The nearest chain bridge buckled before the last aerie finished answering.
The scaled creature struck it from below. Cloud rolled away from a back longer than Ninebell's smithing street, exposing black fins and a pale line of old scars. The bridge wrapped around its neck. It carried the torn links upward as if they weighed no more than rain.
People ran from both cliff ends.
Their bells kept calling Mottle home.
Jiang wanted the sound dead before the creature found the emperor family behind the fallen hide. Hest's bars were the only reason the homebell had not already rolled back into the arch.
"Muffle that," Ilex said.
Hest had the homebell pinned between his broken iron bars. Every pull from the black-green strand dragged the copper across the cobbles and drove the lower bar against his thigh.
"I am accepting suggestions from people who can stand," he said.
