elizabeth_oswald

Chapter Three hundred fifty-five

It took almost a week to make even a brief examination of the majority of the cores. After a day or so, each of the great chiefs sent down helpers, most of whom were males. When Rega taught the Broken Knives about cores, she emphasized that all of them should resist eating one if they found it, and either bring it back to the den, or tell an adult so they could gather it instead. Rega hadn’t differentiated between males and females in her teaching howls, so it was only now that Kaz discover...

LR Chapter Twenty-eight - A Tail for the Trail

The next two days were spent in a blur of lectures and books, all delivered by a Killian who was a far more terrible villain than he had ever been in the game. At least, if you discounted the people he killed and the fact that he wanted to tear apart the kingdom. Which probably meant this Lian wasn’t actually worse, but as Pandy lay sprawled on her belly in the late summer heat, it certainly seemed like it.

“The eldest daughter of the Blackwoods married the only son of...

Chapter Three hundred fifty-four

Kaz didn’t know where to begin, so Li shared the howl with Kyla instead. Li’s version was far more exciting than Kaz’s would have been, since he mostly remembered being frightened for Li and chasing after Nucai. The actual fighting parts - which was what Kyla wanted to hear about - had been brief, which was normal, at least in Kaz’s experience. Most of the time, one of the warriors was stronger or more skilled than the other, and all it took was a single error to end a battle.

H...

Chapter Two hundred fifty-three

They all made their way through the jumble of fallen shelves and shattered cores, and Kaz found that walking instead of flying didn’t help him resist the press of ki rising from those sad, scattered spheres. It wasn’t as bad right next to the door, as some of the ki made its way out into the rest of the mountain, but the coating of wei on the walls held the rest of it in.

At least it did until the Tiger reared up and slashed at the wall, chipping and cracking the coating. T...

Chapter Three hundred fifty-two

Ever since Kaz realized just how unusual his sense of direction was, he’d wondered how it came to be. Was it part of his ability to see ki? He had a Goldblade grandfather, so perhaps he’d inherited the ability? He’d honestly believed he would never know, and so he’d put it from his mind.

But when his ki and Nucai’s merged, even for so brief a time, he learned things, many of which he would probably spend the rest of his long life trying to forget. But some of those things also...

Chapter Three hundred fifty-one

Kaz explained quickly, and his cousin didn’t hesitate. She ran off toward Lianhua, who was already speaking with Ija. Certain that Kyla would do as he’d asked, Kaz allowed his focus to widen, seeing that while Ija and Gram had been right behind Kyla, Avli and Tisdi were on their way as well. Someone else was coming, too, sneaking through side tunnels and crevices. He would have to keep an eye on that.

Drawing in a deep breath, Kaz turned back to Li. He wished he still had some ki-cr...

Chapter Three hundred fifty (Kyla)

Kyla had never had a day so full of terror and triumph. She and Raff  had run through the city more quickly than she’d realized it could be done. Of course, it helped when he scooped her up and slung her on his shoulder while he cut down Irondiggers with his ridiculously large weapon, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

Once she could just hold a shield over them, blocking the darts the Irondiggers shot at them from what seemed like every corner, she’d had far too much tim...

LR Chapter Twenty-seven - Tiddlywhat?

It turned out that a hostage could, in fact, become quite untidy, especially when the Really Evil Pirate Drake shoved her into a large plant that might be a bougainvillea but probably wasn’t, because Pandy didn’t actually know what a bougainvillea looked like. In any case, the Lovely Princess Lavender took a tumble, along with several potted plants, causing the embattled pirates to cease attacking each other with invisible swords and instead hurry to her aid. Wayward Pirate Pete had to hu...

Chapter Three hundred forty-nine

The trail of toppled shelves and fallen cores continued for quite a ways, and Kaz felt more than a little sick at just how many cores there were. Nucai had had centuries to gather them, however, and among the memories Kaz had inadvertently taken from the other male were ones that made Kaz realize that the Irondiggers had been doing far more than he’d guessed.

Not only had they gathered information for Nucai, they’d also gathered cores, especially from the top levels of the mountain ...

Chapter Three hundred and forty-eight

A monster crouched before him, ready to leap. Its fur was the color of golden flames, and red embers burned in its eyes. It would have stood shoulder to shoulder with Raff, and muscles rippled beneath its hide as it stalked toward Kaz.

Instinctively, Kaz drew on his ki, and to his relief it came without pain, though he wasn’t sure why he was surprised by that fact. He formed a shield around himself, and pulled a blade from its sheath at his waist. As he raised it, he realized that he ...

