Sleep was hard to come by that night. Kaz was tired, but his mind was filled with thoughts of dragons and rings, while his nose was filled with the scent of hundreds of strange kobolds. Every time his eyes would drift closed, a smell or sound would reach him, and he would start awake again. He didn’t know when he finally fell asleep, but it was long after the den had grown silent, and most of the females had allowed their lights to go out.
He woke to the scent of food being cooked, and the sound of voices. Raff was awake as well, sitting up and stretching in his bedroll. A melodic chime rang out, and he realized that was what had driven him from sleep. It was a sound that reminded him of childhood, when his tribe had had luxuries such as a bell to awaken them from sleep, rather than the howling that came after Oda traded their bell away.
Raff rolled onto his knees and began packing up his bed. “That the breakfast bell, Kaz?”
Kaz blinked. He hadn’t thought the human remembered his name. “Yes,” he said, but sighed. “Probably. It would have been in my tribe, but this… isn’t.”
The big human slung his bedroll across his back and looked at Kaz, his eyes surprisingly sympathetic. “You homesick?”
Kaz frowned. He wasn’t sure what ‘homesick’ meant, but if he took it apart, he could make an educated guess. He shook his head. “No. Kobolds move a lot, unless they can hold a territory large enough to have renewable resources. Besides, I’ve always known I’ll probably be traded away once I reach adulthood. Katri will need a strong mate, and before you… Before, the best way to get one would have been to conquer another tribe and take their males, or trade one of our own. We were too weak to conquer anyone worthwhile, in spite of Oda’s ambitions, so it was nearly inevitable that I would be used.”
Raff stood as straight as he could, though his neck was still bent awkwardly. “Would you get some say in where you went, or who you ended up with?”
Kaz glanced away, shrugging. “It wouldn’t really matter. I would protect her, father her pups, and help the tribe, until I grew old or fell in battle.”
Moving to the door, Raff pushed it open. He hesitated, glancing back. “Sounds like a poor excuse for a life t’me. ‘Course, most people back home expect something pretty similar. That’s why I became a merc. I’d rather live my life doing what I want than letting other people tell me what to do. That’s just me, though.” With a final shrug, he moved out into the den, letting the door fall shut behind him with a thud.
Kaz stared after him. That was easy for the human to say. He was strong. Strong enough to make his own way in the world. Plus, Kaz and the other pups were the best resource the Broken Knives had left. Trading males was used to forge connections between tribes, and without him…
Without him, what? Katri already had a mate, or would as soon as the ceremony was complete. She led a whole tribe, full of strong warriors and young pups who would grow up to support her own daughter someday. She didn’t actually need Kaz anymore. Other than the power that he wielded, he was nothing special, and even his own sister might have him killed if he revealed just how different he was from the others.
But what else could he do? He was a male kobold. No male would ever truly be able to choose his own path so long as he lived inside the mountain. The only reason he was able to roam without being killed or claimed was because he was with the humans. Once they left, he would need a tribe. All he could do was try to find a female and a tribe he actually liked while he was on his journey. If he returned to Katri, she would mate him to Moru, who had made it clear she wasn’t interested in him. A life with a mate who hated him truly sounded like a miserable one.
Standing, he shook his head. What was he even thinking? Katri was his chief, and males did as their chief instructed. Surely, no decent tribe would even want an utterly unknown male, anyway. He would take the humans as deep as he needed to in order to help Lianhua find evidence of her lost civilization, and then he would return to his tribe. To the Longknives, since the Broken Knives no longer existed.
A deep pang stabbed through him at that thought, but he shook it off, opened the door, and walked out into the Graybelly den, following his nose toward breakfast.
=+=+=+=
After eating, the party was allowed to pass to the next level, where they found that Lignan had passed word ahead to the tribes on the next several floors that they should be allowed through. Thanks to that, and another deep passage that required climbing down another ancient chain, they were ten levels deeper by lunch, and even Gaoda was pleased with their progress.
For once, Kaz had been looking forward to seeing the ever-present fuergar scurrying out of their way in the darkness ahead, but because they were able to use stairs and passages controlled by the local kobold tribes, the rodent population was so tightly restricted that none appeared. Then, Gaoda wanted to eat quickly and continue on, refusing to allow Kaz and Lianhua a moment of privacy, so Kaz couldn’t even let the dragon out to stretch. He was at least able to slip it some food, though that left his own stomach growling unhappily.
As soon as their meal was over, they were on their way again. Kaz remembered levels mainly based on which tribes were there and what the passages up and down looked like, so it wasn’t until he found totems marking Bonewater territory that he was able to orient himself, shivering at the close call. The Bonewater tribe was strong and vicious, and even Oda had given them a wide berth. They controlled the only stairs on that level, but there were two other passages down, and once Kaz led the humans away from the Bonewaters, he paused indecisively.
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Gaoda heaved a long-suffering sigh, staring at Kaz. “Are you lost already, Blue?”
