White fire reached the first link buried in Skykeel.
The chain's glassy sheath flashed, and every feather along Jiang's breast lifted away from his skin. Heat had not touched him yet. Ahead of its own heat, the weapon pushed water aside.
Captain Olsa tore a white wedge from the fastening beneath her collar.
"The coolant seam runs beside the lower links," she said. "Open the return gill before the fire reaches the lance head."
She offered the wedge to Jiang.
Aylin caught Olsa's wrist. "You have six hunters."
"Their shoulders will break the sheath. His will not."
"He has one shoulder left."
Jiang took the wedge between the unburned sides of his beak. It tasted of salt and old smoke.
Olsa watched him test its weight. "If you bite the bright vein, we all die."
He set the wedge down long enough to answer. "That sounded almost like concern."
"It was instruction, nothing more."
"I still preferred concern."
