Raff was standing in the midst of a pile of dead and dying Irondiggers, while Kyla appeared and disappeared around him, each time burying an over-sized knife in an attacker. Because she wasn’t using ki-bolts or a shield, Kyla’s ki was still in surprisingly good shape. It seemed that Kyla had found a way of fighting that suited her particular skills, though it wouldn’t work if she was on her own, without an ally to distract her enemies.
Li had joined them, and her golden claws were now as red as Kyla’s blade. Kaz jumped down, careful to avoid being stabbed by his friends in the process. He didn’t think even Raff’s magical blade could actually injure him, at least not badly, but his body would create a break in their flow that could leave an opening for someone else to take advantage of.
Rather than killing more of the Irondiggers, Kaz moved around between them, moving too quickly for them to react. One after another, he pulled out the qiu, throwing them away from the battle to explode. Li did the same, and less than a minute after they began, more than a dozen gray-furred males sat against a pile of rocks, clutching their necks and staring at the blood on their palms in disbelief.
Raff kicked the last Irondigger toward Kaz with a boot to the male’s chest, and Kaz pulled out the stone from beneath his skin. As he did so, Kyla shimmered back into view, clutching a knife so large that it was almost a sword in her hand. It looked like one Kaz remembered Raff using to cut up meat, so the human must have given it to her after she left her knives behind in Shom’s hut.
“What’s going on?” she panted, leaning against Raff’s leg as he settled into a waiting posture. His expression was calm, but his eyes scanned their surroundings as the others spoke.
“They all have stones in their necks like the ones we took from the xiyi and their prisoners, except that these explode.” Kaz said. “Worse, they’re using some kind of weapon that puts a stone into their victims, as well.”
This brought Raff’s focus back to them for a moment. “I knew there was somethin’ off about this. They kept poppin’ up from nowhere, trying to shoot us with darts. Almost got Kyla a time or two, but she had a shield up. They only started attacking head-on when Kyla vanished and they realized my skin is too tough for pointy sticks to do anything to me.” He returned to watching for more attackers, looking even more grim than before.
Kyla’s eyes were huge, and she pointed to the pile of rubble behind the freed Irondiggers. Her ears were flat, and she whimpered as she asked, “Do you think they got Mei and the babies? That’s where we left them.”
“Mei had her pups?” Kaz asked, feeling a small burst of happiness. This was quickly overcome with worry. Any normal fuergar would have run, even if it meant leaving the babies behind, but he didn’t believe Mei would do that. Kaz also doubted that something as simple as a building falling on her would kill that particular fuergar.
Kyla nodded in response to his question, ears twitching, but Raff spoke without looking at them. “No chance. Chi Yincang was here, and he wouldn’t’ve let anything happen to the rodents. Not after Lianhua told him to watch ‘em.”
Kaz nodded. “I’d guess they headed for wherever Lianhua is. Chi Yincang can track her, and he’d want to make sure she and Yingtao were safe as well.”
“Lianhua’s Gramps is studyin’ the new portal,” Raff said, and Kyla nodded. “That’s gonna be the safest place right now, given how strong that old man is.”
Li had been watching the defeated Irondiggers while the others spoke, and now she hissed as one of them stood. He was the large male Kaz had freed last, and he rubbed his ribs where Raff had kicked him. Now that Kaz knew what to look for, he thought he could see hints of yellow fur at the roots of the gray.
“Idla betrayed us, and you,” he said, sulfurous eyes fierce. “She has been too weak to perform her duties as chief, but refused to step aside for Mila. Instead, she asked the Tree to heal her, and it agreed, but only if she poisoned the old humans, and brought the male there.”
“How do you know this?” Kaz asked, and the male chuffed a bitter laugh.
“Until a few days ago, I was a member of the Goldcoats. Not one of their best warriors, but not weak. Not a Muckdigger.” Several of the other males flinched or glared at him in response to this, but none argued. “Idla commanded Tezne, and the chiefs of her other subsidiary tribes, to choose several unmated males and females to be offered to the Tree. It took some of us, and others,” he lifted a hand to hover over the wound on the back of his neck, “it made like me.”
“Males and females?” Kyla asked sharply, stepping forward. Usually, females remained with a tribe, since their powers could be used even if their bodies were weak. Because of Oda’s seemingly irrational hatred of the Irondiggers, Kaz had had only the briefest of contact with them, but no one had ever mentioned seeing a female among their numbers.
The former Goldcoat growled softly. “Yes. The Tree took most of them, but some are here.” He waved his hand around, indicating the city. “They’re supposed to be going after the great chiefs, though.”
Kyla whimpered again. “Ija!”
Kaz’s hands clenched into fists. What should he do? What did Nucai want with the great chiefs, and why was he suddenly doing this now? “What’s changed?” he muttered, his mind turning over everything that had happened recently.
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“There’s the portal,” Raff said. “I expect suddenly having a way outta here without needing the chiefs coulda lit a fire under him.”
“But Shom - Dongwu - said they can’t leave the mountain,” Kyla argued.
Kaz still didn’t know what portal they were talking about, but he shook his head. “That assumes Dongwu is correct. She can’t leave the mountain, but is she assuming Nucai can’t, or has he told her so? Even if he said so, he could be lying, especially if he’s responsible for the curse runes.”
