The Broken Knife

The Longtooth tribe lived almost directly beneath the Broken Knives, so once they reached the right level - which was strangely devoid of janjio - they then had to return, once again skirting the territory of other kobold tribes. Though the tribes in the depths could span large parts of several levels, their territory as much vertical as horizontal, the smaller, weaker tribes of the high mountain rarely controlled more than small sections of two.

The Longtooth tribe was neither particularly strong nor particularly weak for their area. They, like the Broken Knives, had fought a losing battle against a deeper clan, and many of their males had died in the process, forcing them to move to higher levels. At that time, however, Mital had been the only adult female, and now several of her daughters were coming of age and looking for mates of their own.

When Oda had announced luegat against them, Rega had demanded to know why. Oda had defended her choice by saying that if she didn’t, Mital would undoubtedly do it herself, because she would soon need both males and territory. Rega growled and said that Mital, who was nearly as arrogant as Oda, would wish to return to the depths, not absorb a tribe as weak as the remnants of the Broken Knives. There had very nearly been a battle for dominance over the issue, until Rega had finally bared her throat to her more powerful sister.

Now, looking down on the bustling kobolds below, Kaz wished Rega had won. If Oda was right, and Mital turned her eye toward them, it would have meant fleeing to the desolate levels at the very top of the mountain, where there was little food, and the air was so thin the weakest members of the tribe would probably die. Still, Katri had just come of age, and once she had a mate, she could begin to bear pups. Males would become warriors, and eventually be traded out to other tribes, but females were the true strength of a tribe, and Oda had gutted the Broken Knives by refusing to allow any other females to bear pups before Katri.

“Is that the tribe we need to get rid of?” Gaoda Xiang asked offhandedly, barely glancing down at a tribe that contained easily twice as many members as the Broken Knives. She didn’t even bother to lower her voice, and Katri and Kaz winced as they looked at each other.

“That is the Longtooth tribe, yes,” Katri murmured, flattening her sibilants so her voice wouldn’t carry down to the other kobolds. “You only need to slay some of the adult females, however, not the whole tribe.” Her ears were half-lowered as she looked around at the humans, and Kaz wondered if his self-confident sister was finally questioning her decision to accept help from these humans.

Lianhua peered over the edge of the hole they were using as a vantage point. It was too small for anyone to pass through it, and at a poor angle to allow anyone to attack the den from a distance, so it seemed that the Longtooths had decided it was unimportant. Oda had found it, though, and used it to scout out the weakest females, so she could prioritize targets when the two tribes battled. The Longtooths hadn’t been a true Deep tribe in generations, if ever, and to them, battles were won through overwhelming force, not strategy. This single fact was what had very nearly allowed Oda and the Broken Knives to win in spite of their smaller numbers.

“Are the little ones children?” the pup asked, her disturbingly short nose wrinkling. “I don’t want to kill children.”

Gaoda sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine, then. It would be easier to simply wipe them all out, but if you insist, cousin, we can leave the, ah, children.”

She turned her head, looking at Katri. “Which one is this Mital, then?”

Katri extended a clawed finger. “The one with gray fur, standing beside the male with green fur.” Her finger shifted. “Her eldest daughters are Maza, with the pale green fur, Mika, with dark green, and Mella, who is dark gray. She has younger daughters as well, but once the eldest are dead, they will submit.” Her lip drew back from her teeth in an expression Kaz had rarely seen. Katri tended to be overly cautious, if anything, perhaps in response to their mother’s recklessness.

Raff nodded, absently fingering the hilt of his weapon as he thought. “What about Big Green, then? And the other males?”

Katri hesitated. “Mital’s mate will probably die defending her,” she admitted reluctantly. “The others I would rather keep alive, if possible. When Mital and her daughters are dead, the others should give up, and I’m certain I can defeat any of the weaker females myself.”

