A pale mouth plate worked farther through the green shutter.
Tir drove his shoulder into the lever below. The plate pinched out of sight. Metal groaned beneath Ninebell, followed by three uneven blows from his damaged hand.
They were alive and holding, though the metal had begun to lose.
Brinn reached for her mask.
Pava caught its leather strap first. "You will get this back when he can follow my hand with both eyes."
"That door is being eaten."
"And this penguin is bleeding into his throat. Pick which one you can help by killing him."
Brinn's fingers remained around the mask cup. Pava's remained around the strap. Neither woman looked away.
Jiang coughed red into the cloth at his beak and ruined any argument he might have made.
The Bellmaw pushed again. The green dent widened, but the internal ribs caught its blunt plates. Tir and Elen put their combined weight on the lever. The shutter held with a grinding noise that Jiang felt through his breastbone.
