Chapter 144: Jiang Held the Chick Between Them

With one moon gone, the mother had nowhere to put her rear foot.

It swept through darkness where the far ice had been. Her body dropped into the low road, dragging silver beneath her breast and wrenching the trapped ankle sideways inside Ninebell.

Stone split around the first cup.

Her freed foot slid across wet stone. Pava threw herself backward before the mother’s beak followed it through the feeding reach.

"Welcome," Pava said from the floor. "I remain unpleasant to bite."

Only part of the female had arrived. Her breast lay across moonlight, one foot clawed at Ninebell, and the rear leg still kicked inside a strip of the far sky. Through that narrowing strip came wind, rookery calls, and the last pale moon.

Aylin’s bleeding palm slipped over the outer edge.

Kedra caught her own side before the two shadows touched. "Stay with me."

"I am here," Aylin said, though her bleeding hand disagreed.

"Your hand is trying to leave."

"It has poor judgment."

Valea pressed the turning glass prong down while Brinn shoved her empty mask farther beneath it. Elen’s brace scraped across stone and stopped short of the mother’s belly.

"She has crossed the old lip," Brinn said. "Silver is pulling the rest through."

"Can it pull more gently?" Pava asked.

Moonlight shortened between the mother and the far ice.

"Apparently not," Brinn said, keeping her weight on the mask.

Jiang felt the pull through the male before he saw the brood fold slip.

His inner ankle had lost its angle. Flattened toes spread beneath the chick, but the small body was already sliding toward the open side of his breast. One grey shoulder appeared, then a foot that searched and found only loose brood feathers.

He clamped his fold lower.

That kept the chick from falling. It also covered the beak.

A muffled call beat against his belly.

Pava came onto her knees. Warm hide lay close enough for her to catch the chick if it fell, but her hands remained on the stone outside the male’s reach.

"I can cover the floor," she said. "I cannot reach inside him without starting a fight he will lose."

Jiang lowered his breast beside the failing fold.

His companion’s weight came with him, leaving the chick even less room. Jiang shifted his good foot toward the brood fold until his outside toe touched the adult’s inner toes.

An open beak struck his cheek.

That blow cut the old crack at the corner of Jiang’s beak. He did not retreat. Blood warmed his tongue, and the male struck once more with the same weak anger.

Jiang opened his own belly feathers over the offered foot.

He had the body of an emperor, but not the practiced balance of a father who had carried one life through a winter. His numb leg lay useless behind him. Jiang’s backward claw could tear the chick if he curled it carelessly, and his damaged feathers held little warmth.

He wanted the male to understand all of that.

Jiang could only stay low, keep the claw turned away, and wait.

A thin call pushed through the failing fold.

Across the room, the mother’s rear foot appeared inside the second cup.

It struck without purchase, vanished, then returned with all three forward claws spread. Silver tightened around the leg. She drove her beak against Ninebell stone and hauled until wet breast feathers spilled off the road.

Her full weight landed hard on the wet stone.

Behind her tail, the remaining moon flickered.

She could see the chick now. Her call crossed the short space between them, urgent enough to bring the male’s head around.

He looked at her, then at Jiang’s offered foot.

His beak lowered to the brood fold.

Rather than lift the chick, he worked one feather at a time away from its face. A small beak emerged first. A grey crown followed. Bracing his chest against Jiang, the male raised just enough skin for the chick to find air.

Jiang moved his foot under the opening.

Skin touched skin beneath the feathers.

He bit the loose edge of Jiang’s shoulder wrap and held it. Jiang could not tell whether the adult meant to steady him or warn him against moving. It did both.

One of the chick’s feet stepped from the father’s toes onto Jiang’s webbing.

The other remained under the male.

Moonlight tore along the floor.

Aylin cried out as silver entered the cut in her palm. Kedra leaned across her own side by instinct, stopping before their shadows met.

"Do not help me," Aylin said.

"I hate this road."

"A shared interest," Aylin said through clenched teeth.

Valea trapped Aylin’s forearm under fresh cloth without lifting it. Brinn’s empty mask cracked beneath the green prong, and a thin shard broke from its rim.

Neither woman left the brace.

The mother dragged her rear foot fully into Ninebell.

Far ice vanished behind the claws. The last moon remained as a narrow light around her tail, too small now for any foot to return through.

She lunged toward the brood rest.

Pava threw the warm hide between the female’s breast and a broken patch of floor, then rolled away from the beak that followed. The hide stopped the mother’s bare skin from striking sharp stone. It did not carry her.

"You are welcome again," Pava muttered.

The mother ignored her. Her eyes stayed on the chick.

The male loosened his bite on Jiang’s wrap.

His inner foot tilted.

The chick slid across their joined webbing. Its second foot left the male, found the smooth skin above Jiang’s toes, and clung there.

For the first time, none of the chick’s weight rested on its father.

The male collapsed beside Jiang.

Jiang tried to keep one flank beneath him while closing his belly over the chick. His failed flipper would not shield the open side. The numb leg dragged as his body rolled toward it.

Panic rose hot beneath Jiang’s tongue. If he tipped, he would either uncover the chick or pin it beneath a body too heavy to correct.

The male caught his loose shoulder wrap again.

His beak pulled backward.

That small force held Jiang short of the roll. The father lay flat, unable to carry the chick, yet still kept Jiang upright by a strip Pava had tied around an injured stranger.

Beneath Jiang’s belly, the chick shivered.

His feathers did not return enough warmth. He felt every tiny movement through his foot: toes opening, belly tightening, beak searching upward for a fold that did not fit around it.

The mother lowered herself opposite him.

Her legs trembled after the crossing. One ankle bore a dark ring where the first cup had held it, and silver still clung to her rear toes. She could not simply snatch the chick without knocking Jiang over.

Instead, she opened her brood fold.

Both black feet shuffled forward beneath her breast. She kept them together, making one warm shelf against the edge of Jiang’s webbing.

The chick heard her call.

It pushed its head from Jiang’s feathers and answered.

Jiang wanted to hold it tighter. The urge frightened him more than the road had. The chick was warm enough to feel, light enough to lose, and entirely someone else’s child.

He opened his belly feathers.

Cold reached the chick at once.

The mother covered that exposed side with her breast before it could cry. Her beak touched the chick’s crown, then Jiang’s, a quick hard check rather than affection.

Behind Jiang, the male released the shoulder wrap.

He dragged his beak along the chick’s other side, keeping the small body between three living breasts while Jiang shifted his good foot.

His backward claw caught in the warm hide.

Jiang could not lift the foot without lifting the chick. He pecked at the hide once, missed through blurred green afterimages, and tried again.

Pava saw the snag. Her fingers came near, then stopped outside the parents’ beaks.

"Move the hide," Brinn said.

"I cannot without moving his foot."

"Then he moves it."

Jiang bit the folded edge and pulled.

The hide tore around the backward claw. His foot came free with the chick still balanced above it.

Pain ran through the bent toe. The small body wobbled.

Mother and father closed from either side.

Jiang slid his webbing over the mother’s joined feet. For a breath, the chick rested on both of them.

Then Jiang withdrew one toe, and another.

The chick chose the warmer skin.

Its weight left his foot and settled over the mother’s toes. She lowered her brood fold at once, sealing warmth around the grey body while the father kept his beak against the outer feathers.

A clear call came from under her.

The male answered against her flank.

Jiang’s good foot fell empty onto the torn hide.

Behind the reunited pair, two-moon silver ripped itself out of Ninebell’s first groove.