For one terrible moment, Kaz stared down into those soft blue eyes, and then Avli murmured, “Dett?” and reached up as if she would touch his cheek. Instantly, Li’s head shot forward, and sharp teeth latched onto Avli’s finger, drawing blood. Avli yelped, then sat up sharply, which brought her forehead into sudden contact with Kaz’s muzzle.
With a yip, Kaz pulled away, clutching at his tender nose. The impact was hard, but certainly not enough to do real damage to him, so he was more surprised than hurt. Li scampered straight across Avli, completely ignoring the way her sharp claws scratched at the young chief, and interposed herself between the two kobolds, steam roiling from between her blood-stained teeth.
Kaz reached out and scooped up the dragon just as one of the Avli’s attendants pulled a small but very sharp knife from its sheath. Lianhua stepped in front of Kaz as he struggled to his paws, and the hut was suddenly filled with the menacing flicker of many ki orbs.
“No!” The voice was Avli’s, but held more confidence than anything she had said before. The undercurrent of uncertainty was gone, and she stood straight, pulling away from the pale-furred female who tried to take her arm, though the edges of her ears were bright pink.
“No,” she said again, and waved them apart. “I’m fine now. I just-” She broke off, turning to look straight at Idla, her chin held high. “I see what you’re doing, Idla, and I vote no. No killing the Magmablades, or finding an excuse to take their pups into our own tribes. No using their lives to force Kaz into becoming chief and taking one of yours,” her gaze shifted meaningfully to Senge, “as mate. You found their weakness, as you always do, but I have enough authority now to deny you.”
Kaz looked back and forth between Idla and Tisdi, finally realizing what they had been doing. The more Idla threatened the Magmablades, the more Tisdi offered what seemed like reasonable compromises, and between the two of them, they had come close to achieving their goal. Kaz had no interest in remaining in the mountain or being chief of a tribe, but they might well have trapped him into it by balancing his freedom against the lives of the entire Magmablade tribe.
Idla rocked back on her paws, looking almost embarrassed at having been caught in her scheming. Tisdi was harder to read, no shadows revealing her changes of expression, but she ducked her head and her tail drooped a bit behind her.
“We need him,” Idla barked, pulling herself together to glare at Avli. Her fingers lifted to stroke the fur of her throat. “Only a Woodblade can heal the Tree, and he can remove the necklaces!”
Instantly, Avli, Tisdi, and the younger Waveblade all lifted their own hands, not quite touching the necklaces hanging from their own throats. Now that he knew what to look for, Kaz had seen the runestones and threads of ki, but they were quiescent, so he hadn’t thought much about them beyond noting their existence.
No one spoke until Idla turned to look at Kaz, eyes burning. “When our daughters go on their spirit hunts, some of them receive one of these necklaces. They see it as an honor, a confirmation of their ability to become chief. And it is, but only because we have no choice.”
Her jaw set. “The necklaces do little besides keep us silent and within the mountain, but when any female with one of these necklaces dies, other than the chief, her core must be offered to the Voice. A Voice that no longer speaks, no longer protects, no longer exists. But still we feed her, and our strongest females are never allowed to join the ancestors.”
Kaz looked at the three females wearing the necklaces. Tisdi nodded, her expression holding a terrible sadness, but both Avli and Tisdi’s daughter looked horrified. Obviously, they hadn’t yet learned about this. He sighed, turning back to Idla. “I would have removed the necklaces if you just asked,” he told her.
She looked startled, as if that thought had never occurred to her. “But we must have Woodblades to tend the Tree, and you’re the only one with the power. If we have nothing to offer you, why would you help?”
Kaz looked at her sadly. “Not everything is about what you have to gain. If there’s one thing I learned from my mother - both of my mothers - it’s that.”
Turning to Tisdi, he held out the hand that wasn’t cradling Li against his chest. “Do you want the necklace off?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but just like with Idla, ki began to pour down the threads inside her body before she could utter the words. Her back arched, and the striped female barely caught her before she fell. Kaz strode forward, binding the invading ki in place as Li jumped and bit down hard on one of the beads. It crumbled between her teeth, and Kaz snapped the chain, carefully avoiding touching any of the rune beads this time.
As the chains connecting the necklace and Tisdi’s organs dissolved into mana, both the unknown Waveblade and Avli swayed. They didn’t fall, and when Kaz glanced at them, their chains looked finer and more fragile than those restricting the older chiefs. Li leaped to the Waveblade, biting and tugging at her necklace, while Kaz faced Avli again.
He caught the damaging ki in his own even as he pulled the necklace apart, and the beads tumbled to the ground. Behind him, he heard more beads crunch, and glanced back in time to see the last necklace fall. Li hadn’t been as gentle as he was, and ki had managed to reach the Waveblade’s organs, reducing her to sobbing whimpers, but he thought she would be fine in a day or two.
Kaz held out his arm for Li, but the dragon shook her head, gliding to the ground as she began to chase the rune-carved beads. Everyone else in the hut moved out of the way as if the dragon or the beads were poison, and Li seemed pleased that they were finally giving her the respect that she deserved.
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Seeing that Tisdi was still recovering from having her necklace removed, even though it shouldn’t have hurt, Kaz spoke to Idla. “Tell me about this ‘tree’.”
The Goldblade chief’s eyes were so wide that she almost looked frightened, but she said, “The Tree lies at the heart of the Deep. Taking care of it was the primary task given to the Woodblades by the Voice. They also took care of the yumi fields, along with the Waveblades, but their truest role was as the Tree’s caretakers. Each day, they gave it power, so it could continue to thrive in a place so far from its home. The rest of us have been offering it power, just as the Woodblades once did, but we believe it will soon die. Nothing we’ve tried has helped.”
