A violent lurch from the free carrier bell threw Jiang off the cradle.
He landed in the rising water and saw three blurred versions of Brinn reach for him. The real hand caught the loose hide at his breast. His bad foot struck the floor without bearing weight, and the backward claw bent until pain showed him which woman was real.
Something broad passed beneath the gallery arch.
Green lamps disappeared behind a moving back. A gold-ringed eye turned through the water, followed by the open breathing slit Jiang had freed.
Jiang knew that gold-ringed eye. The tide ray had returned.
Tir wiped water from his mouth. "It came for the carrier."
Brinn kept her hand on Jiang's hide. "It came for a sound."
The ray circled the inverted bell. Old scars crossed its back in the same places the carrier ribs curved. Each approach ended when the iron bracket under the bell mouth entered its sight.
No line hung from the bracket. Its hook shape was enough.
