Chapter 235: The Wounded Emperor Took the Hunter Into the Heart

Wet cord crushed Jiang’s ankle against the broodlift rail.

He pulled his sound foot toward his belly. Wet fibers tightened through the feathers and dragged the family carrier after them.

Beside him, the chick rolled against its father’s wound.

Its cry brought the female down over both bodies. She planted her feet on the hide, but the cord passed beneath one corner and kept sawing toward the open side.

Above the lower stop, the wakehound pulled again.

Jiang’s loop took the force first. Pain climbed his leg. He tried to stand on the straightened one, and the joint folded before his breast left the boards.

Hest caught him beneath the sound wing.

"Keep the foot," Hest said. "I have become attached to the current number."

Valea dropped beside the carrier and drove her bent knife beneath the wet cord. The edge lifted a few pale hairs from it.

"The blade is too dull," she said.

"The blade has character," Hest answered through his teeth.

"Its character is why his foot is still attached."

One hard pull snapped the cord taut. Valea lost the knife. It spun between the cradle boards and fell into red mist.

Jiang twisted his ankle. The loop had crossed itself behind the joint. His beak could reach the front knot or the cord beneath the carrier, never both. Moving either one shifted the injured male closer to the rail.

Above them, the wakehound worried the other end with its round mouth. Each pull sent Jiang’s own oil through the wet fibers.

White barbs answered around the lower stop.

Light opened behind the cradle, along the runoff to their left, and through the scar Bellwyrm had used on the right. Every water road they had touched now showed the hunter where his scent passed.

Only the red opening below remained dark.

Around it, the Bellmother beat.

Jiang’s partner bent over the male. Blood had soaked the carrier beneath his breast. His breathing no longer lifted his body; it moved only the fine feathers below one nostril.

"I can cut the carrier," Hest said.

That would free the cord.

It would also spill the male and chick onto a tilting cradle with no hide beneath them.

"No. Keep the carrier whole," Jiang said.

Hest did not argue. His burned hand closed around the rail while the useful one shifted beneath Jiang’s breast.

Valea reached across the male for the carrier’s side restraint. "I can move him inward if she gives me room."

His partner struck at her wrist.

Valea withdrew before beak met bone. "She has declined."

One red-filmed eye opened.

Red mist had filmed it. He looked past Valea, past Jiang, and found the chick tucked against his wounded breast.

Beneath her, the chick called again.

He moved his sound wing.

At first Jiang thought the male was trying to cover the chick. The wing had too little strength to rise. It slid instead, pushing the chick deeper beneath the female’s belly.

She helped without understanding. One foot stepped over the chick. Her breast lowered until only its head remained outside her warmth.

He pushed once more.

Warm feathers closed over the chick.

His beak turned toward the restraint tied across his hips.

Jiang understood the choice.

"Don’t," he said.

Bent over his hips, the male worried the release knot.

His partner caught his beak between hers. Their old changing call came from her throat in two rough notes, a question shaped by years Jiang had never shared.

For that breath, he rested there.

For one breath, Jiang let himself believe that she had stopped him.

Then the male answered through her beak.

He gave the first note. She refused the second. The chick supplied its broken piece from beneath her breast.

Air passed between their beaks, and he pulled free.

His beak found the release knot again. The wet cord dragged the carrier while he worked, stealing what little room remained. Jiang clawed at his ankle with the edge of one wing. Hest pulled the loop toward the rail. Neither gained enough slack.

The soaked knot opened.

Valea lunged for the male’s restraint. His partner reached sooner and caught the feathers at his neck.

He put his beak against hers.

Then he rolled his body onto the counterweight cord.

Blood-wet feathers trapped it beneath his breast. His weight took the pull away from the carrier. The hide slid inward beneath the female and chick.

Jiang’s foot loop loosened.

"Hold him!" Jiang shouted.

He kicked free and threw himself across the boards. His straight leg dragged behind him. Hest caught the carrier before the cradle’s swing could send it back.

Jiang reached the male’s wing.

A red-filmed eye held Jiang’s face.

There was no accusation in the red-filmed eye. That hurt worse than one would have.

