The next day, Kaz, Li, the humans, and a dozen other 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, now that the fulan was being burned out.

Kaz looked at the ten males who would be going with them, and his ears flattened slightly in worry. They were a sad sight, some missing a hand or paw, and one had a ring of raised and puckered scars around his torso where he’d been bitten by something very large. All of them had matching looks of grim determination, except for the smallest one, who just looked nervous, eyes darting around as he hung behind the largest and least damaged of the others.

This one was Dett, of course. Kaz wondered how it was that the small male was even there, and hadn’t decided to remain in the city until he was certain the path to the Deep was as safe as it could get. A few fresh bruises argued that someone had decided they didn’t like the former miner, hastening Dett’s decision to leave sooner, rather than later. The cobbled-together warrior’s necklace he had been wearing was notably absent.

Kaz turned to Dax, who looked nearly as grim as the departing males. “Are you certain they can all make it?” he asked, tilting his head toward the kobold who was missing a paw. He had strapped a carved piece of bone to the stump, but it looked uncomfortable, if not outright painful, and he moved slowly.

Dax was as gruff as ever when he said, “They understand the risks. If you have to leave one or more of them behind, no one will blame you.” His voice softened slightly as he met Kaz’s eyes. “I trust you not to abandon them if there’s any other option.”

Kaz wanted to hunch his shoulders beneath the weight of that statement, but instead he straightened them and nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

“All right!” Lianhua’s voice squeaked slightly, but she cleared her throat, straightened her own shoulders, and looked around at the motley group. “All right! We’re going to follow Geru to the stairs. Everyone listen to him, and if we’re attacked, just gather up and let us do the fighting.”

Her cheeks were pink, and she seemed relieved when all the kobolds looked away from her and toward the brown-furred warrior standing beside Dax. He had the bare ring of skin around his neck that indicated he had been a captive for a long time, and a good amount of the skin and fur on his right arm and side were burned and patchy.

Geru’s voice was hoarse, though Kaz didn’t know if that was because of whatever had caused the burns or if it was just his natural tone. He looked around, meeting each kobold’s eyes, then said, “I’ve been helping burn the fulan on this level, so I know where the traps are, and how to reach the stairs. The mosui left behind a mess, so even if something I tell you to do seems ridiculous, you need to do it.”

Wincing, he held up his right arm a bit. “This happened when I got too confident, and fell into a pit while I was holding a pot of oil and a lit torch. I don’t want to see any of you go through that.”

Ears flattened and tails tucked at the mere thought, and Kaz was frankly amazed that the other kobold was in good enough condition to lead them out. On the other hand, there probably weren’t many kobolds who knew the right path, so Dax’s choices for a guide must have been limited.

Fortunately, Geru’s legs were undamaged, so once the group got started, they were able to move fairly quickly. The warrior missing a paw, Ratre, was the slowest of the group, but he somehow managed to keep moving quickly enough that he didn’t hold them back too much, especially since Geru was being extremely cautious.

Kaz could see how much work the kobolds and husede had already put into clearing the level. The pit traps were open and clearly visible, though sometimes difficult to maneuver around. There were some rockfall traps that Geru guided them through. They hadn’t yet been disabled because no one wanted to have to clear away a pile of rocks from the tunnel if they were accidentally triggered.

Burned-out patches of moss and mushrooms were everywhere. The fulan had been allowed to run its course on this level for so long that plant life was small and stunted, so the burned areas were modest but constant. There were almost no spores in the air, which was a great relief to Kaz and Li.

By now, even Lianhua was convinced that no one without a core was at risk, so while Lianhua made a small shield around her head to keep out even the lingering remnants, Raff and Chi Yincang didn’t even wear masks. Kaz had practiced with Lianhua’s shield rune until he could make something that was nearly identical to the small one she used, so he and Li breathed easily within a sphere of perfectly clean air that no one else could see. Kaz didn’t know how to adjust the rune to make the shield larger or thicker, but for now, it worked, and he would ask Lianhua to teach him how to manipulate it later.

They reached the stairs without trouble, and Geru barked a short farewell as Lianhua hurried forward to examine the map carved into the stone beside the entrance to the stairs. A few of the warriors looked as if they wanted to follow the brown-furred male back to the city, but they just shuffled awkwardly in place as they waited.

Lianhua, of course, pulled out her book and sketched the map before leaning in to examine it closely. Her fingers traced the stacked lines around the outside, which were entirely absent from the maps inside the city itself, and she clicked her tongue thoughtfully as she eyed the different figures.

Tapping one of the ones with a long, thick tail and what looked like spikes protruding from its head, she said, “Kaz? Do your people have anything that looks like this? Ceremonial garb, maybe?”

Kaz shook his head. He had assumed the difference was because of some form of ancient armor, but now that he knew the mosui, at least, had been created, he had an entirely different guess.

Lianhua glanced around at the others, who were all listening in, if only because they had nothing else to do while waiting on her. “Do you think they’re… like the mosui, then?”

The mosui and the kobolds, if her interpretation of Zhangwo’s records was correct. Kaz shrugged. “Possibly. If so, they must have either left the mountain or died out. There aren’t many of them in any of the carvings I’ve seen, so maybe they were rare to begin with. The mountain is a hard place, and many tribes have simply vanished over the years. Even the mosui can’t be to blame for all of them.”

