Kaz instantly backed up a step, his gaze darting between the being in the mirror and the formerly dark hallway ahead. Should he try to run away? If so, which way should he go? This person had helped Kaz the last time they met, but he also seemed to know and at least tolerate Zhangwo, which was no recommendation at all.
A tiny smile curved the thin lips as the male’s eyes lingered on Lianhua. He set his hand to the pen again, and while it wobbled slightly, it soon settled back into the smooth flow of runes. Kaz wondered what he was writing, and if it had anything to do with the bizarre trio who had just appeared before him.
The fingernails of the old man’s free hand tapped lightly at the table beside the scroll, and Kaz found his own gaze lingering not on the thin, knobby fingers, but on the fingernails themselves. They were long, more like Lianhua’s than those of the human males. They were also thick and yellow, and came to something more like a point than the human’s neat ovals or squares. Was that what happened to human nails as they grew older, like a kobold’s claws became thick and brittle as they aged? Or was there really something to Kaz’s innate reluctance to think of him as a human?
A silence fell between them, broken by the alarm, which seemed oddly muffled now that the crystals had activated. Kaz wished he could either retreat or run ahead, but his paws seemed stuck to the ground as if by yanchong slime.
At last, the male gave a deep sigh and released his pen again. This time it spun almost petulantly before spitting out another blob of ink, and the writer tapped sharply on the scroll beside it. The pen gave something like a little shiver, then scurried on, leaving a long trail of ink between it and its owner.
The old male pushed his chair back slowly, brushing his long beard out of the way as he circled around the table, the deep hunch of his back seeming not to bother him at all. He was watching Kaz now, and his eyes were calculating. “You are the same young kobold I assisted a short time ago, are you not?” he asked. A deep crease formed between his shaggy eyebrows, and he added, “Or has it been several years instead? You do look rather the worse for wear, even given that you were dying when last we met, and it’s so easy to lose track of time.”
Kaz found that he was finally able to move, and he took one more step back, placing himself in the doorway leading back into Zhangwo’s room. Purple eyes watched him, faint amusement in their depths, and perhaps it was the fact that the other seemed entirely unconcerned that convinced Kaz not to attempt escape.
“Who… are you?” Kaz asked, having to clear his throat twice to get the words out.
“Hmm? Zhangwo didn’t tell you?” Brows lifting, the male looked back at the pen, the faintest hint of an accusatory light entering his eyes. “Where is Zhangwo? He hasn’t brought me a guest in a century or more, and he always joins them, at least at first.”
Kaz’s paw slid back another inch as he mumbled, “I- He-”
A wrinkled hand lifted in a staying motion, and Kaz found that no more words would emerge from his throat, however hard he tried. Turning back to the scroll, the old male traced a finger down it, pausing when he reached something only a few lines above where the pen was still busily writing.
“Oh, I see,” the ancient being said, a definite look of displeasure on his face. “His petty little domain is under attack, is it? I told him if he continued to behave this way, his actions would have consequences. He’s meant to work with kobolds, not enslave them. I understand the husede - they always were almost more effort than they’re worth - but your lot, at least, are hard workers, and quite obedient. It’s why the master favored you so much.”
He looked back at Kaz, who found that he could speak again. He had a hundred questions, but the one that emerged was, ”You’re not the master?”
Amethyst eyes widened, and then the old male tipped back his head and laughed, an oddly discordant sound with a grating echo. When his amusement faded, he looked back at Kaz and said, “Oh, no. No, I’m not the master. I’m simply Nucai, no more, and no less. I watch over things while the master is away.”
Away? When Zhangwo was speaking earlier, it had very definitely sounded like ‘the master’ was dead. There wasn’t much room for doubt when he said bones were allowed no opinion. “Are there… two masters?” Kaz asked. “Yours and Zhangwo’s?”
Nucai snorted, and Kaz didn’t think he imagined the twin swirls of smoke that arose from his nostrils. “There has only ever been one master. That fool simply believes that a body is entirely necessary for survival.”
The floor shook, by far the strongest such shift, and distantly, Kaz heard the scraping, thudding sound of stones falling. Wherever the battle was occurring, it was far too close, and far too destructive for Kaz’s liking. He staggered slightly, his balance thrown off by Lianhua’s weight, and hoped that it wasn’t actually possible for an entire level to collapse.
Behind Nucai, the pen scratched across the scroll particularly loudly, and the male glanced back at it. His eyes widened infinitesimally, and he turned to Kaz again.
“For the favor I once did you, I shall have one in return.” Nucai said, tone oddly formal.
Now that it seemed the being didn’t plan to attack him, Kaz felt sure enough to begin edging toward the hall. Seeing no other choice, he nodded as best he could with a human female tucked beneath his chin, and Nucai began to speak again, this time with a bit more urgency.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Come to me,” he said. “You’re quite a bit deeper than you were before, so I assume you’re either traveling to the Deep, or belong to one of the mining tribes. Find the Irondiggers, and tell them Nucai has summoned you. They’ll lead you to me.”
Kaz blinked. “Aren’t you here?”
Nucai’s eyes grew cold. “If I were, the situation would be very different.” He reached out toward Kaz, and the image rippled as he seemed to touch it, but his finger didn’t emerge from the smooth surface. “No, while I may contact the other beings who inhabit this mountain, my place is set. In stone, as it were. Here I shall remain until my master returns.”
