Chapter Three hundred sixty-one (Ogden)

Ogden sighed, thrusting his lock-pin through the chain he used to raise and lower the platform. No one had howled for him, so he had a moment to rest, and he glanced around before touching the metal circle that cinched his belt tight. It was battered and blackened now, but it still functioned, holding a few waterskins and the meals he’d prepared for himself…whenever that had been. Three days ago? Four?

He’d never gotten used to the way kobolds told time, especially since it could vary so much from tribe to tribe. In Hamarrheim, time was kept according to water clocks that were synchronized once a year. The whole thing where time was based on when someone was hungry or tired seemed ridiculous to him, and even using firemoss oil torches didn’t work, since how long they lasted depended on the purity of the oil, and how much was applied. Kobolds simply didn’t have scientific minds, and that was saying something, coming from an old soldier like him, who’d never been inclined to math or science himself.

Well, at least the food was good, and for the most part it even tasted like what he’d grown up with. He took a big bite of roasted fuergar meat he’d placed between two halves of a fried rougu cap. Kobolds didn’t fry things, since they leaned toward soups, stews, and things on skewers, but many of the same plants that grew near Hamarrheim grew here, and Ogden cooked for himself, so his meals were the same kinds of things his modir made for him when he was just a little husede, knee high to a dokkalfar.

As he finished his meal, a long, ululating howl rose up from the very bottom of the shaft. Of course, Ogden was near the top, so he’d have to lower the platform all the way back down to pick up whoever this was. He took a drink from his waterskin, then replaced it in his storage item and pulled out the locking pin. Hand over hand, he began the long descent.

Sadly, no one was waiting for him on any of the other levels, so he didn’t even have anyone to talk to. It was amazing how chatty some kobolds could be when given a chance. Well, male kobolds, anyway. Females tended to ignore him, other than to tell him which level they wanted to go to, but males would tell him all about their hunt, their mate, their pups, and sometimes even gossip from other tribes. Not that they called it gossip, but that’s what a howl was, and it made Ogden laugh internally when they acted like they were just telling stories.

It was a relief when the bottom of the platform bumped gently into place and Ogden could actually release the chain. If he was judging time by how tired he was, he thought it was probably time to stop for the day and go home. One more passenger, and then he was going to send up the howl to let everyone know he was off.

Turning, Ogden was startled to see Kellin, the mate of the Graybelly chief’s eldest daughter. Kellin had been traded to the Graybellies around eight or ten years ago, and it had taken a while for him to get comfortable here. Only after his first pup was born was he truly accepted into the tribe, but he was still rarely seen without his mate, Ren.

Kellin wasn’t the biggest surprise, though, because standing beside him was Kaz, though the pup no longer had his miniature dragon with him. Ogden knew Kellin was Kaz’s uncle, traded to the tribe so the Broken Knives could pass through their territory, but seeing them together there was no doubt they had to be related. Their coloring was completely different, but there was something about the set or their shoulders and the way their sharp, intelligent eyes took in their surroundings that was very much the same.

Kaz’s tail began to wag as soon as he met Ogden’s eyes, reminding the husede of the too-thin pup who had once bitten Ogden’s leg in a panic. Back then, Ogden had been able to pick the pup up by the scruff of the neck, holding him at arm’s length while he flailed and barked, but now the pup was almost as tall as Ogden himself, though he was still much too lean.

Glancing at Kellin, Kaz said, “Thank you. I’ll let you get back to Ren. It was good to see you, Uncle.”

Kellin hesitated only briefly before reaching out to ruffle the longer fur on top of Kaz’s head. “You, too, pup. You still have several more months of free passage. Come back and see the pups again, if you can. Regin liked you a lot.”

Kaz chuffed. “I liked her a lot, too. She reminds me of another cousin of ours. Being nosy and getting into trouble must run in the family.”

