“-az!” Lianhua’s insistent voice pulled Kaz from his stupor. He blinked open his eyes, frowning against the bright light of the orb hanging just beyond his nose.

“What happened?” he muttered, batting at the ball of light. As if it was a solid thing, rather than made of intangible power, it moved, and he heard Lianhua’s breath hiss in between her teeth just before the light went out.

“That’s what we’d like to know,” she told him. Her pale face came into view, eyes wide and concerned. “You took off Idla’s necklace, then Li pulled a knife out of your bag, and then both of you just fell over.”

“An’ these kobolds sure do want your knife,” Raff put in from somewhere nearby. “So you’d better hop on up and let us all know what’s going on before someone gets hurt. More hurt. Hurt more?”

Kaz sat up, Lianhua quickly retreating so he didn’t bump into her. Something slid down his chest and into his lap, and Li gave an irritated hiss. Looking down, Kaz saw that the dragon was glowering back up at him, and he scooped her up in one arm before accepting Lianhua’s help in standing.

The knife and hilt lay on the ground where they’d fallen, and Raff stood over them, sword out. Kaz could see condensed mana being pulled into the big human’s body, so he knew Raff was getting ready for a real fight, not just posturing. Chi Yincang stood nearby as well, but he was watching Lianhua, rather than the kobolds surrounding them.

At some point, the rest of Idla’s kobolds had returned, and now they were arrayed around their chief, glaring toward the Magmablades. Hackles were raised and teeth were bared, but neither group moved, and their leader’s attention was firmly fixed on Kaz and the two objects resting on the ground.

“How do you have those, pup?” Idla asked, but her voice was soft, not the challenging tone he would have expected.

Kaz stepped forward, picking up both objects. He felt a brief impulse to thrust them back into his pouch, concealing them from view, but it wasn’t strong, and he dismissed it easily. Holding up the knife, he said, “This belonged to my father, Ghazt. After he died, my mother, Rega, passed it on to me.” Several years later, true, but Kaz wouldn’t have been able to protect it from Oda if he’d gotten it any sooner, so he understood why Rega had chosen to wait.

His parentage was no surprise to Ija, of course, but she gasped, “Why did Ghazt have it? We thought Vega-” She clamped her mouth shut, but it was too late.

Idla growled softly. “You thought Vega had it? We thought Oda hid it. We’ve been scouring the Deep looking for it ever since the fire.”

Kaz looked between them. “I thought you believed the Woodblade was destroyed. Wasn’t that why you broke the Magmablade?”

The two females stared at each other for a long moment, and then Idla sighed, waving for the yellow-furred kobolds protecting her to back down. “The blade is intact, and should be usable,” she admitted. “We knew the fire that killed the Woodblades didn’t get hot enough to destroy an adamantium weapon, so it had to be here somewhere. But the Mithrilblades’ best ore hunters swore they smelled no adamantium on Oda or in any den controlled by the Magmablades. How did Oda manage to sneak it out?”

Kaz shook his head. He remembered being able to smell the gold in the fuergar, but it was a strange and distant sort of memory, and he didn’t think that was an ability he retained after Nucai - and he was certain it had been Nucai - had changed the balance of his ki. Was that a Mithrilblade skill, and did that mean his father’s father had been a member of that tribe?

Ija had relaxed slightly when the Goldblades did, and now she offered, “Some few members of my tribe are able to use our power to hide odors. We aren’t supposed to tell anyone, because the ability has allowed us to conceal our activities for generations. It’s forbidden to even use the skill without permission from the true chief.” Her tone was conciliatory, though her stance was belligerent, and Kaz saw Idla’s eyes narrow in thought.

“There is a great deal going on here that needs explanation,” the Goldblade chief finally said. Her hand went to her throat, where her necklace should have hung, and she said, “But thanks to this young Woodblade, we now have all the time we need to hear each other out. For now, however, I think we should return to the Goldcoat den. By now, the other Great Tribes will have heard that a potential Woodblade was found and lost again within a single day. I’d be surprised if Tisdi and Avli aren’t already looking for us.”

Ija stepped forward, ignoring the growls of Idla’s warriors, and her voice shook only slightly when she said, “I’ll tell you anything you wish to know, but in exchange, those who lived in this den must be allowed to remain together, and unharmed. I offer my life as guarantee that they won’t fight or try to escape.”

Murmurs rose from behind her, but Idla just lifted her lip, showing the barest hint of sharp teeth. “Your life is already forfeit, little Magmablade,” she growled softly. “You have nothing left to bargain with.”

Now Kaz stepped between the two groups. He was vaguely aware that Lianhua, Raff, and Chi Yincang had gathered behind him, but his attention was wholly on Idla. He held up the Woodblade. “Then I’ll bargain with this. One den full of pups and innocent kobolds in exchange for the key to opening the mountain.”

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Idla’s topaz eyes sparked. “There is no such thing as an innocent Magmablade, little Woodblade, which you will understand soon enough, especially if you truly are Ghazt’s pup, which I doubt.” She cast one more look around, then sighed, fingers stroking the empty fur at the base of her throat. “But I accept your bargain. The knife, and a Woodblade to wield it, in exchange for sparing their lives, at least until you change your mind.”

Kaz shivered at the look of triumph in her eyes, but nodded. After all, ‘a Woodblade’ didn’t mean him, and Kaz could see eight other kobolds with blue ki from where he stood.

