On a level high above Kaz, Li raced into a hallway, as perfectly rectangular as the ones that led from staircase to staircase in the mid-levels, though only a quarter the size. Her wings flapped, and she rose unsteadily into the air, but nearly ran into the ceiling as her left wing cramped painfully. She tucked her left forefoot up against her chest protectively, rather than relaxing it as she usually did, letting out a small hiss of pain.
“No,” Kaz whispered, as if anyone but the dragon could hear him. “You can’t fly, Li. If they see you, they’ll know you’re not a fuergar.”
Frustration. She knew what she was doing. Li caught hold of the lip of a small alcove where a red stone gleamed softly. Pulling herself up, she wriggled her long, narrow body into the opening, coiling around the gleaming crystal. The tip of her tail and one wing protruded, so she used her small clawed paws to pull them in.
Just in time, as the mosui waddled out into the hall, the pallid tendrils encircling its nose waving in agitation. It glanced around, then emitted a piercing squeal, which echoed painfully from the walls in the narrow hall. Li crouched in her hiding place, holding as still as she possibly could until the round little creature said something in its chittering language, sounding more than a little unhappy.
Behind it, the collared husede emerged from the room, with Lianhua trailing him, head down and long hair coming loose from its usual tidy twists. The human was walking on her own, which was a good sign, but Kaz had never seen her so despondent, even when she told him about her grandmother.
The mosui turned on her, its layered robe swirling in a mockery of Lianhua’s elegant apparel. “Where?” it squeaked. “Tell it come back. Great Zhangwo want it!”
Lianhua reached up and pushed the heavy masses of her silver hair out of her face with a hand that shook almost imperceptibly. Glaring down at the mosui, she said, “I told you, it’s just an Ironfang rat. I fed it, so it stayed with me for a little while, but I can’t control it. It’s nothing but an animal!”
The mosui’s arm lifted, the sleeve falling back to reveal an arm covered in white fuzz. Kaz was almost certain this must be the same white mosui who had been with Li and Lianhua last time, but he couldn’t be certain. Other than the pale color of its fur, it looked like every other mosui, but he thought that in itself was a giveaway, since every mosui he’d seen had black or dark brown fur.
Lianhua flinched slightly at the sight of the crimson crystal lying in the mosui’s broad palm, but the creature didn’t trigger it. Instead, it waved at the husede, clicking and chattering until the gray-skinned male bowed deeply and walked quickly down the hall, away from the room where Lianhua had been held.
This left the mosui alone with Lianhua, who was nearly twice its height, the top of her head just brushing the low ceiling. The small being seemed entirely oblivious to its own potential danger, however, and indeed, Lianhua didn’t even try to move toward it. Her eyes were on the crystal, and her fists were clenched in her robes, but she stayed still as the mosui clicked and muttered to itself.
Li twitched, her nose poking from her hiding place as she pictured herself leaping down and biting the mosui’s hand, making it drop the crystal. Kaz gritted his teeth as he returned an image of the mosui shaking her off, possibly injuring her further in the process. Her bites were painful, but not dangerous, and with all the mana inside the mosui, Kaz suspected that most, if not all of them, had some level of natural body refinement.
Instead, he showed her waiting where she was until she was either certain that she could get away, or Kaz came to get her. Once they were together again, Kaz and Li would free Lianhua, and all three of them would escape together.
This was met with reluctant agreement, at least until the husede who had left returned with not one, but two others of its kind. More unintelligible words were exchanged, before one of the new husede, a female wearing more elaborate robes than the others of its race, turned to Lianhua. She held up a red crystal and spoke to Lianhua.
“Our lord Zhangwo has tired of allowing this Yanshu to play with you. This Yanshu has lost the rodent, and allowed you too much freedom. You will come with me now.”
The aforementioned Yanshu squealed furiously, but at a look from the husede, she shrank back, then straightened again, her sloping shoulders nearly managing to form a straight line. With a glance at Lianhua, she said, “I speak to old-old-father. I tell him trust.”
With a tilt of her head, the husede agreed, her expression nearly as impassive as one of Chi Yincang’s. “Your grandfather will be pleased to see you, lady.”
Turning, she motioned to the other gray-skinned servants, one male, and one female. “Find the rat,” she told them. “You will not eat until you do. So speaks Lord Zhangwo.”
The faces of the two husede went nearly as flat as her own, and the male reached up to touch the collar resting around his throat before jerking his hand back down. They gave stiff nods, and split up, the male going back into the room, while the female walked off down the hall, her dark eyes scanning the floor and walls.
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Quickly, Li pulled her nose back in, so she could only hear what happened next. Footsteps trailed off down the hall, and only when it was completely silent did the little dragon chance another look. The hallway was empty, though Li could still hear sounds coming from inside the room, indicating that the male husede was either searching or tidying up.
Wait, Kaz thought at her, as fiercely as he could. Reaching up, he touched the strand of ki that hung in the air between them. Somehow, it now looked more like a rope than a cord, with all the colors of ki woven through it except for red. He wondered if this was because the change in his image of ki was affecting the way he saw it, or if he was simply able to see it more clearly now that he had further embraced his own power. Either way, he almost thought he could feel it beneath his hand, and he stroked it like he would have petted Li’s soft scales if she were present.