He shook his head. “I just don’t know which way to take you.”
“The very definition of ‘lost’,” Gaoda muttered, rolling his eyes.
Kaz glared back. “Do you want to go the easy way, or the hard way?”
The humans exchanged glances.
“Why isn’t ‘the easy way’ the obvious answer?” Lianhua asked.
Kaz scratched at his ear. “The easy way is exactly that; easy. We’ll go down one level, and then it’s a little ways to the stairs, which are controlled by the Bittergrub tribe. They’re open to trade, so we should be able to go down again easily enough. That puts us on a level almost entirely controlled by the Tailcutters, though, and when my tribe passed through there, their leader was… difficult. If anyone tries to settle on their level, she has them killed. No luegat, no vara, just death in the night. We’ll probably have to fight our way through.”
“And the hard way?” Raff prompted.
“We skip all of that. Drop eight levels in one go. It’s the biggest level jump in the heights. We’ll only have another ten to go before we hit the mid-levels, and things get quite a bit more difficult.” Kaz drew in a deep breath. “But there’s a lopo breeding ground at the bottom. We can’t avoid it, since the shaft will literally drop us right into their cavern. And there’s no chain, probably because no one ever uses this passage. The walls aren’t sheer, though, so we should be able to find handholds, and possibly even ledges where we can rest.”
Gaoda was looking at Kaz like he was stupid. “Then let’s go that way. If it’s faster, it’s the obvious choice.”
Kaz shook his head. “Lopo are the deadliest hunters at the top of the mountain. They’re camouflage hunters, hiding among the stalactites on the ceiling. They have tentacles that can stab their prey, hook it, and pull it up to be eaten. Their skin is like stone, and because they live up high, it’s next to impossible for anyone without power to take one down. Arrows just bounce off them. The only good thing is that once they reach breeding age, they’re no longer mobile, so kobold tribes learn where they are and just avoid them.”
Raff nodded. “I’ve heard of these. The little ones move around, slowly, so you can think a passage is clear, then go back a few days later, and find yourself stabbed by a dozen stone spears. The big ones, we usually do the same as the kobolds, and just avoid ‘em. They don’t have any valuable parts, so there’s no point risking your life fighting something you can just go around.”
Nodding, Kaz said, “But if we use the long drop, we’ll have to fight them, at least enough to get out. The big ones will be restricted to their cavern, but the little ones could be anywhere. That’s why most kobolds will break off stalactites in their territory, so if a new one shows up, they know it’s trouble.” He looked around at them, still torn. “I’d never suggest it if I hadn’t seen you fight, but you might be able to do it.”
“That’s right,” Gaoda said, lip curling, “we can. Now, stop talking and start walking.”
Kaz’s ears lowered at the tone of the human’s voice, but he nodded. Turning to the right, he took the first branch toward the lopo nest. They weren’t far away from the shaft down, but then, Kaz had already known which choice Gaoda would make. The human was as arrogant as Oda in his own way, and would take any opportunity to prove his superiority over the denizens of the mountain.
About five minutes later, Kaz said, “We’re almost there. Two more right turns and a left, and that’s it. If we turn left here, though, it’ll take us to the easy way. This is our best chance to-”
Gaoda clicked his tongue derisively. “We’re going this way,” he said. “Chi Yincang! Scout ahead.”
As Chi Yincang melted into the shadows, Gaoda picked up his own pace, and Raff and Lianhua lengthened their strides to keep up.
Kaz hung back, until he was walking alongside Lianhua. He side-stepped slightly, causing her to almost stumble over him, which left them both a few paces behind the others. As she turned to make sure he was all right, he caught her eyes and tipped his head, slowing even further. She looked confused, but stayed with him as the males forged ahead.
“You’re looking for ruins, right?” Kaz murmured softly, once he was sure the others were out of earshot. “Artifacts of the ancients?”
She glanced at Gaoda’s back, then nodded eagerly. “Are there some where we’re going?”
He hitched his chin slightly. “I wasn’t lying. There really are lopo down there, and they are dangerous. I’ve seen Chi Yincang jump twenty feet and slice through stone, though, so as long as they don’t catch us on their hooks, we should be fine. But the cavern they live in used to have a staircase in it. It’s one of the shattered ones, so we can’t use it, but kobolds have found strange things in that area, and one old Bittergrub showed me a medallion he claimed he found right before a lopo ate his brother. He also claimed he saw a building standing in the center of the cavern, but whether that’s true or not…?” He shrugged.
Lianhua’s eyes were bright. “It’s a possibility, though! My first clue!”
Kaz nodded, his tail beginning to wag gently as he saw how happy she was. “We have to survive the lopos first though,” he cautioned.
“Cousin!”
They turned at Gaoda’s exclamation, and Kaz realized they had trailed along behind the humans without really paying attention to where they were. Yawning in the stone floor ahead of Gaoda was a gaping pit, and on his face was suspicion.