Chapter Three hundred forty-seven

“You want out,” Kaz managed, one hand behind him, still resting on the patch of blue scales on Li’s chest, waiting for a heartbeat that never came. “Qiangde trapped you here when he made it so no creature with any significant portion of dragon blood could remain within the rest of the mountain. You couldn’t simply destroy the Tree, breaking the crystals, because you also can’t leave the mountain, and the Tree connects and powers everything that makes this place beara...

Chapter Three hundred forty-six

Kaz wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he had won. There was no way either Nucai or Dongwu had been crushed beneath the overwhelming mass of things that had poured out of the pouch. In fact, Kaz himself could think of several ways to get out of the shifting pile, including simply reducing everything around his own shield to ash.

No, Kaz’s only hope lay in the fact that Nucai wanted the core that Qiangde had stored in the pouch, and might not be willing to risk it be...

Chapter Three hundred forty-five

“Uncle?” Dongwu said, her eyes downcast as she drew closer.

“Have you been speaking to the intruders?” Nucai asked, his eyes, which were so like Lianhua’s in color, were entirely absent of the warmth that made hers so lovely.

Dongwu’s hands clenched briefly into fists, then relaxed again as she shrugged. “The little Magmablade used to visit my forge. She brought them by. What was I supposed to do?”

“Send them away,” Nucai said, but sighed. “I suppose it...

LR Chapter Twenty-six - The Really Evil Pirate Drake

All color drained from Geraldine’s cheeks, then returned as rapidly as it had left. Her eyes grew huge, and she stared up at her mother as if she’d just been given the best Christmas, birthday, and Boxing Day gift ever. Honestly, Pandy had only the flimsiest of grasps on what Boxing Day was, but she was almost certain it involved gifts, and thus the simile worked.

“Really?” the girl gasped, turning to look at her father. “Really and truly?”

Both of her parents...

Chapter Three hundred forty-four

Idla actually laughed. “Later is good enough for you, pup.”

It looked like she would turn away, so Kaz said, “Is it good enough for you?”

She froze. “What do you mean?”

Kaz pointed. “Your core is still damaged. Didn’t you trade yourself and your tribe for it to be healed? Or did Nucai tell you he’d do it ‘later’?” He could hardly believe the words were coming from his mouth. What had happened to the puppy who would barely look a female in the eye, muc...

Chapter Three hundred forty-three

Kaz turned his back on the core. Even if he could afford to continue giving it ki - and that thought made him shudder in revulsion - he had no time for anything unnecessary. Instead, he looked around, his eyes seeking out something he had seen last time he was here but - for once - hadn’t investigated.

At the edge of the open area where Qiangde’s skeleton rested stood two huge crystals. Qiangde’s claws had once encircled them, but now those bones had fallen or lay scattered, expos...

Holy writer's block, Batman!

I've written and deleted about five different versions of today's chapter, and none of them work. I know what needs to happen, but I'm not getting there. I'm very, very sorry to do this, but I need sleep. I'll get this chapter done after I get some rest, and then hopefully the one after that will come much more easily. I don't get writer's block often, but there's something about this one that's killing me. I'm going to do my best to get two chapters done tomorrow to catch up, because this is...

Chapter Three hundred forty-two

Even as Li gathered herself to lift back into the air, Lianhua spoke to Kaz. “Do you think you can stop this without damaging the Tree any further?”

Kaz laid a hand on Li’s neck, and the dragon paused long enough for him to reply. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “But Nucai has a way in and out of the Tree that doesn’t damage it. Wait for just a little longer, and I swear I’ll find a way to open that way.” He was, after all, surprisingly good at opening passages oth...

Chapter Three hundred forty-one

Some long-running battle had taken place between the city and the Tree. The guards who should have been protecting the gate were missing, and the gate itself was tilted in its place, blood spattered and smeared as if a dozen kobolds had bled to the last drop, though no bodies were visible. The very stone beneath Kaz’s paws was shattered in places, and Li held tightly to their concealment, expecting to come upon a scene of chaos around any corner.

Nothing happened except that the amoun...

Chapter Three hundred forty

Raff was standing in the midst of a pile of dead and dying Irondiggers, while Kyla appeared and disappeared around him, each time burying her knife in an attacker. Because she wasn’t using ki-bolts or a shield, Kyla’s ki was still in surprisingly good shape. It seemed that Kyla had found a way of fighting that suited her particular skills, though it wouldn’t work if she was on her own, without an ally to distract her enemies.

Li had joined them, and her golden claws were now as re...

