elizabeth_oswald

Chapter One hundred seventeen

Kaz and Lianhua reached the husede at the same time. Lianhua’s hands grasped those of the other female, pulling them away from the pedestals even as the hum began to rise. Kaz, who had used his chair as a launching point, was able to grasp her around the ribs, clawed fingers unerringly digging into the wounds hidden beneath her robe.

Thabil howled, her voice a deep roar of anguished fury, even as she was simultaneously pulled and thrown from her seat. Kaz didn’t think Lianh...

Chapter One hundred sixteen

A kobold, two husede, one human, and a dragon raced through trembling halls. Once, they had to clear the remains of a doorway out of their path, and twice they met other husede, who simply yielded to them when they saw Thabil. Kaz glanced back at the first pair, seeing that they were staring after the group with gaping mouths.

Their destination turned out to be one of the platforms covered in ki crystals. Like Thabil’s device, there were yellow and white stones mingl...

Chapter One hundred fifteen

Immediately, Kaz released his hold, internally relieved as the alarming red shade of the female’s skin began to fade back to its normal iron gray. He maintained a fierce snarl as he looked at Erith, however, and slid to the side so he stood between the male and Lianhua. Li was busy dragging her prize back to Lianhua as well, and Kaz didn’t think the husede had actually processed her existence yet anyway.

Showing unexpected bravery, Erith stepped toward Thabil, his dark eyes...

Chapter One hundred-fourteen

The stairs curved as Kaz ascended, vanishing only twenty steps ahead of him. The slope was steep, and though Lianhua hadn’t seemed heavy when Kaz picked her up, by the time he had passed four short landings, each with an arched opening leading to a hall filled with crimson light, his legs ached. The only good thing was that these steps were noticeably shorter than the nine inch rise he was used to, so while there were more of them, he could take two or three at a time without much effort. 2024-02-13 19:39:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter One hundred-thirteen

Kaz instantly backed up a step, his gaze darting between the male and the formerly dark hallway ahead. Should he run for it? If so, which way should he go? This being had helped Kaz the last time they met, but he also seemed to know and at least tolerate Zhangwo, which was no recommendation at all.

A tiny smile curved the thin lips as the male’s eyes lingered again on Lianhua. He set his hand to the pen again, and while it wobbled slightly, it soon settled back into the smooth flow of...

Chapter One hundred-twelve

Zhangwo turned away from Lianhua, taking two long strides back to the place the image of the mountain had hovered. He fiddled with the rings on his fingers, and the mountain reappeared, just as clear and lifelike as before. Reaching out, he pulled and twisted it, and Kaz, watching through Li, saw the tiniest sparks of ki jump from his jewelry to the insubstantial picture.

After a moment, during which Lianhua’s face grew red with effort as she strained against whatever held her, the 2024-02-09 18:54:40 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter One hundred-eleven

Kaz had been watching through Li’s eyes the entire time he climbed the stairs. He thought this staircase was a little shorter than the one between the mines and the yumi pools, but it could just be that he was so driven by fear that he bounded up them far more quickly. He tried telling Li to wait, but she acted as if she hadn’t even heard him, continuing forward long after she should have stopped.

By the time he reached the door, his fur was damp with sweat, and he was actu...

Chapter One hundred-ten

This tunnel was the first one that had no exits at all. That and the fact that it did, in fact, grow smaller and smaller as Li progressed made the dragon wonder if she had made the right choice in coming this way. She should have taken a short nap in the alcove where she’d eaten the ki-stone, and waited for Kaz.

Still Li had to admit that she was, possibly, slightly concerned about where the husede had taken Lianhua, and why. If the mosui just wanted to keep the huma...

Chapter One hundred-nine

Once again, the world was filled with red, and as it reformed, Kaz saw that wherever the platform was taking him, there were a few blurry figures already present. In fact, one seemed to walk right through him, and he felt a sudden spike in the amount of power the platform was drawing from him as he and his conveyance seemed to shimmer back into a more ethereal insubstantiality. This gave Kaz enough time to gather his wits and realize that appearing unexpectedly in the middle of a group of peo...

