The loose barb began moving before the wind came.
It skipped along the red floor toward the open wound, four white points turning with every strike. Valea dropped onto her injured forearm and trapped the shaft beneath her sound hand.
Blood soaked through her sleeve.
She wrapped the loose weapon against the other barb and rolled both bundles beneath her body.
"Found it," she said.
Hest had the old yoke hooked around a breathwood rib. "I was worried we might leave with an incomplete collection of things that tried to kill us."
The Bellmother finished inhaling.
Jiang felt the silence before the exhale. No air moved. Every pale leaf beyond the wound folded against its red trunk, and the fresh Bellmother blood covering his breast trembled without running.
His partner lowered herself over the chick.
