Katri seemed unwilling to begin, so with Li’s reassuring weight in his arms, Kaz drew in a deep breath and spoke. “When I was young, Father took me out to teach me to hunt. The Woodblades had just been killed. His whole family, his tribe, everyone was gone, and I’m sure he was worried about what was going to happen to us, so he wanted me to be strong enough to protect myself. He left me to face a fuergar alone, and I wasn’t ready. It hurt me, badly. I was dying.”
Katri twitched, but she didn’t say anything, so Kaz went on. “He took me to the Tree. There, he made a deal with a creature who lives in it; if that being saved my life, it could call me later, if it chose to do so. No one had been called in a long time, so Ghazt thought it was a reasonable risk. But he was wrong, wasn’t he?”
His sister nodded jerkily. “Mother and Father knew Vega had tried to kill Ghazt, and that she wanted to kill all the other pure-blooded Woodblades, but not even Oda understood exactly why. She claimed it was because they were ‘weakening’ us, and the other great tribes listened to them too much, even though they didn’t have the strength to lead. But in the end it didn’t matter, because Oda and Rega knew that if their sister discovered that not only was Ghazt alive, but he had a family, we’d all be in danger. Oda was able to keep Vega in check for a few years. Long enough for you to be born.”
Katri’s eyes softened, and her tail thumped on the stone behind her. “You were adorable. All paws and fluff. But your fur is blue, and while Father dyed his fur, you grew so quickly that it seemed like some part of you always needed to be touched up. But the tribe we lived with, the Farpaws, were loyal, so as long as we kept you hidden, and Oda kept Vega occupied, we were happy.”
She sighed, her eyes on the book. “And then our Magmablade grandmother died. Oda ate her core. She didn’t even hesitate. She always wanted to be the strongest, and her book says that she hoped she would become even more powerful than Vega, even though Vega had eaten our aunt’s core years before.”
Katri looked up, frowning as she caught Kaz’s eyes. “You do know, don’t you? That the Magmablades have two chiefs? One is known to all, but is truly little more than a sacrifice, meant to be offered up in case the real chief needs to be protected.”
Kaz nodded, his heart in his throat, and Katri looked both relieved and a little angry. “You acted like you didn’t know anything,” she growled. “It would have been nice if you stopped pretending, just for a moment.”
Kaz’s fists clenched, then relaxed again as Li nudged his fingers with her nose.
“I didn’t remember,” he admitted, not daring to look up. “Whatever happened in the Tree took my memories. I remember living with the Magmablades, never being allowed out without Father, but nothing before that. Our Great Aunt Sika told me who I was after I reached the Deep.”
Rustling reached his ears, and then Katri’s nose was in his face, her eyes boring into his. “Nothing? Not the Farpaws? Not living with Mother and Father. Being a family?” Li hissed softly, and Katri backed up, but she was watching him with such intensity that she seemed to be seeing him for the first time.
“No,” Kaz said. “Until I reached the depths and Sika told me the truth, I truly believed Oda was our mother and Rega our aunt. I never understood why Father and Oda didn’t sleep in the same hut.” He shook his head. “I still don’t understand why we had to pretend at all.”
Katri sat back so abruptly that she twisted her tail beneath her, grimacing at the discomfort. She snorted a bitter laugh. “Oda ate our grandmother’s core,” she said again, as if that explained everything. Perhaps it did, given what Kaz knew of how cores could take over a weaker kobold.
“She changed,” Katri said bluntly. “She was always self-centered and prideful, but in her own way, she cared about us. She would come and give us gifts. A new toy for you, or a shiny gem to tie in my fur. She almost never spoke to Father, though. She hated that he had refused her, preferred someone else to her, even Rega. After the core, though, those moments of kindness all vanished. She only visited one more time, and I remember, because she hurt me.”
Katri rubbed her upper arm absently, soothing a long-ago pain. “She said I reminded her of my mother. She called her a traitor, and said that traitors didn’t deserve mates or pups. She never quite threatened Rega’s life, but mine…yes. After that, she didn’t return, and life went back to normal for a little while longer. It was fine until the Woodblades died. Vega called all of the subsidiary tribes in, claiming that she wanted to make sure such a tragedy couldn’t happen again. She said that if the Woodblades had lived closer to other tribes, more of them would have been rescued.
“In spite of everything, Oda hid us from Vega and anyone else who would want a Woodblade. But she insisted that Rega and Ghazt couldn’t be together, and Ghazt had to pretend to be her mate instead, at least in public. By the end, I think she’d convinced herself it was true.”
She sighed, closing her eyes wearily. In that moment, she looked so much like Rega that Kaz wondered how he had missed it for all these years. It was true that Oda and Rega looked similar, but if Kaz was his father’s son, Katri was very much their mother’s daughter, other than the color of her fur and eyes.
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“And then it was ‘proven’ that Oda was responsible for the murder of the Woodblades. As soon as it became clear that Oda and at least some of the other Magmablades would have to leave the Deep, Mother began to have fits. She would stop whatever she was doing, grab you, and start to walk away. The first time, she made it all the way out of the den, but Ghazt saw her, and you were howling because she was holding you too tightly, so he stopped her. She didn’t even know what she was doing.”
