Chapter 244: They Broke the Same Harpoon From Opposite Sides

White armor pulled the lever before Aylin reached the crown.

Three pale collars closed around the red trunks. Breathwood split beneath them, and the white harpoon sank through the Bellmother with a wet, tearing sound.

Breathwood dropped under Aylin’s boots.

Her tether caught before she slid into the open water between Cairnspire and the moving animal. Vessa’s anchor held. Dead messenger root cut across Aylin’s waist while she swung beside the harpoon.

Above her, the whole black feather bent in its silver comb.

Every white stem bent with it.

Inside the breathing road, the wall came down on Jiang.

Where the peeled knot had left room for Jiang’s head, the new drive forced a white shoulder through the wound. It widened as it entered, pushing Bellmother tissue apart instead of following the space the root had made.

Jiang rolled beneath Bellwyrm’s sound forelimb.

The female took the chick deeper into the upper fork. She stopped when the road closed around its tail, doubled back, and caught the chick by the nape. Bellwyrm braced its sound shoulder against the descending rib while keeping the burned forelimb folded.

Red fibers bowed around all three bodies. The harpoon was not merely blocking their way. Each drive gathered a wider piece of the breathing road and hauled it toward the exterior crown.

If the rootwright pulled again, the fold sheltering the chick would go with it. Jiang could let the closed road crush them or enter the moving joint before it took enough Bellmother flesh to carry the whole chamber.

He hated that the second choice was still the better one.

"That is the main stem," Valea said.

Hest dragged the old red yoke from his back. "Then I finally know which part I dislike most."

A narrow metal joint ran down the white shoulder’s center. Valea drove one extracted barb between joint and living graft. The armada point entered easily; its maker had shaped both pieces to meet.

Jiang crawled toward the underside.

Cold breathwood caught his wet flank. His right wing could not lift him over the first root, so he pushed his beak beneath it and used his low breast as a wedge. The root scraped new down from his shoulder without finding the open skin.

Above the wall, crooked metal rang.

Valea’s off-center note traveled through the joint.

Hest looked at Valea. "She found the other end."

"Then stop admiring her and lift."

Hest wedged one curved arm of the red yoke under the joint. Its shape fit the older cradle groove around the graft but not the white metal driven through it. He leaned on the unburned side, trying to turn the new piece against the old fitting.

Bellwyrm pushed from the opposite wall.

Jiang reached the lowest seam and bit.

Outside, Aylin climbed her own tether.

Hand over hand brought her level with the pale collar. The scars across her palms pulled but did not open. Her struck knee failed when she put weight on it, forcing her to hook one boot around a red branch and hang from her arms.

Abandoning the drive lever, the diver stepped onto her branch.

White armor made no fighting stance. It simply placed itself between Aylin and the feather, one hand on the comb and one angled to push her back into the gap.

Aylin swung Valea’s shaving at the exposed heel.

An armored shin turned in time. Crooked metal glanced away and cut a pale root below the knee instead. Clear fluid sprayed both of them.

Every nearby hook opened.

They chose Aylin’s coat first because it carried the spray.

She dropped beneath the branch. Hooks closed where her ribs had been and dragged wool from between her shoulders. The diver stamped on her fingers.

Aylin let go with one hand before the armored foot could break it. Her tether took her weight. She swung under the crown and struck the drive lever from below.

It moved halfway back.

Inside, the white shoulder stopped descending.

Jiang felt the metal joint loosen against his beak. He changed his bite, caught the softened living layer beside it, and tore sideways. Bitter graft flooded his mouth.

Valea’s barb shifted deeper.

"Lift it again," Valea said.

No one inside could know what Aylin had done. They needed the opening her action created, not the story of it.

Hest lifted the yoke. Bellwyrm pressed. Jiang tore.

At last, the joint turned.

Outside, the diver kicked the lever down with its armored heel.

White graft drove downward again.

A red trunk burst beside Aylin. Warm mist and blood threw her against the pale collar. Her tether snapped taut toward Cairnspire, and the oldest surviving bridge rib bent under the load.

Vessa stood at its base with both hands around the anchor knot.

Even across the widening gap, Aylin saw shell break beneath her boots.

