The Broken Knife

Washing with warm water was a novelty to Kaz, and he surreptitiously watched the females as they pushed ki into the water to heat it. Some of them were better at it than others, and he noticed that the ones with more orange ki didn’t look as tired afterwards. Was the orange related to heat or fire, then? There was usually a great deal of black ki in and around water. Did that mean black was related to the water itself somehow? What did blue, white, and yellow represent, then?

As Lianhua dumped bowl after bowl of water over his head, Kaz pondered what, exactly, ki was. Why did Lianhua use runes to cast spells, while the males didn’t seem to need them? Did it have something to do with their higher levels of body refinement, or did different people simply find certain ways of doing things easier than others? He would have to find a way to ask Lianhua sometime when they weren’t surrounded by strange female kobolds with big ears.

Once Kaz was thoroughly soaked, Lianhua pulled a wide-toothed comb and a little pot from her pouch. She opened the pot, scooping out a small amount of some pale unguent, and Kaz recognized the sweet scent that usually surrounded the human female. She rubbed the cream into his fur, and began to work the comb through after it, picking out knots and chunks of bug. At first, Kaz tensed beneath her touch, but Lianhua looked so happy that he finally relaxed under her ministrations.

“I always wash my puppy, Gao, myself, though Yingtao chides me for it. I love the feeling of his fur. It’s so soft, and smells so good when I’m done.” Lianhua said. She hummed softly as she picked at another tangle.

“What is that?” Kaz asked, eyeing the white goo she was applying to his tail.

“Oh!” She paused, lifting the little round pot. “It’s a cream I use in my own hair. It helps it stay shiny and healthy. I always use it on Gao, and I didn’t even think… Do you hate it? I won’t use it any more if you do.”

He thought it was far too late to avoid smelling like whatever it was, and she looked so crestfallen that he shook his head. “It’s fine. I just wondered what was in it.”

Lianhua scooped some out and stared at it. “I’m not entirely sure. Yingtao makes it. There’s beeswax and grapeseed oil, as well as a lot of other things, and somehow she makes it smell like my favorite lotus blossoms.”

Kaz didn’t know what any of those things were, but he was beginning to become very curious about the place Lianhua came from. It sounded very different from the mountain.

“What does a lotus blossom look like?” he asked.

She put down the pot and picked up the hem of the robe she’d tucked into her belt before she started washing him. She pointed to the fine thread that picked out many-petaled flowers. The petals were a pure, unstained white, with amethyst edges and tips.

“This is a lotus. I’m named after them, too. My mother named me for the color of my hair and eyes.”

Kaz held back a whimper as she returned to her task, pulling at a particularly recalcitrant knot. “Lianhua means lotus in your language?”

She nodded. “In the old language. When the Diushi came to power, they made their own language the official one spoken in the empire. They didn’t care if people spoke their old ones among themselves, but everyone had to learn Diushan, and all official documents and ceremonies used it. Now, only the oldest families still speak Shengan, so it’s considered a sign of high status to know it.”

Kaz was thoughtful. “Is that why we kobolds have some words you don’t know? Most of what we speak is Diushan, but there are a few that come from whatever language we spoke before?”

Lianhua’s hand stilled, and she nodded eagerly. “Yes! That’s part of why I believe the Diushi came here! Records from before the Diushi Empire indicate that only monsters, dragons, and other unintelligent beasts lived in this mountain range. Then, some time after the Diushi vanished, a traveling sage visited, and he met you kobolds, and you already spoke Diushan!

“I think sometime between the old records and Tan Fong’s visit, your people developed from one of those beasts, and when the Diushi came here, they taught you their language. Otherwise, how could you learn it? There are no records of contact with kobolds before that time, so even if one or two tribes learned it from traders, that wouldn’t explain why all of you speak it.”

Kaz shook his head. “But the husede speak it, too. Maybe we learned from them?”

The female’s shoulders slumped, and she sighed as she got back to work. “That’s a possibility. The Gray Dwarves were certainly around before the Diushi, since they’re mentioned in a few rather obscure records. None of the censuses taken during the height of the empire’s power mention them, but given the Diushi’s tendency to absorb any people they found, it’s quite feasible that they were at least a vassal state. Still, it’s also possible that they, too, learned Diushan after the Diushi came here, and without access to their records, there’s no way to be sure.”