Another muffled crashing sound reached Kaz, and he tensed as one of the crystals embedded in the ceiling fell, shattering as it struck the ground. Nucai obviously saw it as well, because he nodded decisively. His eyes fell on Lianhua, still limp in Kaz’s grasp, and he said, “Humans attack the city, and you hold a human in your arms. Dare I assume the two facts are related?”
Kaz tried again to nod, but gave in and made a noise of agreement instead. Nucai seemed to understand, and nodded in return before continuing. “Escape down the tunnel ahead. Take the second set of stairs, not the first. If Zhangwo wins, I’ll tell him to release you and your… friends?”
“Yes?” Kaz said, though it was certainly at least as much question as statement.
“Yes,” Nucai echoed, stroking his long beard as he eyed Kaz keenly. “If your friends succeed, which is possible, given Zhangwo’s many deficiencies, tell them, or whoever takes this place, that they must come here and speak to me. I would hate to call in the shiyan and wipe the city clean. Starting over is always so much effort.”
Kaz swallowed hard, but managed to mumble an affirmative as several more crystals came loose, falling around his ears in a tinkling cascade. The lights flickered, then returned, dimmer than before.
“Good. Tell them, and then come to me. And feel free to bring your friends.” Nucai smiled, a slight curve of almost nonexistent lips, and for a brief moment, the pointed tip of a tooth caught the light. Reaching out, he waved his hand, and once again Kaz found himself staring at a very bedraggled and heavily burdened kobold.
He felt a sharp tug on the fur crowning his head, and glanced at Li’s reflection in the mirror. If it were possible for her scales to grow pale, they would have, and he realized that his indomitable friend hadn’t twitched or made a sound since Nucai appeared, in spite of the fact that she usually let him know exactly how she felt about pretty much everything.
Kaz wished he could reach up and offer her reassurance, but the crashes and flickers were coming ever faster, and they needed to decide what they were going to do. Hoping to shake Li from her stupor, he asked, “Should we do as he said, at least for now? Go forward and hope he was telling the truth about the stairs?”
Li’s eyes jerked to his, and he was startled to see that they were almost completely devoid of color. The slit pupils were thin black lines in the center, and around them lay only the faintest hint of gold. She made a soft sound that was a shadow of her usual demanding whistle before shaking her head and extending her neck forward so she could stare into his eyes from her upside-down perspective. She clicked interrogatively, tilting her head to the side, and Kaz repeated his question.
An image of Zhangwo appeared in his mind, along with a feeling of confusion, and Kaz frowned at her. Returning a picture of Nucai, he said, “No, the male we were just speaking to.”
With a few flashes of images exchanged between them, Kaz realized that Li had no memory of Nucai or their conversation. He wondered if the old male had somehow blocked Li out, or if he had wiped her memory, and wasn’t sure which one was actually more frightening. Then, when Kaz tried to show the dragon his own memory of the events, Kaz realized that for the first time since their bond strengthened, Li wasn’t seeing exactly what he sent her.
As more crystals showered down around his ears, he knew he had to make a decision. Go back through the halls, knowing that they might collapse, or go forward and trust Nucai, at least for now? For the first time in a while, Kaz felt the invisible pressure of the mountain over his head, and at the thought of scraping back through the small passage behind them, he felt dread choke him. The passage ahead was dark, and growing darker, but at least it was wide and sturdy.
With a silent apology to Li, who still seemed somewhat dazed, Kaz started for the tunnel ahead. To his surprise, Li flapped her wings, lifting from her perch with a wobbly stroke. It was clear that her wing was still bothering her, but she quickly moved ahead, flying down the hall. Kaz followed along more slowly, not because he didn’t want to break into a run, but because he was afraid that he might hurt Lianhua even more if he did.
Li sent back images of what she saw, and when he urged her to caution, she let him know that she was perfectly capable of avoiding anything that might be waiting for them, while he was limited by his need to keep Lianhua safe. It was true that the dragon was currently the more agile of the two of them, even with her injured wing, so he simply focused on what she showed him, rather than allowing his concern to interfere with what needed to be done.
Two doors came first, placed directly across from each other, but they were closed, so Li couldn’t tell what lay beyond them. She didn’t hear or smell anything in the hall except the lingering, unpleasant scent of Zhangwo, and when Kaz reached them, he found the same. Opening the doors would be difficult, burdened as he was, and Nucai had only mentioned stairs, so Kaz decided to go on, a decision that was reinforced when Li showed him an image of the first stairwell.
Wide, golden stairs went down, vanishing into the distant, faintly red-lit gloom. Neither door nor wall blocked them, and they were open and familiar. Kaz had at least some idea of what lay on the levels below, if these stairs went so far, and he thought that waiting among the yumi reeds could actually be pleasant. Unfortunately, both the husede level and the burned and smoke-filled storage level lay between them and relative safety.
As distant cracks and booms continued, along with the eternal howling of the alarm, Kaz turned away. Li had waited for him, resting briefly on his head as they contemplated descent, but now she took off again, winging her way down the curving passage.
The next, though possibly not last, stairway led up. Up, into the unknown. If the maps of the city were accurate, and he had no reason to believe they weren’t, there were three more levels between him and the city where Zhangwo’s map had shown the human and kobold invaders. That thought made him frown and look around at the trembling walls.
How was it that a battle four levels overhead was both audible and affecting the building in which he stood? Closing his eyes, he pictured the map, and realized there was only one possible answer. He was standing in the tall rectangle that connected all nine mosui levels. That was why the passage he’d taken to find Li and Lianhua had curved up. This one building linked everything, and the humans seemed determined to bring it down around his ears.