Through Li’s eyes, Kaz watched as Lianhua ran past the two Magmablade warriors who had been guarding the tunnel above. One was slumped against the wall, while the other sprawled in the middle of the passage. Neither moved as the group passed, but Kaz couldn’t see what had brought them down, either. He suspected Chi Yincang might have had something to do with their silent collapse.

Not long after, they reached the male and female pair who waited just before the entrance to the stairs. The male was sprawled like the first, face up, arms splayed, but the female laid on her belly a few feet down the tunnel. It looked like she tried to run for the map, but her assailant was barely slowed by the male who was probably supposed to buy her time.

When the entire group reached the small cave with the map roughed out on the far wall, they all stopped, staring around in consternation. Kaz had wondered if the ‘secret’ of the maps was perhaps not so secret here in the Deep, but Idla looked just as confused as the rest of her tribe members.

Vega was held between two males, with a strong Goldcoat female stationed in front of and behind her, ready to prevent her escape, but she really hadn’t made much effort to get away or even protest her treatment. Li had caught glimpses of concern on her face once or twice as they got closer, but for the most part, her confidence seemed unshaken.

Now, she shook her arms, and when the males holding her didn’t let go, she glared viciously at them before turning a triumphant smirk on Idla. “Now do you believe me? This monster has taken us on a wild dengyu chase.”

Idla scowled back. “There’s something here. How else do you explain the Magmablade guards left behind in my territory?”

Vega tried to wave a hand, but failed and lifted her lip in frustration. “It was ours before it was yours, Goldblade, but of course I have guards watching for more of the warped beasts your pathetic sub-tribe allowed through from the contaminated mid-levels. If these humans had simply given them time to speak, instead of slaughtering them, they would have told you the same.” She turned her hate-filled look on Lianhua, ignoring Raff. Chi Yincang, of course, was nowhere to be seen.

“Pretty sure they’re not dead, just out,” Raff interjected cheerfully. “Well, except maybe that last one.”

This revelation made Vega flinch. Apparently, the guards didn’t know the story they were supposed to give, so Vega was worried about what they might have to say when they woke. Even if they only refused to speak, that would confirm they had no good reason to be where they were.

Idla didn’t miss the motion, and gestured to two of the males standing beside her. “Go and check. Make sure they won’t die or get away, and then come back.” They nodded, and one of them opened the other’s pack to take out a torch and firestriker. As soon as the torch was lit and the pack returned to rights, they took off down the passage.

Vega snarled, “This is still a dead end. No scent of your vanished Woodblade, and certainly no little blue puppy.” She looked around pointedly, eyes wide in false sincerity. “Unless he’s curled up in a dark corner, crying for his den mother?”

Lianhua had waited patiently as the two chiefs argued. Now, she spoke up. “Actually, I’ve seen this before,” she said, walking over to the map. She crouched down, examining the rough approximation of a city, and the skinny tower in the center. Tracing her fingers over it, she paused at the blue stone.

“Is this a tree?” she murmured, stroking the pad of her thumb across the wide, irregular circle that spread above the narrow rectangle Kaz had guessed might be a smaller version of Zhangwo’s tower.

Li finally left Lianhua’s shoulder, jumping to the human’s forearm. The dragon took some pleasure in the fact that her weight was enough to make Lianhua pull the arm back slightly, and Kaz decided not to tell her that it was probably only because of the surprise, not because Lianhua couldn’t bear up under the pressure.

With a touch of her snout to the stone, Li passed a bit of Kaz’s blue ki from her cycle to the crystal embedded in the wall. She very much wanted to bite the ki-crystal right out of the rock, but she knew they’d never get the door open without it, so reluctantly she allowed it to continue to exist.

Lianhua straightened and stepped back as the door swiveled quietly open, but the kobolds surrounding her bridled and growled, all except for Vega. She lifted her muzzle and began to howl.

Kaz froze as the howl echoed in both his own ears and Li’s, and his head snapped around to stare at Sika. The puppies were still playing happily, but the old female was as still as Kaz, her eyes locked on the rugged stone steps that vanished up into the distance. Slowly, she turned to look at him, and her mouth began to open.

Kaz reached for her, clamping his hand around her muzzle before she could make a sound. Looking her straight in the eyes, he said, “I’ll keep the pups safe. I promise. But if you howl and summon defenders, there will be blood.”

Sika’s core began to spin as she scratched at him with her long claws, but they just broke against his skin, and her eyes widened. Greatly daring, Kaz summoned a small ball of light and set it to hover just before her eyes. “Please,” he whispered, “stay silent, for everyone’s sake. It’s already too late to stop what’s coming.”

Even as he spoke, he winced internally. His words sounded terribly ominous, but he didn’t know what else to say, and they were already attracting the attention of a few of the older puppies. Two males, including Shoc, were glowering at Kaz suspiciously, while standing protectively between him and the females. Gram and Chix, who had been snoozing peacefully on their moss bed, sat up and rubbed their eyes.

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“Please,” Kaz begged, Li showing him Raff striking the back of Vega’s head with the hilt of his sword, sending her to her knees and cutting off her howl.

Reluctantly, Sika nodded, and when Kaz carefully loosened his grasp, she murmured, “For Rega.”

Kaz nodded back, and as the puppies saw the two larger kobolds step apart, most of them seemed to decide it had been some kind of game, because they returned to what they’d been doing. Kaz still didn’t dare move any further from Sika, even though he knew the Goldblades and Goldcoats were pouring down the stairs, because she could yet startle the Magmablades and send them running. Kaz very much wanted Lianhua to read those books, and he was certain Ija wouldn’t leave them for her enemies. Also, he liked the Magmablades he’d met here, and if they fought, at least some of them would die.

