Broken Knife Chapter Three hundred sixty-nine

<That’s it,> Li said, settling back on her haunches. Her graceful crown of horns gleamed as she stretched her neck toward the sun, closing her eyes in relief. It had taken nearly three years to locate the last of her siblings, and by that time the runes had well and truly taken hold. Li had spent the last week slowly cancelling out the ‘viscid’ rune, and now her sister, Aldryn, was free.

Kaz touched Li’s nose with his own, congratulating her. <That was well done.>

She preened, sending him amusement as she said, <I know.>

Aldryn shook her blue and white-scaled head as she climbed to her feet. The process of removing the final rune was always painful if the dragon was more than a year or so old. At almost nine years of age, Aldryn had suffered a good deal, but the large female never resisted or made a sound, understanding that Li and Kaz would never have hurt her if they could avoid it.

<I…like…meet mother,> Aldryn said carefully. Like Li’s other ‘wild’ siblings, she’d never heard any language besides dragon roars, clicks, and whistles before Li found her. She was smart, though, and Kaz had no doubt she would learn quickly.

Once the ‘silence’ and ‘insensate’ runes had been removed from her dantian, Li had explained who they were through a series of illusions, and Aldryn had immediately indicated that she wanted to meet the rest of the family and their remaining parent. She had become separated from the rest of the family in her flight down the mountain, so she had no memory of any of them. She had only survived thanks to her size, strength, and an intelligence that shone through in spite of the rune meant to keep her no smarter than a beast.

<Of course,> Li told her. <We should wait until tomorrow, though. It’s a long flight, and it’s already late. No reason to fly at night unless we need to.> Aldryn hesitated, but the trembling of her legs must have convinced her, because she nodded and laid back down, curling up and almost immediately falling asleep. Kaz and Li exchanged a glance, then quietly moved away from the slumbering dragon, settling into sand that would have been burning hot to Kaz’s original kobold form.

This was the farthest Kaz had ever been from his mountain, at nearly a full eight days’ flight. By the time he got back, he would have been gone for nearly a month, which was also the longest he’d been absent since becoming the Dog. Thanks to the ever-growing number of kobolds able to support the Tree, he was able to leave for longer and longer periods. He’d slowly been expanding his influence, touching each creature he’d claimed with his power, and leaving a spark of himself behind, deepening the bond with those he was meant to protect. This meant that his creatures could draw on him in turn, making it more likely that they would have cores, especially ones with Wood ki.

<This would have been so much easier if I could have done it as the Dragon,> Li muttered as she laid her head on her forepaws. Aldryn wasn’t the only one who was tired after the long day.

Kaz laid his neck over hers, giving her a draconic version of a hug. She snuggled into him, and they sat like that as the sun dropped to touch the horizon, broad swathes of pink, red, and orange filling the sky and lighting the bottoms of the clouds.

<I understand,> he told Li at last, tilting his head so his jaw lay alongside hers. <It’s frustrating not being able to fix the Fallen immediately. But the world->

<Likes small changes,> Li said with him, having heard this many times before. <I know, and I’m glad you told me before I accepted Loong’s core from Heishe. If I had been forced to wait and remove the runes from the dragons over the course of generations, I think I would have gone mad.>

Kaz nodded. He felt the same way about the Fallen. If he’d known he wouldn’t be able to help them immediately, he would have… Well, he wouldn’t have done anything differently, but at least he wouldn’t have been so angry and frustrated when his efforts to strengthen their cores and help them regain their intelligence almost completely failed.

They would get better, especially now that the world understood what they were, but it was taking much longer than he was happy with. There were far more new pups with cores among the Fallen than there ever had been before, and now that males could retain at least some mana in their bodies, they were already more like kobolds and less like beasts, but it would be a long time, if ever, before they were no longer Fallen. In fact, Kaz believed they might even end up as something different from those kobolds who never left the mountain, if only because their males could naturally hold more mana now.

He suspected that all the weak males had died out soon after the tribe left, and any who remained… He would be interested to see what they could do. They might even be able to cultivate like humans, and eventually form a core of wei, but not anytime soon. Still, he was glad he would live for a very long time, if only because he might well get to see one of his people ascend to that place beyond the sky to which all the human cultivators aspired.

