Chapter 233: The Red Aeries Opened Its Forbidden Broodlift

The west broodlift waited beyond the last safe piece of floor.

A cradle hung over red mist, separated from the gallery by an empty span where a boarding bridge had once been. Three black chains climbed from its corners into the warm dark. A fourth lay broken across the cradle bed, buried under old feathers and rusted saddle hooks.

Far below, something beat inside the Bellmother.

Each pulse lifted the mist and made the hanging cradle turn.

Valea and Hest set the emperor carrier down before the gap. The injured male’s beak slid from Jiang’s nape and struck hide without opening his eye.

The chick called at once.

Its father answered with air.

"How forbidden is it?" Hest asked.

Mottle went to the edge on foot. Months without flight had changed the way she approached a drop. She planted the good foreclaw first, tested the red stone twice, and kept the damaged wing bound against her side.

"The lower chain enters living blood," she said.

"That sounds like an answer from someone avoiding a number."

"The number is all of us if the chain tears."

Hest considered the mist. "Excellent. I regret asking."

Ilex lowered herself beside a copper brake sunk into the wall. Corrosion had grown over the hand grip, and a thin layer of Bellmother tissue covered half the release wheel. She touched neither.

"This lift was left open when the inner aeries evacuated," she said. "Nobody came back to lock it."

Valea looked at the carrier. "Then it was abandoned, not forbidden."

"That distinction will comfort us during the fall."

Wingbeats crossed the gallery mouth.

Slate landed beyond the empty span with Rill low in the saddle. The wyvern’s healed flank had drawn tight around an uneven scar; the last wingbeat pulled it hard enough to make Slate stumble on landing.

Rill dismounted before balance could become pride. One palm still wore a dark web of scar where his old hook scrape had reopened. He looked from Mottle to the carrier and stopped making whatever joke had reached his face.

"Who is alive?" he asked.

"Everyone," Valea said. "Keep it that way."

Slate lowered its long neck toward the emperor male. The female stepped over her mate and struck the stone between Slate’s nostrils.

Slate withdrew beyond her beak’s reach and waited there.

Rill unclipped a flight hook from his saddle. "The bridge is gone. The cradle can be drawn close if the north chain still travels."

"Can Slate take the draw?" Ilex asked.

Rill looked at the tightened flank scar before Slate did. "One walking pull. No hanging load."

Slate answered by putting its shoulder under the chain.

Another pair came through the lower gallery rather than the air. Eda walked beside Cress, one hand beneath a wing frame that had been repaired with dark wood and rawhide. The old feather-line wound showed as a bare furrow where the frame could no longer lie flat.

"You opened the west road," Eda said.

"We stood near it while necessity became impolite," Hest replied.

Cress looked over the edge and folded the damaged wing tighter. It could not fly a carrier across the gap. Instead, the wyvern caught the loose tail of the southern chain between its teeth and backed along solid floor.

No bell rang to organize them.

Rill hooked the north chain. Slate walked. Cress pulled south. The hanging cradle turned against its buried fourth chain, scraping old hooks across wood.

It came closer by the width of Jiang’s body.

Then the brake screamed.

Ilex threw both hands onto the wheel before it could spin. Her bound knee struck the wall, and pain emptied her face. Mottle caught Ilex beneath one shoulder but did not take the hands from the brake.

"Release when you choose," Mottle said.

"I chose several years ago. The mechanism remains unconvinced."

Ilex changed her grip. Valea slid the blunt back of her bent knife under the tissue grown across the wheel, separating living red from copper without cutting either. Once the growth lifted, Ilex turned the brake one notch.

The cradle moved again.

Its near edge struck stone below the missing bridge. The gap remained too wide for a human step and too narrow for Slate’s wings.

Jiang could cross it.

He saw every face arrive at that conclusion and disliked all of them for being correct.

"I need a line," he said.

Rill offered the hooked flight cord.

Jiang stared at the iron hook. "A line without the part designed to enter meat."

"Fussy for someone volunteering over a living abyss."

Rill removed the hook.

Valea looped the plain cord around Jiang’s breast without touching the open flank. She left space for breathing and put the release knot beside his sound wing where his beak could reach it. No one held the free end until Jiang looked at Hest and nodded.

