The woman cut another strand from her throat tether.
One of the hooked shadows caught her wing-sail before she could cut the rest.
Those were not natural wings. Two dark frames ran from shoulders to wrists, spreading hide cloth that folded badly in water. A barbed line shot from one frame and buried itself in the woman's soaked sail. Tension ran through it. She jerked farther from the air and into the blue ceiling sea.
Her bloody hand vanished from the basin.
Jiang stepped into the shallow water.
Aylin caught him above the hips. "Wait."
Under his foot, the chorus leech rolled. Its stolen call broke into bubbles, and the opening widened until the dark water reached Jiang's breast. Red stone still held the basin on every side. Such depth had no business fitting even his head.
Valea put the flat of her bent blade against the leech without cutting it. "The wound follows this thing."
"Then keep it out of the gutter," Aylin said.
