Mottle lowered her saddle to the broken arch, and the injured emperor father drove his beak into its nearest buckle.
Leather cracked against copper.
Mottle's head swung around. Her teeth showed above the male, large enough to close over his whole chest.
Ilex laid one hand in the pale feathers beneath Mottle's eye. She did not pull the reins.
The wyvern breathed over the penguin, tasted his scent, and backed away from the arch.
"That was his answer," Ilex said.
Rill caught Mottle's saddle rail before the sloping stone carried it back toward the ledge. "I heard him. I also heard the arch."
Bronze scraped behind the emperor family.
Valea still had her bent road knife under the lower frame. Hest held one iron bar against the upper hinge with both hands. Since the feeder broke, the arch no longer tried to copy a living call. It had returned to being several tons of damaged metal with strong opinions about gravity.
