“What!” Lianhua’s voice rose sharply, and Kaz flinched, ears folding down. The human grimaced apologetically, but her voice was still louder than the low tones they had been using when she said, “How do you know? No, it’s on the map, right? But a city? I know there’s something like a kobold city in the Deep, but how can you-?”
“Lianhua?”
The voice was groggy, but it clearly belonged to Gaoda, and both Lianhua and Kaz turned to look toward the huts. The male was emerging from the largest one, his hair rumpled.
“What are you still doing out here?” he asked. “You said you’d go to bed as soon as you finished meditating.”
The muscles in Lianhua’s jaw flexed, but her voice was sweet. “Of course, cousin. I just finished, but I was going to get a drink before bed.”
Gaoda walked closer, looking from Kaz to Lianhua with narrowed eyes. “I thought I heard you yell.”
Casually, Lianhua scooped some water into her hand and took a sip, then poured the rest over their chalk drawing. When she stood, her feet and robe dragged through the dark stain on the rocks, reducing the chalk sketch to nothing more than a smear.
“I was startled. I had just finished meditating when I saw Kaz’s pet. It’s so adorable, I forgot myself for a moment.”
Gaoda’s lip lifted when he glanced toward Li, but he held out a hand and said, “As you say, cousin. Let me escort you to your bed.”
Lianhua trilled a little laugh, walking past the outstretched hand. “Oh, Gaoda Xiang, you jest. I can see my hut right there. Good night.” With a quick patter of light footsteps, she vanished into the smallest hut, closing the door without a sound.
Gaoda watched her, his hand closing into a fist as it fell to his side. He turned cold blue eyes on Kaz. “I know you were talking. What did she say? Did she speak of me?”
Kaz drew back as if he were anxious, shifting so his body covered the majority of the white blur on the ground. “She wanted to know where we were going next, and what we might face.”
The human grunted dismissively, but said, “What did you tell her?”
Kaz shrugged. “We keep going down stairs. I need to ask Zyle which tribes control them, but-”
With a flick of his wrist, Gaoda dismissed the rest of Kaz’s words, turning away with an over-large yawn. “Go back to the den, then. We leave in two days.” He crossed back to his hut, and the door thudded shut a moment later, leaving Kaz in darkness lit only by the luminescent moss that grew on the walls.
Kaz sighed, looking down at Li, who was staring after Gaoda, her forked tongue flickering. Feeling the weight of his regard, she sent an image of herself eating the annoying human, though Kaz couldn’t tell if she was supposed to have grown a great deal, or if Gaoda had shrunk to an unreasonably small size.
Li hissed a little, repeating the image, and then her head snapped around. She stared into the darkness to their right, where a broad tunnel branched away from the main cavern. Kaz tensed, his hand going to the missing knife at his belt. He hadn’t heard any of the telltale signs of a beast approaching; no slithering, chittering, clicking, or screeching sounds. He drew in a deep breath, and caught only the smell of water, wet chalk, growing things, humans, and… Litz.
The female kobold stepped from the darkness, her glittering orange eyes locked on Kaz. The long fur around her mouth was darker than the rest, and as she came closer, Kaz could see that she was drooling slightly.
“I heard,” she hissed. “I thought I must be sensing one of the humans, but it was you. No male has power. But you do. You can see it!”
She pressed a hand to her belly, and Kaz thought her fingers were a little longer and her claws far sharper than they were when he first saw her. “Do you see the fire that burns inside me, pup? No, you can only see your own pathetic light. Well, rest assured, when your flicker joins my flame, you will finally be part of something far greater.”
She crouched, her clawed fingers curled as she lunged at him, and Kaz rolled to the side with a grunt of effort. His head spun, but he kept moving, scrambling away as she came after him.
Li had been thrown from his body when he rolled, and now she lifted from the ground with a few beats of her delicate wings, flying toward Litz with a hiss. She dove fearlessly at the female, her own talons extended, but the kobold’s long fur prevented her attack from reaching flesh.
Kaz watched in horror as Litz backhanded the dragon, flinging her body toward the pool, where she landed with a splash. Kaz couldn’t tell if Li was injured, but he did know that while the water wasn’t deep, it was enough to drown a creature as small as the dragonling if she lost consciousness. He spun, no longer intent on running away. He had to get to Li, had to make sure she was safe!
Litz grabbed him as he tried to pass her, her claws easily digging through his fur and stabbing into his skin, though they didn’t tear at his flesh the way they would have before his central dantian opened. She growled in frustration, her eyes glowing nearly red now, and her too-long teeth snapped toward his throat.
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With a soft yelp, Kaz pulled away, falling to his knees in the process. He lunged for the pool, but felt a hand close around his ankle, hauling him back again. Warmth touched his leg, and he realized it was Litz’s hot breath as she readied herself to bite.
Inside Kaz, something snapped. He had been taught never to fight against a female. Whatever she said, she was always right, even when she was wrong. Unless and until he had a mate who allowed him to express his opinion, he wasn’t allowed one. A pup was weak, voiceless, and Kaz was the eternal pup.