With his sound foot, the male shoved the carrier once.

His body passed over the rail.

His partner’s beak tore feathers from his neck. For a heartbeat she held him above the red opening, her body stretched between mate and chick.

The entire cradle tilted.

Beneath her, the chick cried.

Jiang caught the hide beside its small body. Hest threw his weight onto the inner rail. Valea seized the female around the breast without asking and kept her from following.

Her grip on him broke.

Blood-wet and unrestrained, the male fell with the counterweight cord under one wing.

His weight ripped the line through the wakehound’s mouth. Pale flesh burst from the side run as the creature followed its bite into open air. Its fins struck the shaft wall, seeking water that was no longer beneath them.

He reached it first.

His beak closed through the black harness behind its gills.

Blind and airborne, the wakehound thrashed. A white barb tore loose and struck the outer lift chain. Its points opened in the wet iron.

Male, hunter, and chain dropped together.

Bellwyrm came off the wall.

Unable to close its burned jaw around either body, Bellwyrm drove its unburned forelimb through the loose carrier restraint trailing from the male’s hips and struck the scar on the other side of the shaft.

The trailing restraint caught.

Below the cradle, the male stopped hard enough to throw blood from his beak.

Nothing stopped the wakehound.

His grip on the harness dragged the hunter sideways. The barb in the chain bent. Wet iron tore from the lower stop and went with them toward the Bellmother’s red opening.

For an instant the wakehound hung beneath the male, fins beating mist.

Its harness split at the ring held in his beak.

White flesh fell through the heart road. One fin struck a pulsing wall and folded wrong. The creature twisted, found a ribbon of dark fluid farther below, and vanished into it alive.

Behind it came the torn outer chain.

Bellwyrm clung to the opposite scar with the male hanging from its forelimb. The restraint cut deeper each time the Bellmother beat.

"Bring him in," Valea said.

Bellwyrm looked at her and stayed where it was.

Valea put both empty hands against the rail. "Please."

Bellwyrm lifted its forelimb.

Hest caught the restraint first. Jiang took the male’s wing root in his beak, and Valea reached beneath the breast. Together they drew him over the rail and onto the carrier he had emptied for his family.

His partner climbed onto him before Valea could move her arms.

She pressed her breast to his wound. The chick crawled from beneath her and pushed its beak against the male’s throat.

Jiang stayed at the carrier’s edge.

He wanted to clear the blood from the nostril. He wanted to lift the jaw as he had done through every failing breath since the white tooth. His beak moved toward the familiar place.

His partner struck the boards between them.

This breath belonged to her.

Jiang lowered his head.

She gave the first note of their changing call.

Once, the male’s chest moved.

His chick answered with the broken note it had used all day.

His eye found the small body. The red film did not clear, but his beak touched the chick’s crown.

His partner offered the missing note.

Air left him beneath it.

Around them, the Bellmother beat again. Their carrier hide lifted and settled. Fine feathers below his nostril remained still.

No blue panel laid a value over the body.

Jiang would have broken it if one had.

His partner called once more. Her mate did not change with her.

She folded over him, hiding the wound, his face, and most of the chick. Jiang moved to the cradle’s outer side and gave them the space his body could manage.

Hest found a second cord among the old saddle hooks. He laid it beside the carrier and waited.

Valea retrieved nothing from her empty sheath. She knelt near the male’s feet without touching them.

Above, every wet exit flared white.

Oil from the severed counterweight cord had entered the runoff. The trail barbs opened their cold light one after another until the broodlift hung inside a cage of marked water.

Behind them lay the gallery, the scar, and every road back toward Cairnspire.

All of them shone.

Ahead, the chain torn away by the male and wakehound had opened a narrow fold in the Bellmother’s inner flesh. Warm air moved through it without water. Each pulse spread the passage wide enough for the carrier, then drew it close again.

Bellwyrm lowered its head toward the opening.

It chose the dark road.

Hest tied the new cord through the carrier handles. Valea took the other side. Neither tried to remove the female from her mate.

Jiang placed himself beside the chick and left the male’s place untouched.

They carried the dead emperor toward the beating heart.

Every wet road behind them burned white.