Now that the Woodblades were officially a tribe again, and the Magmablades’ hidden den was no longer hidden, several of the pups Kyla knew were living elsewhere, while others had come from the main den. These had never really had a den-mother before, and while the older pups were doing their best to help them, they had a lot of catching up to do. Everyone was glad to see Kyla, but soon enough Sika had to get all of the pups to gather for a howl, and Kyla was able to sneak away again, though she actually felt a little guilty that she didn’t stay to help. She would have to tell Ija that their aged aunt needed some help, especially now that Kyla herself wasn’t available to be that help.
All of the great tribes had dens in the walls surrounding the city, and the Magmablades were no exception. While they’d lost their subsidiary tribes and most of their other territory, Vega had managed to hold onto their main den. So Kyla had to leave the city, spend some time with Sika and the puppies, and then make her way back to the gate, all while hoping that the humans had taken a particularly leisurely walk.
When Kyla arrived back at the gate that had once been shared by the Magmablades but was now controlled solely by the Mithrilblades, she found four guards, rather than the six that stood at the other gates. Of course, there were usually three members of each tribe who took responsibility for the shared gates, but here only one tribe held the gate, and apparently they felt that four guards was enough. Not that the number was a surprise, because she’d seen it many times before, but every time it seemed like a mistake. One thing she’d learned as a Magmablade - never assume you’re safe, even when all seems quiet. Kyla, for one, would rather face four guards than six, making this the weakest entry-point to the city.
Kyla slipped back into the city, then cut to the side, taking a narrow path that paralleled the wide road. She stayed in former Magmablade territory, not only because it was more familiar, but because it was less travelled. And apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought that way, because she almost stepped on a kobold with fur the exact gray color of the stone buildings. He was crouched behind the remains of a fallen building, staring back toward the road with such avid interest that he didn’t even notice the scrape of her paw when she hopped to a halt upon noticing him.
Following the line of his gaze, Kyla was unsurprised to find the humans, who were over on the Mithrilblade side, admiring one of their bizarre metal sculptures. Some of these were of normal things, like beasts, kobolds, or plants, but recently, more and more of them were just abstract pieces of metal that had been attached to each other in strange and somewhat discomforting shapes.
“What is it?” Raff asked, scratching his jaw. His new fur seemed to be itchy as it came in, which was something Kyla could relate to, since she’d burned off much of the fur on her right arm and shoulder when she’d lost control of her power and her paws and stumbled against the wall in the Incinerator. Thanks to Li, she survived, and thanks to Kaz and his healing skills, she hadn’t lost more than skin and fur, but that itch was a constant reminder of just how close she’d come to a terrible end.
“I’m not sure it’s supposed to be anything,” Lianhua replied. “Maybe it’s not done yet?”
“It’s their totem,” Yingtao said in her calm, gentle voice. “See where the line of the blade enters the rounded skull? I think it represents a threat to any who dare to enter their territory without permission. That’s why it’s so jagged and angry.”
“Yeah, I don’t get any of that,” Raff said, scratching some more. “Just looks like somebody took some sharp bits and attached them to some smooth bits and then hired a drunk smith to hammer on it all for a while.”
Yingtao shook her head and sighed softly, but Lianhua reached out and took the arms of both of her companions. “Well,” she said, “I can’t wait to see what the Magmablades have created. Who knew kobolds were so artistic, and had so many different aesthetics? We’ll have to tell Kyla to include art in her list of possible trade goods.”
As if the touch and the mention of Kyla had been a signal - which it probably was - all three of them turned and headed toward the gate. The gray-furred male hurried after them, and Kyla followed him. Almost immediately, they came across yet another kobold, this one also male, but with the distinctive yellow fur and gold beads of a Goldblade. The two spies stared at each other, then moved away, neither reacting further to the other’s presence. That was almost as interesting as it was worrying.
Kyla moved closer to the humans, intending to warn them of their watchers, but Lianhua exclaimed over a particularly well-preserved but obviously unused building and dragged the other two inside, while Raff complained loudly about how it would take forever to squeeze through the place. Kyla quickly followed them, only to find that someone else was already occupying the doorway, even though she couldn’t see anything.
“Go,” came Lianhua’s voice as the presence pushed past Kyla, and Kyla blinked but did so, almost running the last fifty feet to the gate, then out as the four guards stared into space, bored. As she did, she felt movement on her heels, and in the next moment, that feeling of an invisible presence was ahead, and she was following it instead. Then it was gone entirely, leaving Kyla alone in the middle of a crevice that led nowhere, so far as she knew.