LR Chapter Twenty-five - Noble Notions and Niceties

Another week passed in hazy late summer days, filled with the hum of locusts and the scent of Lady Reedsley’s flowers blooming in wild abundance. Honestly, Pandy wasn’t even sure all of the flowers she saw were supposed to bloom at the same time - or that they were all ‘real’ flowers at all - but when the rich perfume filled her nose, it was difficult to care.

Thaniel had received a whole new wardrobe from the guests who’d come for his birthday party, along with all of the boo...

Chapter Three hundred thirty-nine

Kaz and Li almost immediately ran into a group of gray-furred kobolds attacking a red-furred female. A male with deep orange fur lay on the ground at her feet, and she had her shield lifted to cover them both. From the matching rubies on their necklaces, they were probably mates, and had been taken unawares by their assailants.

“Get away!” the female growled, but Kaz could see her ki was already low. Two more gray-furred males lay nearby, and the stillness of their bodies indicated ...

Chapter Three hundred thirty-eight (Chi Yincang)

Small pink toes twitching,

Eyes yet closed to the new world,

A breath, calm and deep.

Chi Yincang swept his brush over thin rice paper, then stared down at the words. Somehow, they didn’t quite capture the perfect innocence of the tiny new lives nestled next to their mother in the next room. It was truly a fascinating thing. He felt nothing at taking lives when needed, but these helpless creatures made his heart pound in his chest. Drawing his br...

Chapter Three hundred thirty-seven

The sound of Kyla’s hands slapping the table as she stood made them all turn to stare at the pink-furred female. She, in turn, was staring at Dongwu. “You let this happen,” she said, not asking. “You knew it was wrong, but you did it anyway, and then you went and hid.”

She stepped back, and it was obvious that she was furious. The fur along her spine stood up, and her tail looked like the top of a yumi reed, after it turned to fluff. “Why didn’t you take us a...

Chapter Three hundred thirty-six

They were seated at a table that looked like it had been made from many small pieces of wood, each carved into shape and held together with some kind of glue before being polished to a high shine. Wood was incredibly rare in the mountain, even in the Deep. Had Dongwu gathered all of these pieces bit by bit? Why hadn’t she just walked outside and cut down a tree sometime in the last eight hundred years?

Rather than chairs, the table had been built with such short legs that everyone sim...

Chapter Three hundred thirty-five

Dongwu’s brown, human eyes stared at Kaz, then through him, and she said, “What are you? You look like one of mine, but if you were, you would obey.” Tufts of fur reminiscent of eyebrows drew down over her eyes, and she suddenly looked disturbingly like Lianhua did when presented with an interesting rune.

Truthfully, Kaz had never expected to meet the creator of his race, and if he did, he thought he should have hated her, but there was something almost…pathetic about t...

LR Chapter Twenty-four - Tenuous Trust

The Reedsleys only had ten or so regular servants - though that seemed like a lot to Pandy and Thaniel - and all of them were apparently busy in the kitchen or serving guests. The halls were empty as Thaniel snuck up to his room, cradling Pandy to his chest like she was something precious. Only when he closed the door of his room behind them did he truly relax, releasing a deep sigh even as he hurried to the bed.

Out of habit, he started to put Pandy on the smooth, fluffy duvet, but sto...

Chapter Two hundred thirty-four

<Leave my friends alone!> Li howled, pressing against Kaz’s back as her own ki rose up to surround them, then flooded into the space ahead. The thing that was trying to overwhelm Kyla and Lianhua staggered slightly, separating completely from the red column for the first time. It was shaped like a kobold, though it was at least as tall as Kaz, and its muzzle was unusually short. Was it from the same tribe as Dugo? Was it even a kobold at all?

Its ki swelled, and Li pulled on the...

GLOSSARY (not a story chapter)

Diushi

First emperor - Qiangde Long

Language is called Diushan. The civilization it replaced was the Sheng Empire, so the original language was Old Sheng.

Kobolds

Broken Knives

14 members remain, none younger than Kaz

• Katri - elder sister - pink fur, silver eyes, some scarring on chest

• Oda - Chief, crimson fur, silver/blue eyes

• Rega - den-mother and healer, garnet red fur, orange eyes

• Killik - strongest...

  2025-01-10 00:43:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Three hundred thirty-three

Kaz had lost count of stairs at just over three thousand. His legs didn’t tire, but Li’s did, and the unchanging view ahead and behind them made them feel like they were trapped in an unending staircase.

<Are you certain there wasn’t another platform?> Li asked, far from the first time. He couldn’t blame her, though. They’d agreed to try the stairs they’d found on the otherwise empty and apparently unfinished level below Xundu’s lake. After two thousand stairs and a ...