Maggie’s skyship drifted along qhawadha — the great way the for next two days. They passed through small trading posts and small towns. Sometimes the great pylons that held the way rose high above the plains with huge wind vanes that turned in the wind. Then the way would change and run close to the ground. Or they would be pulled in a caravan together with other smaller craft. Large teams of gharumal trod a wide path under the cable and moved them with a steady pace through the haze and heat of the breathless continent.

Maggie watched huge birds spiral over the plains, while small herds of four legged animals kicked up dust as they retreated from the shadows of the looming skyships.

The land grew greener after that, and plots of cultivated land clustered around groups of trees where small villages eked out a living around a well or spring. A wide stream ran silver across a grey gravel expanse of riverbed. A flock of the birds rose from the braided river as the skyship grew near and Maggie saw the body of an animal, perhaps a gharumal from its size, that had been thrown up by the river.

‘A victim of the battle in Hatunqari perhaps,’ said Tamm. ‘Or just an old tired beast too weary to trudge the plains pulling skyships along qhawadha.’

‘How far to the next big town?’ Maggie wiped sweat from her eyebrows. ‘I knew the continent was big, but it seems to go on forever. I can’t even see the mountains any more. It’s like these plains extend forever.’

A knot of wind picked up dust from the river bed and through it at the line of skyships and ziyaqa — small skycraft that traded along the way. Maggie coughed as the dust and stink of the dead beast whirled around them before the movement of the skyship slipped them away from the dead beast.

‘This river joins another, a greater stream that is navigable by river boat. Qhawadha follows the great canal that runs next to the river,’ said Tamm. ‘It is fed by it, and before the cables and pylons were built qhawadha meant this canal. At the convergence there is a city. Where qhawadha, canal, river, and the greening of the plain come together. We can rest in lodgings there for the night. We will replace the towing beasts, and take on a store of fresh food.’

‘I’d like to have firmer ground under my feet for a change.’

‘And I would not. I prefer the easy movement of a ship at sea, or on the wind. It is past time to raise our sails and fly free of the cable. I cannot stand the stink of these trading ziyaqa.’

Maggie looked to the right, up the river. White clouds billowed high in the sky on the dark horizon. ‘It depends. Is that a storm brewing?’

Tamm replied in his usual warbling rhythmic manner but Maggie sensed within his words a song of yearning.

‘Wind and water speed our passage

Across the widening plains

Storm and rain speed us on

To homes, our loves, domains

This silent air will break us

Stillness binds us tight

We would be free to sail forever

But let’s be home tonight’

‘Yeah. I wish it were that easy to get home again,’ Maggie said. ‘But someone took that from me. Forever.’

‘Home is where you make it, it’s not a place you go to.’ Said Berg as he stepped to the railing next to them.

Maggie sighed. ‘Home to me is sitting at the table in the kitchen shelling peas while my mother bakes Yorkshire pudding to go with our roast beef. I can almost smell the gravy.’

‘I don’t understand what you say,’ said Berg. ‘But you must put aside thoughts of meat-juice for now. Come with me.’

The descended into the first deck and entered the forward cabin that Bergwash had taken for his quarters. Zaj sat at the wide rear window. Her unnatural stillness frightened Maggie.

‘What’s wrong with her?’

‘Many things. That is why we need to return to Naruham where she may be cured.’

‘No I mean what did you do to her. She’s usually so lively.’

‘Her imprinting has made her intractable. We cannot bind her up and guard her all the time.’

‘So you drugged her?’

Bergwash cocked his head and studied her.

‘You gave her something. She’s not herself. What is it?’

‘I have made a potion from the chirurgeon’s supplies. Though to call that creature a medical professional would be a disservice to the learned quevantaqi I know.’

Maggie rolled her eyes. The tulanvarqa gave her a sense of his emotions as well as the meaning of his words.

But there’s no way he’s really that stuffy.

But when she looked at Tamm she saw his aura roll in amusement. Maggie dug her elbow into his side. The manisaur yelped in surprise she realized tulanvarqa could not translate her teasing action.

‘If you’ve done attacking Tambuqaram…’ Berg sat astride a bench and waved for her to join him.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Maggie perched on the uncomfortable seat and waited expectantly.

‘We four travelling together will call attention to ourselves. So we must adjust our roles.’

‘You mean lie?’ Maggie couldn’t quite believe it.

Berg ignored her. ‘You will act as maid servant to Zaj’quetza. You have not been attentive to her as you promised, but it is important now that you take on your role with more dedication.’

‘Yes. You said. I’m to be handmaid to your daughter.’

‘In a more formal manner. And Tambuqaram to be protector to you both. If you are required by a high ranking quevantaqi then you are less likely to be troubled by Imperial police…’

‘Or blackbirders.’

‘Yes. You can pass as a native of the Empire, if you keep our mouth closed. However your human Thaluk has improved since the first we spoke. We will just say you are from the provinces. And Tambuqaram can be reinstated as an officer.’

‘And that is no lie either.’

Maggie looked from one to the other.

They try very hard not to lie. They twist the truth enough for it to pass inspection.

‘Perhaps I should do more of the talking then? So Tamm can just stay silent.’

‘Our auras are never silent. We must speak the truth.’

‘Just not the whole truth.’

