Talal stared at her, evidently realizing the problem for the first time.

“Tell me it’s just like mounting a horse,” the assassin went on, then frowned, “although I was never much good with horses.”

“There’ll be two straps,” Valyn said, heart hammering as the bird approached. “Get a hold of the lower of the two.” He turned to the group. “We’re all underneath, which means three to a talon. Talal and Laith, you’re with Gwenna. . . .”

“I can make the grab myself,” she growled, but her face was as pale as the stone, and it looked as though simply standing was an effort.

“Just make sure she gets on the bird. Annick and Pyrre with me on the far talon. Remember we’re on the edge of a fucking cliff, so blowing the grab’s not an option, dropping is not an option. Get on and stay on, I don’t care if your shoulder rips out of the socket. You fall”—he waved a hand toward the darkness—“you’re gone.”

“It’s all well and good to talk about it,” Laith said, gesturing furiously, “but we’ve got to move if we’re going to make it.”

Valyn laid a hand on his flier’s arm. “Not yet.”

“What in Hull’s name are you waiting for?”

Valyn stared at the bird until his eyes hurt. Had he misgauged the situation? There were so many variables, so many things that could go wrong. If he’d made the wrong assumption about one of them, then the rest . . .

Then the second bird appeared, above and behind the first.

“Oh,” Laith said, staring.

“Tell me it’s Chi Hoai,” Valyn said, voice tight. The flier could recognize the various kettral far better than Valyn ever would. “Tell me that second one is the Flea’s bird.”

“It is.” Laith sucked a worried breath between his teeth. “She’s going to tear Yurl’s bird out of the air.”

Valyn blew the second whistle just as Chi Hoai struck. She had the height and the angle both, and her own kettral seized Yurl’s by the back of the neck. The lower bird shrieked as claws sank into her neck and shoulders, as the hooked beak plunged again and again, savaging her eyes. A kettral could slice through a horse with those talons. Valyn had watched them hunt back on the Islands, watched them snap the heads off of sheep and carry off whole cows in their claws. Yurl’s bird twisted in midair, screaming as she tried to fight, but the fight was over, or as good as. Chi Hoai was already pulling her own mount back.

Then Suant’ra hit.