Kellin laughed, too. “You have no idea. Someday I’ll have to tell you about your…about Rega when she was young. She never could stop herself from helping anyone who needed it, even if they weren’t part of our tribe. She was always getting into trouble because of that. Eventually it was more trouble than she could handle, but that’s another story.”

Kaz looked down, his ears twitching as if he was having an internal debate. Finally he looked up and said, “Rega was my true mother. Oda is dead, and I’m not going to pretend any more. And Uncle-” His hands flexed at his sides, uncertain, but he said, “We can go back to the Deep now. If you want, I’ll take you. We could even take Ren and the puppies. You could be a Magmablade again. Vega is dead, too, and Ija is the chief. It’s a very different tribe from the one we left behind.”

Kellin was staring at the younger male, his ears flat, and now he shook his head. “You shouldn’t even joke about that, Kaz. But since I’m certain it is a joke, I’ll tell you I’m happy. Ren is a good mate, and I’m respected, even if I’m not the head warrior. Our puppies are happy, too, and this is their home. And mine.”

Stepping back, the older male said, “I look forward to seeing you again, pup. Make sure you hang onto the totem Ren gave you, so everyone knows you’re allowed through. It’s only for the main passages and the platform, so if you want to visit again, you’ll have to have them howl for me.” With that, he turned and strode off down the large tunnel that led toward the Graybelly den, his shoulders stiff.

Ogden shook his head. “You tossed a jiyun into his loincloth with that, pup. What were you thinking?”

Kaz sighed, reaching up to tug at what Ogden had first taken for some dirt around his neck, but he now realized was a fine ring of gold fur almost hidden among the blue. “I know, but I had to offer. I found another of our uncles a few days ago, and he wasn’t happy. His mate died several years ago, and since they only had male pups, his new tribe didn’t treat him well. I took them back to the Deep, and they’re Magmablades now.”

Well, and wasn’t that quite a tale? There was no way a tribe just let one of their warriors run off, especially with pups, even male ones. And Kaz had done it, without the help of a female? His young friend was either delusional or had a story that would make the husede of old envious.

Ogden laid his hand on the massive chain beside him. “Well, where do you need to go? You can tell me all about it on the way. Are you heading back to your sister’s tribe?”

Kaz’s tongue lolled in the kobold version of a grin. “She’s not there anymore, either. She and the rest of her tribes are in the Deep. She took a mate a month or so ago, and I’m fairly sure she’ll have two pups, though it’s still a bit early to be certain.”

His teeth clicked together as if he’d just realized he might have said more than he intended, and he was right. Ogden was now leaning toward the ‘delusional’ option, though it made his chest ache to think of it. Obvious mental illness was rare among kobolds, perhaps because any kobold who endangered the tribe or couldn’t perform their job was exiled.

Ogden had seen a few females like Oda, who were arrogant and unstable, but for the most part they were also quite powerful, which made them both useful and dangerous. Otherwise, there were a few numb-minds, but even they could work around the den. Still, Kaz was young and, from what Ogden knew of kobolds, handsome, so maybe some female would be willing to take him on.

“Are you just here to visit then?” he asked, eying the pup. Little Misa was nice, and since she was the daughter of another of Lignan’s pups, she should be able to protect a male who was a little…odd. “Let me show you around. I have a few friends-”

Again, it looked like Kaz was distracted by something going on in his own mind, and it took a moment for him to focus. When he did, he shook his head. “No, I’m here to keep my promise about the platform. You said that if I fixed the platform, you’d decide if you wanted to go to the city in the mid-levels. They’re calling it Bronze City, by the way. And I think the husede there could really use your help.”

Ogden blinked. “My help? I admit, you took me off guard when you said there were other husede here, especially so many. But I came here for a reason, and that reason was to get away from my people. I really think it’s best to just forget the whole business.”

