Coral's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Coral held the warm crystal in her fist and looked back at the pond. The light under the water was already fading. Marina drifted at the rim, watching her. Pearl floated just below the surface, dark curls fanning out. Coral had proof now, but she had no pocket deep enough to hide it and no route home that the regent's hunters would not guess. "They will search my satchel first," Coral said. "They will search my hands. They will search the reef road." She turned the crystal over. It pulsed against her palm like a second heartbeat. Anyone within a spear's length would see the glow through cloth. Marina swam closer and pressed the diamond-studded staff back into Coral's free hand. "Hide a light inside a brighter light," she said. "The staff has hollow stones. One of them will take it." She tapped a diamond near the crown of the staff. It clicked and slid aside, showing a small empty socket. Coral hesitated. If she sealed the crystal inside the staff and the hunters broke the staff, she would lose both. If she kept the crystal loose and they searched her, she would lose everything at once. She weighed the risks and chose the one she could carry openly. A staff was a staff. A glowing stone in a satchel was a confession. She fit the crystal into the socket. The diamond cover slid back with a soft snap. The glow dimmed to almost nothing, muffled by the white stones around it. Only a faint warmth in the wood told her the crystal was still awake. Pearl rose higher and set her small hands on the stone rim. "The staff will answer only to you now," she said. "If another hand pulls the diamond, the crystal will go dark and stay dark until a coral hand wakes it again." Coral nodded and gripped the shaft. The wood felt heavier than before, or maybe she did. A horn sounded far off, thin and flat across the water. Marina's head snapped toward the sound. "That is the regent's call," she said. "They are moving already. Not to the reef road. Here." Coral looked at the narrow paths out of the spring. She had hidden the proof, but she had traded one problem for a worse one. The hunters were not waiting on the road home. They were coming to the pond, and she was still inside it.