To Kaz’s mind, the greatest benefit of knowing all the runes was the ability to remove them one at a time. It was possible that Intong would panic at some point during the process, and Kaz wanted to make sure that he couldn’t do much damage if he attacked rather than fleeing.
With that in mind, Kaz urged everyone else to move away. This was made easier by the fact that almost everyone except his group had left. There were still a good number of the guards with matching armor, and Eugene had stayed, but even Raff’s father was gone, probably to recover from his ordeal at home with his family.
There was light visible through the windows of the carriage that had brought Lianhua and the others, and Kaz could see the prince’s mana there. Was the human still so displeased by the destruction of the crown that he wouldn’t come out to see what was going on? If it was Kaz, his curiosity would have driven him to investigate long ago, especially if his sister was already involved in whatever it was.
Once Kaz, Li, Snen, and Intong were alone in the center of the stadium, Kaz created a shield around Intong. Rather than preventing anything from passing through from outside, this one was meant to keep Intong in, though Kaz wasn’t sure how long it would last if the dragon truly tried to escape. Even with the vast amounts of ki Kaz was now producing, he couldn’t actually hold that much more in his body, so the result was more of an increase in the mana immediately around him than having a greater amount of ki ready for use. He expected that his new body and dantians would become more refined in time, but for now most of his new power simply vanished into the air.
Kaz looked down at the runes drawn into the ground. A ki-light illuminated them, held by Kyla, who wasn’t willing to move as far away as the others. She and Mei crouched behind a large piece of wall halfway between the Kaz and the ‘royal box’ where the humans waited. To be fair, Chi Yincang and Yingtao had almost had to drag Lianhua away as well, but everyone else went willingly enough.
Snen glanced at the other dragons, all of whom he’d sent away by using his whistle. They seemed to sense that something important was about to happen, because eleven pairs of gem-colored eyes were locked on Snen and Intong.
“Should I have them move further away?” the xiyi asked softly.
Kaz shook his head. “If they’re too far away, they might flee before I can remove their runes. Plus, even if they’re not very intelligent right now, this way they can see that we aren’t hurting Intong, which might make it easier to keep the rest of them calm when their time comes.”
Li shifted from foot to foot. She wanted to try removing all of the runes from all of the dragons at once, or at least do them all as quickly as possible. Kaz wanted to go slowly, making sure that the dragon didn’t suffer any ill effects. Snen backed this up, saying that while he and Intong had a strong rapport, if the dragon felt any pain, he might still attack or run.
It was true. Intong had been calm almost to the point of placidity so long as he was near Snen, but now he was standing, staring at the xiyi as if for reassurance. Kaz nodded and began.
He started with ‘insensate’. Kaz had been tempted to remove ‘viscid’ first, just in case Intong did fly away. That way at least this dragon’s offspring wouldn’t bear the curse, if Lianhua was correct about what that rune did. Something told Kaz that one needed to be last, however, and so he started with the one that prevented Intong from understanding what they were doing.
Closing his eyes, Kaz laid the rune over the bundle of apparently random lines and loops that filled the dragon’s upper dantian like a clinging lichen. He’d stared at the rune for silence so many times that he knew its every twist and turn, but this was a new one, and it had several strokes, each of which was integral to its formation and meaning.
Only when he was certain that he had it right did Kaz empty it, making it an inverse of the one that already existed. Neither mana nor ki flowed inside the strokes of the rune, and when he pressed it down over the original, it fit like a shoe on a human foot. Kaz tugged it free, bringing the old rune with it, and Intong began to cough violently, finally snorting black goo from his mouth and nose.
To Li’s vast disappointment and Kaz’s quickly-discarded relief, the dragon didn’t immediately begin speaking like the dragons in Qiangde’s memory. Instead, he looked at Snen and said,
Snen took a step forward, then another. Without a glance at Kaz, he broke through the shield, which was only meant to keep the dragon in, and threw his arms around Intong’s neck. “It’s all right,” he said. “Everything will be all right now. Can you hold on just a little longer?”
Intong nodded, his eyes darting around as he took in their surroundings. His voice was no longer hollow when he asked,
Snen nodded, sniffling like Li did when she was overcome by emotion. “Safe enough. Just wait a little longer.” He turned to Kaz and said, “Do the rest. Please.”
Kaz did so, though he kept his eye on Li as much as the runes as he did so. ‘Stall’ and ‘ephemeral’ seemed to want to cling a little more than the first two runes, but Kaz got them free after a few tries. When he got to ‘viscid’, however, he found that the rune very much did not want to go. Each time he tried to pull it free with his empty rune, it caught at Intong’s dantian, threatening to tear it. Kaz remembered how painful and frightening it had been when his channels were damaged. How much worse would it be to have a shredded dantian?
Stopping, he shook his head. It didn’t seem like it took much time or power to remove one of the runes, but after four, he found that his dantians were almost empty and the moon now stood high overhead. At least half the night had gone by while he stared at the runes in Intong’s head.
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“I don’t know,” Kaz murmured. “Presumably just that one would still be carried on to the next generation, but otherwise have no effect.” He couldn’t be certain, though. No one knew, except possibly whoever had created the curse.
It had been a long time since the previous rune was cleared away, and Snen refused to leave Intong’s side. With him there, the dragon remained calm, and Kaz’s shield was never needed. Now Snen called, “Is it done?”