Kaz nodded along until the last few words, at which point the nodding became shaking. “I can’t do that. I need the whole mountain to function the way it’s meant to. I’m going to have to go away for a while, and if anything is broken, it will use more power than it should, or maybe make it so other things don’t work. It’s all part of some cir-cuits that were made a very long time ago. I think you’ll be able to keep going the way you have been if you really want to, but if you were to leave, the Graybellies - or whoever holds these levels - will be able to use ki to power the platform.”

“Pup,” Ogden said gently, “it took eight males or three females working together to raise and lower this platform before I got here, and they could only go from top to bottom and back again a few times a day.”

Kaz obviously wasn’t listening. He crouched down, and tried to clear away the filth crusted onto the platform. His claws were surprisingly effective, but eventually he stood again and said, “This is why having a lot of water is a good thing. You might want to step back.”

Ogden frowned, but decided to humor the pup, and stepped off of his platform. Maybe now was a good time to go get some rest after all. But then Kaz pulled open the mouth of his pouch, and water came roaring out of it, swirling and swallowing up the ground until everything lay beneath several inches of water.

When Kaz closed the pouch again, the water drained slowly away down the hole the chain passed through and the nearby tunnels, causing the guards and other kobolds nearby to come running to see what was going on. One of those guards started to bark at Kaz, but the pup just held up a small totem on a leather cord, and the other male backed down again, at least for now.

Kaz smoothed his hands over the platform again, and this time it seemed like the dirt simply came loose and was carried away by the last of the water. To Ogden’s surprise, rather than bare metal, what was revealed were hundreds or thousands of small, gray crystals. Kaz closed his eyes, concentrating, and a brief flicker of color washed through the crystals before several of them burst, making everyone wince as tiny shards flew into the air.

“What in the name of the gods are those?” Ogden asked.

“Ki-crystals,” Kaz said absently, beginning to pry them from their places. As he removed each one, he dropped it into his pouch, then took out another that was almost identical, except that it blazed as if a tiny fire burned inside it. He pulled a ring from his finger, then set each crystal inside it, whereupon the stone set into the ring flashed, causing an answering flash in the loose crystal.

Kaz looked up at Ogden. “It will take a while to set runes in all of these. I didn’t expect there to be so many, though I suppose I should have. You might want to go get some rest, or eat. When you get back, you can let me know if you want to go visit the city.”

Ogden swallowed hard, suddenly far less certain that Kaz was mind-sick. He’d pretty much convinced himself that the dragon had been the one to heal his hand and make the two invisible, but here was Kaz, without his reptilian companion, still doing impossible things.

“What are you doing?” he managed to ask.

Kaz nudged the ring so the crystal he’d just placed into it was precisely in the center. “This ring carves commands into the smaller stones. Then, when the stones are placed in specific patterns, they carry power that does, well, all kinds of things. In this case, the platform needs to know when to go up, down, and stop. Then there needs to be a way to provide enough power to allow it to carry passengers and cargo. With this many crystals, it’s going to be pretty sensitive, but it should also be fairly efficient, which means someone with a strong core should be able to move it without too much effort.”

“And you can fix this?” Ogden asked.

Kaz nodded. “The ring helps a lot. It recreates whatever the last rune viewed through it was, which simplifies the process significantly. Once you understand how the system works, it’s just a matter of balancing the ki and making sure the right runes are in the right kind of ki-crystal.” He placed another crystal into a tiny divot, then pried out the next one.

All around them, Ogden could see kobolds who looked like he felt. Ears half-lowered, their eyes slightly wild, they edged away from the male who crouched on the platform, calmly doing what no male - possibly no one at all - should be able to do.

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” Ogden finally managed, and Kaz nodded without looking up. He was muttering to himself as he worked, and Ogden caught something about being able to do more than one thing at a time before the husede walked away, his mind spinning.

=+=+=+=

The next day, Ogden returned to his platform to find Kaz still working, though the surface of the platform now glittered like the ceiling of a glow-worm cavern. Most of it was red, but there were a few sparks of gold, some clear white, and a few spots that were so black they should have been dark, and yet somehow emitted light anyway.

