GLINT's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

Glint hauled himself out of the drain into grey daylight. His back was scorched. His throat burned with smoke. Nihm hung limp over his shoulder, heavier with every step. The gnome's cut had split wide in the climb. Blood soaked Glint's leather armor and ran down his arm. The wall loomed ahead, and the great scrap-metal gate rose above it, its lights blinking through the dust. "Stay with me," Glint said. He dragged Nihm across the broken ground. "You still gotta show me how to get in. You promised." Nihm didn't answer. His chest barely moved. Glint dropped to his knees and pressed both hands over the wound. Blood pushed through his fingers. He pressed harder. It kept coming. He had killed a monster, sabotaged an engine, outrun a cave-in. He could not stop this. "Help!" he screamed at the gate. "He's dying! Somebody help!" A hatch in the gate ground open. Garrek stepped out, the gate guard in rusty armor, breathing mask hissing, techno-arcane halberd low in his grip. Behind him rolled Bitz-0, the iron golem, treads crushing scrap, one orange eye burning. Glint knew them. They had attacked him the first day he came with his letter. He didn't care anymore. "Please," Glint said. "He's hurt bad. I can't stop it." Garrek stopped. His masked face turned from the goblin to the bleeding gnome. "That's Nihm," he said. "The Academy's artificer." He barked over his shoulder. "Bitz-0. Now." The golem lurched forward. Its seized right arm jerked, then obeyed. From a slot in its chest it drew a slim hypodermic, needle gleaming. "NIHM," Bitz-0 said. "WOUND. DEEP." A grinding pause. "KRRNNGH. TREATING." Bitz-0 knelt with a shriek of metal. It pulled Glint's hands aside and drove the needle into Nihm's chest. The potion hissed in. Nihm's body jerked. His cut began to close, skin knitting pink over the gash. His breath came stronger. "Steady," Garrek said, watching. "Hold steady, little man." Relief flooded Glint. He sat back on his heels and grinned, jagged teeth bared. "You did it," he said. "He's gonna live." Garrek turned toward Glint. His grip shifted on the halberd. "You came out of the sewers," he said. "Covered in soot. Dragging our artificer half-dead." The eyes behind the mask were cold. "You're not getting an answer from me, goblin. You're getting an escort." Glint raised a hand. "Wait, I can explain, the thruster, the cult, I was—" The halberd blade swung flat and touched his shoulder. Blue light cracked across the metal. The shock slammed through Glint's body. His teeth clenched. His vision went white, then black. He fell beside Nihm in the dirt. The last thing he heard was Garrek's voice, far away. "Get them both inside." Glint had reached the gate at last. He was carried through it unconscious, a prisoner, not a student.