Kaz sat on a low stone, watching as Gram selected the members of his new tribe, with a great deal of input from Ija. It turned out that Gram’s father had been another of Vega’s pups, but he and his mate had died when the hidden den was attacked by one of the first abominations to break through from the mid-levels. Since then, Gram had lived with Chix and his mother, Acha, but Ija and Acha’s older son, Qhurg, had been taking care of him as well.
Since Gram had no parents, Idla immediately suggested that she would take him into her family and teach him to be a chief. Avli refuted this just as quickly, while Tisdi pretended to be paying attention to something the black and white female Waveblade was saying.
Ija said that since she was Gram’s closest living relative, she would continue raising him, and Idla reminded her that not only were the Magmablades no longer a great tribe, they were barely a tribe at all, and were sworn to serve the Woodblades. How could Ija raise someone who outranked her?
Watching Gram where he sat leaning against his friend Chix, the soft glow of blue ki filtering from the larger puppy into the smaller one, Kaz was certain of one thing. Gram would never abandon Chix, or anyone he cared about, so no matter where he lived, he would watch out for the remaining Magmablades.
Li clicked demandingly from Kaz’s lap, and he looked down. He was feeding the dragon some of the smallest chips of ki crystal, mainly in an attempt to keep her from prying the blue and yellow stones from the ceiling and walls. Kaz was fairly certain that their pattern had meaning, and if too many were removed, they wouldn’t do… whatever they were supposed to do. Keep the Tree healthy in an environment where it wouldn’t usually survive, probably.
Sorry, he thought at the dragon, pulling another small stone from his pouch and handing it to her. With a smile, he sent an image of Li, so large that she couldn’t fit out of the entrance he’d seen in his vision of Qiangde’s memories.
The dragon’s little chest puffed up. Kaz had shared his memories of the dragon emperor’s last day, and Li was now determined that she would become far more powerful than Qiangde, and, more importantly, even larger.
They both looked up as someone crouched down in front of them. It was Kyla, her golden eyes unusually serious.
“Aunt Sika says that you killed Mother,” she said, and Kaz flinched back. He had been dreading the moment the puppy found out. He liked her. Liked the way she was relaxed around him in a way none of the other kobolds were. She didn’t seem to want anything from him except permission to pet Li, and it made him remember how much he had enjoyed being with Katri when they were younger.
His throat still hurt, though he could tell it was already healing, so he just nodded. It was true, after all, and even if speaking wasn’t painful, nothing he could say would change it. He just wished it hadn’t been necessary.
Kyla looked down, a tuft of longer fur on her forehead falling down into one eye. She clenched her fingers on the bottom of her loincloth, and the silence stretched, becoming ever more awkward until she managed to say, “Thank you.”
Kaz and Li both stared at her. Kaz had expected anything from mournful howls to a physical attack, but not this.
The puppy’s fingers twisted her loincloth even tighter, threatening to tear off the beads sewn on the niu-fur cloth. “I thought… Ija would have to do it,” she managed to choke out. “Or else Mother would do something that would get us all killed. I didn’t-”
Her voice broke, and she whimpered miserably before she finally whispered, “I didn’t like her very much.”
Kaz didn’t know what to do. If this truly had been Katri, he would have embraced her, possibly even licked her fur comfortingly. But she wasn’t, and even though she was thanking him, he didn’t think she would want to hug her mother’s killer.
Sensing his distress, Li looked back and forth between them before sliding down from Kaz’s lap and placing a tentative paw on Kyla’s leg. The puppy’s breath caught, and she looked down at the dragon, conflicted emotions momentarily forgotten. One of her hands released the abused fabric of her loincloth, and Kyla reached out to delicately stroke the curve of Li’s long neck. Her hand was very gentle, and Kaz could see the look of awe on her face.
“She’s soft,” she whispered, and Kaz nodded. Li’s scales were smooth and strangely comforting, even though they felt nothing like the fur he was used to.
