The Bellwyrm rang Harrow's private answer again.
This time, Rill saw black-green fiber pull the homebell against a tooth.
The animal had not made the rhythm by rolling. Something in its jaw had listened, waited, and tugged.
"There may be another bell in that mouth," Rill said.
Harrow tightened his hand around the blue line. "There are many bells in that mouth."
"A second flight pair disappeared on your eastern side. If their bell is caught in the same braid, they may be wherever it leads."
"Or dead. Or nowhere near it."
Rill looked at the cloud where the long body had disappeared. "The answer changed after my strike."
"So did the thing trying to eat our nursery."
Slate beat against the cataract outside. Bracken's weight came through Rill's hook, down his arm, and into the dark wyvern's saddle chain. Every wingbeat adjusted for a living body neither rider nor wyvern could see.
Rill could keep holding the known life.
