a glance at Sika, “use her power to cover up the sound and scent of her own passage, as well as anyone close to her. She told you Oda sent in a male to start the fire in the Woodblade den, but the truth is, she did it herself. She also killed the den-mother watching the youngest puppies and stole them away.”
Several of the kobolds around her, all young and with unusually blue fur, were beginning to look wide-eyed and nervous. One female, probably around Kaz’s age, started to whimper softly.
“Vega brought the puppies back here,” Acha went on, after another look toward Sika, “and gave them to families with Woodblade ancestry. She even adopted a few herself. In a year or two, by the time Oda was exiled, and our knife was broken, the puppies didn’t even remember they’d ever lived anywhere but here. Vega’s been waiting for them to become adults, and start producing puppies. Once she had them firmly bound to the Magmablades, she was going to bring one of them forward to become the new Woodblade chief.”
“Bringing another great tribe under her control,” Idla growled, her hackles raised.
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Acha nodded. “She planned to use them to force the other tribes to reinstate the Magmablades, and then have her daughters take Mithrilblade or Waveblade mates. Within a few generations, she hoped to bring all the tribes under Magmablade control.”
Idla shook her head. “Never. Not while the Goldblades exist.”
Acha’s hand tightened on Sika’s, and she looked away.
Now concern pushed past some of Idla’s anger. “What do you know? Speak!” she barked.
It was Sika who answered. “Seeing what happens when a female is exposed to fulan gave Vega an idea. She’s had males going into the mid-levels, gathering the spores. She intended to release it into the Goldblade den once her new Woodblades were firmly established.”
Kaz felt a chill. He opened his mouth to speak, but Idla beat him to it. “Where did she keep the spores? Here?” The Goldblade chief looked around as if the walls might sprout lopo tongues and impale her.
Sika, Acha, and a few of the younger males all shook their heads. Some of the others, mostly the ones with redder fur, glared at them, and the two groups of captured kobolds shifted, separating into four.
“I’ll show you,” one of the males said, a young one with purplish fur. He lifted his chin, his eyes on a green-furred female. Neither of them wore a mate-bead, but Kaz caught affection and hope in the look.
Idla turned to one of the six males behind her. She had only kept half a dozen of the fifty or so who followed her, sending the rest out to look for Ija or other Magmablades, but they were six of the strongest, fiercest-looking males Kaz had ever seen.
“Kric, take Uzid and Gren and follow this male. If he’s telling the truth, burn every bit of the fulan. If he’s lying, or tries to turn on you, kill him.”
The male bowed, as did two others, then turned to follow the purple-furred male as he stepped from the group. One of the red males tried to grab for him as he passed, but Kric stepped in the way, catching and twisting the arm until bone snapped with a crunch. The Magmablade howled in pain, falling to his knees, and the three Goldblades walked by without more than a cursory glance.
Idla didn’t even bother watching, but the three males remaining with her readied themselves for battle, and a shield snapped up around the sole other female standing behind them. No one moved to attack, however, and after a long moment of heavy silence, Idla prompted Acha and Sika to continue, but Acha shook her head.
“That’s all,” she said softly. “All, and enough. But,” her head came up, dark brown eyes flashing, “those of us who’ve lived here all these years had no control over Vega and her machinations. When Ija became an adult, Vega assigned her to lead this den, and since then, we’ve done the best we can to simply raise our pups in peace. We didn’t choose our role, we were just the ones who had the most Woodblade blood. We didn’t choose to deceive the pups, we just raised them as best we could. Many of us didn’t even get to choose our own mates, including Ija herself. She may be Vega’s pup, but she’s nothing like her mother.”
Idla growled. “I wanted to break up the Magmablades, kill Oda, and send Vega and Rega into exile. I was overridden by the Mithrilblades and the Waveblades then, but this time they’ll see that this tribe is rotten, stalk and frond. I promised I would allow those of you with family in other tribes to stay, but Ija wasn’t part of that promise. She knew what Vega was doing, and she didn’t tell us or do anything about it.”
“And what would have changed if she had?” Sika demanded. The old female’s strength was clearly ebbing now, and Kaz could see that her ki had become dimmer. She must have been drawing on it for strength, but she was nearly out. She needed to rest.
He stepped forward, placing himself between the group of young blue males and a smaller group of bluish females. Now that Kaz was looking, he could see that the females all had a good amount of blue ki cycling through them, though none had as much as little Gram.
“The Woodblades are innocent,” Kaz said firmly, staring at Idla. “They and their pups, if they have any, should be allowed their freedom.”
Idla looked conflicted. “Yes, but they were raised as Magmablades. Their loyalty is-”
“Vega is dead,” Kaz said.
“Not until her core has been crushed!” Idla barked, then snapped her teeth shut with a click.
Kaz, Li, and the humans stared at the Goldblade chief, who looked very much like she regretted what she’d just said.
“What do you mean?” Kaz asked, but Idla shook her head stubbornly.
“Oh,” Lianhua said softly, and all eyes turned to her. She opened the book she held and flipped through it, urgently turning pages until her eyes tracked down to a certain passage and she said, “Oh,” again.
“For Pellis’ sake, Lianhua,” Raff finally exclaimed, “out with it!”
Lianhua looked up, her eyes wide. “That’s what that strange pictogram means. It has some elements related to things that are edible, but there are extra strokes in the verb quadrant, and it definitely looks like… a core. Vega ate her mother’s core, and that’s why she became so powerful.”
She turned her gaze on Idla. “That’s not all it does, though, is it? It imparts at least some of the personality or memories of the original owner along with their ki, doesn’t it?”
Idla’s jaw flexed, but she nodded. “It depends on how strong the person who eats it is. That’s why chiefs have to be strong. Eating a core can make you significantly more powerful, but if the core is stronger than your own-”
“It overwrites, or at least pushes back the original personality,” Lianhua said, wonderingly. “And Tiyang Long absolutely loathed whoever brought her here and made her into a kobold. If her core was strong enough, she would have lived, over and over again, leading the Magmablades down a centuries-long path of hatred and destruction.”
Idla tilted her head forward, almost unwillingly, and her hand rose to the necklace that rested against her chest. For the first time, Kaz realized that it was made of chain, not leather, and some of the gems and beads that hung from it seemed to be carved with something that looked suspiciously like runes.
“All of the original chiefs passed down their cores,” Idla said. “But every line has been broken at some point, when the chief was lost and their core irrecoverable. The Magmablades were the last. When they rebelled the first time, we threw Tegra’s core into the furnace, and we thought that would be the end of it. But either we were fooled into destroying the wrong core, or the chief who replaced her hated us and the mountain just as much.”
She looked around at the watching kobolds with eyes that suddenly seemed far older than her years. “We won’t make that mistake this time. Every Magmablade core will be destroyed, until no one remembers who they were, other than monsters from a howl used to frighten puppies.”