Chapter Two hundred fifty-five_The Broken Knife

Everyone spread out, looking through the building, and while Kaz was glad for the help, in a way he also missed being alone with his cousin, Li, and Mei. Though he was beginning to suspect that the warning Kyla’s father had given her about eating cores should, perhaps, be expanded and offered to the two four-legged members of their group as well.

As he thought this, Li gave a little snort and bit him lightly on the ear. She was clinging to his back much as she had Kyla’s, though he was enough larger than Kyla that it was still difficult for her. She was becoming adept at using her tail to anchor herself, however, so he didn’t have to worry about her slipping off or digging in her claws if he had to run.

She was silent for several seconds as they opened yet another box to reveal carefully packed leaves. she said finally,

The dragon tilted her head up, looking toward the dragons circling the cavern. They were lost beyond sight, but Kaz knew she was thinking about them.

she told him.

By now, Kaz had stopped opening boxes. He didn’t know what he was looking at anyway, and Li sounded so forlorn. Reaching up, he stroked her neck, just as he had done when she was much smaller.

Sighing, he admitted, “We’ve both made poor choices. And yes, those were often made without thinking. But we also made good ones. Ones that resulted in someone living who otherwise wouldn’t. And those were made just as impulsively.”

Gently, he scratched around her horns, which grew longer and more graceful every time she shed her skin, sweeping back away from her slender snout and large, expressive eyes. “Lianhua has made mistakes, too. Raff certainly has. I think that’s part of being alive. Maybe we just have to try and do better next time.”

An image appeared in his mind, of a little Li, chomping through bright red stones, one after another, growing larger every time. She almost sounded excited, and he laughed softly, tugging on a horn.

“Absolutely. Somehow. But I don’t think that making bad decisions will lead to us being…like them.” They both looked up this time, and the muddled lights of the dragon’s cores were as clear as if there was no roof between them.

Li said.

“Me, too,” Kaz told her. They were humans, not kobolds, and perhaps it was a little harder to care about them, at least when they weren’t standing in front of him, with faces and names, but he wished they had been able to release Fengji without hurting anyone.

Of course, that would have required knowing that it was Fengji down there, and not some horrible monster bent on cooking and eating them all. Truly, he wished that the Divine Beasts would explain more about what was going on, because he had a feeling Heishe, at least, knew more than she was saying.

“That’s it!” Lianhua called softly, and Kaz and Li looked in her direction. She had insisted on going through every single box of cores, while Adara, Reina, and Jinn checked the metals, and Kaz and Yingtao looked over the plants. Which left Chi Yincang to watch for enemies, and Kyla…. Where was Kyla?

Kaz’s heart clenched in his chest, and for a moment, he thought his cousin really had run off on her own again. It seemed he and Li weren’t the only ones reflecting on their choices, however, because soon enough he saw two familiar cores behind a box not far from Adara. Well, one familiar core, and one that was slightly different than it had been before. It seemed that Mei really did have four types of ki now, not just three, because the black swirling in her abdomen was faint but clear.

Kaz yipped softly, and heard an echo just before Kyla emerged into the light. She was carrying Mei, who was, in turn, holding a large lump of something. Several bites had already been taken from it, so whatever it was, it didn’t seem likely to hurt the fuergar.

“There’s nothing new here,” Yingtao said, walking toward them. Adara stepped in beside her as she passed, and if the golden-haired female’s pouch hung lower than it had when they started, no one commented on it.

“There are eight more buildings,” Lianhua said. “Do we check them all together, or split up?”

Kaz hadn’t really thought about it, but now that she said it, he realized that there were indeed nine buildings in this cavern. The one they stood in was easily two or three times as large as any of the other, so it seemed like more, but it was nine.

Nine, which was found everywhere in his mountain. Nine-inch stairs that were too tall for kobolds. Nine levels to the mosui city. According to the howl Kyla learned as a young puppy, nine was ‘forever’. Was this just a coincidence, or did the xiyi still use the number the same way the other kobolds did?

“Split up,” Kyla replied, even as Adara said, “Stay together.”

“It will be faster if we split up,” Kaz said. “There are nine of us if Mei stays with Kyla. I’m not sure we’d all fit in all of the buildings anyway.”