Soft edges of the narrow slit tried to close around Jiang's beak.
He drove the point between its soft edges and kicked from the carrier bell. Water escaped past his eyes. The Bellmaw's mouth folded behind him, pressing the broken bronze deeper against his feet.
His head entered. His shoulders did not.
Jiang twisted until the working flipper lay flat along one side. The bound flipper could not match it. Cloth and damaged feathers snagged against the inner fold, holding him with his face in the outward stream and the rest of him inside the mouth.
A black tooth shifted above the carrier arch.
Stone struck stone. Tir and Elen were loosening the flooded weight before the Bellmaw could spit the bell back into Ninebell.
Jiang braced his good foot against a blunt plate. The backward claw found nothing, numb after the chain tore free. He pushed with the one leg that still answered.
Soft tissue stretched around his breast.
