While Kaz and the human females watched the people below work, Chi Yincang, Kyla, Mei, and Li explored the tunnels. Kaz didn’t want to let Li go off without him, but she convinced him that this way the two groups could communicate, and she insisted she needed to be on the exploration team in case they discovered a way up to the dragons.

Not too surprisingly, Chi Yincang was unable to fit through any but the largest passages, but he was very helpful anyway. A few times, he was able to clear out a rockfall, and more than once, he lifted Kyla and Mei up to cracks or small tunnels that Li couldn’t reach because of her wingspan.

In fact, he seemed almost eager to help, rather than disappearing every few minutes, which was a great relief to Kaz. He knew the three females could take care of themselves, but with Chi Yincang nearby, there was no doubt they would return safely.

It was only when the xiyi and their captives extinguished most of their lanterns and vanished down a tunnel that Kaz called Li back. They hadn’t found anything helpful, but at least it gave everyone something to do other than worry about Raff. Jinn, in particular, wanted to sneak down and free her brother immediately, and Reina had to calm her down when Raff disappeared with the others.

“What if they’re taking them somewhere to kill them?” Jinn whisper-shouted. Her eyes were enormous and her fists clenched. If she could have survived the fall to the floor of the cavern, Kaz thought she might have run after Raff with or without their support.

“They’re not,” Reina soothed. “Nobody was even hurt, other than the-” She gestured at the nape of her neck. “I hesitate to believe a man who willingly abducts others in exchange for money, but I think this Palcher is telling the truth, at least as he knows it.”

“Why?” Jinn demanded, whirling on her friend. “Because you always want to see the bright side of everything? Because it’s easier to believe-” she choked off the next word, but it was too late. Reina stepped away, her hair falling around her face as she looked down at her feet.

Lianhua bit her lip, looking between the other two females. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but Yingtao laid her hand on Lianhua’s shoulder, and she stopped. Kaz felt distinctly uncomfortable, looking between all of the females.

“I’m going down,” Kaz said, standing. They all turned to look at him, and he pointed down into the dimly lit cavern. “There may not be a way out up here, but there has to be one down there. If we can’t find one end, we’ll just start at the other.”

“Kaz, no,” Lianhua said. “At least wait until-”

Chi Yincang appeared beside her. Perched on his shoulder was Mei, who had her little paws wrapped in the long, black strands of his hair. Her fur was rumpled, and as soon as Chi Yincang gently transferred her from her high perch to the floor, she began vigorously grooming herself.

Kyla and Li were close behind, with Li clinging to Kyla’s back so it looked like the young kobold had a pair of golden wings. Kyla looked relieved when she saw her fuergar, and even more relieved when Li hopped from her to Kaz.

Li demanded, puffing out a small cloud of water vapor, then plunging her head into it. Once her scales were moist, she started preening them as enthusiastically as Mei was licking her fur.

Kaz shook his head, tail wagging. “You still need to be bigger.” He sent her an image of herself, large as a mountain, flying through the sky as Kaz slept in a hut on her back. She returned a picture of hut and sleeping kobold blowing away in a gust of wind, and shared amusement flooded their bond.

Li asked, leaning out to look down below.

“Can you cover us both?”

The response was a hissing, raspy sound he’d never heard from her before. Was it a laugh? she said, lifting a wing to smooth the scales beneath it, even though they lay in perfect shining crescents already.

He glanced back. It was Jinn’s turn to look ashamed while Reina patted her on the shoulder. That was good. Friends should forgive one another for unintentional hurts. Chi Yincang was watching them all with his usual unfathomable expression, while Lianhua watched Kaz, and Yingtao watched Lianhua.

Adara and Doran were the odd ones out, and now Adara shook her head. “I’m staying here,” she said. “Even if my arm was in good enough shape to climb down there, I have no doubt those dragons would see me as nothing more than a light snack.”

Doran, of course, said nothing.

“I’m going, too,” Kyla said. She was enjoying this whole process far too much. Dark tunnels were a kobold’s natural environment, and she was clearly glad to be in them again. Unlike Kaz, she wasn’t bonded to a creature who longed for the skies, and Kaz thought his cousin was beginning to realize that not all adventures were good adventures.

Lianhua looked torn, then glanced up at the dragons ringing the cavern. Most were drowsing, their heads drooping or, in some cases, tucked beneath a wing. A few looked wide awake, however, staring down into the darkness as if the snack Adara had mentioned might actually be there.

“You’re right,” she said. “Someone needs to go, and you’re best suited to it. Are you certain you won’t leave Li-”

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Li hissed at her, and Lianhua sighed, then laughed softly. “No, I’m sorry. It’s just so nice to know what’s going on, at least in general.” Reaching into her storage pouch, she withdrew one of her many small books and passed it to Kaz, along with a pen. “If you see anything interesting, would you please draw it? If these really are the xiyi, they may be using Diushi devices. As it is, now that we know kobolds, including the xiyi and mosui, were-”

She hesitated, glancing toward Adara, who was listening with rapt fascination. “We, by which I mean Diushi scholars, will have to revisit everything we know about them. This is an opportunity to not only observe a lost culture, but also see if we can learn more about their history and the hidden civilization of-”

She stopped again, struggling with the clear desire to keep speaking, and this time Adara struggled to her feet. The female had spent the last several hours sitting against the tunnel wall beside Doran, looking both impatient and utterly bored.

