Black filament reached for the chick beneath the returning female's beak.
Varn drove his knife into the latch.
Varn's damaged edge caught stone instead of thread. Bronze snapped around the blade, wrenching his arm toward the feeding notch. Hest seized Varn's coat before the opening could take his shoulder too.
"Leave the knife," Valea said.
"It is my last one."
"Then lose your arm with it."
Varn released the handle. The gate swallowed half the blade and stopped.
From the far side, the returning female struck the trapped steel. Food scent spilled through the beak-wide cup. Beneath her, black thread slid around the knife and continued inward.
Stone opened above her head.
Aylin threw herself against the visible catch. Kedra braced the shadowless one with her injured boot. The adult seam shuddered between their lanes, unable to choose either woman's weight.
"It is using the chick call as a body," Valea said.
"Calls don't have shoulders," Hest grunted.
