NOVEL NEXT Chapter Two hundred thirty-three
They got food and made it back to the barracks without too much more trouble. A few people were startled by Li, especially after the mysterious flaming bird that destroyed the mage college, but no one actually attempted to attack her. If anything, they seemed frightened, and hurried into buildings as she flew overhead.
The barracks were distinctly emptier than before, and the male standing guard at the door told Kaz and Raff that even more people had pulled out of the tournament after the events of the day, apparently feeling that the city was no longer safe. He, too, eyed Li suspiciously, but once he checked the papers Raff handed to him, he allowed all three of them inside.
“Well, that explains why they’re still allowing changes until tomorrow,” Raff said as they chose fresh beds. The five Mariners they’d spoken to briefly were fast asleep in beds nearby, though the leader, Tollus, cracked an eye as Raff and Kaz laid out their blankets.
Kaz shook his head. He was almost befuddled with exhaustion, and more than a little distracted by his own thoughts. “What does?” he asked.
Raff pulled off his boots, then gestured around. “This. Without competitors, there’s no tournament. Makes it even stranger that they’re not just canceling it. The tournament is supposed to last a full week, with opening ceremonies the first day, and the battles between the various winners on the last, then closing ceremonies. But after so many people were killed or injured in the incursion, and with others leaving after the mage college was destroyed, I doubt they have enough people to fill three days.”
“Will they want us to fight more?” Kaz asked, dreading the answer. To his relief, Raff shook his head.
“Can’t. People need time to recover, especially whatever mages are left. More likely they’ll make each day shorter, and have performances or encourage people to go shopping the rest of the time,” Raff said. He flopped back in his bed, propping his feet up on the wooden board at the end.
“Get some sleep, Blue,” he said, closing his eyes. “The answers will wait until tomorrow.”
Kaz laid down as well, curling up on his side, with Li snuggling up against his belly. She didn’t really fit into that space as she once did, and she certainly couldn’t use his arm as a cushion any longer, but they made it work. He actually missed Kyla’s small back pressed against his own, and the weight of the fuergar resting between their shoulders.
As he closed his eyes, Kaz embraced his dragon, and Li’s tail curved up and around his back, holding him close as well. Warmth and appreciation flowed between them as they drifted into their shared dreams of flight.
The next morning came all too soon, with far too many people bustling around, gathering up their things and speaking in too-loud voices. Li tried to hide beneath the blanket, and Kaz felt the nonexistent fur along his back rise at being surrounded by strangers. He sat up, finding that Raff had apparently left and returned again, because the large man had a trio of skewers tucked between his fingers, two of which he thrust at Kaz.
Accepting them, Kaz took a tentative bite of the oddly red meat on the end of one. It was sweet and chewy, but not unpleasantly so, and Li soon poked her head out of the blanket to see what he was eating.
Raff saw the interaction and chuckled. “She’s a greedy one. There’ll be a lot of food available pretty much everywhere today, for both competitors and the crowd, but most of it’ll be way overpriced. I figured I better get something before the prices double closer to the stadium.”
Kaz tilted his head. “What’s a stadium?”
Raff grinned. “Just wait and see. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise. Now grab your stuff and let’s get out of here. With everything that’s happened, I never did manage to buy some new gear. It’ll be slim pickings today, if I can even find anything, but I have to try.”
He eyed Kaz thoughtfully. “Frankly, you’re looking worse for wear yourself. Too bad we don’t have any of that fancy silk. You’re pretty hard on clothes.”
Kaz fed Li the last of her skewer, then dug a chip of blue ki-crystal from his pouch and gave that to her as well. He lifted her into his arms, and she vibrated happily as ki radiated out from her stomach, filling their channels with warm blue.
“Could you help me find something to wear?” Kaz asked, eyeing the bloodstains and dirt that marred his new clothes. Humans had so many uses for mana. Why hadn’t any of them developed a ‘spell’ for removing dirt from fabric? Perhaps Kaz could do it, just by picturing the clothes clean again? Or if he could find a water source, he could simply wash them, as he had washed his own loincloth dozens of times before.
Raff shrugged. “Sure. I could use a few changes of clothes myself. Somethin’ a bit different from what I usually wear, y’know?”
Simply entering stores with Raff was very different from doing the same with Lianhua. Even granted that most of the shops were both busy and all but empty of items for sale, the shopkeepers didn’t seem particularly interested in helping Raff or Kaz.
Where they dropped whatever they were doing when Lianhua entered, Kaz and Raff could wander a store or stall for quite a while without anyone even asking if they needed anything. It was a refreshing change, since Kaz could usually tell if there was anything interesting at a single glance, and this way he didn’t have to endure the human running the shop attempting to sell him something anyway.