Reluctantly, Kaz said, “No. But I think I’ve done all I can, at least for now.” Not entirely true. Kaz was certain he could simply tear the stubborn rune free, but he didn’t think anyone would be pleased with the results.
Li paced back and forth at Kaz’s side, tail whipping anxiously through the air behind her.
Kaz thought back to that time. He’d barely been able to see ki then, much less channels and dantians. He certainly hadn’t known what they were supposed to look like, to be certain no damage had been done when he tore the runes free.
Closing his eyes, he examined the moment when the blotch inside Li’s upper dantian came loose, spinning the memory back and forth, examining it from every angle, aware as he did that Li was watching, too. They had both nearly drowned, and only the tiny thread linking their cores had allowed Kaz to find Li and save her. Neither of them had been in any condition to think clearly.
Finally, Kaz stopped the memory on the exact moment the runes broke loose. “I think the runes tore, not the dantian,” he said, feeling Li’s agreement. “But Intong’s runes are much stronger.” That reminded him of something, and it took a moment to realize what it was.
“The necklaces the great chiefs wore were like that, too,” he said, remembering how much easier it was to remove Avli’s necklace than Tisdi and Idla’s. The chains linking the runestones to their organs were much thicker and stronger in the older kobolds. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now he wondered, “Maybe it depends how long the runes have been in place. Or if they use the bearer’s ki to strengthen themselves, then a weaker bearer might mean weaker runes.”
They both turned to look at Intong. The dragon had only two colors of ki; red and yellow. Of the two, red was dominant, but even it wasn’t particularly strong. If Kaz had seen that core in a kobold, he wouldn’t have predicted that the female would be a chief, or even from a chief’s family. Honestly, Kaz was surprised, because he’d half-expected Intong to immediately become more powerful when the stall rune was removed.
The other dragons were no different. In fact, a few of them were even weaker than Intong. Kaz would have to examine each of their upper dantians in order to determine if age or core-strength affected whether or not the runes could be removed, or if something else was at play.
The sound of footsteps pulled him from his contemplation, and he blinked, suddenly realizing that he was very tired. With faint amusement, he thought that a body that had only been created earlier that day should have been better rested.
“It’s time,” Lianhua said gently. Kaz turned to see that she and the others were arrayed behind him. Raff held a drowsing Kyla against his shoulder, Mei curled up in the crook of his other arm. Kaz’s cousin blinked sleepily before her head drooped back down. Even the young kobold had finally run out of energy.
Kaz nodded reluctantly. “We can’t just leave them here. The humans are frightened of them, and they’ll be hungry again soon.” That wasn’t a good combination, in Kaz’s opinion.
Raff shrugged the shoulder Kyla wasn’t sleeping on. “Bring ‘em to my house,” he said cheerfully. “Da invited all of you to stay there, and there’s a nice open courtyard just outside the guest wing. Might be a bit of a tight fit, but we’ll manage.” He grinned. “As long as they don’t eat anyone, I doubt it’ll be much of an imposition. And one of those gold bars Kaz is carrying around should cover their feed.”
“Oh!” Reina said, half-raising a hand. “I meant to invite you all to the palace. Lianhua and Yingtao already have a suite there, and we could put the rest of you nearby.”
Raff raised his brows. “Have lots of room for dragons, do you?”
Reina’s cheeks turned pink, but rather than back down, she glared. “The dragons would have to stay here, but I can post guards to make sure no one bothers them.”
Both of them turned to look at Kaz, who looked at Lianhua. Kaz would be just as happy to find a relatively clean, dry spot and simply sleep in the stadium, but even he had to admit that the structure was somewhat unstable. Every now and then something else broke loose, creating a fresh cascade of debris, and it would be very difficult to explain how he’d survived if the entire building came down on top of him. Not to mention that Li could get hurt.
Lianhua looked from Reina to Raff, then asked Raff, “Are you certain no one will panic if we bring the dragons to your estate?”
Raff waved his free hand. “Eh, if they do, they’re not meant to work there anyway. I guarantee no one in the family will blink an eye.”
Sighing, Lianhua bent her head toward Reina, looking only faintly apologetic. “Given what happened last time I stayed at the palace, I’m sure you can understand my reluctance. You should go back in the carriage with Prince Lucas.”
At that, Reina brightened. “But how will you get to the Hillcroft estate? I could call for more carriages back to the palace.”
Snen and Intong had approached as they spoke, and the dragon’s gaze lingered on each speaker, taking in the conversation in a way he hadn’t before. Snen laid a hand on Intong’s neck and said, “You can all ride dragons, if you wish.”
And that settled it. Even Eugene, who still lingered in the background in spite of the deep lines of exhaustion carved into his face, decided that he would go with them. The aged warrior almost looked like a pup as he climbed onto the back of the second-largest dragon. Raff rode the largest, of course, while Lianhua and Yingtao rode together on a single dragon. Kyla and Mei were perched in front of Kaz on a smaller bronze dragon, while Snen rode Intong.
The newly freed dragon didn’t hesitate to allow his xiyi brother on his back, and even Li didn’t protest after Kaz reminded her that she was looking forward to being large enough to carry him. There was nothing inherently degrading in a dragon carrying someone, so long as that dragon was allowed the choice. Of course, the eleven other dragons weren’t asked, but they were all just eager to be away, so that was a concern best left for another day.
As they rose into the air, and Kaz felt the powerful movements of the beast beneath him, Li matched their path. He could feel her disappointment as she finally burst out,
Kaz smiled, showing her image after image of their shared dreams.