Chapter 139: Four Words Short

Dane’s metal click came back from three ribs.

"Four," Kril said.

The black line took his front weight. Stone tore under his rear boot and dropped until the line checked it one body below the party’s shelf.

"We’re on the upper balcony," Vera said. She had the ordinary guide over her right forearm and her stiff left side against Dane’s sound rear. "Kril is one body below us on a lower tongue. A closed collar lies farther down, with five wet plate seams meeting at its center. Three sluice slits cross the gap from the opposite wall."

The first slit opened.

Water struck Kril at the hip. His sheathed blade slipped along the high seam, caught again, and held his shoulders above the lower tongue while the black line pulled his front boot toward the dark center.

"My back foot has stone until the next quiet," he called. Near the covered mouth, one rib returned only back foot. "If I cut the black line now, I leave before any of you can reach me."

Dane held his wheel still.

Another knock would mix with the ribs.

At the balcony lip, the coffer’s two chosen feet stopped while its four habitual feet felt the inward air and tried to walk backward beneath Buk’s litter.

Voss caught the nearest shell ankle with his shortened right hook at the first notch. He used the pull to bring his torso forward, then released before his hip opened sideways.

"Buk stays where he is," Ada said. "Do not make the litter your anchor."

One chosen foot left Buk’s rear cloth and stepped beneath Voss’s spine; the other planted against a stone tooth at the lip while four habits kept backing into Mett and Sella.

With her left shoulder against the litter pole and her bound right hand against her chest, Sella said, "Move those feet or they take all three of us."

Lye Scar set his sound boot against one shell heel. His short left step reached the stone behind it without bending the wrapped thigh. Serrick blocked another ankle with a dry boot while both injured hands remained against his ribs.

Orsa drove her stump between the last pair and stopped their retreat as the hard broom struck the sixth rib.

Pressure shoved upward through the wet curve. Kril’s lower tongue rose until its inner edge came within a man’s reach of the balcony. The three sluice slits closed while stone rang.

"Guide crosses Dane, then the sixth eye, then Kril’s belt line," Vera said. "It is clear of the ferrule."

Dane opened one low Door corner beneath the rope. He folded it against dry balcony stone and pinned the guide between living grain and the inner lip. Orsa’s stump moved under the outer edge. Vera let her loop go slack.

The rope bit into Dane’s corner when the lower tongue fell again.

Coffin warmth gathered around the narrow pressure and tried to curl the grain over it. Dane kept the corner open. The guide remained visible along both sides and free to move when he chose.

"His line is held at the balcony," Vera called. "Dane’s grain stays open on both sides of the rope."

Voss dragged one rigid splinted limb across the coffer’s shell. His bound left stump stayed high. The surviving right hook closed to the third notch and reached over the lip without taking Kril’s weight.

"Kril," he said. "Your back belt knot is dry. When the low strike lifts you, I can put this hook through it sideways."

Kril’s voice rose from the lower tongue. "Ada barred that turn."

"She barred another hold. This one reaches you. My right side drops when your floor leaves. The hook should stay shut."

The black line tightened and pulled Kril’s front knee down.

Voss kept his hook above the gap. "Do you want the placement?"

"Seat it. I cut when I feel the point turn."

No rib returned the answer clearly. Voss had heard it at the lip.

The low blow came late.

Kril’s tongue of stone rose. Voss rolled his right hip outward and sent the hook beneath the guide. Its point entered the dry knot at the back of Kril’s belt, passed between rope and leather, and closed at the shortened angle.

The coffer’s chosen feet spread, one carrying Voss’s upper spine and the other holding the balcony tooth. His two ruined splints lay across its shell and supplied dead weight. The left stump touched nothing.

"Point turned," Voss said.

Kril drew the bare edge from his damaged sheath. He laid it against the black line but kept his rear blade wedged in the high seam.

The first high broom struck.

One sluice opened and hit the lower tongue from the wall side. Kril’s front leg slid. Voss’s hook took part of the turn.

"The cord at his right root is standing through the cloth," Vera said.

"Hold the cut," Brant said. He stood with both useless arms close, good ear aimed into the wall. "Second high strike is still above us. The inward water follows it."

The second blow rang.

Kril cut the black line.

It parted under his blade and whipped into the center. The lower tongue dropped from beneath both boots.

All three sluice slits opened together.

Water hit Kril across the chest and turned his falling body away from the wall. His rear blade tore free of the high seam. His shoulder struck the tongue’s broken edge, then left it. The full weight of his hips and torso landed in the belt knot.