The tether could keep Aylin attached to Cairnspire, or it could help hold the harpoon. It could not do both while the Bellmother rolled away.

Aylin drew the cord across Valea’s shaving.

The dead root resisted longer than the wakehound’s heated line had. She sawed through its outer fibers while the diver came along the branch above her.

One stubborn final strand parted.

Its far end flew back toward Vessa. Released from Aylin’s weight, the bridge rib struck its old position and held.

Behind her, Cairnspire remained intact.

Nothing joined Aylin to it now.

Vessa gathered the loose cord before it fell into the flooded throat. Irra reached the bridge rib behind her. Both women were close enough for Aylin to see their faces and already too far away to touch without crossing moving open water.

The next Bellmother roll carried Breathwood higher. Cairnspire slid behind a red trunk, taking its stairs, Ashwake’s lines, and every route Aylin had used for the last month out of sight.

She had made the cut. Regret could wait until the harpoon was no longer inside a living body.

Aylin wrapped her severed waist length around the drive lever.

The diver reached her before she completed the turn. An armored hand closed around her shoulder and shoved. Aylin hit the pale collar hard enough to lose her breath. Valea’s shaving almost fell from her fingers.

She drove it through the dead-root loop and into the joint beneath the lever.

Crooked metal went in crooked.

The shaving caught where a straight pin would have slipped free.

The diver pulled once. The lever did not move.

Instead of fighting for the jam, the armored hand abandoned it and seized the silver comb.

The crown had been built to separate.

Pale seams opened around the feather. A higher white line tightened among the outer breathwood branches, drawing comb, feather, and upper crown away from the trapped drive.

Aylin caught the lowest tooth of the comb.

For one heartbeat, Jiang’s whole feather lay within her other hand.

The diver struck her wounded knee.

Pain folded the leg. Aylin could keep the comb or keep her grip on the collar. The gap below held black water and no Cairnspire tether.

She released the feather to keep herself alive.

Her empty hand closed once as the black vane left it.

Aylin had wanted that feather back from the moment she saw the diver carry it past Cairnspire. Returning it would have meant the armada had not kept every piece it stole from Jiang’s new body. Want did not give her another hand or solid ground.

The feather could be chased if she survived the fall. Jiang could not be helped by a corpse holding one black vane.

A high line carried the diver and crown into the red-and-black forest. White branches closed behind the missing heel. Jiang’s feather remained upright in the fleeing comb.

Aylin still had one hand on the lower harpoon.

Inside, its abandoned joint jerked.

Valea’s barb came loose first. Hest nearly fell across Jiang when the red yoke lifted. Bellwyrm’s sound shoulder drove the white stem toward the peeled wound.

His partner pushed the chick beyond the narrowing fold, then returned to the inner rib. She placed both feet against Jiang’s back.

He understood before she called.

Jiang set his sound foot. His rigid leg gave no useful push. With the female driving from behind and Hest levering above, he forced his low body under the metal joint.

Bellwyrm struck the wall.

The white shoulder tore free.

It did not leave cleanly. Pale hooks ripped strips from the Bellmother’s breathwood, and the trapped lower casing turned inside the wound. Warm blood covered Jiang from beak to breast.

Outside, the main stem surged beneath Aylin.

She locked both arms around a red trunk as the broken harpoon pulled out of the ridge. Valea’s shaving remained in the lever joint. Her severed cord stayed wrapped around it. White graft, dead root, and crooked metal vanished into the widening wound.

Around Aylin, Bellmother flesh convulsed.

Cairnspire rose behind Aylin on one side of the roll. Ashwake dropped into the trough on the other. Morrowfin surfaced beyond both, watched blood pour from the ridge, and chose open water over the wounded animal’s body.

Aylin had no line back.

Inside, Jiang had no wall in front of him.

In place of the broken stem, a passage ran through red breathing trunks toward cold daylight. Air rushed inward so violently that the chick rolled beneath its mother’s breast.

Hest lost the old yoke. Valea caught one arm before it flew into the opening. Bellwyrm lowered its sound side over the two penguins nearest the drop.

Jiang tasted the direction of the wind and saw white roots withdrawing after the fleeing crown.

Living walls drew one enormous breath around them.

When she exhaled, there would be nothing left to hold the inner road closed.