Chapter One hundred-eight

Behind him, jar after jar popped as their contents overheated, sending stone lids flying through the air after him. The air was filled with roiling black smoke and the roaring of flames mingling with the clatter of stone striking stone. Kaz’s paws, still soaked in whatever the fluid was, continued to slip and slide from under him, dropping him to the ground with bruising force. He ran without care for the baskets around him, dodging around them, but sometimes knocking them over as he strugg...

Chapter One hundred-seven

The symbols on the baskets to his left changed twice more, and a quick glance inside them revealed first raw diamonds, and then small pieces of some black metal. It was only when he attempted to pick this up and it clung together in a clump  that he realized they must be lodestones, which Kaz had heard mentioned before, but never seen. The urns on his other side continued on, row after row of them, extending into the shadows.

He was beginning to believe that in spite of the glitter...

Chapter One hundred-six

Kaz rolled wildly, trying to cover his face as he was blown away from the exploding door. Heat stung his body, but the ki he had used to reinforce his skin before throwing himself to the ground seemed to be doing its job, and nothing hurt except his shoulder, where it had struck the wall. His ears were ringing, and woozily, he reminded himself to pull the ki from his ears before the next time he blew something up.

There was no way the sound hadn’t alerted anyone nearby that something ...

Chapter One hundred-five

There were already a great number of kobolds heading for the niu cavern, and as more continued to pour in, Kaz realized that there must be far more of the interconnected fields than he had passed through earlier. All of the kobolds were wet and tired, and apparently they were used to seeing Eld outside of the central cavern, because while many of them gave him a respectful salute, they didn’t look surprised or linger to find out what was going on.

When Nogz appeared, Eld yipp...

Chapter One hundred-four

On a level high above Kaz, Li raced into a hallway, as perfectly rectangular as the ones that led from staircase to staircase in the mid-levels, though only a quarter the size. Her wings flapped, and she rose unsteadily into the air, but nearly ran into the ceiling as her left wing cramped painfully. She tucked her left forefoot up against her chest protectively, rather than relaxing it as she usually did, letting out a small hiss of pain.

“No,” Kaz whispered, “you can�...

Chapter One hundred-three

Kaz closed his eyes, a hundred thousand memories flashing through his mind. The looks of pitying disdain on the faces of other kobolds whenever they met his tribe. The respect and even affection with which the males of the Copperstrikers, Sharpjaws, and Redmanes regarded their females, particularly their chiefs. His father, saying, “Never question a female’s decisions, especially your mother.”

And his mother, Oda, over and over and over again. Things he had overlooked because she ...

Sheer amusement value

Have you seen or tried these new snacks? They are real (though I've obviously made some alterations). My husband says they're tasty, though they're too sweet for me. (But then, so are Hostess(tm) cupcakes, so keep that in mind if you want to try them.) I absolutely couldn't resist buying some, or making a quick (okay, not so quick) edit to the packaging. Now I'm wondering if I could get away with using this for an ad on RoyalRoad 🤣 I'm sure I could do a lot more with the text, but I have t...

A quarter million words?!

I've now written more than a quarter of a million words of Broken Knife. Yay! For that, I give you young puppy Kaz, from back before the Broken Knives left the Deep, along with his father, Ghazt.

Chapter One hundred two

The trip was surprisingly long, and Kaz and Nogz passed through three more caverns just like the first, right down to the blue and yellow crystals in the ceiling, and the broad pools filled with yumi. A group of collared kobolds worked in each, while a niu stood by, strapped to a mat containing heaping mounds of reeds. Each time, Nogz gave a yip or short howl of greeting, and some of the gatherers called back, while others ignored the pup completely. Most of these bore the d...

Chapter One hundred-one

The space beyond was small and dark, and though Kaz froze, finger extended and ears perked, he couldn’t hear anything to indicate that anyone or anything had heard the soft rasping of stone against stone. Like the map in the Redmane’s den, this one swiveled in the middle, so perfectly balanced that it barely made a sound until it thumped against some object that had been left in the way.

Slowly, Kaz straightened from his crouch, pulling his knife from its sheath as he took a single ...

Chapter One hundred

Instantly, sound and clarity returned to their bond, and Kaz saw and heard exactly what Li did.

A slim, furless hand reached in between the rim and the lid of the gleaming red box, bizarrely huge and yet familiar. A similarly familiar sound and smell reached them as Lianhua cradled the little dragon against her, whispering, “Oh, thank the Enlightened Ones, you’re all right.”