Voss’s right hook stayed closed.

The old cord at his pelvic root stretched to the length it had refused in the rack. One thick strand split along itself. A second tore partway from the living root and pulled longer beneath the skin.

Voss screamed.

Heat crossed his lower belly. A cold line followed it into the surviving hook. His pelvis dropped a palm on the hook side, rolling his torso toward the gap while Kril swung below him.

The chosen coffer foot beneath Voss’s spine skidded to the lip. Two habitual feet broke past Orsa’s stump and tried to retreat, dragging his ruined splints with them.

Dane’s pinned guide snapped tight.

Rope sawed across his open Door corner. Fibers cut a dark groove through the newly scored grain, but the corner held against dry stone. Dane forced Coffin warmth flat when it tried to close around the line.

"Voss lost a palm on the right," Vera said. "Kril is turning under him. One shoulder in water."

Brant listened through the sluice roar. "The jets stop at the next low strike. Keep him out of the center until then."

Lye pushed one habitual coffer foot forward with his sound leg. Serrick moved the other with the side of his dry boot. Orsa caught Voss’s dropped torso on her healthy hip and left the torn root clear.

The coffer’s chosen pair held.

Kril’s bare blade scraped stone below the lip and found no seat.

"Above your left ear," Voss said through his teeth. "Rough seam. Take it as it is."

Kril reached without testing. His blade entered a crooked crack and stopped at the guard, taking part of his weight while the belt knot held the rest.

The low broom hit, and the sluice jets died. Vera pulled the ordinary guide from Dane’s sound side while Orsa and Lye drove their bodies away from the lip. Serrick walked his boot forward one short placement at a time. Mett kept Buk and Sella behind the haul rather than adding their injuries to it.

Dane let the line travel across his open corner by one handspan. Kril rose that far. He pinned it again before the coffer’s habitual feet could retreat.

Voss’s hook remained closed inside the belt knot. Each lift dragged the lengthened tendon at his pelvis and dropped the right side again.

Kril moved his blade higher in the rough seam. "Give me the wall. Leave the hook where it is."

The next pull brought his forearm over the balcony lip. Ada caught cloth above the elbow without taking the blade edge. Vera and Orsa hauled the guide. Kril drove his free shoulder against stone and rolled onto the shelf hard enough to empty his lungs.

Only after both hips cleared did he cut the dry belt knot away from Voss’s hook.

The surviving hook opened at the same shortened angle. Voss’s right pelvis stayed low.

Kril coughed water onto the stone, then crawled to the coffer instead of lying down. He struck the chosen foot beneath Voss’s spine with a sheath guard.

"That support is above the torn side. Bring the front chosen foot under his right root."

The coffer moved the foot from the balcony tooth to Voss’s lowered pelvis. His torso stopped sliding.

The black line fell beyond Dane’s hearing.

Kril’s lower tongue followed it. Stone tore through the last collar covering the center below.

Five separate plates ground outward.

"Mouth opening," Vera said. "Five jaws around black living skin. Mineral teeth inside each plate. Water is running through the hinge flesh and going down."

The inward draw deepened. Loose calcite needles, the severed black line, and pieces of Kril’s lower tongue vanished between the jaws. The plates remained spread after the suction eased.

Ada knelt beside Voss. Her fingers followed the cord from the lower belly to the right pelvic root while the chosen coffer foot held beneath it.

"Close the hook slowly."

Voss closed to the third notch. The cord stayed joined, but a longer section rose beneath Ada’s hand and trembled after the hook stopped.

"Try one loaded placement," she said. "The coffer stays under you."

Voss set the hook on dry stone.

It caught. His right pelvis fell a palm before the tendon took weight, and his torso swung into the coffer’s raised corner. The rigid splints dragged after him at different heights. He completed the short placement with a visible hitch through the whole body.

Ada stopped a second attempt. "The cord is continuous. Part of it split lengthwise, and part pulled longer at the root. The hook still closes at three. Every time you load it, that side will drop before it catches."

"How far?"

"What you just felt. A palm, unless it tears again. No straight brace. No other body sideways."

Voss settled onto the coffer without answering.

Kril moved the chosen support beneath the dropped side before the next inward draw. He kept his bare blade turned away from Voss and said nothing about the belt.

Below them, the fifth mouth stayed open.

"Dry seam on the outer jaw," Vera said. "Crooked, narrow, and descending behind the hinge. Water passes beside it without touching stone."

The five jaws drew another breath around the living black throat.