She leaned back, putting down the comb. The stone around Kaz was covered in a carpet of blue fur and bits of broken legs and chitin.

“There,” she said with satisfaction, pulling a round circle of silver from her pouch. She held it up, and Kaz nearly jerked back as he saw his father staring back at him. But no, this kobold’s fur was a lighter blue than Ghazt’s deep cobalt, and Ghazt had had silver eyes, like Katri, rather than pale blue.

With an unsteady finger, Kaz reached out, and the other kobold matched his gesture. He had seen himself in polished metal and still water, of course, but the reflection had never been so clear and perfect.

“It’s a mirror,” Lianhua told him, handing it over. “Glass, with a thin silver backing.”

Kaz turned it over and over in his hands, watching the image change. Li, who had run off as soon as Lianhua poured the first bucket of water over them, returned and scampered up his leg to stare at her own reflection. She whistled happily, sending Kaz an image of herself that was slightly more accurate than the toothy one she usually used. Her scales were a little too shiny, and her teeth still a bit too long, but otherwise it was clearly her.

Kaz realized that he needed to adjust his self-image as well. His nose wasn’t quite as big as it always seemed when he leaned down to stare at himself in a still pool, and his eyes weren’t nearly as squinty as he’d thought.

Lianhua let the two of them stare at themselves for a few minutes before holding out her hand with a small laugh. Li hissed at her halfheartedly, but allowed the human to take the mirror back.

“All right. I suppose I should wash myself now, so you’ll have to go,” Lianhua said, beginning to tug at her belt.

Kaz shook his head. “Shouldn’t I help you? I can brush your hair, too.”

A pink flush rose up in Lianhua’s cheeks. “No! No, but thank you. Perhaps you can take my outer robe to be cleaned, though?”

She pulled off her belt, then her robe, which used to be white, and somehow still mostly was, though there were distinct blotches of darker substances on it now. Underneath, she wore another robe, this one deep purple, that ended just above her knees. Another belt held it closed.

Kaz hadn’t thought he could be surprised any more by the riches the humans constantly waved around, but he was. As if the large, beautiful piece of cloth that made up her outer robe wasn’t enough, she actually wore two?

The fine, heavy cloth caught on his calloused fingers as Lianhua handed it to him, and he was briefly horrified that he might have snagged it. Then he remembered everything she had put the fabric through, and realized that it couldn’t be anywhere near as delicate as it seemed.

Kaz caught the robe to his chest and bowed deeply, making Li click angrily and wrap her tail tightly around his neck as she clung to him. “I’m grateful for the trust you show in me.”

Lianhua looked a little puzzled, but smiled as he left the cave, exiting down a short tunnel to another open area where Gaoda, Raff, and Chi Yincang waited. Raff looked bored, Chi Yincang stared expressionlessly into space, and Gaoda was plucking fitfully at his own blue robe as Kaz entered.

All three turned to look at him, and Gaoda’s eyes immediately locked onto the robe in Kaz’s arms. His face darkened, and he dropped the hem of his own robe.

“What are you doing with that?” he snapped. “Did she-? Did you-?”

Kaz blinked, but Raff set a hand on the angry male’s shoulder. “Needs cleaning, doesn’t it? Bet she sent Blue to take care of it.”

At Kaz’s nod, he went on, “Women always take too long when they get a chance to wash up. And look at our little guide here. Primped and perfumed like a noblewoman’s lapdog.”

Gaoda snorted as Raff chuckled, and while there was something slightly insulting in their laughter, Gaoda no longer looked upset, so Kaz just circled around them. Holding up the robe, he said, “I need to find the water source. I’ll return when I’m done.”

The males nodded, then Gaoda shrugged out of his own robe and tossed it to Kaz. “You might as well make yourself useful. It’ll be an easy task. Fuulong practically cleans itself.”

Kaz folded the second robe under his arm and ducked his head before going out into the main den area, where he managed to get a passing male to stop and speak with him. The male was only a little older than Kaz, but his warrior’s necklace was thickly decorated with several sharp teeth that Kaz couldn’t identify. The young warrior was wary, but not openly suspicious as he pointed Kaz toward the tunnel leading to the cavern where Pilla and Litz had fought.

