The armada's next spears opened around Skykeel like white teeth.
Captain Olsa Venn watched them emerge and struck the first chain with her iron star.
Bronze carried the blow toward her abandoned ship.
She struck again, changed the spacing, and waited with one gauntlet pressed to the link. Far across the water, the three freed sea-wyverns lifted their heads beneath the hull.
"What did you tell them?" Aylin asked.
"That the wheel can turn backward now."
"Will they choose to come?"
Olsa closed her hand around the star. "They heard me. The rest belongs to them."
The largest wyvern approached the damaged wheel first. Its rider did not touch the animal until it offered its brow. Together they took one loose bar. The other two circled through the cooling plume, tested the water, and chose different sides of the frame.
None resumed the old pulling rhythm.
They waited for the chain to become light.