Hest wrapped it once around his burned palm.

Jiang lowered onto his belly.

The empty span breathed warm mist beneath him. His sound foot pushed from the gallery edge while the straight leg dragged. He landed breast-first on the cradle, slid through old feathers, and stopped when his beak caught the broken fourth chain.

His injured shoulder objected after the success.

Jiang lay still until the shaking eased. Then he opened the release knot with his beak and kicked the loose cord back across the gap.

Nobody congratulated him. They still had a dying emperor to move.

Jiang cleared the old hooks from the cradle bed one at a time. Most came free under his beak. One had grown into a strip of red tissue beneath the wood. He left it. Pulling metal from living flesh had already cost enough bodies for one day.

Across the gap, the female watched every movement.

The carrier could not be thrown or lifted by one chain. Rill and Eda passed two plain saddle lines through the hide hems. Slate and Cress took only ground tension. Valea and Hest kept hands on the carrier handles while Mottle steadied the iron side.

Ilex opened the brake another notch.

The cradle lowered below the lip until its chains angled toward the carrier.

"Now," Valea said, and Slate walked backward. Cress matched it from the other side. The hide crossed empty air with the emperor male, chick, and female all on it.

The male’s body rolled toward the open edge.

His mate caught the feathers above his straightened legs. Jiang braced the sound foot on the broken chain and put his breast beneath the hanging beak. Between them, they returned his weight to the stiffened side before any human line could jerk tight.

The carrier reached the cradle.

Hest and Valea released only after Mottle pulled both empty handles back onto stone. The saddle lines fell loose. Slate and Cress stepped out of tension by their own timing.

Rill remained on the solid gallery with Slate. Eda stayed beside Cress at the south chain. Neither wounded pair accepted the descent.

Mottle went to the north brake. Ilex kept the west release. Hest and Valea crossed by an old maintenance ledge wide enough for one boot at a time.

Bellwyrm refused every offered line.

The long creature tested the missing bridge with its burned forelimb, tasted empty air through a jaw that would not close, and turned into a scar crack running down the outer wall. It chose a route no rider could follow.

Jiang’s partner settled over her mate. The chick pressed against his breast. Jiang took the exposed side, covering the wet carrier cloth with his uninjured flank while leaving his torn feathers away from the male’s wound.

When Ilex released the brake, the broodlift descended.

Its first drop threw the chick toward the broken fourth chain. Jiang caught the small breast against his neck while the female kept her weight over her mate’s hips. The injured male slid half a wing across the hide and left a new dark line behind him.

Jiang could smell fresh blood through the warm mist.

He pressed his beak beneath the male’s jaw until the airway lifted. The position forced Jiang’s injured shoulder against the cradle rail. He held it anyway, counting each rough exhale by the warmth crossing his crown.

The north chain skipped one link.

Above them, Slate’s walking pull became a stumble. Rill released the chain before the tightened flank scar could tear. On the south side, Cress planted both foreclaws and held without opening the damaged wing. Eda changed her hand from frame to shoulder, giving Cress a brace rather than another command.

The cradle swung toward the living wall.

Mottle took the north brake with her good foreclaw. Ilex let the west release travel until the hanging bed turned beneath the swing instead of fighting it. Wood passed close enough to scrape red moisture from the wall, then returned over the center of the shaft.

Nobody repeated the same answer. No bell told them when to change.

Jiang’s partner called once into her mate’s ear. The chick added its broken note. Jiang left the third space open for the body between them.

At first, only the chain replied.

Then the male drew breath through the missing place.

Red galleries climbed past them. Hanging saddle racks emerged from mist, followed by cracked roost mouths and old copper bells that moved with the Bellmother’s pulse. Warm air reached beneath Jiang’s breast feathers for the first time since Cairnspire.

The injured male breathed once without breaking.

Above the gallery they had left, white flesh entered the sealed tooth wound.

The wakehound tasted Jiang’s oil in the blood-warm runoff. Its blind head followed the trail to the broodlift shaft.

One barb lifted from its harness.

The beast struck its back against wet tissue. White metal buried itself beside the runoff and opened into a four-pointed hook.

Far below, a thin stream crossed the descending cradle.

Water touched Jiang’s sound foot.

The stream flashed white around him.