She nodded thoughtfully, then leaned in, squinting. “I should have looked at more of these before we left the city. The ones here are too worn down to show any detail. Do these look like horns to you, though?”

Kaz had actually spent some time examining the carvings in the city, trying to figure out how to find the secret stairs, and he had seen details that were no longer visible on this one. Somewhat reluctantly, he nodded. “I thought they might be some kind of skin or armor the kobolds are wearing. I’ve never seen anything like it, but I’m beginning to realize there’s a lot I don’t know about my own people.”

He meant it as a poor excuse for a joke, but it failed miserably, because Lianhua only looked remorseful as she stepped away from the wall. She put a smile on her face, but it was a far cry from the cheerful or enthusiastic one she usually wore when she was learning something new. Clearly, there was still something standing between them, but Kaz had no idea what it was, or how to address it.

Turning away, Lianhua looked at the group, then back at Kaz. “Kaz, do you know how to reach the Deep from here?”

They had already discussed this, so she knew he did, but this gave him a chance to answer in front of everyone. “I do,” he said, trying to sound as confident as he could.

She nodded and gave him a stiff smile before stepping to the side. Kaz moved past her, and set his paw on the first step.

=+=+=+=

Four levels went by in a blur of silent stairs and long pauses to wait as Ratre and the other kobolds recovered from the effort of going down hundreds of tall steps. Each stairway ended in a small cavern leading to a straight hallway with high ceilings and squared-off walls. They ran into patches of fulan and clouds of spores in these halls, but none on the stairs, and it was never so bad that the kobolds needed masks.

There were no guards or recent totems at the top or bottom of the stairs, even when they finally reached the first of the last four mid-levels. The fulan was thicker here, and all of the kobolds pricked up their ears when they heard distant howls. There was no meaning to the sound, however, just furious noise, so even the ones who had looked hopeful soon tucked their tails and hurried on.

A few times, they heard movement down a branching tunnel, and once, Kaz saw a broken and bloodstained totem lying abandoned in the darkness of a cavern as they passed by. He doubted if anyone else could see it in the dimness, so he said nothing, just hurried the group onward.

The first sign that things might be getting better was on the next level. There were burned patches not far down the large hall, and the remnants of blackened bones lay in what had probably started as a neat pile. There was enough left to tell that whatever the creature had been, it wasn’t something Kaz recognized, and it had far more limbs than anything except an insect, which it clearly wasn’t. So not only had someone killed this monster, they had also had the wisdom and the ability to burn it, which indicated that they still had females or firemoss, either one of which was a good sign.

Kaz led the group around the patch of soot-stained stone, then looked at Lianhua. “Do you want to talk to the kobolds on this level, if they’re still alive and able to hold a conversation?”

She bit her lip, glancing at Chi Yincang, who offered nothing but his usual dispassionate facade. Raff, who generally had something to say about almost anything, also glanced at the dark human and held his tongue.

With a sigh, Lianhua shook her head. “There’s no need. We’re going to the Deep, not trying to find clues in the mid-levels. I doubt they know anything about the Diushi that I didn’t learn from Zhangwo’s scrolls and the husede.”

Kaz nodded. He doubted that anyone still alive here would be particularly interested in trading information anyway. People who were just desperately trying to survive weren’t generally very friendly, in his experience.

They passed through this level as well, though the kobolds with them stopped more than once as they heard a distant howl. These were the usual sorts of howls, checking in with each other, and, once, calling for help, a call which was quickly answered. Whoever still remained here, they were maintaining at least some pretense of normalcy.

When the group reached the next set of stairs, one of the males stopped. He was in fairly good shape, other than being far too thin. “My tribe used to live here,” he said. “I want to see… if there are any of them left.”

Kaz and Lianhua exchanged glances, but there was no point in trying to make him stay with them. So far, they hadn’t even seen anything dangerous, and if he’d come from here, he undoubtedly knew the tunnels well enough to reach his den.

Lianhua nodded, then reached into her pouch and pulled out a small square of cloth. All of the males had packs full of food and water-bladders, as well as some kind of weapon, but otherwise they had nothing to recommend them to a new tribe. If the tribe they were hearing wasn’t this warrior’s old one, they had no reason to take him in other than replacing some of the warriors they’d lost recently, and if food was as scarce as Kaz feared, that might not be enough.

Lianhua handed the cloth to the kobold, who turned the cheerful yellow piece of cloth over in his hands. Lianhua had been using these handkerchiefs to trade with the tribes in the upper levels, and she once told Kaz she had dozens of them. He had no idea why she needed so many, since as far as he could tell she only wiped her fingers and face with them, but it was a kind gesture to give one to this warrior.

“Good luck,” she said. “I hope you find your tribe.”

The kobold bowed deeply, pressing the hand holding the handkerchief against his heart. “Fair howls,” he said, then turned and loped off back down the hall.

They lost another of the warriors on the next level, when he insisted he recognized a particular howl. His handkerchief was green.

Finally, they reached the last of the mid-levels, and there, everything changed.