After looking through four equally barren stalls, Raff managed to find a padded shirt and a heavy leather vest that fit him, at least well enough. He complained about the price, but the male running the store didn’t even try to haggle, seeming confident that he could sell the items to someone else at the price he was asking. This completely upset Kaz’s entire concept of shopping, which he had believed was like trading, except with metal discs instead of things that were actually useful.
Two more stores yielded a pair of thick leather pants that Raff said would work for today, and a new green shirt for Kaz. He was forced to continue wearing the same pants Lianhua had gotten for him, but as far as he was concerned, they were fine. They only had a few holes, and almost no stains at all.
The real problem came when Kaz admitted that he’d like a new knife. The only one he had was worn and battered, and even though he could fight with ki now, it was draining, and there was comfort in gripping a weapon, especially since his human claws and teeth were worthless.
“You can’t use those,” Kaz murmured, though he smiled at the thought of an assailant being slashed by invisible talons. But they had to maintain the pretense that Li was a wyvern, just as they did that Kaz was human.
Li sighed, settling her head on Kaz’s shoulder. she said, sounding morose.
Kaz did, too. As excited as he had been to change his appearance, he now missed everything about his real self. His claws, his nose, his fur, his ears, and most especially his tail. The one thing he liked was his increased height, and that was only because all of the humans were so ridiculously tall. The vast majority of them would have to crouch or crawl in order to fit through half the tunnels in the mountain.
“Let’s try this one, Blue,” Raff said, ducking into an unusually large store with two crossed swords on the sign over the door.
Kaz followed, just in time to hear a voice bellow, “Sold out! Come back next week!” Kaz immediately turned around, but Raff caught his arm.
“It’s just a sales technique,” Raff told him. “The old miser’ll have something tucked away. Just wait.”
Wait they did, and Kaz watched the stream of humans flooding the road with increasing concern. Adara had said for them to meet the three females in ‘the morning’, and that was a term that he still struggled with. Morning was when the sun rose, but it was also all the time before noon, when the sun was high overhead. Right now, the sun was still low, therefore it was ‘morning’, but it had been more than an hour since they woke, and even longer since the sun rose.
At last, Raff opened and closed the door a few times, causing the bell attached to it to jingle loudly. The voice called out twice more, and then a tall, slender person stormed out of the back of the store.
“Didn’t you hear me?” he demanded, revealing himself as the owner of the booming voice, in spite of the fact that he was almost as slim as Kaz in his kobold form.
Raff grinned. “I did, Vesthar, but since when am I in the habit of listening?”
Vesthar stilled, yellow eyes searching Raff’s. Then those eyes widened, and he looked around, as if panicking, and gestured for Raff and Kaz to follow him into the back of the store. This was the first time Kaz had been invited past one of the doors that separated the items for sale from the storage or work area, and he was hesitant, but Raff followed easily.
“What’re you doing here, you fool?” Vesthar hissed as soon as the door closed behind them. “Don’t you know half the city is looking for you? A shave and a haircut isn’t going to be enough to fool them for long, either.”
Raff shrugged. “I’m not lookin’ to get caught, but I’d sure like to know who wants me, and why. I somehow doubt it’s for the reasons they’re claiming, seein’ as how I’m innocent, and they know it.”
The other male, who Kaz could now see was actually a bit taller than Raff, leaned forward, as if they might be overheard, in spite of the fact that there was no one else in the room. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Don’t get me caught up in your mess.”
Scratching at his jaw, Raff gave a lopsided smile. “Didn’t figure you did. I did hope you might help a fellow out, though. For old time’s sake.”
Vesthar rolled his eyes. “Old times, he says. Fine, what’ll get you out of my shop?”
Pointing at Kaz, Raff said, “My friend here needs a knife. A good one.”
Sighing, Vesthar leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest. “I told you, I’m sold out. Did you think I was joking?”
“Exaggeratin’, maybe?” Raff ventured. “I know you. You’ve always got a few special things tucked away.”
Huffing a laugh, Vesthar said, “And why would I show them to you? You’re always broke, or close enough. You still owe me half a dozen draughts.”
Looking between the two, Kaz decided he was done shopping. He stepped back, shaking his head. “I don’t need anything after all,” he assured the slender male.
At this, Vesthar’s eyes narrowed, and he held out a hand. “Show me your arm,” he commanded. Kaz did so without even thinking, extending his right arm so the male could take hold of it in surprisingly gentle fingers, turning it this way and that. Li hissed, but in a half-hearted way, watching curiously as Vesthar examined Kaz’s wrist, forearm, and hand.
