They settled in The Jupiter and prepared to fly off. The moon had risen now and long shadows stretched across deck of Dhak’s skyship. The gharumal paced forward and towed the skyship back towards the fighting. The city had been lit by sparks of fire and the stink of burning and blood.

‘We have one task to perform before we sail from the battle,’ said Berg. ‘The klaeds from the mountain should not be left with the Air Lord alone.’

Jupiter did not like the sound of this. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘We must draw off the Air Lord’s skyfort. If the Imperial fleet’s flagship can be distracted from the fight then our faction have a chance once Dhak and the other rebels rejoin the fight.’

‘And why are you coming with us? Why not stay to fight too?’ said Jupiter.

Berg hesitated. ‘Did you not ask me to aid you?’

‘Yes but…’

‘I have Zaj. That was my purpose,’ said Berg. ‘I am an old trium, although I pretend to be more, I find I have no more to give now I have attained my goal. I serve you now, Jupiter Upariqami, in repayment of my debt to you. And if you think you can return to Earth that would be a momentous achievement to be a part of. Think of it, to bind Earth and Eoth together. My world to your world of myth and mystery.’

‘So why go to the fighting at all? Can’t you just let things lie?’ said Maggie. ‘Jupiter. It’s too dangerous.’

‘The Jupiter is fast. No one can follow us,’ said Jupiter.

‘But isn’t that what Berg wants us to do? To draw the Air Lord off.’

‘They don’t know the speed of this craft though. It is enough,’ said Berg.

He sat in front of the kheel, while Zaj sat in Breeze’s position. Tamm lay on one outrigger, and Maggie the other.

‘I really don’t like this,’ said Maggie as she snuggled into her thick felted fur-feather coat and leggings.

‘Just duck low,’ said Jupiter with a grin. ‘And hold on.’

‘That’s what you said last time. Hold on,’ said Maggie. ‘Didn’t work out so well then.’

‘It can’t be helped,’ said Jupiter. ‘Tamm. Tie a line around Maggie. Then let’s get flying.’

Zaj seemed content to spin the kheel, and though it had been Jupiter’s idea it now seemed strange to him.

Too much like blackbirders forcing their captives to row their galleys. But maybe that’s why Zaj accepts the job.

The Jupiter lifted from the deck, while Dhak’s crew took hold of the hulls, walked them to the railing, and pushed them off. Jupiter pulled the sail in, settled the heading and they shot off across the wind. With a subtle adjustment to the heading The Jupiter angled into the wind towards the battle. The gharumals had made good progress already and they entered the battle zone almost immediately. The mountain klaed’s ground forces battled both marines and enemy tow beasts. More mountain troops poured in and Jupiter saw Berg’s reasoning now.

It would just be a matter of time until the city fell to the mountain people. The skies above however remained dominated by the attacking Imperials who still held the windward position. They could come close to the rebels, attack their towlines and towing beasts from above and run down upon the rebel skyships at will.

‘Take us close to the skyfort,’ said Berg.

‘But not too close,’ cried Maggie. She ducked her head and Jupiter guessed she had closed her eyes.

He did not have the luxury of doing that. He squinted into the wind, and blinked back ash from the fires. The skyfort lay straight upwind of them so he ran away on a port tack until the massive flying vessel sat close to The Jupiter’s lay line. He pushed the tiller away and they tacked over. When The Jupiter settled onto the new angle to the wind, the skyfort sat right on their bow.

‘Remarkable,’ said Berg. ‘The Jupiter and its captain both. Take her on the windward side if you can.’

Jupiter pulled the sail in and pressed the bow as close to the wind as possible as the outrigger’s speed rose. As the apparent wind increased, it altered the wind angle, and pushed them on at an increasing speed.

Never had Jupiter sailed so fast. The lack of friction made The Jupiter feel as if she sailed on ice. Zaj at the kheel kept up the spinning at Berg’s urging. She knew full well that to stop meant her death as well as all onboard.

The skyfort flashed past as Berg and Tamm whooped and hollered. Jupiter could not catch all they said, but none of it sounded polite. If Berg had lived his life as a noble, no nobility remained in his curses sent at his enemy.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘Make another pass. To leeward — downwind this time.’

Jupiter gybed The Jupiter around, and set the craft on a reach across the wind this time, and aimed just to the downwind side of the Skyfort.

Tamm and Berg did their shouting act as they passed, this time the railing of the skyfort had filled with the Imperial’s crew. Some aimed weapons at them but, at The Jupiter’s speed and distance, they had no chance of hitting them.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw a burst of movement. He whipped his gaze to Zaj. She had aimed her tail at the skyfort and flashed a complex pattern of tail flips to the them.

‘Tamm. Stop her. She’s signaling them.’ Jupiter tried to reach forward but he had to keep steering. The balance of the outrigger changed and he leaned out to counter Tamm’s dive at their captive.

The outrigger shot past the skyfort and Jupiter eased the sail out to bring the wind onto their stern quarter to give some distance.

‘Turn around,’ said Berg. ‘Stay close and just out of range.’

‘Zaj signaled something to them,’ Jupiter said. ‘Tamm did you catch what she said?’

‘No. I think I stopped her in time.’

‘But now they know who is onboard. That is all to the good,’ said Berg. ‘Now turn back.’

