Kyla had never had a day so full of terror and triumph. She and Raff had run through the city more quickly than she’d realized it could be done. Of course, it helped when he scooped her up and slung her onto his shoulder while he cut down Irondiggers with his ridiculously large weapon, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

Once she could just hold a shield over them, blocking the darts the Irondiggers shot from what seemed like every corner, she’d had far too much time to think. What if Mei and the babies were in the human hut, but were trapped or injured, and she was leaving them behind? What if the Irondiggers had already captured Ija, Rudu, or Gram? What if all of this was too much for Sika, and the old female died? What if, what if, what if!

Then they were at the portal area, and everyone was there. Well, not everyone, but all of the great chiefs except Idla, including Kyla’s family and little Gram. Sika was there, too, telling everyone what to do as if she’d been in such battles a dozen times before, which maybe she had been, because honestly Kyla hardly ever listened to her aunt’s rambling howls. But the important thing was that they were all alive, and they even knew where Lianhua had gone, so Raff could go after her.

But then Raff put Kyla down so he could put on all of his heavy metal armor, and Kyla realized that Rudu had zhiwu web wrapped around his torso. He’d been hit by one of the Irondigger’s darts, and he wasn’t the only one, and nobody even knew their deaths already lay inside them, just waiting for Nucai to do whatever it was he intended to do.

For the first time in her life, Kyla shoved her father around, turning him so she could tear away the webbing. At first he fought back, yipping at her, but she growled, and he actually listened. And she was a little worried about what that change in their relationship might mean, but that was at the very back of her mind as her fingers traced over the lump that lay beneath his skin and fur.

“It has to come out,” Kyla said as Rudu tried to reach around and feel the hard, round lump. “It can-” her mind filled with what it could do, what one just like it had done, and what would happen to her father if she did this wrong.

All around them, howls, yelps, and growls spoke of the battle taking place, but it sank into the background until it was just her and her father, the one person who had never acted like she was a nuisance or an afterthought. Rudu turned, his tail wagging and ears cocked forward as if he was simply glad to see her, which was confirmed when his arms went around her, and she smelled his familiar scent as he spoke into her ear, “If you know what to do, then do it.”

So Kyla hugged him fiercely, then turned him around again and pinched the little orb between her fingers. She concentrated as hard as she’d ever concentrated on anything in her life, forming a sphere-shaped shell around the thing she held. Rudu barely flinched, though fresh blood oozed from the crusted wound.

This time Kyla didn’t try to use her power the way Kaz and Li did, yanking the explosive stone out with the shield alone. Instead, she pulled out her new knife and flicked the ball up into the air with the tip, and when it exploded far too soon, father and daughter both tried to protect the other with their arms. Kyla allowed herself a small amount of pride for the fact that she was able to snap a shield in place as well, preventing either of them from losing an ear.

Ija and Sika had been standing nearby, barking out orders, while Gram stood at their paws, with sickly little Chix holding a knife as he tried to protect his friend. When the explosion went off, everyone whipped around, seeing Kyla and Rudu huddled together as a few small fragments of stone pattered to the ground around them.

“What was that?” Ija barked, and when Kyla explained, her sister actually looked frightened for the very first time.

“Everyone who’s been hit by these small arrows may have one of these inside them?” she demanded.

Kyla flattened her ears. “That’s what Kaz said.”

Ija shook her head. “Kaz,” she muttered. “I knew you were hiding something, but what is he doing back here? Did he-” She broke off, taking a long breath, then said, “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need to get rid of these stones. But you can’t just cut them out?”

Kyla grimaced. “They explode when they’re taken out, just like that one did. Li taught me how to close one in a shield so they don’t do that, but if your shield doesn’t completely cover them, or it slips too soon, they’ll still blow up.”

Sika was listening in, and now she said, “Teach me. We’ve been sending injured people back to the main den for the healers to take care of. There’s no way they’ll miss a strange object in the wound. Pretty soon, we’re going to have a lot of dead healers, if we don’t already.”