After that, the group was gathered and quickly evacuated from the den, which felt strangely empty even before they actually left. Lianhua refused to leave Tegra’s books behind, though she reluctantly admitted that she didn’t have enough room in her storage pouch for all of the others.

Kaz took Rega’s book, tucking it away into his pouch along with the hilt of the Magmablade. He had had to trust almost all of the contents of his backpack to the pouch so that Li could keep it safe, and now that the knife had emerged unscathed, he was finally ready to believe that the things he put inside wouldn’t be lost or damaged. The only item he hadn’t put in was the seed, since he wasn’t sure what would happen to the bond between them if he did.

He hesitated over the Woodblade, staring at the beautiful weapon for a long minute before sliding it into the sheath hanging from his belt. He felt no regret as he tucked away the shabby knife Zyle had given him. It had served its purpose, but only a kobold from the heights would think it was a weapon worthy of wielding.

It turned out that there were several more Magmablades than there were Goldblades, but in spite of the imbalance, the Magmablades were silent and obedient as they trooped past the spot where Vega died. Everyone circled around the drying pool of gore, only the youngest puppies whimpering softly at the sight.

As they made their way up the stairs, Lianhua fell in beside Kaz, with Raff close behind her. The blurry patch of ki that was Chi Yincang was slightly ahead of them, between Lianhua and Idla. Surprisingly, the Goldblade leader seemed to be able to tell that he was there, because her ears swiveled to follow him, though she never looked his way.

Lianhua traced the rune for silence on her palm and held it up for Kaz to see. A muffling dome of ki fell over them, and Kaz readied himself for an interrogation as she looked over at him.

“Are you all right?” she asked, and the question surprised him so much he actually gave a short bark of laughter.

“I think so,” he told her. “Though I’m not sure what’s going on. Idla obviously hates the Magmablades, but now she’s ready to talk? What changed?”

Lianhua shook her head. “When you took that necklace off, she was almost giddy. Her tail was actually wagging!”

Kaz’s eyes widened. He would have given a great deal to see the cunning chief of the Goldblades wagging her tail like an overenthusiastic puppy. It was too bad he’d been facing whatever the necklace was trying to do to him at the time.

“Seriously though, Kaz…” Lianhua bit her lip. “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to make you feel guilty, but I thought we’d decided to trust each other. Why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?” Quickly, she held up her hands. “I know, you just found out about Ghazt and Rega, but you had to know that knife was something special. Maybe even something made by the Diushi. But you didn’t show it to me.”

He pushed down the urge to snap and tell her it was none of her business, instead lowering his ears as he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t really understand it myself, but whenever I thought about showing the knife or the hilt to anyone, I always found an excuse not to do it. At first, I just didn’t trust any of you, but later, each time I had an opportunity, I would think, ‘it doesn’t have anything to do with her’. Then it was like I would forget all about it until the next time.”

He shook his head. “I still feel it, but something about breaking the necklace also broke whatever was causing those thoughts. Now, though I’m still not sure what’s going to happen, I don’t feel like I’m betraying my tribe or my father by revealing that I have it. More importantly, I think that I met Nucai before, when I was very young.”

Quickly, he outlined the memories he’d recovered when he held the necklace, and Lianhua looked more and more concerned as the story went on, until he finished with, “Then Li and I destroyed the necklace, and woke up.”

Lianhua was frowning deeply, her hands shoved deep in the sleeves of her robe. They had left the stairs behind some time ago, and would soon arrive back in the Goldcoat den. They had already passed a few totems and some guards, who took one look at their mixed group and ran off back toward the den.

“Kaz, I don’t think you should go when I meet Nucai,” Lianhua finally said, her expression much more serious than he was used to. “It’s obvious that his interest in you isn’t purely benign. Given the way Zhangwo talked about his ‘experiments’ and mentioned that others were doing something similar, it seems possible that Nucai himself created your race. If so, he may be able to control you in some way. He’s certainly linked to these necklaces somehow, and given the way Idla reacted when hers was removed, I don’t think they’re meant to help anyone except Nucai himself.”

Kaz had had the same thought, but he shook his head. “I think the necklace was trying to bind me the same way it bound Idla, but when I broke it, I also broke some part of the hold Nucai had on me. I can’t explain it, but I believe that I’m actually safer now than I was before, and if you go without me, Nucai will be angry. At best, he’ll refuse to answer your questions, and at worst…”

He let the sentence trail off, knowing Lianhua understood. It was clear that Zhangwo had been weaker - possibly much weaker - than Nucai, and Lianhua’s grandfather had had to step in just to keep the ancient mosui at bay. If Nucai decided to take out his displeasure on Lianhua and the others, there was probably nothing they could do to defend themselves. It was possible that Lianhua’s grandfather might come to take revenge, but that wouldn’t bring Lianhua back, and it could well result in the deaths of many of those living in the mountain when the two behemoths came face to face.

Lianhua looked away, and Kaz could see by the tension in her shoulders that she was still upset. As the end of the tunnel loomed ahead of them, she burst out, “Then we’ll leave. I’ll make copies of Princess Tiyang’s books, and once the mountain can be opened again, we’ll go. I have enough evidence to convince even Elder Jianyu. Someone else can come back and try to speak with Nucai.”

Kaz felt a great rush of relief at these words, and Li even woke up long enough to let out a series of happy whistles before settling back into sleep. He felt his own tail begin to wag. “That sounds like a good idea,” he told her, and she gave him a shaky but determined smile as they entered the Goldcoat den.