The Bellmother looked at them and moved.
Her eye did not narrow with recognition. No thought crossed the black surface for Jiang to steal. The enormous lid opened farther, water rolled off its edge, and her whole flank turned beneath the nursery district.
Every surviving roof began sliding toward the scar.
"Kesta!" Beras shouted into the water.
No answer reached him.
Jiang saw brass below the old iron.
Kesta tumbled through the wound current with her hook strap wrapped around one wrist. A loose chain link had caught her damaged half-frame and dragged her toward the place where black-green threads had been.
Beras fixed Aylin's rope to his chest spar.
Jiang took the other end and dove.
He reached Kesta before the next chain pull. His beak could not cut the frame clasp without taking her shoulder with it. Jiang struck the trapped link, then the loose half-sail, and pushed the rope into Kesta's open hand.
She understood the part that belonged to her.
