The next surge struck before Hedda finished saying the drain killed seals.
Black glass flexed beneath the inner step. A green crack opened across its surface, narrow as a feather shaft, then closed when water withdrew under the floor.
"One more like that will tear the flood blade clear," Hedda said. "If it tears free, the east throat opens with it."
Beyond the rusted grate, Gredudande's filament brightened in the confined water.
Dagna crouched beside Jiang. "Can the blade be reached from the other end?"
"At low tide, from the rocks," Hedda said. "The rocks are gone under this storm."
"Then the drain is the route."
Hedda planted her hook against the grate and looked at Jiang's soaked body. "I told you what it does to seals."
"He is not a seal," Dagna replied.
Jiang would have appreciated a less dangerous victory in animal classification.
Aylin lowered herself beside him. She kept her hands on her own knees. "He is injured, hungry, and cold. He can refuse even if his body fits."
Gredudande's thread pulled at the black glass again.
Jiang looked uphill. Orra and Senn had reached the inner stair. Children were climbing past them while two adults held the shelter door. Balen remained beside the flooded net-cellar wheel, both arms shaking from the effort of keeping it open.
If Jiang stayed, the storm would make the choice for all of them.
He tapped once against Aylin's boot.
Her face tightened. "Ask him about the harness."
Dagna touched the broad back strap with two fingers. "We replace the belly line with drain cord, keep the side cradle, and fasten the black cloth beneath it. One tap for yes."
Jiang tested the failed flipper inside its fish-leather support. The grate would scrape his back. A loose buckle in that tunnel could turn him into the cork Brinehook feared.
He tapped once. Tovin brought a tarred cord no thicker than his thumb. He fed it through the harness loop with his good hand, then wound the return length around the sled's brake post so the post, rather than his palm, took the wet leather's pull.
Dagna removed the broad line. Aylin folded the salt-black square closer around Jiang's breast and tucked its corners beneath the lower harness straps. She stopped before pulling the last knot tight.
Jiang drew one complete breath and tapped once more.
Tucked beneath the harness, the cloth held over his mark without crossing the shoulder wound.
Hedda pointed above the grate. A chain rose through the wall and disappeared into a stone box near the ceiling.
"The flood blade is counterweighted," she said. "The thing in the drain has wedged it off its seat. When the wedge comes free, the blade falls. Aylin and I hold the chain until your penguin returns."
"And if you lose it?" Tovin asked.
"Pull him before the blade cuts the cord."
Dagna took the free line in both hands. "My prisoner comes back with his head attached. Find a better answer."
Hedda shifted her grip on the chain. "Then I keep hold."
Aylin stood opposite her and wrapped the chain across her uninjured forearm. Her injured palm closed last. "So do I."
They lifted together. Metal dragged inside the wall. Under their pull, the flood blade rose enough for water to rush beneath it, and the green crack in the glass widened.
Hedda tore the grate from its lower socket. "Go before the next sea comes."
Jiang slid into the drain.
Cold water closed over his breast and climbed the feathers around his neck. His belly cleared the stone by less than the thickness of his harness. A strike from the side cradle rolled him toward the wound, then held the failed flipper where Aylin had set it.
He pushed with both feet.
His left foot folded against the wall. His right flipper took the first stroke alone and turned him sideways in the narrow current. He corrected with his tail and good foot, moving as the emperor-penguin body knew how even while half its steering argued.
Air remained a short distance behind him.
Ahead, the filament waited.
Jiang reached for the adaptation only after his right flipper began a second sustained stroke.
`[DEEP LUNG I | COST: HUNGER | USE / REFUSE]`
His stomach cramped at the offer. The two Whitewake fish had become the sort of memory his body distrusted.
Jiang chose `USE`, and the breath already inside him settled into slower work. No air appeared. The open shoulder kept hurting. Cold stayed cold, and the failed flipper remained cargo strapped to his side.
Movement simply stayed useful longer.
He swam beneath the black-glass scar.
Shapes trapped inside it followed him: bent chain links, a man's open hand, and one copper cup flattened by water. They were stains from River-Open, not living things. Gredudande's line crossed them without waking any voice.