A number of females were standing around in the tunnels nearby, all eyeing Kaz speculatively, and Ogden even thought he caught a whiff of weiba as he passed one, though the powder was incredibly difficult to find here in the heights. Kaz was ignoring all of them, though the edges of his ears looked a bit pink.

When Ogden stopped beside the platform, Kaz immediately turned to face him, clearly relieved. “Ogden! You have good timing. I’m almost done.”

Ogden shook his head. “Have you even slept, pup?”

Kaz shrugged. “I don’t sleep much anymore. But look,” he pushed one more crystal into the platform, then straightened and stepped over to the chain. Before Ogden could stop him, he removed the locking pin from the links, but the platform didn’t sag the way it usually did. Ogden kept the pin in even when he was at the bottom because the chain seemed to lose tension if he didn’t, making it difficult to haul the thing up when he had to start again.

Gently touching one link, Kaz said, “Up.” The platform rose, the chain gliding more smoothly than Ogden had ever seen it before. Kaz wasn’t pulling on it, though, so it didn’t have the jerky movement it did each time the husede shifted his grip, in spite of his decades of experience.

“Stop,” Kaz said, and the platform did, not even bobbling in place as it came to a halt. “Down.” The platform returned to the bottom, seeming to know when it was nearing the ground, because it slowed and settled gently into the square that had been carved into the stone for it long before Ogden’s time. He thought even that was cleaner, with straighter edges, than it had been before.

Ogden stared. “And anyone can do that?”

Kaz grimaced. “Only someone with ki. For now, that means a female kobold.” For now? Ogden started to ask, but Kaz was already speaking again. “It takes a fair bit of ki, too, so it’s a good thing the Graybellies are a large tribe. They should have several females who can manage it, including Ren.”

He turned, finally looking at the females who were watching with extremely mixed reactions. Some looked angry, while others looked almost frightened, but most of the younger ones just seemed fascinated. Kaz pointed to one of the fascinated ones, a largish female with orange fur. “Would you like to try it?”

The female hesitated, but stepped forward, though she appeared surprised to find herself doing so. She stepped onto the platform, and Kaz released the chain, waving to her to take it instead. As he did, the chain sagged just the way Ogden would have expected it to, and it didn’t grow taut again even when the female touched it.

“Act like you’re summoning a light,” Kaz instructed. “Right there on your fingers, where you’re touching the chain.” His eyes shifted as if he was watching something Ogden couldn’t see, and then he said, “Now, push that power out, like a power bolt, but you’re not trying to hurt anyone.”

The female focused, and the chain shook beneath her fingers, drawing the platform level again. “Say, ‘up’,” Kaz encouraged, and she did so. The platform rose, though it was noticeably slower than when Kaz had controlled it.

Without prompting, she said, “Stop,” then, “Down,” and by the time the platform settled into place again, she was panting. “That was harder than holding a shield against power bolts,” she complained.

“But you could do it,” Kaz said encouragingly. He handed her the lock-pin. “Whoever runs the platform will need this, just in case they get tired.”

Eyes wide, she accepted the metal pin, and Kaz turned back to Ogden. “Now will you come with me?” he asked. “I’ll bring you back if you decide you want to keep running the platform. I’m fairly certain I can make this work with mana instead of ki, at least for a while. That’s how the ones in Bronze City work, though I’ll need to see if I can fix that once more kobolds live there. It should just be a matter of adding a crystal to the control column to-”

He broke off, eyes turning inward. “It is interesting,” he said, but Ogden didn’t think Kaz was talking to him anymore. After a moment, Kaz blinked, focusing on his companion. “So? Will you go?”

Ogden hesitated, but he’d always had far more curiosity than was good for him. That was part of how he’d ended up in this mountain in the first place. He thought about his little hut, empty except for his bed and a few cooking tools, and shrugged. “All right. But you can’t tell anyone where to find me if I choose to leave.”