They sat in silence for a minute, Kyla gently petting Li as the dragon slowly relaxed. Li didn’t close her eyes and purr as she would have for Kaz, but she stopped looking like she was ready to bite or run if Kyla moved the wrong way.
At last, Kyla let out a deep sigh, her shoulders relaxing slightly. When she spoke again, she almost sounded like she was talking to herself, or maybe Li. “Mother didn’t like den mothers,” she said. “She thought the old howls were wrong, so she didn’t want us to learn them. She said parents should be the ones to teach their puppies right from wrong.”
Her second hand joined the first, carefully smoothing over the small, pointed horns stretching from the back of Li’s head. “Ija taught me to walk on two legs, and talk, and create a light. Once Mother entrusted the hidden den to her, she took me with her whenever she could. Mother barely even spoke to me except when I did something wrong.”
Kaz wondered if that was why she got into trouble so often, but didn’t ask.
“I knew that one day, Mother would give an order Ija couldn’t follow, and when that happened, one of them would die,” Kyla said simply. “That’s why I needed to become an adult as soon as I could. I wanted to be able to fight beside Ija. Or maybe make it so she didn’t have to kill Mother to protect us at all. But Ija…”
Kyla’s hands dropped down to press flat on the stone in front of her, and her head bowed even further. This left the nape of her neck exposed, which was a very vulnerable position, and a gesture of trust.
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“Ija loved Mother. I don’t know if she could have done what she needed to do. I do know she would have hated herself for it. So I’m glad you did it instead.”
Kaz’s breath caught in his throat. Was this what Rega had felt? Torn between what she knew was right, and the sister she once loved, and perhaps still did? She had never been able to challenge Oda herself, but if Katri had, would Rega have stood beside her daughter to kill Oda?
As carefully as if he was a puppy petting a dragon for the first time, Kaz reached out and patted Kyla’s head. “Sorry,” he rasped, and her head bowed as if his hand weighed a hundred pounds. Then she sniffed wetly, and lifted her hand to rub moisture from her nose before looking up at him again.
“I just wanted you to know,” she said. “That even if Ija is mad at you, a lot of us aren’t. We were just waiting for Ija to be ready.”
Kaz nodded, and Kyla smacked her palms against the stone decisively before standing again. Her tail wagged, just once, and she gave him a weak grin. “And thanks for letting me pet Li.”
Kaz huffed a rough little laugh, pointing at Li. “She let,” he managed, and Kyla looked at Li instead.
“Thank you, then, Li,” she said, and turned, scampering back to her father’s side. As she reached him, the male wrapped his arm around her shoulders, then looked over at Kaz, bowing his head in acknowledgement before turning his attention back to the argument between his older daughter and Idla.
It seemed that Gram had had enough, however, because he stood, pulling his little friend to his feet as well. Chix looked better than Kaz had seen him, his eyes bright and his nose damp. In his belly, his core actually gave off a soft blue light, rather than the somber gray color it had before.
Gram threw back his little shoulders and glared up at Idla. “I’m going to live with Chix and Acha,” he said firmly. “Ija can teach me, and if she doesn’t know something, then you can. But right now, I don’t like you very much, and I don’t want to go live with you.”
Idla seemed struck dumb by this statement, her muzzle opening and closing ineffectually. Ija, however, looked very pleased, her shoulders straightening much as Gram’s had. For a moment, the family resemblance was striking, and then Avli and Tisdi glanced at each other before chorusing, “Done.”
Tisdi turned to Gram. “Have you selected your tribe?”
Gram glanced at Ija, then yanked his gaze back to meet Tisdi’s dark eyes and said, “Yes.”
Avli looked at Ija. “And you? Do you know which Magmablades will stay, and which, if any, must leave the Deep?”
Ija nodded, jaw tense. “Yes.”
Idla finally managed to find her voice, saying, “Then so long as the new Woodblades fulfill their duty, and no Magmablades betray their tribe and their people, this is done.”
