GLINT's Arc

Chapter 2 of 10

The passage spat Glint out into gray daylight. He scrambled up a slope of wet scrap and saw the crab ahead, legs clicking fast over the rocks. Beyond it stretched a vast ocean of liquid metal. Its surface rippled like spilled mercury, bright and seamless. Glint had no name for it, but later he would learn the people here called it the Silver Sea. The crab ran straight toward its shore, his mother's letter clamped in one rusted claw. "Get back here!" Glint shouted. He pumped his legs and gained a step. The crab's teal lights blinked faster. A bolt of blue fire cracked past his ear. Glint flinched and looked back. Garrek had found the hidden passage too. The guard climbed the slope, halberd leveled, his masked face fixed on Glint. A second bolt leapt from the weapon's tip. It struck a pipe beside Glint and burst into sparks. "Stop, monster!" Garrek bellowed. "That's stolen town property!" "It's mine!" Glint ducked low and kept running. The letter was his whole case, his only proof. Without it he was just a goblin at a gate. He dove, fingers spread, and his hand closed on cold metal. He had the crab's back leg. The crab shrieked and dragged him forward. Glint's boots skidded across slick stone. Ahead, a great stone wall poured glowing green runoff and black sewage into the sea. The flow churned and stank. The crab was pulling him straight into it. "Let go, let go!" Glint yanked harder. The leg bent. The crab spun and snapped its big claw at his face. He jerked his head aside. The claw clipped his goggles and tore them loose. Behind him, Garrek charged. "Move and I burn you!" Glint had one second to choose. He could save himself, or save the letter. He threw his free hand toward the claw that held the paper. His fingers brushed the wax seal. For one breath he felt the letter's torn edge. Then the crab wrenched sideways and plunged over the lip of the outfall. It fell into the green flood with the letter still in its grip. The current swallowed it. Glint lurched after it and caught the stone edge just in time. Below him the runoff roared down a dark tunnel, carrying the crab into the sewers beneath the town. The letter was gone. His goggles were gone. Garrek's boots crunched behind him. Glint rolled sideways off the ledge and dropped behind a heap of pipes. Garrek's bolt scorched the spot where he had lain. Glint pressed flat and held his breath. "Filthy thing," Garrek muttered. He peered over the outfall, saw only churning green, and spat. "Good riddance." He turned and climbed back toward the gate. Glint waited until the footsteps faded. Then he crawled to the ledge and stared down into the stinking dark where the flow vanished. His letter was down there. His way into the Academy was down there. He set his jaw and climbed down into the tunnel.