Around a stone rib, the drain narrowed. Jiang tucked his beak to his breast and let the current press his back against the ceiling. His harness passed beneath the stone while a broken shell caught the return cord behind him.
Dagna felt the stop and held her hands steady. The taut line let Jiang turn his head, but his own shoulder kept the beak short of the snag. A human hand would have been useful, which was a lovely discovery to make inside a hole built to exclude humans.
He reversed one kick.
Current shoved him forward. Jiang rolled enough to drag the line across the smooth side of the stone rib. Rolling freed the shell and sacrificed one outer strand without cutting the cord through.
Ahead, the flood blade hung crooked over a slot in the floor.
A copper object had been driven beneath its inner hinge. It resembled a short road marker until the filament tightened around it. Three backward teeth opened from the copper and caught the black-green line, feeding its pull into the blade.
Every tooth faced inland.
Storm debris entering from the sea would slide past the smooth back. A route entering from the western water would meet all three barbs.
Green crust filled an old winter seal on the marker's head.
Jiang bit the smooth end.
Pain at the cracked tip arrived before the copper moved. His good foot searched the floor and found the edge of the blade slot. His left foot joined it, bent, and slipped away.
Gredudande's filament drew tighter, opening the black glass above him along its green crack.
Jiang reset his right foot and pulled with his neck.
Copper shifted out by one tooth.
Above the wall, Aylin and Hedda felt the blade settle against their chain. The links jerked through their hands. Aylin's wet bandage slid over her palm.
Hedda caught the next length against her shoulder. "Keep your bad hand open."
"Then take the weight before it closes on him."
Hedda stepped backward until the chain crossed her chest. Aylin moved with her, using her forearm and body rather than closing the injured palm again.
Their chain caught the blade.
Jiang felt the water hesitate.
He planted the right foot deeper and tore the marker free.
Gredudande released it at once.
Black-green filament slipped through a seam behind the hinge and raced east beneath the sea wall. Light crossed the floor beyond Jiang's reach, entered old road salt, and kept going toward Eres.
Brinehook's wall held. Gredudande kept moving.
Freed of the ward, the blade dropped against Hedda and Aylin's chain. Its lower edge cut the water between Jiang and the bay to a black slot barely wide enough for his body.
Dagna drew the return cord.
Jiang held the copper marker across his beak and turned. It struck one wall, then the other. He tried carrying it lengthwise, but the three inward teeth snagged his breast feathers and pulled at the salt cloth.
Leaving it would leave the only proof inside the drain.
He bit down near the seal and folded the teeth beneath his chin. One point scraped the harness instead of the cloth.
At the grate, Tovin guided the damaged return cord with his good hand. When the line jumped, his wrapped hand rose by reflex and stopped before gripping. He caught the cord against his forearm and kept the cut strand away from stone.
Dagna hauled, and Jiang kicked with her pull. Deep Lung kept the old breath useful while hunger knotted below his ribs. Stone scraped his back. Water tore at the unsupported edge of his shoulder wound, warm for one instant before the cold took that too.
Ahead, the black slot approached.
Aylin's boot slipped on the flooded floor. Chain movement across her forearm lowered the blade another handspan.
Hedda locked both heels against the wall. "I have the chain. Get him through."
Aylin released her section and dropped to the grate. She reached into the water, then stopped with her hand short of Jiang's beak.
"Give me the ward."
He pushed the sealed end into her palm.
Aylin took the copper. Dagna pulled the return cord while Jiang drove both feet. His left folded after one kick, but the right sent his head through the opening.
Tovin caught the harness loop. Together they drew Jiang clear before Hedda lowered the blade into its seat.
Hedda slammed the grate over quieting water.
Jiang lay on his breast and tried to make the room stay level. Each breath arrived late to the work his body had already done. Hunger folded his empty stomach while cold water ran from feathers that had never recovered their warmth.
No System message called that success.
Aylin set the copper marker on the floor where Hedda and Dagna could see it. Its winter seal faced up, and all three teeth faced east.
"A royal return ward," Aylin said. "Mounted backward from every storm defense."
Hedda touched Torren's cut warning knot at her belt. "What was it meant to catch?"
Aylin looked toward the western sea beyond the closed shutter.
"Someone returning home from the western sea."