“You know,” Adara said, “I think I should go after all. These lizard-men may have my people, and if they do-”

“Then I’m going, too!” Reina broke in. “If these xiyi are responsible for all the missing people, including my family, then I need to be there when they’re found.”

Kaz rubbed his muzzle, exchanged a glance with Li, and stepped backward, through the narrow crack they’d spent the last several hours staring helplessly through. As he dropped, he grabbed the edge, then began climbing downward as quickly as possible.

Li complained from her position on his shoulder. She was using her ki to keep them hidden, even though the darkness should be sufficient for the most part. Still, there was no saying how good the eyes and ears of adult dragons might be, and Kaz truly didn’t want to become a tasty snack.

“I know,” he told her softly, even as he saw Kyla slip over the edge as well. She, too, was covered in red ki, and with the strength she’d gained through contact with the Divine Beast known as Fengji, her core was easily able to handle the drain.

Kaz generally didn’t bother trying to surpass others simply for the sake of doing so, but something about his cousin made him reluctant to allow her to beat him. He couldn’t make noise or use all of his and Li’s combined ki to give the dragon enough strength to carry him down, so instead he concentrated on pushing power into his claws so he could simply slide them into the suddenly-soft stone. It was all he could to keep from yipping in victory as he dropped toward the cavern floor. He was truly happy to have claws again.

His paws touched the ground several seconds before Kyla’s, and his cousin mock-glared as she hurried to press her back against the wall. He could see her tail wagging, though, and his own responded as they skulked through the silent spaces between the buildings.

He caught Raff’s scent as they neared where he had been working, but continued on to the largest building. Kyla opened the door so Kaz could slip through, with Mei on his heels. Li immediately lifted off Kaz’s back, flying toward the high ceiling, where she summoned a ki light.

Looking around, Kaz saw several tables laden with what looked like…plants? He padded closer, seeing that he was correct. There were two dozen different kinds of leaves, stems, and roots lying there, all waiting to be processed with the mortar and pestles sitting silently beside them.

“Are they making medicine?” Kyla asked, reaching for a vibrant red leaf.

Something in Kaz pinched tight, and he leaped forward, knocking his cousin’s hand away. “Not medicine,” he said, not sure how he knew, but also certain he was right. “Or not any kind that would be good for us. Use your eyes, but don’t touch anything.”

Kyla’s ears lowered, but she nodded. “You think they’re poisonous?”

“No,” he said slowly, “but not not poisonous.”

Kyla gave a soft growl of frustration, but as she prowled away, he saw that she kept her hands and paws far from the plants.

Li said, flying near a neat stack of boxes. Through her eyes, he could see that they glowed with ki.

Hurrying over, Kaz hesitated, then removed one of the boxes, wary of touching anything except the wood of the small crate. Li settled to the ground beside him as he crouched down, carefully prying up the lid with his sharp claws.

“What is it?” Kyla asked, turning away from a table full of the same kind of jars Raff had spent the entire day carrying.

“Don’t!” Kaz said sharply, staring down into the box. It was full of cores, each of them shimmering with ki. He felt the pull of them in the pit of his stomach, their ki calling to his. These were the lost, the abandoned, cores of creatures killed for no other reason than the fact that they harbored one of these. He could almost see their stories in the shimmering surfaces. What would he learn, what would he gain if he ate just-

Li pushed the lid closed, and Kaz’s head snapped back, as though a strap tying him to the cores had been cut. she asked, and Kaz nodded.

Settling back on her haunches, Li said reproachfully,

“What is it?” Kyla asked again, and when Kaz looked at her, she was quite a bit closer than she had been what seemed like a mere moment earlier.

“Cores,” Kaz told her, his voice coming out as a growl. He looked at the stacks of boxes, all of them glowing softly in his ki-sight. “Hundreds of cores.”

Kyla shook her head, giving a soft, low whine. “What are they doing with them?”

Ever so cautiously, Kaz lifted the box and placed it back where he’d found it, gently settling the lid into the groove around the inside. “Lianhua once told me that humans hunt monsters - us - for our cores. They make them into medicine which allows them to cultivate and become stronger.”

He turned, looking around at rows of tables, each covered with different plants. “This is medicine,” he said. “But it’s only for humans. Maybe demi-humans as well. I think it would be very, very bad for us, though.”

“Could the xiyi take it?” his cousin asked, coming up beside him.

Kaz’s tail tucked, and his ears lowered. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. They’re…like us. Kobolds, even if they don’t want to be.”

“So who are they making this for?” Kyla said. “Are they trading it to humans?”

They both turned as they heard a soft squeak from the other end of the building, where even more tables still lay in shadow. Li flapped her wings, lifting into the air to skim over the tables.

Kyla glanced around. “Mei?”

Another squeak, and the cousins exchanged glances before running after Li.