She paused to look up at the Tree, which was already looking better. It had a great deal less golden ki running through it, but that allowed it to balance the fragile flow of blue ki without overwhelming it. The few leaves still clinging to the distant branches were visibly greener, and though Kaz couldn’t see any new growth from here, he suspected that so long as Gram and the other Woodblades continued offering their blue ki, the Tree would soon produce more leaves.
Avli looked toward Kaz, then the humans. Lianhua had spent most of the time exploring the cavern, sketching the patterns of blue and yellow crystals embedded in the ceiling and upper portion of the walls. Now, she was busy reading through her notes, several of her little books lying open on the ground around her as she compared what the pages showed.
“I’d like to invite you to join me in the city,” Avli said. “Each of the Great Tribes has their own area, and I think Lianhua and the others will find it more comfortable than a normal den.”
At this, Lianhua looked up, eyes going from hazy to sharply focused in an instant. “Do you have beds? And baths? And actual tables and chairs? The trader He Xinyi wrote that in addition to guest rooms, she was also allowed to witness a coming-of-age ceremony when a young kobold returned from her spirit hunt.”
Avli chuffed a soft laugh, ears twitching in amusement. “Some pups have gone into the disused portions of the Deep for their spirit hunts recently, but most of the ones from the greater tribes will wait until the mid-levels are open again. It’s much more dangerous there, so those who survive are more likely to be given positions of power within their tribe.” She gave Kyla a meaningful glance.
Turning to Gram, Avli bowed her head slightly, chief to chief. “When you reach adulthood, you, too, will have your own home within the city. We’ve taken good care of the Woodblades’ area, in hopes that the tribe could be rebuilt.”
“Why can’t I go there now?” Gram demanded, gripping Chix’s hand tightly.
Tisdi smiled at him. “You may be chief, little Woodblade,” she said gently, “but you’re also a puppy. Your place is in your den, with your family.” Her ears lowered slightly. “The old Woodblade den is no longer habitable, thanks to the fire, but the Waveblades will gladly build you a new water source wherever you decide to settle.”
Idla nodded. “And the Goldblades will show you how to care for the yumi fields. We hope you can revive them, as well. They’ve survived under our management, but they do not thrive as they once did.”
Gram was looking a little overwhelmed now, and Ija stepped forward, standing partially in between him and the other chiefs. “We’ll take our chief back home now,” she said. “Our tribe needs to rest and consider how to move forward.”
Idla and Tisdi exchanged glances, and then Idla motioned to some of her tribe members. “Escort the Woodblades and the Magmablades to their temporary den,” she said. “We wouldn’t want one of the aberrations to find its way down and hurt our young chief.”
Ija looked like she would very much like to object, but she just started walking toward one of the arched entryways to the cavern. This wasn’t the one that led back to the stairs, so Kaz wondered if they were going to the real Magmablade den, rather than the small hidden one. With a twinge, he also wondered if he would recognize that den, since it was probably the one where he had lived after Oda claimed him and Katri.
By his paws, Li gave a soft whistle, and when he looked down, she rubbed gently against the hand he rested on the ground beside him. He sighed, then reached down, lifting the dragon up so he could cradle her against his chest. It seemed like she was heavier every time he did this, and he wondered how much longer it would be before she didn’t fit atop his shoulders at all.
At this melancholy thought, Li gave a series of cheerful clicks, and sent him an image of himself draped around the shoulders of a mighty golden dragon, in a ridiculous reversal of their usual pose. Kaz gave a silent laugh, trying not to strain his throat, and nodded. He was willing to let her carry him around for a while, though he would have to figure out how to sprout wings in order to get down if she got as large as she pictured herself.
An image of their old dream flashed through his mind; Kaz and Li flying high through a brilliant blue sky, dipping in and out of puffy white clouds. Now, large blue wings sprouted from Kaz’s back, shimmering with dragon scales, and Li let out a puff of pleased water vapor at the image.
“Kaz?”
Kaz looked up at the question, seeing that Lianhua and the others were looking at him. Lianhua raised her eyebrows. “Are you ready to go?”
Kaz nodded, getting his paws beneath him. It was time to finally enter the city in the Deep.