Kai Drakon's Arc

Chapter 9 of 30

Kai left the cavern before dawn with a pack, a chisel, and a small hammer. Kael was waiting at the trailhead where the road turned to stone. Kael was Kai's best friend, a half-lynx ninja who took the worst jobs in Mosswood and came home bruised. Today he carried no blades, only a coil of rope and a grin. "You're late," Kael said. "I'm on time." "For a man who never sleeps in, you sure crawled out slow." Kai adjusted the strap on his shoulder. "Azure held onto me." "I bet she did." They started up the path. The air smelled of cold pine. Frost cracked under their boots. Kael moved ahead easy, his tail flicking, his ears twitching at every dropped needle. Kai kept his eyes on the ridge above them where the pale rock split open. "How far?" Kai asked. "Two more bends. I found it last spring. Nobody digs there. The stone's soft in one seam and the crystals sit in it like teeth." "You never told me." "Wasn't ready to share." Kael glanced back. "You getting married changed my mind." They climbed. At the second bend the cliff opened into a shallow cave mouth. Kael pointed. A vein of pale rock ran through the wall, and in it Kai saw them — clear stones with a blue heart, the size of thumbnails, packed tight in the seam. Kai knelt and set his chisel. He tapped once. A jewel loosened. He caught it in his palm. It was cold and clean. He turned it against the daylight and saw the blue at its center match the color of Azure's horns. "That one's hers," he said. "Obviously. What did you think, you'd give her the ugly one?" "I need two." "Then tap again, dragon." Kai worked the seam. Kael crouched beside him and held the pack open. After a while Kai freed a second stone, smaller, with a warmer glint under the blue. "That's you," Kael said. "Orange and blue. Like your whole ugly face." Kai laughed. "You want to say that again?" "I'll say it at the wedding." "You'll cry at the wedding." "I will not." "You cried when Ire set your shoulder." Kael went quiet a second, then snorted. "That was pain. This is you in a shirt. Different tears." Kai grinned and wrapped both stones in a scrap of cloth. He tucked the bundle deep in the pack against his ribs. He stood and clapped Kael on the shoulder. "Thank you," he said. "Don't thank me. Make the rings." They started back down the ridge. The stones were warm now against Kai's chest. He had what he came for. Tonight he would sit at Azure's table with a hammer and a punch and begin the work with his own hands.