One by one, the puppies turned to stare up the steps as the sound of the advancing horde reached them. Raff’s hard foot coverings were first and loudest, and Kaz wished the male would take them off or at least switch to something a little quieter. There was no way at least some of the adults down the tunnel wouldn’t pick up the noise.

When Raff appeared, he was like something out of the oldest howls. He held his sword high, its glow bathing his face and surroundings, layering an eerie light over his deep brown skin and casting shadows in his orange-red hair. His hair and beard had grown out so much he was almost as furry as a kobold, but his flatter face and huge size made him seem like a monster, and two of the little females managed to send wobbly ki bolts to splash uselessly against his armor.

Raff turned toward the attack, but froze mid-swing as he took in his assailants. The largest of the puppies barely reached his knees, but they all looked at him with determination, baring their little teeth in threat.

“Leave them,” Kaz called. “Try not to hurt anyone, but especially the pups. Just keep them from running.”

Raff’s gaze jumped to Kaz, and a broad grin spread over his face. He waved his sword, attempting a yip of greeting, which caused several of the puppies to shift from frightened anger to uncertainty. “Hey, Blue!” the human called. “There’s a whole crowd comin’ behind me, but I’ll get started. Not killin’ is harder than killin’, but I always liked a challenge. That way?” He tilted his head to the tunnel mouth.

Kaz nodded, and Raff pushed mana into his legs, bounding easily over the puppies, who stared after him, muzzles agape. Kaz glanced toward Sika. “Stand with me, and I’ll protect you,” he told her, and she nodded, her hand dipping into her pouch. She pulled out two more balls of zhitong, and they were nearly to her mouth when Kaz realized what she was doing.

With a yelp, Kaz knocked them from her hand just as Chi Yincang’s blur flashed by him, following Raff. Lianhua and the crowd of kobolds came pouring out of the darkness after him, Lianhua and Idla’s light orbs announcing their presence only moments before their feet appeared.

Kaz gripped Sika’s wrist, then had to grab the other when she scrabbled for more zhitong with her left hand. She wasn’t even pretending this time, just trying to shove what had to be her entire supply of the potent painkiller into her mouth at once, and Kaz spun around behind her, already regretting the amount of force he had to use to pull both arms back, passing his own left arm through her elbows and holding them in place.

Something buffeted his ear, and then he felt a comforting weight settle onto his shoulder, and glanced over to see Li sitting there. She wrapped her tail around his neck snugly, and hissed at the old kobold he had captured. She didn’t appreciate the way Sika had made Kaz feel, and she wasn’t above letting the female know about it.

Lianhua hurried to Kaz’s side as well, but Kaz focused on Idla. She was the one who would decide how much blood would be shed today, and he wanted it to be as little as possible.

Idla was already waving forward the combined force of Goldblades and Goldcoats who had followed her. Several males had corralled the puppies, and Kaz barked furiously as one of them kicked out toward Gram, pushing him back as he snapped at the male’s paw.

“Leave them! The puppies are innocent, and so are most of the kobolds in this den. They have a great deal to tell us. Don’t kill them!” Kaz glanced toward Idla. “And don’t let them kill themselves. They may have poison.”

Vega twitched where she hung between two males, and Kaz saw her eyes come up to stare at him, utter hatred burning in their dark blue depths. Her core compressed within her, then expanded and compressed again, each cycle of her ki building up higher and higher. She was getting ready to do something, and if Kaz didn’t want this to turn into a massacre, he had to stop her.

Kaz thrust Sika into Lianhua’s arms, where the elderly kobold began to thrash. He ignored her, however, all of his attention on the fire building inside Vega. It was fire, too, red ki flaring into a brilliant coruscation, and the males holding her both yelped as their skin and fur began to burn. Instinctively, they released her, shying away from the pain, as the females nearby realized that something was wrong and shields shimmered into place around them.

Kaz pushed ki into his legs and dove for Vega, tackling her to the ground just as she released her power. Intuitively, Kaz pulled on his own ki, yanking it from his central dantian so quickly that his channels ached as it passed through. Li helped him pull it apart, taking out just the colors they needed.

Black and white ki froze in the presence of red, and Vega was producing more than enough red at the moment. Kaz imagined a monochrome bubble forming around Vega, then clamping down tightly, snug against her skin. This shell met the expanding wave of heat, and when the two came together a loud crack resounded through the cavern.

Kaz felt a fierce wave of frigid air burst away from Vega’s body, pushing against him, but he hung on. His fingers went numb with cold, and his panting breaths painted plumes of fog in the air. In his hands, Vega was utterly still, and when Kaz blinked the ice crystals from his lashes, he found that he was staring into her face, muzzle half open in a last howl of fury or defiance.

Around him, everyone was silent, staring until Kaz slowly sank back on his haunches. The skin of his hands was frozen to Vega, trying to tear away from his flesh as he struggled to release her. With a final yank, he pulled away, only his refined body keeping skin whole, but when he did, pieces of Vega came with him.

Horrified, he watched as frozen red fur split away from frozen red flesh, and then an expanding web of cracks shot away from the small divots left by his touch. Shards tinkled to the ground, at first a few small pieces, and then a single larger chunk fell and shattered. The remainder of her body split in half, each piece falling to the side, only to explode into splinters as it impacted the ground.

When everything that was left of Vega Magmablade lay scattered over the stone, only a flickering red core remained in front of Kaz, rocking gently back and forth.