“You’re small,” Vesthar said as he dropped Kaz’s arm again. “Good muscle tone, though. Strong but flexible. How much can you spend?”
Kaz had no idea how much was reasonable, and Lianhua had taught him to always start with the lowest amount that wouldn’t actually insult the shopkeeper. Of course, Kaz also had no idea how much that was, and there’d been no haggling in the last several shops anyway.
Reaching into his pouch, Kaz took out one of his gold ingots. Seeing Vesthar’s eyes widen, he wondered if that was too little, and removed a second. Raff sighed in what sounded like exasperation, so Kaz’s fingers dipped into the pouch a third time.
“No, no,” Vesthar’s deep voice was choked as he laid a hand over Kaz’s. “That’s ah, enough. At least unless you plan to purchase something made from a mithril alloy.”
Kaz blinked. “Do you have something like that?”
Vesthar clapped a hand to his forehead, turning a despairing look on Raff. “What did you bring me, fool?” Raff just gave a half laugh and motioned for the other male to get on with it.
Turning away, Vesthar walked to a small metal door set into one wall. It was too small for most adult humans, and set halfway up the wall, so it had caught Kaz’s eye when he glanced around, especially since the door glowed softly with mana. Vesthar laid his hand against this door, releasing a little of the murky gray mana inside his chest, and the door swung open. The male reached in, started to take something out, then hesitated and shifted to grab something else instead.
“This’s a mage knife,” he said, walking back and handing a sheathed blade to Kaz. “Not a lot of call for it here, since mages in Cliffcross pride themselves on using magic for everything.” He rolled his eyes. “Like it never occurs to them that maybe some problems can be solved without blowing everything up or burning something down.”
Kaz accepted it, seeing the crystal set into the hilt. Carefully, he pushed a little ki into it, and the whole blade lit up, a bright glow leaking from inside the leather sheath.
Vesthar’s eyes were almost as bright as he looked from the knife to Li. “I thought you might be a mage, with a wyvern and a storage pouch. Cursed flying lizards are notoriously hard to tame for anyone without more mana than sense. Have you seen one of these knives before?”
Kaz shook his head, shifting Li higher on his arm as he pulled out the blade. To his disappointment, the metal wasn’t wavy like the Woodblade, but it did look very sharp. It wasn’t particularly long, but that was all right. He didn’t need a weapon that would become a sword when he was back to his correct size.
“When it’s charged, it’s all but unbreakable,” Vesthar said. “Holds its edge without needing to be sharpened, too. The trouble is, when it’s not charged, it’s just a normal knife, and the more it’s used the faster the charge runs out. A mage can keep it topped up, no problem, but for a regular person, paying even an apprentice to charge it every few days or weeks costs far more than it’s worth.”
Kaz ran a finger down the flat of the blade, feeling the way the weapon hummed beneath his fingers. It was like there was a very thin layer of ki all around the metal, and even the gentle pressure of his finger drained a tiny bit of power from the crystal.
“I got this one from a mage who traveled here from somewhere up north. He needed money to buy a wand, like the mages use here, and I figured I could sell it to someone like our friend here, a fighter who just happens to have mana,” Vesthar tilted his head toward Raff. “But none of them could get it to work.”
“This uses ki, not mana, or at least not just mana,” Kaz explained absently, putting the knife away. “That’s probably why.”
Vesthar’s brows rose toward his hairline, but before he could ask any questions, Raff said, “How much d’you want for it?”
The thin male grinned, saying, “Two of those gold bars should be about right.” Raff gave him a flat look, and he sighed. “Fine, fine. One gold bar.”
Another look, and Vesthar groaned. “I paid more than I should have for it! I thought for sure one of you mercs would buy it just because it’s fancy. It’s been sitting there taking up space in my vault for almost a year.”
“Then you should be ready to get rid of it,” Raff said, and the two of them seemed ready to get down to haggling when Kaz raised his hand.
“How much of one bar do you think it’s worth?” he asked Vesthar.
Frowning, Vesthar held out a hand. “Let me see one of those.” He accepted the one Kaz held out to him, and his eyes immediately brightened. “Is this pure?”
It was Kaz’s turn to frown. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
Vesthar smiled, showing all of his teeth. “Three-” he saw Raff’s look and deflated, sighing deeply. “Fine. A quarter of it. Maybe.”
Kaz took out his new knife again and refilled the crystal, slicing easily through the gold bar. About a third of it fell into Vesthar’s hand, and the male swallowed heavily, clutching at the heavy piece of metal.
Raff shook his head, but said, “That should cover those draughts, too, eh, Vesthar?”
Vesthar nodded silent agreement, and Raff and Kaz hurried out of the shop again, finally ready for the tournament, whatever it was.