Katri’s hand lifted to the necklace around her own throat. It was surprisingly simple, with a few polished bones and gems woven into it, but there was no sign of the rune-carved orbs the great chiefs wore. She glared at Kaz as she tugged at it, then said, “It took her a while to understand what was happening, but she realized it was the necklace. The one you were supposed to be wearing. The Tree was calling you back, and she was being forced to do its bidding. So she cut it off.”
Kaz choked back a whimper. Those necklaces formed links to the organs of the wearer. Removing them was incredibly dangerous. How had Rega even survived?
Seeing his expression, Katri spoke with a hint of scorn. “She was a healer. She knew what the necklace was, even though Father hadn’t really understood. She had medicines ready, and her body survived, but,” she swallowed hard, “her core was damaged. It took a long time before she could use her power again, and she was never as strong as she had been.”
Rega had been strong, though. Kaz had often thought that she might even be stronger than Oda. And that was after damaging her core and weakening her body by removing the necklace? How powerful had she been before that? It explained why she had removed herself from the chief selection process. No matter how much ki Rega had, she wasn’t as ambitious and bloodthirsty as her sisters. She just wanted to be a healer, but she never would have been allowed to do so if she stayed with the Magmablades. She probably would have been forced to become the hidden chief, who also had to eat the core of the previous hidden chief. What would such a vicious core have done to Rega’s gentle soul?
“And then we left the Deep,” Kaz said, gently stroking Li’s neck. His hands were a little unsteady, but his voice wasn’t.
“To keep you safe,” Katri said, lifting a lip. She didn’t sound truly angry though, just tired. “Oda had to go, and we went with her, walking with open eyes into a life of bowing to her mad whims. Mother and Father were barely allowed to speak, and I had to stay with Oda, while you slept with Father. But you were their pup, and the last of the true Woodblades, and you had to be protected. Vega would kill you, whatever lives in the Tree wanted you, and you might be the key to restoring Father’s tribe. So we rose, year after year, while Oda ranted about returning to a Deep that would have killed her if she stepped a single paw into it.”
“Why didn’t we go out on our own?” Kaz asked, remembering the conversation between Rega and Ghazt immediately after Kaz had been returned to them. They’d talked about running away to the mid-levels, fleeing Rega’s sister. At the time, Kaz had assumed they meant Oda, but they’d never said her name, and now he realized they must have meant Vega instead. Rega had refused at the time because Kaz and Katri were so young, and she must have still believed she could count on Oda to help them.
Katri shook her head. “At first it was because Mother’s power was broken. Then, by the time she recovered enough to fight, Father had died. Mother couldn’t protect us on her own, and she still had some loyalty to both Oda and our tribe. She knew that without a healer they would all die within a year, likely as a result of one of Oda’s schemes. No doubt another tribe would take us in, since a good healer is worth a dozen warriors, but she wouldn’t leave. Plus, there was you. Of course.”
His sister’s eyes traveled pointedly over Kaz’s bright blue fur. “Any chief who saw you would instantly know you were a Woodblade, even in the heights. That’s why Mother convinced Oda not to let you go on your spirit hunt. Once you were a warrior, you could be traded, mated, or simply stolen by someone who knew that even a throwback Woodblade could be offered to one of the great tribes in exchange for a chance to become a direct subsidiary. You were only safe while you were a puppy, kept out of sight and away from other tribes.”
Kaz was stunned. Was it possible? Far from being forgotten and unloved, he had been loved so much that everyone around him…lied to him? Except that they hadn’t, had they? Well, perhaps Oda, but everyone else believed he already knew. How oblivious and selfish must he have seemed, to complain about Oda and being forced to remain a puppy when both of those things were keeping him safe?
“I’m sorry,” he managed, meeting his sister’s eyes. “I swear, I didn’t know.”
Katri’s mouth twisted. “And what will you do about it? You and your…dragon?” For a moment, her eyes held the awe that everyone seemed to feel on seeing Li, but then they grew shadowed again as she said, “Vega still wants all the Woodblades dead, and the thing in the Tree won’t stop looking for you. You have power, so you truly can create a new Woodblade tribe. You need to take a mate, have pups, and when Vega is dead, and there are enough of you, we can all return to the Deep at last.”
“You still want to go back?” Kaz asked.
His sister shrugged. “Life was good there, before you. We always had enough to eat, and we were safe. Almost all of the puppies survived to become adults, and for the most part the great tribes left us lesser tribes alone. So yes, I’d like to go back. I want my puppies to survive, and grow strong.”
Kaz’s eyes went to her slim belly, but there was no sign that she was with young, and her necklace had no mate bead. “Latz?” he asked.
Katri’s tail wagged. “Yes. He wasn’t convinced at first, but I won him over.” Her eyes sparkled, and for a moment she looked astonishingly like their little cousin Kyla.
“I wish you well, then,” Kaz said. When Katri’s cycle came next, she would be mated, and he would probably be an uncle within the year. He had to admit that the idea of little pink-furred pups to play with was appealing. “But things in the Deep have changed. Let me tell you…”