Kyla taught her aunt the technique, and they used a fallen Irondigger’s body to practice. Somewhat to Kyla’s chagrin, the old female got it right on the very first try, and was even able to use her shield to send it flying far enough away that the explosion didn’t hurt anyone.

Seeing Kyla’s expression, Sika gave a cackling bark of laughter. “You don’t get to be as old as I am without learning some tricks, niece,” she said, and to Kyla’s shock, she actually winked, just like a human! Then, turning to Ija, Sika said, “I’ll take the message back to our den, then send some of the healers there out to the other tribes. Hopefully they’ll listen.”

“They will,” another voice said, and Kyla turned to see Avli standing there, with her new mate, Dett, by her side. Both were spattered in blood, but Dett had not one, but two of the small punctures that were the only outward sign he’d been struck by the darts.

“Please,” Avli said, “help Dett. I’ll make sure everyone else believes you.”

“You won’t have to,” said another voice, and this time it was the black-furred chief of the Waveblades who approached. Her mate, Chotta, and their daughter, Khara, were beside her, but it was difficult to tell if either were injured, given the dark color of their fur.

“We all saw what happened,” Khara said, nodding. “We’ll let our healers know they need to leave the stones alone until they can be properly removed.” She glanced at her mothers. “I’ll take the message myself.” Tisdi nodded, obviously proud of her daughter’s bravery, though Chotta looked concerned.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Kyla suddenly found herself surrounded by chiefs, and just as suddenly found herself giving a soft yip, asking for them all to listen to her. They turned startled eyes in her direction, and she said, “I think exploding might not be all these things can do. Nucai may be able to speak through them, or perhaps even control the people who have one.”

She saw Tisdi and Chotta flinch at the name Nucai, but none of the younger kobolds did. Sika, of course, just continued chewing her mouthful of zhitong. Ija looked a bit confused, but said, “What does that mean for us?”

Kyla swallowed hard, glancing at Dett. “It means we may need to incapacitate anyone who has one of these stones, at least until it can be removed. They could be a danger to themselves and others.”

Avli very much didn’t like that, but she took her mate’s hands in hers and held him firmly as Sika and Kyla each moved to examine one of his wounds. Kyla repeated her instructions for the new arrivals as she located and removed the sphere that lay just beneath Dett’s shoulder blade. Sika pulled another from the back of his leg, and then Avli crouched beside him, ears flat and tail tucked as she looked and felt for any other injuries.

At last, she sighed and looked up. “That’s it. Will he be all right now?” and all eyes turned to Kyla, who gulped.

“As far as I know,” she started to say, when a demanding squeak sounded from near her paw, making everyone look down. A very unhappy Mei stood there, holding a squirming newborn fuergar in her mouth. When she saw that she finally had Kyla’s attention, she bobbed her head demandingly until Kyla crouched down, putting out her hands. Mei dropped the pup into Kyla’s palm, then ran back toward the portal, which flickered, momentarily showing a small cave, rather than the long tunnel.

It took two more trips to bring the other four babies, but once they were all squirming and squeaking in Kyla’s palms, Raff spoke up. He was covered in metal, and for the first time in weeks, Kyla thought he might actually look a little bit impressive. She was honestly a bit surprised to see that he was still there, though, and even more surprised when he pulled a bundle of fur from his pouch.

“This oughta keep ‘em warm,” he said, “but has anyone else noticed all th’ gray kobolds’re gone?”

Indeed they had not. The chiefs had left other females in charge while they investigated the explosion, and those females had fended off the remaining Irondiggers while the chiefs - and Kyla - spoke. Now they looked around to find that the only Irondiggers remaining lay on the ground, dead or unconscious.

Raff pointed back across the city. “They all headed that way a couple minutes ago. I’m thinkin’ that’s not a good sign, especially since your Tree is that way, isn’t it?”