“Of course,” Kaz said, and that was it. Ogden didn’t even bother to get his few things, and Kaz seemed satisfied to leave the explanation of the platform to the females who’d been watching him. It would probably take less than an hour before Ogden had been replaced, and the husede wondered rather ruefully how he felt about that. He had been running that square of metal up and down the same few thousand feet for a very long time, so even if this city wasn’t to his liking, maybe it was time to move on. He didn’t even have to feel guilty about it.

Kaz knew ways through the mountain that Ogden never would have guessed were there. Hidden doors led to hidden stairs or platforms that were like his, but also entirely different. For the most part, once Kaz gave them what he called ki, they just went from one level to the next, without any further instructions. They were also smaller than Ogden’s platform, and once or twice, he wasn’t even aware of their movement. Kaz just did whatever he did, and when Ogden blinked, they were suddenly somewhere else entirely.

He completely lost track of how many levels they’d gone down. A few times, he was fairly certain they were on what the kobolds called a ‘between level’. As far as they were concerned, that simply meant there were no stairs on the level, and crevices or pits had to be used to access it. Unless, of course, you were Kaz and knew where all the platforms were.

They talked, of course, though often Kaz would go for long stretches of time without saying anything. Still, Ogden managed to get part of Kaz’s story from him, even though he seemed reluctant to give details. The pup had actually been to Cliffcross, which Ogden had visited after leaving Hamarrheim. He had no idea what year it was according to the human’s calendar, however, which made Ogden chuckle. Kobolds truly had no proper sense of time.

Kaz mainly focused on explaining about the mosui, and the city they’d occupied, though Kaz seemed convinced that his people had actually built it. Ogden had entered through the cave at the top of the mountain, even though the mountain had still opened for trade twice a year when he came here. He’d been told that visitors were watched closely, however, and he wanted to disappear, so he’d simply found another way. He’d heard a great deal about the city in the Deep, however, and Kaz said Bronze City was even more astonishing, since it had actually been maintained.

Unfortunately, the people maintaining it were husede and kobolds, none of whom wanted to be there. In spite of himself, Ogden found himself asking question after question about the husede in the city, especially after he realized they’d been living there for generations, and had no idea how to even get to Hamarrheim or any of the other husede settlements. That meant they also couldn’t possibly know anything about Ogden himself, and the idea of being among his own people again and also being safe was one that made Ogden’s eyes well up again, though he tried to hide it.

That uncertain time passed in a sort of haze of hope and worry, until Kaz pressed a hand to one final door. Beneath his palm, the outline of a multi-layered city slowly lit, until one bright crystal stood out in a sort of rectangle that passed through all the levels and the door swung open. Kaz stepped through, onto a particularly small platform. He glanced at Ogden, his tail giving one gentle swish behind him.

“You have no idea how much effort and pain we would have been spared if we’d known about all of these passages. Of course, more than half of them were broken. It took quite a while to fix just the ones we’ve been using,” he said.

Ogden shook his head. “I don’t know how it’s possible that these have stayed hidden for so long.”

Kaz scratched his ear. “That’s easy enough. There’s a little howl every pup learns. Or at least, every pup is supposed to learn it. One is safety. Two is clear. Three is home. Four is death. Five is forbidden. Six is work. Eight is mine. Nine is forever.” He pointed to something hidden in the map. Ogden had to lean forward to see that it was a rune.

“This means ‘five’. Every one of the doors and platforms is marked with a rune corresponding to part of the howl. It was originally created to make sure even the youngest pup knew which parts of the mountain are safe, and which aren’t. Any level with stairs is marked with a one or two, but most of the between levels have fours or fives, as do the ‘secret’ doors, which weren’t so secret back then. Of course, few kobolds know how to read those runes now, but over time tradition taught us what to avoid, even if we didn’t know why.”