“Hsst,” came Raff’s voice from somewhere ahead, and Kyla hurried forward, finding Raff attempting to hide his bulk behind a formation that looked like flowing rock, while Lianhua crouched beside Yingtao, who was sitting on the floor. The taller female was terribly pale and panting, with sweat beading along her hairline. When she saw Kyla, however, she attempted to stand, and Lianhua helped by putting her shoulder beneath Yingtao’s arm.
“As I told you, my brother is the Shadow prodigy,” Yingtao said to Kyla, slowly getting her breathing under control. “I barely have enough ki to cover myself for long, much less Lianhua and…someone much larger.”
“You did it,” Lianhua said, using a cloth to gently wipe her mate’s brow. She glanced at Kyla, smiling slightly. “Hopefully, it’ll take a while for our watchers to figure out we actually snuck away, and then they’ll waste their time looking in the city.”
“You knew?” Kyla asked, startled.
Raff laughed. “‘Course we did. You lot think we humans can’t hear worth a darn, but claws click-clicking on stone are a bit hard to miss, at least at our levels.”
Kyla thought back. She wasn’t sure she could have picked out those tiny sounds amid the low but constant noise of the city. Not that she was going to admit that. “Well, we’ll have to take back-tunnels to Shom’s hut, unless you want everyone to know you went to see her. Oh, and take this.”
Pulling around the pack Ija had given her at her adult ceremony, she untied it and took out several bundles of jiao, handing them to the humans. She closed the pack up and pretended to roll something between her palms. “You need to crush the fronds so they’ll release their oil. The smell will cover yours, or at least make it difficult for anyone to try to track you by scent.”
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Raff obediently began to crush the moss in his big hands, but stopped almost instantly, holding the jiao away from him. “Ugh. Blue uses this stuff as a seasoning sometimes, and it’s hotter than Pellis’ underclothes. We have to rub this on us?”
“Better to tuck bits of it into your clothing. Then you can get rid of it when you’re ready,” Kyla told him.
Lianhua’s eyes were watering, but she began to tear off pieces of the crushed moss and slide them into her robes and along the top of her shoes. Yingtao, on the other hand, ate a small chunk, and then a larger one, before putting a piece into her sleeve and the rest in her clothes. Kyla’s stomach roiled at the sight. She could eat food made with jiao, so long as the moss itself was removed, but almost no one actually ate it, and definitely not before it was cooked. Was Yingtao’s stomach made of mithril?
“Well, follow me,” Kyla said. “But stay back, and if I use my camouflage, hunker down wherever you are, because someone’s coming.” Everyone nodded, and they were off.
It took longer than Kyla would have liked, but since the Magmablades were no longer quite so hated, and Avli was particularly friendly towards them, this part of the mountain was used far more often than Kyla was used to. They came across gatherers from both Magmablades and Mithrilblades, and once those gatherers saw each other and actually yipped welcome. Nothing like that ever would have happened when Vega and Zava - Avli’s mother - had been alive. Normally, it would have made Kyla happy, but right now she just wanted everyone to get out of the way.
Fortunately, the slow pace suited Yingtao, who seemed almost completely recovered by the time the tunnels through which they passed began to grow hot. Raff, on the other paw, had spent a great deal of time squatting or hunched over as they moved through small passages, and looked distinctly miserable. Kyla led them to a wider tunnel than the other ones she’d used, then dropped back to speak to the three humans.
“From here on we shouldn’t see many kobolds,” she told them. “There are always some smiths working by the normal furnaces, and I suppose it’s possible that Magmablades may be coming to tend them, as well. But it’ll only be females, thanks to the heat, and for some reason smiths are always half-deaf and grumpy. They usually don’t even look up when I go by. We’ll still avoid them, but we should reach Shom in fifteen minutes or less.”
It took the full fifteen, or at least Kyla thought it did, since she didn’t have a torch to time it, but only because the smith wasn’t at her hut. That wasn’t too surprising, since Shom only stopped working to eat and sleep, so Kyla drew the group on toward the magma forge. There was only one tunnel that led there, but it was tall and wide enough that even Raff could stand upright with room to spare. Not that he was any more comfortable than he’d been when he had to walk bent in half, it was just that his discomfort was caused by the extreme heat instead.
“By Pellis’ pits, this place is a furnace in itself,” Raff said, taking a long drink from a water bag before returning it to his pouch. He’d removed all of his metal armor, and now wore leather pants, boots, and a cloth shirt that stuck to his skin. The two human females, on the other hand, barely looked bothered, though there was a distinct pink color to Lianhua’s pale skin.
Raff gave them a disgruntled look. “You gave Blue some of that fancy silk, Lianhua. Any chance you’ve got a bit more tucked away? I don’t even care what color it is, just that it seems to be keeping you two nice an’ cool.”