Once there, Kaz found that he could smell the water well enough to tell that it was down the same tunnel where the cubs had been hiding. It made sense. Lack of water would kill a kobold even if they were otherwise safe, so making sure the little ones were able to drink all they needed was a good idea.

The cavern beyond was a good size, and though the pool looked like it had once contained a great deal more water, it wasn’t anywhere near empty yet. More water dripped from the ceiling above, falling from the broken-off stumps of stalactites, and there were even a few glow-worms hanging there, though as a pool became depleted, it could disrupt the natural cycle of life enough that the fragile creatures didn’t survive.

Kaz looked around and found a shallow depression next to a stone bowl and a crack in the ground. He put down the robe, then went and got a bowl full of water and poured it into the depression. Once there was enough water, he knelt and began scrubbing the fabric.

As Gaoda had said, the filth barely clung to the surface of the fabric, and all but melted from the material once it was wet, leaving it as clean and perfect as if it had just been woven. Kaz only had to push dirty water through the nearby drainage crevice twice before he lifted Lianhua’s robe and shook it free of the last few bits of debris. Gaoda’s took a bit more effort, since the male had been in the thick of the battle against the zhiwu, but soon his, too, was clean.

When Kaz reentered the central den, he found that many of the lights had been dimmed or put out, but he was able to follow his nose to the group of humans, who were sitting outside two large huts. Pilla was there, too, and both Lianhua and Gaoda were wearing fresh robes, making Kaz wonder why he’d had to clean their old ones so urgently. He didn’t mind helping Lianhua, but he found a small sense of rebellion rising up in him when he realized Gaoda could easily have washed his own clothes without having to walk around in his underrobe in order to do so.

Kaz handed Lianhua her damp robe, and she smiled and thanked him. Gaoda, on the other hand, just grunted and complained that the material wasn’t completely dry yet. Kaz gritted his teeth against the urge to tell him to wash his own garment next time, and just bowed slightly, but Lianhua frowned at the male before speaking to Kaz.

“I know you don’t always value the same things we do,” she told him, “but I have a gift I think you’ll like.”

Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a long piece of fabric. It was brown, rather than the bright colors the humans seemed to favor. The weave was a little looser, and the thread thicker than what had been used to make Gaoda, Lianhua, and Chi Yincang’s robes, but it was still far better than anything a normal kobold would own.

“This is fuulong silk, like our robes, though of a lower quality. I had intended to give it to Yingtao, but I can get her another piece when we get home.”

Gaoda stared at her. “Cousin! You meant to gift fuulong to a servant? And now you’re handing it over to a kobold?”

Lianhua’s lips thinned. “No one needs a fabric that stays clean and whole more than a servant. Yingtao’s clothes are constantly being stained, and she has to replace them far more often than she can afford. And Kaz has certainly earned some kind of payment. We… did a favor for his chief, but he himself has received nothing.”

That wasn’t exactly true, since Kaz had learned a great deal since joining the humans on their journey, and he considered that knowledge to be more valuable than anything he could have asked for, but he still gratefully accepted the material. It would make an excellent replacement for the tattered and stained leather loincloth he’d been wearing for more than a year.

Pilla had been standing nearby, and now she spoke up. She looked at Lianhua, rather than Kaz, since it was far beneath a chief to speak to a male pup from another tribe, at least where others could see.

“I have a leatherworker who would love to try her hand at something different for once. Perhaps she can craft a garment from this in return for any small scraps that may be left over?”

Lianhua looked at Kaz, who nodded. He could sew, but he was used to using leather for both material and thread. A skilled hand would produce something far finer than he could make, and it would be worth the price.

Kaz held out the cloth to Lianhua, who shook her head, but accepted and then passed it to Pilla. Pilla bowed her head just slightly, then bid them all farewell and went to find her crafter.

Lianhua sighed and set her hand to the door of the hut behind her. “I’m tired. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

The males bid her goodnight, and she went inside, closing the door firmly behind her. This left Kaz alone with the rest of the humans, and he hesitated, looking at the other nearby huts.

Raff scratched his head. “Guess it’s you and me again, Blue. Gaoda and Chi Yincang are in there, and this one’s mine, at least for one more night.” He pointed toward two of the huts.

Kaz nodded gratitude. “I’m tired as well. I’ll rest now.”

Raff waved, and Kaz retreated to the hut.