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 warriors. Meanwhile, another warrior was tasked with going back to the den to retrieve the males who had come from the mosui city, since they were apparently going to be able to reach the Deep much sooner than they had anticipated.

As soon as Raff appeared, leading a tired and morose group of kobolds, Chi Yincang vanished. Kaz saw his black and white blur of ki head for the stairs, and assumed the human was going to make sure there was nothing dangerous ahead. He was certainly faster than an average kobold, and the Goldcoat warrior hadn’t returned yet, so it was possible the human would reach the bottom before the kobold could, even though he’d left much later.

As the minutes stretched without any indication that either of the explorers were returning soon, Lianhua and Li became restive. Li was getting hungry, but Lianhua was simply anxious to leave, as was Senge. The two females began to talk in low voices, each trying to convince the other to do what they both wished to do anyway, and Kaz chuckled softly to himself as he stepped to the side.

Crouching, he took off his pack and opened it, reaching deep inside until he could feel the soft material of the pouch. Sliding his fingers through the opening, he pictured a particularly large yellow crystal, which he palmed. Then he pictured a small strip of the dried mushrooms that the mosui had kept great quantities of in their storerooms, and pulled that out as well. He gave the crystal to Li, who gobbled it whole as Kaz chewed the leather-like fungus.

A long howl echoed up the stairs, calling an all clear to all of the kobolds waiting above. A moment later, Chi Yincang stepped out of the shadows at the top of the stairs and crossed to Lianhua. Kaz grinned a little at the realization that a simple kobold had managed to communicate his news to his leader before the mighty and powerful Chi Yincang. It seemed that the humans weren’t better at everything, after all. Cocking his ears, he listened as Chi Yincang spoke to Lianhua.

“The further down you go, the more damage there is,” he said, “but there’s very little rubble, and we should be able to get through without difficulty.”

Lianhua grinned, then seemed to realize what she was doing and cleared her throat, toning her expression down into a gentle smile as she asked, “Is it a long stairwell?”

Chi Yincang shook his head. “One of the shorter ones we’ve seen. A few hundred steps. I think even the injured kobolds should be able to make it.”

Kaz was surprised. He thought that was more words than the human had put together in the entire time they’d traveled together. Chi Yincang had even volunteered an opinion, such as it was. Was he relaxing now that Gaoda was gone, or had he just not shown this side of himself in front of Kaz before?

Lianhua clapped her hands softly, looking around at the group. “We’re going, then,” she said, as if daring anyone to deny her. When no one did, she flushed slightly, and turned toward the stairwell.

Quickly, Kaz tied up his pack and returned it to its place against his back, glad for the solid reassurance of its weight. He could store everything in his new pouch, but not only did he not want to let everyone know he had such a thing, he appreciated the familiarity as well as the slight protection provided by the thick leather of the pack.

In a mere moment, he was ready to go, and he fell in behind Chi Yincang, who was close behind Lianhua. Raff bounded down several steps, moving into the front, and the remaining eight former prisoners stepped up behind Kaz. Meanwhile, Senge was barking orders at her warriors, and her group came close on the heels of the other males.

They all marched down the steps in silence, except for the harsh breathing of some of the kobolds from the city. Even Raff seemed uninterested in keeping up his usual endless stream of chatter, though Kaz thought he caught a few mutters from that direction once or twice. Each time, it cut off as suddenly as it had begun, and once, Raff cast a long-suffering glance at Chi Yincang. There was definitely something going on there, but Kaz assured himself it was neither his business nor his problem, and he almost believed it.

He and Li had begun a game where Li tugged his fur, and Kaz had to jump over the next step, when he felt another tug, this one at the fur of his forearm. Glancing back, he saw Dett, who was panting heavily as he climbed down the stairs. The nine-inch steps had been difficult for Kaz, not that long ago, and Dett was head and shoulders shorter than he. The little kobold was definitely struggling, and Kaz realized that he wasn’t the only one.

“Lianhua,” Kaz said, “I’m going to take a break. I’ll catch up when I’ve rested a bit.”

Lianhua, who had been moving down the stairs almost as quickly as Raff, paused and looked back, obviously surprised. Her sharp eyes moved over Kaz, who was clearly fine, and then Dett and the others, who weren’t, and she nodded.

Looking at Chi Yincang, she said, “The stairs are safe,” in the way of someone who wanted reassurance more than confirmation, and the dark male nodded. She bit her lip, but nodded to Kaz in turn.

“We’ll wait at the bottom. Is there another map?”

He slowed to a stop and pressed against the wall as Senge and her group passed by without a glance. “I… don’t know.” Kaz had been young, frightened, and confused when the Broken Knives first fled the Deep. He remembered their den, distantly at least, and some of the places his father took him in their wanderings, but the passages between were foggy in a way that no others were. He certainly hadn’t paid attention to what he would have seen as decorations.

