The floor became a wall before Jiang could swim again.
Warm channel water struck him from the side and drove his injured shoulder into root bars. Kesta caught a crosspiece with her brass hook. Her remaining half-wing frame opened by reflex, filled with water, and nearly tore her loose before she folded it against her ribs.
Skykeel kept turning beneath them.
Overhead, the ceiling ocean did not spill all at once. Its lower skin bowed between chain roots, sagging toward towers before drawing back. Each sag drenched a different street. Wing-sails opened to catch falling people, then collapsed when sideways rain struck the cloth. Across Skykeel, the copied city chorus broke into mismatched notes as bells on tilted towers lost sight of one another.
Kaul's single low call could stop his hunters. It could not tell a whole city how to stand on a wall.