Jupiter looked at Maggie. She did not have to say anything for him to know what she thought of that. He took a deep breath.

Haven’t we done enough?

‘Right,’ he said instead. ‘One last pass.’

He pulled the sail in with the mainsheet and angled back on the same path as before.

‘No. Be less predictable,’ said Tamm. ‘They will be ready this time.’

‘Right.’ Jupiter considered a different approach. ‘Tamm, Maggie? Move towards the back of the platform.’ As they eased back he leaned out over the stern with his head near the steering vanes. The Jupiter nosed up and he steered across the wind as if they mounted a wave on the water. The wind pressed at them like a gale now with the induced windspeed. The Jupiter rose higher and higher, until the skyfort lay below them.

He checked that Zaj still spun the kheel. Tamm had her under closer guard now. If anything happened he could take over.

They came above the skyfort and Jupiter gave a whoop as he pulled the sail in, and angled across the wind. ‘Move forward Maggie. The Jupiter tilted sideways, nosed down, and the outrigger began to hum as they dived towards the skyfort at even greater speed now.

Then everyone onboard let out a cry, a scream, or in Jupiter’s case a joyful whoop of exhilaration, as their speed increased and the skyfort rushed at them.

Instinctively Maggie eased backwards, Tamm moved forwards.

‘Hold on.’

The outrigger leveled off and Jupiter gybed around fast enough for his head to spin. They passed the skyfort closer than ever, but the crew could hardly keep their eyes on them so fast did they rip past.

Berg chuckled and giggled as they sailed away. The skyfort’s sails had begun to be raised.

‘They’re breaking formation,’ said Tamm.

‘The fools. So easily baited,’ said Berg.

‘So we can leave now?’ said Maggie. Wind blown tears streamed over her face and Jupiter wiped at his own. He blinked them back as he laughed.

‘Woo hoo,’ he shouted. ‘That was so freaking fast.’

‘You could have broken something,’ said Maggie.

‘We didn’t’

He looked over the battlefield. The rebel skyships engaged the Imperials closely now, but even as they pressed forward, the skyfort had broken from the battle lines.

‘The follow us,’ said Berg. ‘Success.’

‘But why?’

‘It seems that Zaj’quetza’s performance did the trick, if your baiting of them hadn’t.’

‘Why would they follow?’ said Maggie.

‘Zaj’quetza is the future of the Empire,’ said Berg. ‘They cannot risk her getting away.’

‘But we will, we’re too fast,’ said Jupiter. ‘So which direction do we fly?’

‘Thakar vi Rathazu — Set to the West,’ Berg said. ‘We sail over the western mountain above Ruthazuna — the pass to the west. Your temple at Naruhazenashka — the Luminous Place of the Moon lies there amidst the highest peaks.

Jupiter shivered, pulled his felted jacket close around him, and raised the hood. He felt warm enough. The shiver had nothing to do with the cold, and more with the a mounting realization his time on Eoth might soon come to an end.

He let the sail out, and ran before the wind, toward the teeth of the western mountains. He pressed the hand with the mainsheet tight to his chest where his niho taniwha pendent lay and imagined it warming him. He could almost sense the protection his grandbam’s mana gave him, and wished for it to be true.

As the bright bright moon rose, a strange sensation grew within Jupiter that he had fallen into a dream. His vision had become monochrome, and yet he could see as clear as day. The sharp angles of the snow clad mountains shimmered silver, black, and white.

Before, when the moon had been close to full, there had been cloud, or he had been asleep when the moon rose high in the sky, or in daytime the sun had blotted out the moonlight. But now, the moon ruled the sky, and shone on the mountains like a second sun. So very much brighter than the moon he knew.

‘It’s like magic,’ said Maggie.

‘Yeah, like we’ve stepped into another world,’ Jupiter said without irony.

‘You can see the pass ahead,’ said Tamm. ‘The lower saddle between the flanks of the mountain. That is strange. Snow has fallen and yet the road is clear.’

‘Yeah. I can almost see the wide pathway that cuts through the forest, and then across the side of the mountain.’

‘It is wide enough to bring gharumal and great freight carriages up and over the divide,’ said Tamm.

‘It reminds me of Lewis Pass back home, almost,’ said Jupiter. ‘Lower and wider than Arthur’s Pass.’

‘I’ve only ever been to the West Coast by train through Arthur’s Pass,’ said Maggie. ‘And I was a little girl. Before the war. I remember all the red Rata blossom on the trees.’

They flew low over the pass.

‘Someone has passaged over recently,’ called Berg from the bow.

They fell silent as the impact of that struck them.

Looks like a great many someones. The snow has been trampled to mud.

Zaj noticed the shadow first. Her head whip around and Jupiter saw the great blot of on the snow. He turned and looked up. The Air Lord’s huge skyfort fell down towards them. As it fell closer they flung a great net as if to catch them like a fish.

Jupiter gybed, the outrigger angled away, and towards the mountain slope. Then his stomach lurched and The Jupiter fell. Right at the snow blanketed slope.

Zaj had stopped the spinning of the kheel, she had jammed her foot into the workings.

'No,' Jupiter roared as he leaned backwards to raise the bow. Maggie and Tamm instinctively reared away from the imminent collision.

But nothing would stop them hitting the mountain. White upon white filled Jupiter’s vision.