Ogden stared at the little rune. “What do six, eight, and nine mean, then, and why isn’t there a seven?”

Kaz closed the door, and Ogden blinked, somehow unsurprised to find that he was standing in an entirely different place when he opened them again. A hallway stretched out in front of them, and the walls were smooth and finished, reminding him of Hamarrheim, though these weren’t made of granite. Small alcoves overhead emitted soft red light.

“Six was for levels that were still being worked on,” Kaz said, starting down the hall. “When the kobolds arrived for their shifts, they would take whichever platform was marked with a six. Eights are levels with large veins of ore. Nine was for the cave at the top of the mountain. It was never to be changed in any way. And there are sevens, but those were for other kinds of kobolds, so they weren’t included in the howl.”

He stopped at a door. It looked like any other door to Ogden, but Kaz pointed to something in the very center of it. When the husede leaned in, he saw the rune for the number five. “No one would open a door marked with a five, even if they could. Fours are for places where certain experiments were being done. There were often powerful beasts or fulan beyond those, but more importantly, the punishment for entering uninvited was death.”

Pressing his hand to the door, the young kobold pushed it open, and Ogden found himself staring into another hallway that was almost identical to the first. The main difference was that this one had openings in the walls, through which he could see movement. Stepping forward, Ogden stared out over a bustling street that almost could have been lifted straight out of Hamarrheim.

The buildings were a little taller than most husede preferred, and the light came from uncountable numbers of red crystals, rather than lamps, but the people were his. Their dark coloring and short, solid shapes reminded him so much of his youth that for a moment he thought the intervening years had been nothing but a dream. The clothes might be a little old-fashioned, with the robes going all the way to the ankle, instead of stopping at the hips or knees, with pants beneath, but otherwise, for just a moment, he could have been home.

Then a kobold jogged between two passing husede, and suddenly they were everywhere. They walked with husede and talked to husede, who seemed accepting, if not comfortable with their presence. Young husede threw a ball to a kobold puppy, who chased after it. The parents of the children stood by, watching, but no adult kobolds seemed to pay any particular attention to the pup.

Then Ogden remembered what Kaz had told him about this place. That puppy’s family was probably dead, and he might or might not have anyone to watch out for him. Worse, those husede might well see this as their children playing with a pet, rather than another child.

“These husede have spent generations learning to see kobolds as lesser. Now they’re equals, and they don’t know how to handle it. There are a few who are trying to lead the way, but they’re outnumbered, and most of the elders don’t want change. I’m afraid that things will go badly if this is allowed to continue.”

He turned to Ogden. “The husede need someone to speak for the kobolds. You’ve spent years among us. You know my people, maybe almost as well as you know your own. If you’re willing, I think you can stop what’s coming.”

Ogden took a step back. “I’m no leader. Those people down there don’t even know me.” He had been a leader once, though, hadn’t he?

Kaz’s eyes held more understanding than Ogden was comfortable with. “They’d know you if you gave them a chance, and there’s a Council to lead them. They don’t need someone to tell them what to do. They need someone to show them.”

Ogden’s eyes were drawn back to the street, where the parents of the young husede were calling their children away. The kobold pup stared after them, ears flat, tail tucked. “All right,” Ogden said. “I’ll stay. For a little while.”

Kaz’s tail began to wag. “Should I come back to check on you in a few days? A week?”

Ogden snorted. “Your week or my week?”

Kaz pointed out over the street, toward a building Ogden hadn’t noticed before. As soon as his eyes landed on it, though, he knew exactly what it was. A water clock. And if there was a water clock here, if this was enough like home for that, what else might there be?

“Are there…baths?” Ogden whispered, and was startled when Kaz chuffed a laugh.

“Oh yes,” the kobold said. “There are baths.”

“A month, then,” Ogden told him, eyes still on the water clock. “Come back and see me in a month.”