‘Spin the kheel,’ screamed Maggie. ‘We’re going down.’

‘Zaj has jammed it,’ cried Tamm.

The Jupiter rushed forward and down towards the mountainside. Snow pillowed over rocky outcrops and down the steep slopes. A huge black rock loomed directly in their path.

Jupiter pulled the sail in tight and leaned out in a struggle to keep the outrigger level. The wind howled and pressed against the sail as it joined gravity to toss them agains the rocks. He twisted the steering and forced the bow away from The black rock. As The Jupiter shot past the craggy buttress, a steep drop yawned up at him. Another snow covered ridge loomed ahead ready to strike them from the sky.

Maggie dived forward to clutch at the front of the platform, and The Jupiter nosed down then slipped to the side.

‘Tamm,’ Jupiter shouted.

But the manisaur had already leapt to compensate. The outrigger had just leveled when it collided with the crest of the ridge in an explosion of ice and snow.

The outrigger lurched, bounced off into the air again, as Jupiter twisted the steering vanes to aim them down the slope. The hull and one outrigger hit the snow as they shot forward. A huge spume of snow erupted into the air behind them as they plowed down the slope.

Jupiter felt the rudders bite and grip the snow. Then, blinking back the cold spray of ice, he steered across and slightly up the slope. The Jupiter’s bow bit into a snowdrift and pitched forward in a flat spin. Jupiter flew out of the cockpit through the frigid air, ducked, rolled, and a split second later landed tumbling on his shoulder then his back deep into the snow drift.

His breath huffed out in a cloud above him. All he saw above was the looming face of the moon in the clear dark sky. In shock he sucked a gasp of air.

The cold seared his lungs and he puffed out again as if splinters of ice cut his chest. The next breath he took through his nose as he stared at the moon. The bright fullness of it.

So bright. So big. A full moon.

Jupiter sat up with a start.

The outrigger had stuck the bow into the snow drift. Berg kneeled over Zaj, knee-deep in the drift.

Maggie lay close to The Jupiter, while Tamm brushed off the clinging white powder from the fur-feathers on his chest. He had a cap of snow on his head and Jupiter remembered Pariqamtu with her white flash of feathers across her forehead.

Jupiter plowed his way through the snow to Maggie. She groaned. He loosened the rope that had pulled her short.

‘Speak to me Maggs, you there?’

‘Yes. But I think I broke something. My chest hurts something bad.’ She sat up.

’Take a deep breath,’ said Jupiter. ‘Through your nose.’ He watched her take a couple of breaths. ‘I don’t think you’ve broken a rib. You must be made of rubber.’

‘That’s probably right. I’ve bent over backwards for you so often.’

Jupiter helped her up. She staggered but recovered and gave Jupiter a slap in the chest.

‘Ow. I wish you would show your love in a more gentle way,’ said Jupiter.

‘That’s for crashing,’ Maggie said. Then she wrapped him in a hug. ‘And that’s for not killing us.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ said Jupiter. ‘Better check out Zaj.'

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Tamm had joined Berg as they squatted around the fallen manisaur.

‘She had her foot jammed in the kheel to stop us spinning it,' said Tamm. ‘That must have wrenched her around.’ He bent low and warbled to the prostrate manisaur as if he talked to a child.

‘Out of the way. Get her out of this snow and onto The Jupiter,’ said Berg as he moved to lift his daughter.

‘Is that a good idea?’ said Jupiter. ‘She may have broken her back.’

‘Then she will die here anyway. But we quevantaqi are not as fragile as you qvaziri.’

A whooping cry came from the skyfort above them. They had dropped grapples and manisaurs now swung down onto the snowfield.

‘Everyone. Back in the outrigger,’ said Jupiter. ‘We’ve no time if The Jupiter can still sail.’

If it doesn’t, we’re toast.

Tamm took up the weight of Zaj from Berg and loped through the deep drift to The Jupiter.

‘Maggie. Spin the kheel up.’ Jupiter pulled the rudders up where they had sunk into the snow to make a sort of brake. When he pumped the sail and The Jupiter rocked but did not move. ‘Faster Maggs. We’re not budging.’

The Jupiter shuddered, but still did not move. Jupiter jumped over the side of the hull, planted his feet in the compressed snow, and pulled the stern around. The Jupiter slipped forward down the slope, he staggered to keep up.

‘Jupiter!’ Maggie cried and stopped spinning the kheel.

The blackbirders from the skyfort jumped closer even as the outrigger slid down the slope. Jupiter held the mainsheet and, as he fell behind, the sail pulled in that only made the outrigger move faster. Jupiter got a grip on the side of the hull, but his feet slipped and dragged through the snow.

An arm caught a hold and dragged him up. Berg huffed and fell backwards in last heave that brought Jupiter onto the outrigger. The steering vanes slewed around but Jupiter dived to correct the movement. The outrigger jinked around and tobogganed down the slope.

‘Faster now Maggie. Get airborne.’

But he needn’t have bothered. The slope dropped away in steep decline, The Jupiter fell off the edge, and down.

‘Move backwards,’ Jupiter shouted.The outrigger steadied then nosed up to fly level.

Jupiter let out a sighing breath that he had not realized he had held.

‘Tamm.’ Jupiter said then. ‘How many days between full moons?’

The manisaur did a double-take at the sudden turn in conversation. He paused and stared. His aura flashing confusion.

‘How many?’ Jupiter repeated.

‘A little over 25 days. A month is 25 days. And between each month is the Day of the Moon.’

‘When is the next one? The next Day of the Moon?’

’The next Qhantava? Tomorrow. It’s Qhantava tomorrow. The moon turned to us tonight.’

‘Jupiter?’ said Maggie.

‘It means we have almost no time to get to the temple. We have to be there tonight. Or it will be too late for us to try for the portal.’

‘Berg,’ Jupiter called. ‘Which way?’

The old manisaur huddled over Zaj but did not answer.

‘Berg. We’ve no time. We have to get to Naz’naska tonight.’

Tamm moved to join Berg.’ Let me look at her,’ he said. Then he began to sing a warbling lullaby.

‘I fail to understand…’

‘Shh,’ said Maggie. She too had moved close, in part to keep the outrigger in balance. ‘She looks more settled.’ Maggie paused and looked closer. ‘Her aura, I can see it.’

Berg stared at his daughter. ‘You are right. She is responding.’

‘Which direction do we sail in? Apart from away from the skyfort.’

Jupiter looked over his shoulder. The skyfort had set its sails and rode the easterly wind over the snowy valley. The silver light of the moon made the sails look like wings as the rest of the hull remained in grey darkness. They grew visibly closer even as he watched.

Berg took over the spinning of the kheel as Tamm and Maggie worked to make Zaj comfortable on the side of the outrigger. He could watch easily enough from inside the hull.

When the old trium turned his face to Jupiter his aura pulsed with a slow pattern, but Jupiter could see no color and so could not sense how Berg felt.

‘Follow the ice river to the lake. There is a hanging valley on the southern side from which a waterfall issues. The temple is there.’

Jupiter stared ahead, past his friends, beyond the bow, and saw reflecting the light of the moon a silver gray lake. Icebergs floated upon it that had broken from the terminal face of the ice river, the glacier.

The way lay directly downwind, but the skyfort would overhaul them before they got there, so Jupiter steered away, pulled the sail in to increase speed, and reached across the wind. And yet the speed of their passage shifted the wind, so he steered closer downwind again.

When he looked back he saw the skyfort had dropped back and to the side, and rather than follow them, they sailed directly for the hanging valley.

He understood then. The skyfort knew their destination. The crew of the Jupiter had a race against time and the Air Lord.