But this female had struck his friend. She was trying to kill him, and he didn’t have to - didn’t want to - allow it. Years of training broke, and Kaz twisted, his own hand closing around Litz’s arm.
Her head whipped around, long fur falling to partially cover the insane eyes that glared at him. “You dare?” she growled, her voice lower than that of any female he had ever heard. “Just hold still and let… me… eat you!” Her teeth snapped at his hand, but his other hand was already on her throat.
He began to squeeze. Litz’s claws slashed at him, lacking any coordination or planning. She ripped and tore at his body as if she were the beast Gaoda thought all kobolds to be. Her back curved, and her paws swung up, digging at his belly as drool began to soak the wrist of the hand with which he gripped her throat.
In near silence, the two kobolds fought, the only sound their heavy breathing and the gurgling breaths Litz occasionally managed to get in whenever Kaz’s fingers loosened. Kaz reached for his power, wishing he could harness enough ki to create even a small blast. This close, there was no way he could miss, and if he could just get her off him, he could reach Li and…
Litz’s body buckled, thrashing furiously, wildly, and something punched out through the skin of her side, just beneath her arm. The thing twitched, and Kaz pulled back in horror, allowing Litz another long inhalation. It was a long, jointed limb, covered in chitin like that of an insect, and the fur on Litz’s other side split, allowing a glimpse of a matching extremity, ready to emerge. Her mouth stretched impossibly wide, and two bug-like pincers poked out from behind her teeth, clicking hungrily as they reached for Kaz’s face.
In his horror, he nearly released her, but he caught a glimpse of the still pool behind Litz, and saw a slim golden tail protruding from the water, unmoving. Fresh determination flooded him, and he contorted, managing to pin her two kobold-arms beneath his knees while the new insect legs twitched spasmodically.
Even while she tried so hard to kill him, Kaz had still hoped to spare her, perhaps rendering her unconscious until he could get to Li and then call for help. But this thing was no longer any kind of kobold, mad or not, and Kaz knew one certain way to stop a monstrosity like this.
He tightened his grip on her throat, holding the teeth and pincers away from his face as his other hand drew back. He hesitated only a moment, then thrust his free hand forward, claws digging deep into her belly. He might not be able to see her core at the moment, but he knew it was there.
He had dressed a hundred fuergar brought back to the den by the warriors of his tribe. He had killed and skinned at least a dozen more on his own. He knew what flesh felt like as it yielded beneath his claws, but it was somehow nauseatingly different to do it to a living body that looked like one of his own kind.
When his finger caught on something hard amid the softness, he pulled back, then grasped at it, tearing it free from its hiding place. When he pulled it loose, the body beneath him let out a last gasp, the crazed red eyes blinking in shocked understanding. Litz was beyond speech, but her teeth closed one last time, releasing a sound that could have been a whimper or a plea.
Kaz fell back when her body went limp, and his tail hit the hard ground as he lifted his bloody hand to look at the core. It was strange, its surface mottled and bumpy, rather than smooth and clear as his had been before it broke. Something seemed to be growing on it, a rusty reddish film that was oddly reminiscent of fallen fulan spores.
He knew that he should put it down. He knew that if something about the fulan was damaging the cores of any creature that breathed it in, this core was certainly contaminated. And yet.
And yet it looked so very, very delicious. He felt the corners of his own mouth grow damp and realized that he was the one who was drooling now. Which made sense, because he was holding something that some part of him knew would make him stronger.
He wanted to be stronger. Didn’t he? Didn’t everyone want to be stronger? Strong enough to control, to kill, to make others acknowledge him at last, and to protect… to protect….
Li!
Kaz dropped the core, and it rolled away, already forgotten as he scrambled toward the silent pool. With trembling hands, he scooped the little dragon up, the blood that soaked his fur staining the clear water in an expanding red cloud. He had contaminated drinking water, but he didn’t care.
Li’s slim chest rose and fell, and one golden eye opened, looking at him blearily. Her head rolled to one side, and he saw a little bump already rising there, pushing the scales out of shape. He sat back on his haunches, gently but hastily feeling it, remembering how Lianhua had checked his injury, making sure the bone beneath wasn’t broken.
Li hissed in protest, and Kaz stopped as he felt her small skull, round and solid beneath the tiny scales. His head bowed, and he touched his nose to hers as his eyes grew hot and moist. She was alive, and surely she would be all right. He laid her slender body out along his leg, tenderly stretching out each limb and both wings to make sure they were intact and didn’t seem painful. By the time he was done, she was trying to wriggle away, her small feet clutching at his fur as she pulled herself toward his shoulder.
He sent her an image of herself, brave dragon, flying at the kobold who was trying to attack him, along with warm gratitude, and she winced slightly, but wound around his neck, purring softly. He got a vague, flickering picture of himself, red on gray fur, and a sense of concern, but the connection was weaker than it had been since the woshi attack.
“I’m fine,” he murmured, though he could tell from the twinges of pain he was starting to feel all over his body that that wasn’t entirely true. “I will be fine. And so will you.”
Agreement, the message fragile but clear, and a small head came to rest in the curve of his collarbone. A deep sigh reached his ears, and they both sat, silent in the darkness, together.