With that thought, Kaz once again asked Li the question he had asked at least once a week for the last few years. Once or twice she had almost answered yes, but she always held out hope that she would be able to find the rest of her siblings and remove their runes first.

<Are you ready to be the Dragon, then?> He asked as if he was teasing, but he could feel all of his siblings waiting for the answer. He wouldn’t pressure Li, wouldn’t let her know how much the whole world stilled in expectation every time he asked. There was time, because there was almost always time, but he held his breath as he waited.

The answer was usually immediate, and she often blew vapor at him and told him to stop asking. This time, however, she lay still, watching as the sun slid below the distant hills, and then said, <Yes.>

<Oh,> he said, already prepared to change the subject so she didn’t know how much it mattered, but the word sank in, and he jerked upright, shifting into his kobold shape without intending to, so he could stare at her with his ears straight up and his jaw open. “Yes?”

Li gave her rumbling, hissing laugh, lowering her head so she could touch her nose to his. She was large enough now that she could have eaten him in a single bite - or so she said, though he thought it would take at least two - but he never felt even an instant of fear.

<Yes,> she said again. <I freed all of my siblings, and every dragon within flying distance of the mountain. Everything else I want to do needs the power of the Dragon, and you and the rest of the Twelve have waited long enough. You’ve waited eight years for me to be ready, and even with a new Pig and Ox, I know you’re all working harder than you should be.>

Dige and Lillia perked up at this. They were the newest of the Twelve, with Dige, the Ox, appearing two years earlier, while the Pig, Lillia, had risen less than a year ago. They had both been born as common beasts, and while Dige had become divine entirely on his own, Tu and Hu had found Lillia in a forest on the other side of the world. She had only had three types of ki at the time, but they had seen something special in her and helped her complete the transition before offering her the core of the Pig. Dige had only spoken a few words that Kaz knew of, but Lillia could be quite talkative, and Kaz felt her struggle not to interrupt.

Kaz shook his head, reaching up to stroke Li’s smooth scales. “It should be your choice, made with your whole heart. Don’t make it because you think-”

<Do I have to bite you?> Li asked, giving a mock growl as she lifted him off his paws with her nose. <When we get back, you can tell Heishe. I’m ready.>

Kaz chuffed as he was gently lowered back to the sand, which was already cooling as night swallowed the desert. Releasing her, he touched the pouch at his waist, which disgorged a core that still held a soft glow. Loong’s core had faded over the last few years, releasing much of its power into the world where it belonged. Still, there was a sense of awareness to it, though he could only feel it because he was the Dog.

“Are you ready now?” he asked softly, holding it up. Li’s tongue wrapped around the core, pulling it into her mouth. Her long throat convulsed as she swallowed.

Kaz had seen Mei become the Rat, but hadn’t understood what he was seeing. He wasn’t present when Lillia ate her core or Dige rose to become the Ox, but he had felt the reaction in the world, waves of power surging like ripples expanding away from a stone dropped into a still pool. Now, he both saw and felt the moment when Loong’s power touched Li’s, and for the space of a sigh, the world stilled, waiting. Then two cores became one, and Li’s core blazed with a terrible power, and that terrible power reached out and touched the answering power resting inside Kaz. Then the rest of the Twelve - who were now nine - offered their congratulations, each in the way that was right for them.

And then the changes began. Small at first, but spreading, touching each and every creature that Li had claimed, from the tiny lizard that crept out from beneath a nearby stone to stare in astonishment, to the xiyi in their distant homes. Aldryn stirred in her sleep, and though she didn’t wake, her body relaxed, her core brightening as it connected to that of its guardian.

<I can’t make it so the xiyi eggs will hatch,> Li said, voice frustrated but distant. <The world doesn’t know them. It’s too…big. I can’t-> She shook her head, eyes wide but unseeing. Kaz understood. It was utterly overwhelming to suddenly feel everything, see all of those you had promised to protect.