A shuffling sound came from behind them, and the human female spun, the sudden movement making Li diz...

Chapter Ninety-nine

Hoyi were stubborn creatures, but not irrationally so, like the zhiwu. Once Kaz was far enough up the stairs that there was no way he presented a threat to their queen any longer, one after another of the warriors began to give up. Which was good, because Kaz’s strength was flagging as well, but he didn’t dare slow for fear of encouraging the insects to continue their chase.

Only when Kaz could no longer hear the click of the enraged creature’s legs against the s...

Chapter Ninety-eight

Most of the hoyi were warriors and workers, but there were two other types Kaz hadn’t seen anywhere in the nest. The first were even smaller than the workers, and had wings, flying from place to place inside the vast cavern. Kaz didn’t know what their purpose was, but they mostly circled the last hoyi and brought her food, so perhaps they were minions of some kind.

This last hoyi was clearly the queen. Not unexpectedly, she had a core, and black and white ...

Chapter Ninety-seven

The round tunnel was as straight as Dett had told him it would be. It intersected with a multitude of other passages, but never deviated from its path. More than once, workers scurried out of a tunnel in front of or behind Kaz, nearly frightening him out of his fur, but they always ignored him, moving past as if he didn’t exist.

Kaz hugged the wall, occasionally running across the wide passage when a new opening loomed on whichever side he was currently on. The further he went, the mo...

Chapter Ninety-six

They were deep in the huyi nest before they saw another of the warrior bugs. This one was walking, apparently aimlessly, its long antennae tapping the floor and walls as it passed. It was in no hurry, unlike the workers, who continued to ignore the kobold intruders, though Dett had them retreat a short distance each time they saw one.

Kaz was in the lead, which would have seemed strange if he wasn’t aware that Dett was perfectly willing to use Kaz as a distraction in order to...

How a story grows

Often, when I get a story idea, there's a particular scene that pops into my head. Everything else just kind of forms around that, explaining how and why it happened, as well as when happens after. For Broken Knife, I actually have three of those.

The first one was in the first chapter (which is handy when you're writing a book) and it was the fruit falling from the little tree, down into the mountain. Where did it go? Why was it there? How could it even grow in such a desolate place? A...

Chapter Ninety-five

Whether because he didn’t want to leave his peaceful dreams of flying, or because of the silence of the den, Kaz didn’t wake until the deep, rolling chime ran out again. He opened his eyes, finding that at some point he had curled up on his side, clutching his tail for comfort like he had when he was a young puppy.

He was the only kobold who had slept alone, and the others were all getting up as well, though they had to untangle themselves in order to do so. Again, there was no awkw...

Chapter Ninety-four

The miner’s ‘den’ had no huts, just areas where males piled together like exhausted puppies. There was nowhere for food to be stored or cooked, and no sign of fire or pots. Dim red crystals lit the area, but it was the darkest place Kaz had seen since his abduction, other than some of the tunnels they had passed through to get here. No one was training, no one was crafting, and no voices broke the quiet except soft murmurs. Even in the Sharpjaw den, the doomed males had at least attempt...

Chapter Ninety-three

Time seemed to still. At his side, Surta stood frozen, his mouth twisted in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. Dax was hunched near the other side of the square, as far from the other kobolds as he could get while remaining on the same platform. His expression was bitter, and he was looking at something from the corner of his eyes. It took Kaz a moment to track his gaze and realize he was looking at Surta. This confused Kaz, because the gray male had been nothing but helpful...

Chapter Ninety-two

*WARNING* I don't do this often, but there is a brief description of what could be seen as torture in this chapter (not Kaz, don't worry). Kaz learns something important from it, but you may want to skip it. I'll mark before and after the scene with ***

Now that Kaz had figured out the trick of not being blinded by the crystal ki, he was able to look properly at the mosui and husede that populated t...

Chapter Ninety-one

Kaz had been both right and wrong. It really was a city, but it wasn’t ruined. The buildings were sturdy and well-maintained, looking much like the ones in the Deep, except that they were taller. Kobolds preferred low buildings, but it seemed that the mosui, or whoever had created these, liked buildings that went from floor to ceiling, even if that ceiling was thirty feet above their heads. There were even round holes cut in the sides all the way up, presumably to allow fr...