Lianhua shook her head, her eyes wide with regret. “I’m sorry, Raff. I did have more, but I gave it to Yingtao so she could at least make an under-robe. If you give me enough money to pay for it, I’ll send some back from the Empire next time I get a chance.”
Raff sighed and plucked at his sweat-soaked shirt. “Never mind. I guarantee I can’t afford it.” His eyes narrowed. “Unless Blue has some more of that-” He stopped because the tunnel had come to an end, depositing them at the entrance to a cavern that was both surprisingly small and surprisingly tall. A single stone column rose in the center of it, widening out from five or six feet at the top to a diameter of almost ten feet at the base, which meant it occupied more than half of the floor space.
Kyla remembered the first time she tried to enter this cavern, and the blast of incandescent heat that had nearly brought her to her knees. It would have, too, if Shom hadn’t been there to grab her elbow and hustle her back down the passage. The smith had growled at her for going there even after Shom told her not to, and threatened to tell Vega if Kyla ever tried it again. Kyla didn’t, until today.
“It’s about time. Should I have issued a damn invitation?” a raspy voice growled as a familiar figure walked around the column. She glared at them, then reached out with her gloved hand and flung open a metal door that had been set into the stone. An even more ferocious wave of heat poured out, and Raff staggered back, his hand over his burning eyes.
“Sorry, Lianhua,” he choked out. “That’s it for me. I’ll be…close.” He reached behind him, feeling the wall, then the tunnel opening. Kyla watched him with concern, but as he moved down the passage, he turned just enough to lift his hand and wink at Kyla and the others. So his condition wasn’t as bad as he was trying to pretend. He was just guarding their backs and making sure they had more help than Shom knew. Kyla didn’t think his caution would be necessary, but it was still a good idea.
Shom shook her head, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she reached into the opening, through a haze of heat, and began to pull on a chain, which rattled loudly as it rounded a pulley somewhere overhead. Whatever the links were made of, it wasn’t simple iron, because as the chain rose, it began to glow a deep, hot red, then orange and yellow. Finally, a single long, slim piece of metal appeared, and when Shop reached in to grab it with a pair of tongs, Kyla could see that it was so hot it was actually glowing blue.
Shom released the chain, which rattled back into the depths, and closed the metal doors, instantly reducing the crushing heat in the cavern. “Come on, then. I’ve got to work this before it cools.” She vanished back around the column, and a moment later the ringing sound of a hammer striking metal filled the space.
Lianhua started to move deeper into the cavern, but Yingtao caught her arm. The taller female was sweating visibly now, and Kyla remembered suddenly that in spite of her outward strength, Yingtao was actually at a lower ‘cultivation level’ than Lianhua. In fact, Yingtao’s single type of ki and thus significantly reduced chance of ascending was one of the reasons why Lianhua didn’t really care to grow stronger herself.
“I’ll wait with Raff,” Yingtao said. “But if you need me, I’ll be there. Always.”
Lianhua covered her mate’s hand with her own, nodded, and then reached out to Kyla. “We’ll be fine. I promise.” Yingtao’s lips pinched, but she tucked her hands into her sleeves and gave a shallow bow before backing out of the cave.
Kyla and Lianhua rounded the column to find Shom hammering at the shimmering bar of metal, which was laid on an anvil made of what looked like a single, solid piece of adamantium. The hammer Shom was using was one of her smaller ones, but there were others leaning against the wall behind her, neatly arrayed by not only size but shape and the type of metal used to create them. Mithril hammers sat by ones made of adamantium, and there was even one made of a bright blue metal that Kyla thought might be the same thing Mei had eaten to gain Wood ki.
Shom ignored the two other females, completely focused on her work, but Kyla was used to this. Admittedly, when she watched Shom work, it was usually at one of the normal forges, which weren’t nearly as hot, but otherwise she felt like a pup again, avoiding going home because Vega was angry about something. Lianhua stared at Shom, no doubt as captivated by the steady, compelling rhythm of her blows as Kyla used to be, but Kyla kept walking, staying well out of the range of that powerful hammer.
Past the hammers, Kyla caught sight of something on the wall that looked deliberate, not part of the natural drape and flow of stone. She drew closer, narrowing her eyes as she tried to figure out what it was. It looked like a carving, and she thought it might once have been painted, but color remained only in the deepest marks now, all indistinguishable shades of brown and gray. She lifted her hand to touch it, not even noticing as the hammering stopped, but a gloved hand caught her own, its strength inexorable.
“Stop, Kyla of the Magmablades,” Shom told her. “Or I really will bite you.”