Li asked grumpily as they watched more people run down the street, following the sounds of happy yelling.

Kaz glanced at her. They were no longer hiding, since they were far enough away that none of the humans who’d seen them heal Nadia’s mother were nearby. “Because otherwise we would have been there healing people until tomorrow.” At least, that’s what would have happened in a kobold tribe. Healers rarely had a moment when someone wasn’t coming to them for everything from a bruised tail to a woshi bite. “Are you hungry?”

the dragon muttered, even though they’d had a meal only an hour or so before. Kaz chuckled. He’d known what she was going to say, and she knew he knew, which made it all the funnier.

“We can look for a person selling skewers,” he conceded. While they hadn’t used much power in the healing, sneaking away afterward had drained a fair amount of ki. Not enough that either of them felt weak, but Kaz had to admit that his stomach was also beginning to complain.

Li said, flapping her wings. Seeing that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer this time, Kaz raised his arm, and he was almost certain it was an accident when a wing hit him in the head. She soon lifted up above the small, single-level huts that lined both sides of the street, and Kaz continued walking, even as he split his awareness so he could watch through her eyes.

Li sent after a moment, though Kaz had already seen it. There was an open area with a few food stalls just a few buildings ahead and to his right. Li settled on the edge of a roof, enjoying the heat of the hardened tiles that covered it, and Kaz focused back on his own body.

This street had few carts, and the ones that did use it were generally the small two-wheeled type, pulled by a single human rather than a horse or mule. Having learned his lesson when he was almost run down earlier, Kaz glanced both ways before crossing, then entered a particularly narrow passage between two buildings. It was too tight even for the small carts, so it was probably just meant for people walking, which was convenient.

Kaz slowed as he heard soft voices coming from ahead of him. Was someone else already there? If so, what was the right thing to do? There definitely wasn’t enough room for him to get by without touching them, and the very idea made him uncomfortable. He also didn’t want to go back, because Li was waiting for him, and he didn’t know how far it was to the next turn.

Li suggested, sensing his quandary.

Kaz blinked, turning his face up to the ribbon of sky visible between the roofs of the buildings on either side of him. He sent an image of himself, clambering awkwardly up, then promptly being caught by an angry human, yelling at him to get down again.

The dragon sighed, but she didn’t actually sound upset when she said,

Kaz blinked. She was right. He’d done it on the night of the incursion, so why did it seem so impossible now? Was it simply that no one else used the roofs as a way to travel, at least as far as he knew, so he suspected it was taboo? How much trouble would he be in if he was caught?

The voices grew louder, as if the speakers were drawing closer, and Kaz made up his mind. Crouching, he focused on the gap above, which was no wider than a foot, since the roofs overhung their structures by a good bit for some unknown reason. He remembered overshooting the roof when he jumped only a few nights before, so this time he didn’t even put ki into his legs, instead trusting his body cultivation to give him enough strength. Sure enough, he flew straight upwards at an astonishingly rapid rate, simply reaching out to grab the edge as he went by.

His dragon settled onto the roof beside him as he found his footing. Helpfully, she showed him what he’d looked like as he appeared through the crevice. He hadn’t realized how much he’d flailed his arms. He was still trying to figure out how to react when he heard voices from below, finally close enough for him to understand in spite of the muffling effect of the cramped space.

“-did he go?” The first speaker said.

“I don’t know,” a second voice said, clearly frustrated.

“You should have kept a better eye on him,” the first said.

Silence hung between them. Kaz was beginning to get a bad feeling, so he crept along after the two, with Li close behind, using her invisible forelimbs to allow her to move as quietly as possible.

“Did you see him heal that woman?” The second finally spoke. “It was like a miracle.”

The first snorted. “He’s a mage, you twit. It was magic, not the gods. Plus, our job is to follow him and report back, not stand there with our jaws bouncing off our shoes.”

The end of the roof was approaching, and Kaz wasn’t sure what to do. If he was Chi Yincang, he would become invisible and follow them. If he was Raff, he would simply grab them, crack their heads together, and take them back for questioning.

But even if Li was at full strength, she couldn’t hide them both for more than ten minutes or so, which admittedly was a great improvement from where she started, but not necessarily enough. And Kaz simply wasn’t certain that he could take down both of them before they could retaliate. He didn’t see much mana moving along below, so they weren’t mages or cultivators, but he might well kill one or both of them while trying to incapacitate them, which would only leave corpses to question.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Feeling his uncertainty, Li said,

He shook his head immediately. He sketched a silence rune, murmured, “If they catch you, you’ll be alone until I can reach you. Even if I stay close behind, it’s not worth it,” and then erased the rune again. He sent the memory of his fear and loneliness when they were separated in the mosui city, and Li reluctantly agreed.

Below, one of the people groaned softly, then voice two asked, “What do you think they’ll do when they find out we lost him?”

