The bellwyrm bit Ninebell, and Hest put both broken bars between its teeth.
Iron struck white enamel. Its upper jaw stopped above Valea's back, close enough for rainwater to run from one long tooth onto her coat. Hest braced one bar across the lower fangs and drove the other upward with his shoulder.
"Move," he told her.
Valea crawled out beneath the creature's tongue. She took her bent road knife with her.
Rill still hung from the arch by his chain. Slate pulled from the Red Aeries side, dark wings beating against cloud, but the hook had buried itself in Ninebell's bronze. Every retreating beat tightened the links across Rill's chest.
Between the wyrm's teeth, a crushed bell called in Jiang's longer beat.
Sound vibrated through the jaw. The bellwyrm shook its head and tore one of Hest's bars free. Old copper trapped between its other teeth answered at different pitches. It could hear the prey in its own mouth and could not reach it.
