GLINT's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The chamber stayed dark. Nihm stuffed the torn cables in his belt and spat his cigarette into the sludge. "Now we run," he said. But the tunnels forked three ways, and Glint didn't know one from another. Both choices led into black pipe. Behind them, far off, claws scraped on stone. The cult had heard the juice drop. Glint grabbed a side pipe and hauled himself up. "This way smells like air," he said. Nihm cursed but followed. They scrambled through a cramped drain, slime-rats bursting under their hands, their stalk-eyes popping wetly. The scraping grew louder. Spear-points glinted in the dark behind. Then a shape blocked the pipe ahead. Glint knew the heavy wrench before he saw the kobold leaning on it. Wrencher. The old tunnel leader who'd respected Glint for killing the rot-grabber. Behind Wrencher crouched a dozen scaled cultists, spears raised, dragon trinkets rattling at their belts. "Traitor!" Wrencher hissed. His tail lashed. "You said you wanted work. You freed the gnome." He swung his wrench up to point past them, into the dead thruster chamber. His eyes went wide. The metal box hung open, cables torn, and deep inside the engine a red glow swelled and pulsed. "You idiots! The core's backing up. It's going to blow!" Nihm's head snapped around. "He's right. Rip the feed, the mana's got nowhere to go." He shoved Glint hard. "MOVE!" They ran as one now, goblin, gnome, and kobolds together, all fear of each other burned off by the thing building behind them. Glint's bare foot slapped the wet floor. The red glow lit the pipes orange. Wrencher swung on his wrench-crutch, fast for a one-legged thing, hissing at his cultists to climb. The thruster blew. The blast threw Glint off his feet and slammed him into a grate. Heat rolled over his back. Stone cracked and fell. When the roar faded, his ears sang. He pushed up on shaking arms. Nihm lay beside him, limp, a cut over one eye, cigarette gone, chest still rising. Glint hauled the gnome over his shoulder. He was heavier than he looked. Dust choked the air. Through it Glint saw Wrencher, half-buried under fallen pipe, one arm pinned, blood on his scales. The kobold's cultists lay scattered and still around him. "Glint," Wrencher rasped. He worked his trapped arm and couldn't free it. His eyes found the goblin carrying the gnome toward the one tunnel still open. "You brought this down on us. The Boss will hear." He bared his teeth, furious and helpless. "Run, goblin. Run while you can." Glint didn't answer. He turned and climbed, Nihm's weight dragging at his neck, toward a thin grey light leaking down from above. The thruster was gone for good. So was any welcome in these tunnels. He had made a true enemy today, and he carried an unconscious friend who alone knew the way back up to the Academy.