Aylin found Jiang by the feathers Cairnspire had scraped off him.
They lay in a black-and-white trail over the scorched shelf, vanished beneath an outer shell plate, and appeared again where the cracked breath cap lifted with each of his breaths.
His ankle line entered through the same crack.
"I am directly beneath you," Jiang called.
Aylin put her ear to the shell. "I know."
"Then stop walking on my roof."
She stepped back quickly enough to make Vessa laugh.
The laugh ended when the cap shifted. A gray fracture ran from its hinge to the buried lower edge. Pulling against that edge would break more shell into the dry seam and might drop it onto Jiang's spine.
Vessa slid a thin root sling through the upper crack. Irra carried the other end to Ashwake's bent steering rail and wrapped it around the thickest surviving post. The ship had no mast and no sail, but its deck fittings could still hold a sideways pull.
"Move past the cap," Aylin called.
"There is a wall past the cap."