Lianhua looked surprised, opening her mouth to ask something else, then watched the Goldcoats as they walked past her with almost as much disinterest as they had shown Kaz. When she looked at Kaz again, her amethyst eyes were thoughtful, and she only said, “We’ll see you soon, then.”

As soon as the rest of the group were far enough ahead that they were lost in the shadows, Kaz turned to Dett and the others. “Did you not get to rest in the den?” he asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

Ratre, who was already seated, sighed deeply. “We forgot how it is to be in another tribe’s den. They watched us every moment, as if we might turn on them, and we sat, but couldn’t relax.” His lip curled in a humorless smile. “I did find out what happened to the other males who came ahead of us, though.”

Kaz waited expectantly, and Ratre rubbed his scarred muzzle in a way that suddenly made Kaz wonder just how old he was. It was hard to tell if a kobold’s fur had been gray from birth, or turned gray with age, but Kaz wondered if perhaps Ratre was old enough for the latter. He was thin and beaten down, as they all were, but there was a deeper weariness there that went beyond physical exhaustion, or even the lingering trauma of having been a prisoner.

“A few of them were in the den. They were among the first to leave, and one of them recognized Vik.” He tilted his head toward a brown-furred male with only one hand. “He was able to come speak to us briefly, and said that the Goldblades took in the ones who were in good enough shape, but sent the rest away. They’re either trying to find another way down, or heading back up to the city.”

A grim silence fell, because they hadn’t met any kobolds going in the other direction. That meant the missing males were probably either dead, or lost, and there was something particularly horrible about the idea that they had been so close to home, but hadn’t quite made it.

“Maybe we can get someone to come back up and look for them,” he offered, without any real hope. “Or they’ll turn around and come back, and find the stairs open.”

Ratre gave Kaz the look all elders eventually gave to puppies, but didn’t deny the possibility. To both of their surprise, it was Dett who spoke. “I’ll make sure someone comes to find them,” he said. “It hasn’t been that long. A good tracker can still sniff them out.”

Kaz blinked. He hadn’t thought that Dett was the type to make such a generous offer, and he doubted very much that the small male would be able to follow through on it. Still, it was kind, and-

“In fact, you can all join my tribe,” Dett said, throwing his shoulders back. “I’ll need some warriors I can trust at my back when I become the mate of the Mithrilblade chief. I’m sure I can find places for you all.”

Ah, there it was. When a male was traded to another tribe, especially if he was to be the chief or her daughter’s mate, he was sometimes accompanied by his own honor guard. Since Dett had been gone so long, he had no such guard, and who better than warriors he had saved from being tribeless and abandoned? If he could gather some of the less-damaged ones as well, that would be even better.

Ratre gave a small huff of laughter, but managed to get back to his paw, balancing gingerly on the carved substitute. “If I can’t find my own tribe, or they won’t take me back as I am now, maybe I’ll take you up on that, Dett Goldblade.” He didn’t sound very enthusiastic, but almost anything was better than being without a tribe, and Ratre would be a poor choice even for the Irondiggers, the tribe that would usually take in such an abandoned kobold. The Irondiggers were the only tribe that had no settled den, after all, and Ratre struggled to walk with his ill-fitting bone paw.

Abruptly turning, Kaz offered his back to the older male. “Get on,” he said. Warriors often carried wounded kobolds this way, but only within the same tribe. It would be a simple matter to slit the throat of someone who foolishly allowed you into such a position, and as far as he could tell, all of these kobolds were originally from different tribes.

There was silence behind him, but Kaz didn’t look around. A tentative hand came to rest on the shoulder opposite Li, who hissed and scampered up to perch on top of Kaz’s head. She didn’t quite fit between his ears any more, but she was less than happy at the idea of sharing her space with a stranger.

The first hand was joined by another, and Kaz caught Ratre’s injured leg when it came within reach. Then the other male was clinging awkwardly on his back, and if Kaz hadn’t been both strong and large, it never would have worked. His pack was in the way, but it was no longer very full, and its bulk created a buffer between him and the other male, which he could only see as a good thing.

When he turned, he saw that another of the larger males had offered to do the same for one of the smaller ones, who had several long wounds down his thigh. He had been limping terribly almost since they left the city, and when the larger warrior grasped his leg, one of the lacerations opened, and thick, white pus oozed out.

Kaz twitched, nearly dropping Ratre in his desire to see if there was anything he could do, but there wasn’t, at least not without making it blatantly obvious that he had a power he wasn’t supposed to possess. This group hadn’t seen him activate the archway, while Senge’s group hadn’t heard the rumors about him killing Zhangwo, and until someone put the two things together, he thought there was at least a possibility that he might pass as normal for a while yet.

A deep sense of amusement came from the dragon on his head, and Kaz sighed, well aware that it was probably already too late. Carefully, he shifted Ratre, and glanced back at the seven kobolds behind him. With Ratre and the male with the injured leg taken care of, he thought they should be able to move much more quickly.

“Let’s go,” he said, and took the lead.