“So he probably really can’t leave,” Kyla said.
“Unless he can, and he just wants t’blow everything up on his way out,” Raff replied in an unusually cynical tone.
“Or the portal is only part of it,” Kaz said. “What else has changed in the last few days?”
“We got here,” Kyla said, ears lowering.
That was true, but it sparked another memory, and Kaz felt his own ears flatten as he said, “We also took the Dragon’s core.”
Li let out a startled puff of cool vapor.
Yes, oh. Honestly, however, it seemed that a great deal had changed very recently, and it would be difficult to know which, if any, of those things had brought this on. All Kaz knew was that once again, he was caught up in the unraveling of things that had been building since long before he was born.
“I have to check on Ija and find Mei,” Kyla said, nearly dancing in place with the urgency of her need to be away.
“I should find Lianhua,” Raff said with some reluctance, staring down at the small female. “She’s still payin’ me, so she’s gotta be my priority.”
Kyla stared at him. “I’ll pay you to come with me. Once this is over, the Magmablades can give you all the gold you want. Please, Raff.”
Raff ran his hand over his hair. “Can’t, kiddo. A merc has to stay bought, y’know. Or at least give his resignation proper-like.”
The males Kaz and Li had saved were all on their paws by now, and had been speaking quietly among themselves. Now, their leader spoke to Kyla. “We’ll go. If you’ll speak to Ija for us, we’ll help you. Even being a Magmablade would be better than being an Irondigger.”
Kyla’s lip lifted at that ‘even’, but she was wise enough not to bite a hand held out in friendship, even one as reluctant as this. “Fine,” she said. “But Kaz, show me how to remove these stones.”
Kaz hesitated. He honestly wasn’t sure his cousin had enough control to hold the stone after it was removed, and since these exploded, she might well be injured or killed if she tried and failed. Still, she was right. As long as Kaz and Li were the only ones who could remove the qiu, everyone else with one was lost if they died fighting Nucai.
Li snorted another puff of vapor, this time in a cloudy circle.
That…wasn’t how Kaz did it, and he never would have thought of describing it that way, but it obviously worked for Li. The first few times she had removed a stone, Kaz had reached through her to do it, but at some point she had figured it out for herself, and by now she didn’t need his help at all.
Kyla blinked, then crouched, running her hand over the neck of one of the Irondiggers who had died before Kaz and Li got there. She found the hard little knob of the stone beneath his skin, and her ears folded down slightly as she concentrated.
A tiny orb of red ki appeared beneath her fingers, and Kaz instantly knew she’d clipped the edge of the stone, exposing it to the air as she dug her claws in to pry it out. Kaz grabbed at her fur, pulling her backwards even as he formed a shield of his own between his cousin and the corpse. There was a small explosion followed by a larger one as Kyla’s ki broke, and everyone stepped back from the resultant mess that splattered Kaz’s shield.
“You have to make it bigger than the stone,” Kaz told Kyla as she stared, horrified. “But not so big that it goes through the skin, muscles, or bone. I can-” He hesitated. It wasn’t that he could ‘see’ the qiu, because they were invisible to him, but he used his own ki to find the absence of power that was the stone, then surrounded that with his ki. Not a shield, exactly, but a solid shell of his own power that blocked out any other.
“I can tell where the stone is, but you’ll probably need to take your time and feel with your fingers until you’re certain where it is. You cut into that one, which is why it exploded,” he finally said.
Kyla’s ears were flat against her head, but she nodded. “I can do it.”
I hope so, Kaz thought, but he said, “I know you can. Just go slowly, and have someone else hold a shield in front of you while you do it. There should be plenty of opportunities to practice before you try on someone living.”
If the many bodies littering the streets of the city were any indication, that was true, and Kyla swallowed hard. “I’m going, then.” She took a step back, then lunged forward and hugged Kaz fiercely. “I’m glad you made it,” she whispered into his fur, and Kaz stroked her ears as Li deigned to groom a tuft of pink fur away from the other female’s eyes.
“Be careful,” he told his cousin, voice rough, then turned to look at the group of males. He called several ki-lights, allowing them to rise and circle him as he growled, “If you betray her, I’ll hunt you down, and you’ll wish those stones had exploded in your necks.”
Their eyes were locked on the lights as they nodded. The largest male was Kaz’s height and a little broader across the chest and shoulders, but even he flattened his ears and showed his throat as he said, “We’ll protect her like she’s our chief.”
Raff cleared his throat. “If we go check for Lianhua at the portal, I suppose I’ll have done my duty. If she’s there, I’ll stay until she says to do otherwise, but if she’s not.” He shrugged eloquently. “Can’t save a boss who doesn’t tell me where she’s goin’, can I? Besides, like I said, I bet Chi Yincang took Mei an’ the babies to Lianhua or the portal, so odds’re good we’ll find them there.”
Kyla looked torn, but nodded. “We’re going to run.”
Now Raff’s grin finally returned. “Oh yeah, we definitely are.”
This time, Kyla left without a glance, her small form darting away with startling speed. Raff ran beside her, his sword out and ready, while the thirteen former Irondiggers spread out around them, claws and teeth bared.
This left Li and Kaz, and he turned in place, following that internal sense of direction. Even though he had barely spent any time in the city, he knew exactly where to go.