Kaz eyed the remaining females. There weren’t nearly as many as there had been before the luegat, since Oda had managed to kill the strongest of them, other than Mital herself, while Katri and Rega started with the weakest and worked their way up. While Katri was too weak for the depths, she was strong for these levels, and if this worked, the combined tribe that remained would be able to survive comfortably, so long as they simply held onto what they had and didn’t over-forage.

Still, it seemed… dishonorable, to use outsiders for what should be a matter dealt with between kobolds. Even more dishonorable than fleeing before the mourning period was over, and hoping that the Longtooths wouldn’t bother following such a pitiful tribe all the way to the top of the mountain. In a few years, the Longtooth tribe would undoubtedly manage to work their way back down a few levels, at which point the Broken Knives, too, could quietly return to their place.

Gaoda stepped back. She glanced at Chi Yincang and languidly motioned to the hole, which was barely large enough for Kaz’s arm, and passed through more than a foot of solid stone. It would be possible to break through here, of course, but not without making so much noise that the Longtooths would have plenty of time to get defenders ready. Katri had only brought them to this place so she could show the humans who their targets were, before they actually entered through another nearby passage, which would undoubtedly be well-guarded.

So, Kaz was shocked when Chi Yincang waved his hand, producing his stick and blade weapon. Was he going to throw it through the hole? Surely not, since there was no way he could hit any of the Longtooths from this angle.

Chi Yincang began whirling his weapon through the air, the blade becoming a blur, while the rest of the humans stepped away from the opening. Taking their cue from them, the two kobolds also moved back, and Chi Yincang shifted, settling his feet in such a way that they seemed to become one with the stone beneath him. He was immovable as his weapon darted out, slashing once, then twice, before a subtle flash of light heralded its return to the ring on his right hand.

Kaz glanced back and forth between the expressionless human and the hole. It had seemed like Chi Yincang’s blade sank into the stone, but there was no visible sign that he had done anything at all. There weren’t even any scratches on the rock, and Kaz’s keen ears hadn’t picked up a single sound of metal on stone.

Then Chi Yincang’s foot lashed out, impacting the solid limestone just below the gap through which they had been watching the Longtooth tribe. A rectangular section of stone just slightly smaller than Kaz himself slid away with a grinding sound, tumbling through the air to crash down on the kobolds some fifty feet below.

With a yell, Raff launched himself through the new opening, followed swiftly but silently by Chi Yincang. The two females stepped forward so they could see easily, but Katri and Kaz fell back, shocked and horrified by how quickly and easily the males had gone from spectators to raiders.

Kaz shook his head as he watched Gaoda Xiang send her dancing balls of light forward into the fray, keeping only one back to protect herself and the pup. Kaz couldn’t see what was happening below, but his ears told him a story that made him crouch down and tuck his tail between his legs.

“Katri,” he whimpered, “this isn’t right.”

His sister looked like she, too, would prefer to cower before the merciless strength of the humans, but she straightened her shoulders and lifted her ears at his words, looking so much like their mother that he actually flinched away.

“No,” she murmured, “this is life. We will use them, and they will use us, and we can only hope that in the end, we come out ahead. This is what Mother knew, and Aunt Rega doesn’t understand. Mother was just too proud to realize that she didn’t have to restrict herself to what her mother taught her. We are no longer a tribe of the Deeps. Honor is a privilege, not a right, and I will do what I must to save our tribe.”

Kaz blinked. This was a side of his sister he had never seen before. She had always bowed her head before Oda and Rega, and had been Kaz’s main support once their father had been killed. While she wasn’t gentle, she had always been sympathetic, and though she had voiced private dissatisfaction with Oda’s constant cycle of luegats, she had never once revealed the near-hatred that now caused her to bare her teeth.

He shook his head. “Rega will never accept this, Katri. You know she won’t.”

For just a moment, Katri’s tail drooped, but she gathered herself and snarled, “Then I’ll challenge her, and I’ll win. I’ll win because she’s soft, and she won’t want to kill me, but I won’t hesitate. I may not have been strong enough to defeat Oda, but I’m stronger than Rega, and I’ve been waiting for this chance for a very long time.”

