elizabeth_oswald

Chapter One hundred thirty-seven

Kaz stepped out into the den, letting the door close gently behind him, then gave Raff a welcoming little yip. Raff chuckled and barked back, though the sound was nothing like the friendly greeting Kaz used.

Shaking his head, Kaz said, “You’re still not doing it right.”

For some reason, Raff had started this after spending a few days with the kobolds in the city. After the first day or two, during which the big man had done little but eat and sleep in the rooms that had been...

Chapter One hundred thirty-six

The Goldcoat den sprawled through several connected caverns. Instead of all the huts being in one, while others were used for storage, cooking, and other necessities, huts were scattered everywhere. Even in the first level of the Deep, kobolds didn’t feel the need to huddle together, hiding from the things in the dark, but were instead free to move closer to the huts of friends and family, or be nearer to the things they needed for work, which created small neighborhoods where puppies ran f...

Chapter One hundred thirty-five

When they joined everyone else at the bottom of the stairs, it was to find that Senge had doubled, and was now glaring at the version of herself waiting in the cavern below. The new ‘Senge’ was, of course, just another kobold who looked like her, and if Kaz were to guess, probably a birth-sister, rather than one from a separate litter.

“Berin,” Senge growled, the fur along her spine lifting slightly. “Where is Mother?”

Berin didn’t look concerned at all, in fact, her...

Chapter One hundred thirty-four

Senge wanted to go down the stairs herself to see how much damage remained, if any, but Brez managed to talk her out of it, and instead sent one of the other warriors down. Meanwhile, another warrior was tasked with going back to the den to retrieve the males who had come from the mosui city, since it was apparently going to be much easier to reach the Deep than they had anticipated.

As soon as Raff appeared, leading a tired and morose group of kobolds, Chi Yincang vanished. Ka...

Chapter One hundred thirty-three

Upon entering the cavern beyond the arch, Kaz immediately realized where the grinding sounds were coming from. Like the arch, the stairs were in the process of repairing themselves. In the parts of the mountains where the staircases were maintained by kobolds, every third or fifth step was still covered in a layer of gold, and some effort had been made to repair the crumbling edges. Never before had Kaz seen stairs in such perfect condition.

The carvings to each side of the stairs were ...

Plush Kaz is nearly complete!

My weekend project. He's missing his pack, he's a little lop-sided, and he needs more more stuffing (I ran out!) but my kiddo thinks he's pretty awesome. I'm happy with him, too!

(I bought the pattern on Etsy from Teacuplion, which is an awesome username)

Chapter One hundred thirty-two

Senge and her brother, Brez, led the group back to their den. Senge repeatedly called it temporary, and after the third time, Kaz caught Brez giving his sister an amused glance. Apparently, the males, or at least Brez, didn’t think it would be as short-term as Senge did.

As they walked, the warriors around them relaxed slowly, though Kaz clearly saw two of them try to settle in at Lianhua’s back, where they could easily attack her if she went for Senge. Raff and Chi Yincang noticed ...

Chapter One hundred thirty-one

Six warriors waited at the bottom of the stairs, gold-bladed knives and teeth bared as they glared up at the descending group. They made no move to attack until Raff, who had moved into the lead as soon as he saw them, went to set foot on the tunnel floor.

The largest warrior, a black-furred male with eyes almost as dark as Chi Yincang’s, growled fiercely, stepping into Raff’s path. “Go back up, intruders,” he said. “Our chief wants no fulan, and no refugees.”

Brief delay

I had to take a friend to the hospital this morning (she's going to be fine) and it has thrown off my entire schedule. I will get a chapter done, but I'm only at 1300 words, and my kiddo is on the way home, and she's like a plague of locusts descending on the house. Hang in there, and I'll get that chapter out.

Chapter One hundred thirty

The next day, Kaz, Li, the humans, and a dozen male kobolds stood at the exit to the city. No one had found any more of the hidden stairs yet, not that they seemed to be looking, but now that the mosui were gone, getting to the stairs kobolds usually used shouldn’t be too difficult. This exit was on the husede’s residential level, so they would have to go down four more sets of stairs before they left the Nine, but that shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge either, no...

Chapter One hundred twenty-nine - Level up!

Kaz picked up the knife given to him by his Aunt Rega as she lay dying. She told him it had belonged to Kaz’s father, Ghazt, though Kaz didn’t remember ever seeing it before. Still, Kaz treasured it, not only because it reminded him of Rega and Ghazt, but because it was impossibly sharp and sturdy.

Recently, when he found the storage cavern full of the mosui’s most precious items, he had realized that his knife was made of adamantium, or at least an adamantium alloy, and ...

Chapter One hundred twenty-eight

Two days later, Kaz sat, staring from his newly sated pouch to the pile of objects he had removed from his torn and battered pack. It had taken a day and half for the pouch to release him, falling away from his hand while he slept, and when he woke to find it there he had been hesitant to even pick it up again. Still, it hadn’t actually hurt him, and it hadn’t even drawn out his ki until he offered it some, so eventually he managed, mainly because he was reluctant to leave it behind in hi...