Things moved quickly. Runners were sent to tell the healers not to try removing the orbs, and to isolate and watch those who had one closely until it could be removed. Everyone was checked for injuries, but most of those remaining near the portal were females, and their shields had blocked the attacks. Kyla placed Mei’s babies into the soft fur Raff had given her, and then Mei herself climbed in as well, though she was a little too large to be comfortable. When Kyla tried to gently take the mother fuergar out again, she received a nip on her finger for her trouble, and after that assumed Mei knew best.

“Can you show me how to get there, kiddo?” Raff asked quietly as the great chiefs barked orders. “I know it’s that direction, but once we get into the tunnels, it’s left, right, up, down, an’ I’m listening for screaming to tell me which way to go.”

Kyla nodded, glanced around to make sure no one was watching her, and then held up the one arm that wasn’t weighed down by Mei and her babies. Raff grinned and lifted Kyla onto his shoulder, where this time she only covered herself and Mei’s family in her shield. If Raff wanted to wear a shell of his own, then she wasn’t going to waste her energy protecting him. Much. She did keep his head in her shield, but that was really because it was right next to her anyway, so she might as well.

When they took off, Ija immediately called for Kyla to come back, but Kyla pretended she hadn’t heard her sister. It was entirely believable, really, thanks to the sound of Raff’s metallic footfalls drowning out almost everything else.

Back through the city they went, this time finding the streets eerily empty. There were surprisingly few bodies, and most of them had gray fur. A few heads poked out of buildings as Raff and Kyla ran by, but no one called to them, which was just as well, because Kyla actually wouldn’t have been able to understand them anyway. What she could hear, however, was howling rising from behind her, as Ija ordered the remaining Magmablades to follow her sister. They were all heading for the Tree now.

It was almost exhilarating, moving so quickly through a place where Kyla had spent so many years slinking and hiding. If she hadn’t been so worried, she might even have lifted her own muzzle and howled, just a little. But she was worried: about her cousin, and Li, and the humans who had somehow become her friends.

Nucai was like the hidden lopo in all the howls den-mothers used to frighten small puppies into listening. While Kyla wasn’t a puppy any longer, it was all the worse for knowing that the thing she was afraid of was real. Not that lopo weren’t real, but there were none in the Deep, so pups here could shiver from enjoyable imagination rather than actual terror.

When they got to the Tree, it was more terrible than any nightmare of a barbed, poisoned tongue stabbing into her from the darkness. It was obvious this was where the Irondiggers had gone, because they were piled deep around the broken roots and mangled wood of the Tree. There were no leaves left to hide Qiangde’s skeleton, and almost all of the branches had fallen as well. The corpse of the Tree stood among the corpses of its attackers, though not all of them had yet realized that they were dead.

“Raff? Kyla?” Lianhua’s voice dragged Kyla back from her contemplation of the carnage, and Raff lowered her to the ground before crossing to his employer.

“You all right?” Raff asked, using what Kyla now thought of as his ‘business’ voice, after he explained that even when he didn’t like his employers, it was his job to do what he was told anyway. He definitely didn’t sound like he liked Lianhua very much right now.

Apparently Lianhua could tell, too, because she flinched. Yingtao came up beside her, hands thrust deep into her sleeves as she watched Raff. “I’m sorry,” Lianhua said. “Idla poisoned my grandfather, then took him to Nucai. We didn’t have time to wait for you.”

Raff’s expression softened, and he sighed. “There were a whole lotta kobolds around, Lianhua. Not too hard to leave a message with one that wasn’t tryin’ to kill you. I had no idea where you were. You don’t hire a guard and then run off without him.” He glanced toward Yingtao. “Even after you pick up extra protection, eh?”

Lianhua inclined her head, but didn’t apologize again. Kyla guessed that she didn’t really think she’d done anything wrong, and found herself wondering if this would finally be enough to convince Raff to stop working for the other female. They really would need human guards after everyone found out the mountain was now open all the time, and Raff would be perfect for the job. She could even promise him all the gold he could possibly want.

The voice popped into her brain, rather than passing through her ears, and Kyla jerked, turning around and around. “Kaz?”

She could feel his exhaustion and his urgency.

She blinked, but nodded. “Tell me what to do.”