With one moon gone, the mother had nowhere to put her rear foot.
It swept through darkness where the far ice had been. Her body dropped into the low road, dragging silver beneath her breast and wrenching the trapped ankle sideways inside Ninebell.
Stone split around the first cup.
Her freed foot slid across wet stone. Pava threw herself backward before the mother's beak followed it through the feeding reach.
"Welcome," Pava said from the floor. "I remain unpleasant to bite."
Only part of the female had arrived. Her breast lay across moonlight, one foot clawed at Ninebell, and the rear leg still kicked inside a strip of the far sky. Through that narrowing strip came wind, rookery calls, and the last pale moon.
Aylin's bleeding palm slipped over the outer edge.
Kedra caught her own side before the two shadows touched. "Stay with me."
"I am here," Aylin said, though her bleeding hand disagreed.
"Your hand is trying to leave."
"It has poor judgment."
