Captain Olsa Venn's burning rod was shorter than Kaul's forearm.
It lit nothing except what she meant to destroy.
White fire crawled around its blunt end as she crossed the crystallized root. The hunters behind her spread toward Skykeel's center, boots finding holds in walls that had become floors. Their fin-winged companions swam outside the air bell with wrist lines loose between them.
Two hunters turned toward the nursery passage.
Aylin stepped into their way.
"There are injured young behind those doors."
"That is why the doors close first," Olsa said. Her attention never left the hook in Kaul's throat. "Nothing leaves the center. Nothing from the center enters the brood rooms."
The chain pulled again.