A soft chuckle interrupted them, and both kobolds looked around, seeing Gaoda Xiang watching Katri with a strange expression. “You almost make me like you, kobold,” the female said, tilting her head to one side as she smiled. “Your filial piety is so blindingly bright.”

Katri’s hackles raised slightly, and Kaz instinctively stepped between his sister and the human. Gaoda’s eyes flicked, dismissed him, then returned to Katri. “Would you,” Gaoda said, lips curving further, “like us to kill your aunt for you, little kobold?”

Kaz took a half-step back. He knew that was what Katri had been implying, but to hear it stated so clearly was… shocking. While challenges for dominance weren’t uncommon here in the high levels, in the Deeps they were all but unknown, since politics as much as power kept the lead females in place. And for Katri to say she would challenge Rega? Or even have the humans murder her outright? Their aunt had been more of a mother to them than Oda had, and Kaz didn’t know how Katri could even consider killing the older female.

Katri’s silver eyes were cold when they met Gaoda’s amused blue ones. “Only if she won’t step aside on her own.”

The human’s short, flat teeth flashed briefly, and she said, “The deal is struck, then. We will kill your enemies, and your aunt, if needed, and you will send your most experienced blue kobold to guide us.”

Kaz tensed. Blue was the rarest of all fur colors, though this human had no way of knowing that. By making that a condition of the deal, she was effectively claiming Kaz himself.

A hand fell on Kaz’s shoulder, and Katri squeezed his flesh almost painfully tight. “Kaz would be the best choice anyway. He was young when we left the Deeps, but most of the older males have died in Oda’s pointless luegats. The few who are left were never gatherers on the levels between here and there, and would only know the territory immediately around our dens. Kaz has always been a wanderer, venturing further from home than any of the others, so he’ll know the territory best.”

Kaz’s head whipped around so he could stare at his sister. She was right, of course. Over the last few years, he had had to go further and further from their den in order to find enough living things to shunt his power into as he grew, while the other pups stayed as close to home as possible, and the adult warriors remained to protect the rest of the tribe. Besides that, he had always liked to wander, even after he grew old enough to understand just how dangerous the habit was. Still, how could she offer up his life so casually?

She lifted a lip at him, and his ears flattened. She was female, and would soon be his chief, one way or the other, so he would do as she said. But in his chest, his heart burned. It had always been them, together, keeping each other safe when Oda went on one of her rampages, supporting each other after their father died, and Katri had even broken tradition in order to teach Kaz to read some of the symbols within the chief’s book, though she had never quite dared to show him the inside of the book itself.

Which, Kaz realized with a shudder, should have been a warning. Katri had always done whatever she wanted, so long as she wouldn’t be caught. And, if it looked like she would be discovered, she would blame it on Kaz, saying he didn’t know any better, since he was just a male. Once Kaz had been punished, she would seek him out, cajoling and smiling, until he accepted her apologies and her offer to teach him a few more runes.

As Kaz’s head went down, so did Katri’s lip, and her hand relaxed on his shoulder. “It’s time for your spirit hunt anyway, Kaz,” she said. “I’m sure there’s much you can learn from the human warriors, so when you get back, you’ll be ready to defeat a powerful beast and take your rightful place as an adult. I will find you a strong mate, perhaps one of Mital’s remaining daughters, and your children will bring strength to the Broken Knives.”

Kaz just stood there, unable to respond, until the sound of Raff’s voice echoed up from below. “Oi, Gaoda Xiang! We’re done down here! What does Pink want us to do with the rest of them?”

Katri’s eyes lit up, and she released Kaz, moving around him to look through the hole. She flinched slightly at whatever she saw, but told Gaoda, “I can’t jump down there, and there’s nothing to attach a rope to. We’ll have to go around to the other entrance.”

Gaoda snorted and pushed her off the edge.