“Be glad they know we’ll have another chance tomorrow,” the first said grimly. “I’ve seen people fed to the dragons for less.”

They moved off into the street, two humans like any others, both with short hair, though one was gray, and the other yellow. He could tell they were of average build, with the pale skin that was common in Cliffcross, but otherwise nothing about them stood out.

“Dragons,” he murmured, staring after them.

Li repeated. Then, louder, She spread her wings, clearly ready to take off after them in spite of Kaz’s concerns.

Quickly, Kaz grabbed his dragon, pulling her back, tight against his chest. She thrashed wildly, only stopping when one of her claws dug a long furrow across Kaz’s cheek. The scent of blood saturated the air, and he felt warm liquid flow down, dripping from his chin onto the front of his clothes.

Li froze, staring at him, her eyes huge and swirling for the first time since she’d last shed her skin. They had settled into a deep shade of gold, with flecks of the other four colors of ki, but her emotions were violent enough to stir them again, perhaps for the last time.

she whispered, trembling.

Carefully, Kaz released her enough to use his shoulder to swipe at his cheek. The wound burned, and he pushed ki into it. Li’s tongue flickered out, tickling the skin beneath the deep scratch, clearing away some of the blood.

she said. If dragons could cry, Li would be doing so.

Kaz flinched, then said gently, “Your family doesn’t know you’re alive. I’m sure they would look for you if they did, but you didn’t hatch until after they were gone.” He knew she was well aware of this, but there was so much pain and longing flowing through their bond that he had to say something.

An idea occurred to him then, and he said, “Those humans will be looking for us tomorrow, right?”

Li nodded, sad trickles of vapor pouring from her nostrils.

Kaz smiled. “That goes two ways. We’ll look for them then, too. And we have friends.”

Li said, but hope was beginning to replace despair.

Kaz turned to look after the two humans, his eyes narrowing as he tried to pick them out of the flow of people walking by. “Yes, and I think,” he said slowly, “that it will be very interesting to find out exactly who those friends are.”

Li sniffled slightly, and Kaz leaned forward, touching his nose to hers. “We’ll find them,” he promised. “And the dragons. Though I have to admit that the idea of dragons who eat people worries me.” Not that he’d ever thought the rest of her family would simply accept him as her friend. As awe-inspiring and beautiful as they had been, they were also beasts, and before Kaz and Li, no kobold had ever succeeded in making friends with a beast. Not that Li was a beast any longer.

she said.

“No eating people,” he agreed, chuffing a laugh. “They tend not to like you afterwards.”

she said, but there was a hint of humor in her voice this time. She sent him an image of a dragon swallowing a human whole, only for that human to attempt to cut his way back out. Of course, in her version the dragon just burped flames, cooking the reluctant meal in its shell of armor.

Kaz grimaced. “Let’s not try that,” he said.

Li’s tongue traced over his cheek, properly cleaning away the crust of blood forming there. she said again, ducking away as he snapped playfully at her nose with his blunt human teeth.

Finally satisfied that she wouldn’t try to fly off and find the two unprepossessing humans without him, Kaz released Li, brushing at his cheek. Flakes of blood fell onto the roof and his clothes, but the wound below was only a fine line beneath his questing fingers. Between his cultivation level and concentrating blue ki in that area, the minor wound had healed already.

Sighing, Kaz reached into his pouch, taking out first a bright yellow chunk of ki-crystal, then the golden circle Raff had given him. It looked like he would need yet another new shirt, as well as pants without extra holes. He greatly missed the loincloth made from the fuulong silk Lianhua gave to him. It was still in his storage pouch, but he hadn’t seen a single human wearing anything like it, and apparently he already stood out too much, so he didn’t dare put it back on.

Handing the crystal to Li, Kaz stood, then dropped over the edge of the roof and down into the narrow passage below. Drawing in a deep breath, he fixed the scents he found there in his memory. One of the people following him had a fairly mild scent, simply one human among thousands, but the other had been sweating profusely, and his smell was strong. Strong enough that Kaz believed he would know it again.

“Let’s go get food,” he told his dragon, feeling her agreement, and also her satisfaction as earth ki burst forth from the crystal she’d just eaten. He heard her wings rustle as they opened, and then she lifted off, briefly outlined against the darkening sky. For a moment, she hesitated, looking in the direction the two strangers had gone, but she flew back toward the open area and food stalls.

Kaz followed after, nostrils spread as he drew in the deepest breaths he could manage, trying to catch even a hint of anything that might help him identify the two the next day. The only thing he found was a spot past the point where he’d first heard them, almost to the stalls where Li waited. There was a distinct aroma there, and he thought it was one he had smelled the day before, when they took Lianhua, Kyla, and the others to the Spice District. Unfortunately, he doubted if it would help, unless one of the two regularly went there to eat, but he would remember anyway, just in case.