The little dragon jumped, looking around, and through her eyes, he saw her paw stretch out, and she plucked at the glowing rope. It thrummed with nearly audible vibrations, and Kaz heard a young, feminine voice say,
Kaz gasped, and he felt amusement trickle through the bond as the dragon’s vision went dark. She must have closed her eyes, because nothing else about the connection changed.
Shaking his head, Kaz gave a small chuckle. This was the second time Li had spoken to him, and he still wasn’t sure if it was because they both needed to be focusing on their link, or if it was a deliberate choice on the dragon’s part. He was beginning to believe it might be the latter. He had no time to ponder the question, however. He needed to move.
With a push of ki into his legs, Kaz lunged to his feet and ran off down the tunnel, his claws scratching the stone floor with each long step. When he emerged into the clear light of the cavern, he saw Eld standing near the broad platform, unhooking a niu from its burden as a kobold pup stood by.
The puppy was tiny, barely old enough to be out gathering, his collar huge atop his narrow shoulders. Kaz wondered how he even managed to cut the tough stalks of the yumi, and had no doubt that if this little one had been sent to the mines instead, he wouldn’t be alive, much less gazing at Surta with the kind of worshipful gaze he turned on Eld.
Kaz slowed, suddenly conflicted. He had planned to offer to remove Eld’s collar if the warrior would help Kaz find the next stairway up. But what would happen to all the other kobolds here if Eld left? Even if Kaz could break the collars of all the kobolds here, such a thing would draw far too much attention. Even the inattentive husede and mosui would notice if all of their captives suddenly disappeared or, worse, tried to attack them.
He hung back until the puppy was done, watching as the husede appeared on the smaller platform, dropped some meal-stones, then vanished again, all without a single word to the kobolds standing not ten feet away. To his surprise, Eld didn’t send this pup back to work, but rather pointed him toward the last tunnel leading away from the niu cavern. The pup scampered off, disappearing through the opening as Eld turned to Kaz.
The spotted male opened his mouth, but his gaze snagged on Kaz’s bare throat, and whatever he was about to say choked in his throat. Lifting a finger, he pointed, finally managing to ask, “How?”
Kaz stepped closer, glancing around even though all of his senses were telling him they were alone except for the placid, if enormous, niu. He lowered his voice and said, “I can’t explain, but I can do the same for you. You and Nogz, if you like. But in exchange, I need you to have the kobolds help me search for the next set of stairs leading up.”
Eld’s hand turned, grasping the collar around his neck as if he would yank it off without waiting for help. His brown eyes narrowed, and he asked, “Do you need stairs, or just a way up?”
Kaz stilled. He had been so focused on the stairs that he hadn’t even considered finding another way. No platforms had been left behind in the mines, so figuring out how to use one wasn’t even an option there. His eyes turned to the broad, crystal-encrusted platform waiting for the next load of yumi. There was no controlling pedestal, but Kaz didn’t need a crystal to make mana into ki for him. If he fed enough ki into it, would it take him wherever the yumi was stored or processed?
As if he could read Kaz’s thoughts, Eld nodded, but didn’t release the metal ring around his throat. “Of course we’ve tried it. One of our older warriors hid in a load when it was sent away. He was gone for nearly a day, and when he came back, he was… changed. Broken. He rarely spoke after that, but he had nightmares, and from what I could understand of his cries, the platform goes to a cavern where the loads are stored until the husede are ready for them. He was able to sneak out, but he was quickly discovered. They brought him back to serve as an example of what happened to those who disobey.”
Kaz didn’t ask where the warrior was now. If he was available to be asked, Eld would have offered to call for him. Instead, he said, “Will you help me, then?”
The other male nodded jerkily, then lifted his chin. “Do it,” he said, in the tone of someone who thought they might be asking to have their throat torn out.
Kaz drew in a breath, holding it as he squeezed his core, feeling the power push against his mental grip as he tightened it down further and further. Only when Eld opened one eye to look questioningly at him did he release it, sending an even more powerful flood through his channels than last time. His central meridian was still relatively empty, however, so by the time the surge reached the meridian in Kaz’s head, it was about the same as the first.
The weaving was faster this time, but Kaz was almost overconfident, and when he touched the collar, there were still flickers of color in the structure of the mana fabric that Kaz wrapped around it. A flash of red coursed through the metal ring before it crumbled to dust, and Eld whimpered, swaying.
Kaz’s ears half lowered. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That shouldn’t have-”
Eld shook his head, fingers running through the fur of his throat, assuring himself that the collar was truly gone. There was a ring of bare, scarred skin where the metal had rubbed the flesh raw, over and over again, but Eld didn’t seem to care as he traced the raised welt. He stared at Kaz, murmuring, “Thank you,” and for the first time, Kaz realized that Eld was probably only a year or two older than himself.
Uncomfortable with the look Eld was giving him, his eyes nearly as reverent as those of the puppy who had left earlier, Kaz took a step back as a loud bell rang through the cavern. It sounded just like the one that called in the miners on the level below, and Eld shook himself as if waking from a dream and looked toward the tunnel leading back to the yumi fields.
“We should go meet Nogz,” Eld said, his usual assurance falling around him like a robe. “You can remove his collar, and then we’ll hide you in his load. We should probably sneak you in somewhere around the middle of the pack, in case the husede start working on the first or last load right away.”
Kaz nodded agreement, and the two kobolds began to jog toward the fields.