“Then teach it,” Kaz said. He pictured tiny, curly-tailed xiyi pups, running madly as they gave their hissing giggles, and the high caverns where they lived, with dens carved into the stone walls, one atop the other. He sent images of the kus, teaching their ways to the younger xiyi, and the way dragons and xiyi had begun to grow together over the last few years, partners rather than mount and rider.

Li caught these images and cast them out again, adding her own sense of the xiyi to it. They were intelligent, strong, with a sly sense of humor that often caught non-xiyi off guard. They had a deep sense of family, and they were kind, though they were wary of outsiders and kept to themselves, even now that they could have reached out to the other races.

The world took it all in, examining these creatures that were in it, but not part of it, and listened to its Dragon. She had chosen them, and the world would accept them. The immense presence that was the world sent a sort of deep satisfaction, then stilled again.

Li opened her eyes. <That’s all?> she asked, staring down at Kaz.

He laughed. “You were almost there on your own,” he admitted. “I couldn’t tell you, because it probably would have forced you to choose as soon as you realized it. You didn’t even need to eat Loong’s core, not really, but this way Loong got to meet you, and you’ll find that you understand what you need to do without anyone explaining it to you.”

Li sniffed. <As if I needed someone to explain to me. All Loong did was threaten to bite me until I sizzled his nose with a ki-bolt, and then he laughed. He seemed nice, though,> she finished somewhat wistfully.

Kaz nodded. “All of them are, in their own way. Hu and I still don’t get along very well, but he and Tu are always among the first to respond if I have a question.”

<I do like Tu, even though she looks very tasty,> Li said. <Rabbits are too small to be satisfying now, though.>

“Then maybe you should try being smaller,” Kaz said, wagging his tail as he looked up at her. “I know you just became the Dragon, but I wondered if-”

<Yes,> Li said instantly. She grew long golden fur and shrank down to almost precisely the same size as Kaz, then stepped forward until her damp black nose brushed against his. “I’ll be your mate.”

Kaz felt his ears grow hot as he met her fierce golden gaze. He touched his pouch again, this time almost fumbling the two objects that fell into his palm. Lifting them, he said, “Mei brought these to me…a while ago.” Almost six years, but that was beside the point. “It took a long time to figure out how to carve them, but-”

Li lifted a large sapphire of the deepest blue Kaz had ever seen. He had cut it into the shape of a kobold, its face lifted in a howl. It wore a golden pack with a loop on top that could be threaded onto a necklace. Kaz held up the matching dragon, cut from a yellow diamond the size of his fist. The figure’s wings were spread, and she looked like she was ready to soar up into the sky. The horns on her head formed a clasp that could hold a chain.

“When I was a pup, I thought everything that was wrong in my life could be solved by growing up. I wanted a warrior’s necklace like I wanted to breathe. After I met you, I realized that I already had everything I needed, and it didn’t matter if anyone else believed in me.” He touched the ring of golden fur at his throat. “This is the only necklace I’ve needed ever since.”

This time his pouch gave up two slender necklaces, each one glittering with the shimmer of mithril. “Lianhua gave me these. They grow or shrink with the wearer, so it doesn’t matter if we’re kobolds or dragons. I understand if you don’t want to wear one, but the gem is yours. Just don’t eat it.” He couldn’t resist the last, as he saw the way Li was eyeing the sapphire kobold, and she barked a laugh even as she gave him a mock glare.

“I suppose I won’t eat it yet, then.” She held the sapphire out to him. “Put it on me.”

Carefully, there in the middle of the desert, with no one to see but a very curious lizard, Kaz strung the gem onto a mithril chain, then hung it around Li’s neck. It was loose for a moment, then shifted as the chain tightened, letting the pendant fall into the perfect position, where it caught the light of the moon.

Li took the diamond from Kaz and strung it onto the other chain, then placed it around his neck as well. They looked at each other, tails wagging, before Li said, “Mine.”

“Yours,” Kaz agreed. He stroked her jaw, then leaned forward until his forehead pressed against hers, breath mingling. “Mine,” he said.

“Yours,” she agreed.