‘Yes. I am practiced at it. To my shame. As sejrat’sha…’

‘As a turned blade I am damaged enough, now my imprint is broken, for me to play both sides of my life. That of the navy officer, and the rebel loyal to Jupiter Drake.’

‘Loyal to me, and Zaj, and the rebellion,’ said Maggie.

‘Yes. I am… I think that is so.’

‘It will have to be.’

Maggie stared at the two manisaurs. Berg so haughty and yet in his dotage. The third age of his race when he is meant to retire from the world. And the broken navy officer who somehow became imprinted on Jupiter and became free to choose his own side.

I don’t believe these people cannot lie. They may believe it themselves, but I can see how they double deal and hide the truth from themselves and others. They lie. It just takes more mental discipline to do so than humans.

Maggie hung her head.

‘And what does that say about humans when we lie so readily.’

‘What did you say. You spoke in the garble gabble you use with Jupiter Drake.’

‘Nothing. I’m just glad to be with you, helping save Zaj. I want her to get better.’

‘And do I. It pains me that I have had to give her a potion that makes her less a person than she was before. But in time she will forgive me. When she is herself again.’

Cries rose from the deck above them and the skyship lurched.

‘What’s that?’ Maggie said with concern.

‘We come to the terminus in the city of Leknsha — White Haven.’

‘And we will face our first test,’ said Berg.

‘Why is that?’

‘Captain Vishvasalana informed me there are travel restrictions in place. We come from Hatunqari, they wish to know who we are, and why we travel.’

‘Immigration?’ said Maggie. ‘I hope we have passports.’

‘We stay below, let the Captain handle it,’ said Tamm as he left to his own quarters. ‘If the authorities do not know we are here then all the better.’

‘Dahk will lie?’ Maggie said.

‘No. Captain Vishvasalana will just not tell the inspectors the whole truth of the matter. It is simple enough. We are no clan trader, but instead a survivor of the recent naval battle now returning to the capital yards at Naruham vanukam.’

She looked out the forward window. It stretched from one side of the skyship to the other, but the narrow view set within a deep recess revealed the strong planking and reinforcement that allowed for the bow to take the battering of ramming in a battle. Somehow Dahk had avoided much damage from the fighting, and when they had met with Gan’s rebels force they had just pretended to fight.

Maggie settled in to wait. She cast a sidelong glance as Zaj, but she seemed frozen, her aura quiescent, her breath slow and steady. She shuddered.

‘What did Bergwash do to you?’

She turned away and studied the view out the window. The slot gave her a view of the city skyline. The qhawadha pylons stretched to left and right to form a junction. Vessels moved along them over the sprawling buildings of the city. The only white in Whitehaven lay in its name. The dirty brown and gray buildings seemed caked with the very dust of the plains. Within a deep channel a brown and murky river flowed slow and sure with boats pulled upstream by gharumal or moasaur along the towpath on the right bank. Other craft flowed downstream at faster speeds along with the city’s flotsam and debris. She could almost smell the stink of it.

But perhaps the smell came from the smaller canal that ran along the top of a bank above the river. The qhawadha followed the great canal here.

The dusty trees that lined the bank the only relief from the haze of brown and gray.

‘We are cleared to go,’ said Tamm when he returned to the cabin, He stared at Zaj and Maggie saw his pain.

No way for him to hide his feelings there.

The skyship lurched like a train pulled by a locomotive and Maggie realized that analogy held very true. The sudden grip upon the qhawadha’s towline very like the first burst of speed out of a station.

Just no smoke or steam. And all so quiet.

She saw the great mass of gharumal that worked the capstans pull the cable as they switched onto the capital bound line. Their mournful lowing echoed from the buildings as if they wished them safe travels.

‘Poor beasts. Slaves that always walk in circles.’

‘As am I,’ said Zaj.

Maggie almost fell off her seat but the captive Zaj said no more. When she told Berg what his daughter had said he dismissed it.

‘Your imagination tricked you,’ said Berg. ‘Unless you lie human. Do you lie now?’

‘No. But if I did could you tell?’

‘No. Perhaps not.’ Bergwash sighed. ‘But that is the truth of what has befallen this land. We have all become slaves, owned by slaves, and all we slaves subservient to the Aelqemist. And I fear even the Emperor is in thrall.’

‘It’s a lot like where I came from. At least amongst the Nazis.’

‘But you see. It is not how it is meant to be. The Aelqemist has created this unnatural order. She enslaved us all.’

‘How?’

‘As Aelqemist she changed and turned the rightness of naraqhasha — imprinting into a weapon of control. Her potions has perverted the Empire, broken our culture, made us slaves. Few are free, and those that are have no power and are free only to suffer.’

‘Like you?’

‘Oh I had power. Until she took it away from me, and cast me into my dotage, a more effective slavery than any imprinting.’ Berg rose and leaned next to Zaj. ‘But I will free you daughter, and I will free myself. And then we shall see what power is.’

Maggie stared at Zaj. The female manisaur seemed to look back through frozen face, and dark aura, but she sensed the imprisoned soul that fought to get out.

Maggie wondered then who she feared the most.

The Aelqemist who controlled the Empire. Or the bitter old manisaur who seemed to have lost one.

And wanted it back.