Chapter One hundred twenty-seven

Some of the annoyance faded from Nucai’s gaze as it came to rest on Kaz, but then his eyes flickered to Lianhua and it returned.

“What are you still doing there?” Nucai demanded, sounding less than pleased.

Kaz indicated Lianhua. He was about to take a risk, but it was a small one, since he was certain the human would have said the same, if she’d been given a chance. “My friend here is attempting to find information about an ancient civilization called the Diushi,” he ...

Chapter One hundred twenty-six

Kaz staggered as the pouch continued sucking a constant stream of ki from him. He tried to close the connection, but once formed, it seemed impossible to disengage, much like when he got too close to one of the humans while they were cultivating. The difference was, of course, that there was no real intelligence behind this, just a mindless draw that he could neither reason with nor stop.

Beside him, Lianhua seemed to realize that something had gone wrong, and she reached out, trying to...

Chapter One hundred twenty-five

To Kaz’s disappointment, instead of looking excited or surprised, Lianhua just shook her head. “As I’ve mentioned, the Diushi were expansionists. They sent scholars, explorers, diplomats, and finally soldiers to every part of the continent. They weren’t exactly aggressive, in that they didn’t attack wantonly, but waited until the time was right, and they knew they could win with minimal loss of men and money. By the end, most countries yielded without a fight, and their former ruler...

Chapter One hundred twenty-four

The last of the rings was the only one Kaz was really interested in, and now he picked it up. It was a simple, wide silver band, thick enough that the top of the inset stone was flush with the metal surface. The gem itself was a rich blue, a few shades darker than Kaz’s fur, and the bottom tip of the cut end just protruded through the inner surface of the ring, so when he held it up to a light, the stone shone deep azure, but when it was on his finger, it only caught stray glimmers of light...

Chapter One hundred twenty-three

During his journey through the levels controlled by the mosui, Kaz had picked up a few things, and now he laid them out in front of Lianhua. One after another, he pulled out one mithril ingot, one ingot of adamantium, a small metal container covered in delicate metal filigree, a short, squat scroll that glowed deep blue and gold in his ki-sight, a single red crystal half the size of his head, a gleaming white hoyi egg, a simple pouch made of some unfamiliar fabric, three rin...

Chapter One hundred twenty-two

Kaz slipped into the water not far from where Li was splashing, and soon the dragon made her way over to him, using him like a stone in a pool. Climbing up onto his shoulder, she slithered back into the water as if she’d fallen by accident, thrashing until he scooped her up and put her back onto his shoulder. Next, she clambered up to the top of his head and jumped off, gliding a few feet before plummeting into the water with a splash that made him sneeze when droplets got in his nose.

Chapter One hundred twenty-one

Elvi smiled, plumed tail wagging gracefully. From the curve of her ears to the length of her snout, she was lovely, and the core in her abdomen spun with mingled gold and white power. She wasn’t as strong as her sister, Etle, but she wasn’t far off, either, and she had two colors of ki to Etle’s one. She was also determined to make Kaz her mate, and he was equally determined to escape such a fate.

Lianhua looked up, and the confusion in her eyes took a moment to clear. She had bee...

Chapter One hundred twenty (Start Book 3)

Kaz gently knocked on the door of Lianhua’s room, then pushed it open so he could peer inside. He knew she was there because he could see her dantians through the wall, but she had a tendency to become so engrossed in her work that she didn’t even hear him knock. She also forgot to eat, which was ostensibly the reason he was there.

As usual, she was seated behind the low table, pillows mounded around her as she pored over books and scrolls. He was glad to see a cup nearby, so she ha...

The logistics of writing

In case anyone was wondering, Book one of Broken Knife was 129k words. To me, that's about right, because when it's published, the book will be a good size and weight to hold in your hands. More practically speaking, I can charge the same price as my other books and still get a decent return in royalties.

For reference, my first book, Clearing, is 391 pages, 132k words, and I get $3.45 in royalties for each physical copy, and $1.05 for each ebook. (That's for books sol...

Chapter One hundred nineteen (End Book Two, Stone and Bone)

Once Kaz, Lianhua, and Thabil convinced small groups of kobolds and husede to work together, they were able to quickly fan out through the city and then the lower levels, freeing everyone still wearing a collar. Kaz himself was needed to free the husede leaders, whose collars required all five types of ki to unlock. It was strange to find himself at the center of so many confused and astonished gazes, especially from those he would once have considered far more important and...

Chapter One hundred eighteen

Thabil shifted, looking almost nervous as everyone turned to look at her. “There is a way to speak to all of the collared at once,” she said. “If you let me, I can tell my people what has happened.”

Lianhua hesitated, then nodded. “What do you need to do?”

The husede gestured toward the door. “There’s a room nearby with a device that allows far speaking. We use- used it when Zhangwo needed a larger group of us for some task. My people have been wa...