All six hooks pulled.
Maelin's hall did not move.
Everything around it did.
Salt-Suture's drowned road bent upward through the starwater. Across the flood, the cloudshear's broken wing dragged sideways. Borrowed legs hauled the road serpent across the hall's opened roof.
Beyond the rain, three approaching roads curved toward the same center.
Around Jiang, the confluence folded like a fist learning where its fingers belonged.
He slid across Maelin's new floor as the overturned hall tipped again.
Raska stopped him with one bare foot.
"I am running out of dry ways to catch you."
Jiang dug his claws into a root seam. "Try having more feet."
Six stolen cries answered from the road serpent.
Raska looked through the roof opening. "I withdraw the suggestion."
Its black seed pulsed beneath the jaw.
From the flood, the cloudshear's seed answered, followed by the brinehart's deeper beat. Three more pulses came through roads still hidden behind rain and bone.