Kaz shook his head. “But if the Voice is gone, why does this tree matter?”
“Because,” Tisdi said, her usually gentle voice grim, “the Tree holds up the mountain.”
Kaz and Lianhua turned to stare at her, but the other kobolds were all nodding.
“A tree can’t hold up a mountain,” Lianhua said, but she didn’t sound certain.
Idla barked up a laugh. “Come, then. Once you see it, you’ll understand.”
Now it was Tisdi’s turn to look shocked. “Idla, no human has ever-”
Idla made a slashing gesture, cutting her off. “Because the necklaces wouldn’t allow us to tell humans about kobold secrets. The Tree is already dying. What more can a few humans do to it?”
Kaz was silently glad that Gaoda was safely tucked away in Chi Yincang’s pouch, and when he caught Lianhua’s eyes, he had a feeling she was thinking along the same lines. He looked around, finding Li among the Magmablades, who had remained silent throughout the entire exchange. Ija’s fingers were wrapped around the necklace that still clung to her neck, and the dragon was staring up at it greedily.
Quickly, before Li could decide to tear off Ija’s necklace like she had the one on Tisdi’s daughter, Kaz stepped over to the Magmablade. To his eyes, the chains linking her necklace to her body were stronger than those inside Avli and the Waveblade, but not yet as strong as the ones in the older chiefs. This time, he caught the beads in his own ki, binding each color with its opposite, before he asked, “Ija, do you want me to remove your necklace as well?”
Her chin jerked, and before the beads could do more than spark ineffectually, Kaz snapped the chain, allowing the gems, bones, and beads to fall down on Li’s head. A particularly large ruby clonked off her skull, and she gave Kaz an irritated hiss before running off after the offending gemstone. It had no power in it, so it wouldn’t do her any good, but Kaz was certain that it would be joining the runestones in the dragon’s belly.
Turning back to Idla, Kaz looked the chief straight in the eyes. “If you’re so certain that everything must have a price, then here is mine. I’ll find you a true Woodblade, and do everything I can to save your Tree. In exchange, open the mountain and let my group leave.”
Idla’s eyes narrowed. “And if the only Woodblade is you?”
Kaz smiled, just a little. “I’m not so special as you seem to think. Do we have a deal?”
Ija coughed softly, and Kaz glanced at her, seeing pleading eyes locked on him. He sighed, looking at the Goldblade chief again. “And let the new Woodblade chief select their own tribe members, whoever they may be.”
Silence hung, and then Idla pointed to the knife hanging at Kaz’s waist. “If I give this Woodblade a tribe, then you have to give her the Woodblade itself. It must remain in the mountain.”
Somewhere deep inside, Kaz had already realized this. If the Woodblade truly was required to open the mountain, there was no way he could take it with him. And, honestly, while the thought of giving up the knife was painful, he thought losing the firestriker would be worse. He had many memories of his father using the firestriker to start a torch, of Ghazt’s big hands cupping his own small ones as the older male taught Kaz how to use the device. The only memories Kaz had of the knife were painful ones, and he had no need to cling to them.
“I’ll give it to the new Woodblade chief, and no one else,” Kaz agreed. “But you have to provide another weapon in exchange, and it also has to be made of adamantium or mithril.”
One of Idla’s ears twitched, and she nearly smiled. “Done, then. Now, let us go.”
Kaz felt a tug at his leg and crouched to allow Li to climb up his arm to his shoulder. From the corner of his eye, he could see little Kyla’s golden eyes follow the dragon’s movements with awe and longing. It seemed that the pup could feel that their lives were no longer in immediate danger, so her fascination with Li had returned full force.
“I have one more thing to do before we go,” Kaz said. “We brought eight male kobolds from the mosui city, and I can’t leave until I know they’ll be returned to their tribes or find a place with new ones.”
Idla blinked, and she flashed a look toward Tezne, who looked in turn at Berin, whose ears instantly tucked flat against her head. Beside her, Senge looked quite pleased, at least until her mother turned the look on her as well.
“I was told some males came down from the mid-levels,” Tezne murmured, “but heard nothing about mosui. Berin said she had a surprise for me after we were done speaking. You know how she is.”
Berin’s shoulders slumped, and for once the cocky Goldcoat showed none of her usual mocking humor. She glanced from her mother to Idla, then straightened her shoulders with a visible effort of will.
“The surprise was for both of you,” she said, trying to sound confident. “But I wanted to clean it up a bit before I presented it to you. Dat has been taking care of that for me.”
Idla frowned. “When I allowed you to take my son as mate, you promised you would cease these puppyish escapades.”
Behind Berin, Senge mouthed ‘escapades’ as if it was the most delicious word she’d ever tasted. The younger Goldcoat looked positively gleeful.
Berin coughed slightly, then waved a graceful hand. “I think you’ll forgive me, just this once, mate’s mother.” Lifting her muzzle, she gave a soft, ululating howl, and a moment later a soft yip answered from beyond the door.
Idla gave Berin a sharp glance, then barked, “Enter.”
There was a small commotion outside, and Dat pushed open the door, his broad back filling it so no one could see what he was trying to pull in after him. Whatever it was was clearly reluctant to join them, but finally Dat unplugged the doorway with an almost audible pop, then stepped aside to reveal… Dett.