The knife slashed down. Jupiter heaved his body away and yelled.

The ropes constraining him split apart and the weight upon him fell away. He struggled back, eying the the manisaur.

‘You are free,’ said the manisaur. ‘As am I.’ They bowed their head and body low.

Breeze cried out. Jupiter saw the imp point away and up.

The skyfort at the top of the pylon drifted free of the cross beam. Ropes arced low under it, and on them manisaurs swung, and climbed, and fought.

The rescued manisaur’s head remained low but now turned their face to him. Staring. Their aura pulsed in a syncopated rhythm, almost in time with his own heart beat. That might have been the pain in his own chest where the blow had hit. He unzipped his now battered wetsuit, and checked for any real hurt across his chest. A deep breath. No pain. He dashed some cool water over his face and but regretted it almost at once.

The manisaur kept their eyes on him always. There seemed to be no danger. Then the manisaur held the long knife out, as if offered to him. Jupiter waved it away.

‘Keep it. I might come in handy again.’

The manisaur’s aura flashed understanding. But kept their eyes locked on Jupiter.

‘Okay… this is getting weird.’

Jupiter turned his back on the manisaur. With too much going on to deal with them, he focussed on the wind that now gusted stronger. Jupiter pulled the sail in, veered away from the docks so they could sail through water more clear of debris, further from the sprawl of the wrecked skyships. He paid close attention to the course ahead to avoid downed spars and masts and other large debris. But it seemed the smaller splinters and planks had been blown clear by wave and wind. He angled The Jupiter in a broad reach along the shore searching for any sign that Gan and his crew had survived the devastation. The floating skyship still lay atop the pylon. And then he spotted a flashing signal panel.

He stared.

‘It is calling to you.’ The rescued manisaur said in a faint warble. ‘I think.’

Jupiter stared at the manisaur. ‘How do you know?’

‘I don’t. Instead I guess. But they refer to human and imp… and Radiant Star…’

‘The Jupiter.’

‘So I…’

‘What so they say?’

‘Flee… with all speed.’

‘Um… Why?’ Jupiter scanned for any obvious danger.

‘I know not but…’ the manisaur pointed. ‘I believe it might be due to that…’

Jupiter checked the heading and then peered up once more. The huge skyfort had dropped many ropes.

‘Where did they get so many crew?’ Jupiter said. ‘They must have more allies…’

Then he understood what they were preparing to do. The huge skyfort had aimed itself at the other pylon, at the three skyforts swinging there. Frantic activity on them showed the navy skyships prepared to make weigh. But it would be too late. The floating skyfort would crash down like the first.

‘Gan’s crazy.’

‘They will fall upon us. We have to leave.’

‘You’re right there.’ He motioned for Breeze to spin up the kheel and he steered away from the mayhem. ‘Gan. You’re a mad bad manisaur. You could have at least warned us.’

‘I believe they just did.’ The manisaur now clung low to the outrigger platform.

‘Ah… can you sit here…’ Jupiter pointed into the hull. ‘Out of the way.’

‘As you command. Dhakara.’

Jupiter nodded and then realized what the manisaur had said. ‘Master.’ Of course he had not heard the word Dhakara… instead the squawk and aura pulse that meant the same. Dhakara is what he had heard Qhawana use when speaking to the old manisaur Tharumiyo.

‘Why do you call me Dhakara?’

‘I am reborn. You are the one who brought me to life, Dhakara.’

Jupiter shrugged. He didn’t care what the manisaur called him. As long as he stayed out of the way and did what he was told then he could stay.

He glanced up at the looming collision of skyforts. ‘Any second now…’

A tearing rip rose on the wind as the floating skyfort tore into the moored vessels. Underneath, on the ropes holding swinging crew, a flurry of activity erupted as the attacking manisaurs leapt away to safety. Jupiter saw now there remained one further skyfort, higher than the rest, it still swung on the pylon blown by the wind. The fleeing manisaurs swung onto ropes that hung beneath it and were hauled up. The loops of rope drew up and were soon tight under the hull, or to the side masts. The chaos of the other vessels was absent here.

‘Gan and his allies and crew must have that one under control, but they’ve cut the other’s loose to crash.’

Jupiter checked their own progress, and gybed across the wind. Their rescued manisaur squawked in alarm, Breeze laughed and cackled in derision. The uneasy stare returned again, as if the manisaur studied him, made him the centre of attention. But Jupiter could not afford the distraction now.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘Eyes to the front. Warn me of any danger.’

‘Yes Dhakara.’

Jupiter sighed. The ways of manisaurs were just too strange.

Breeze called his attention back to the fate of the skyforts. He glanced upwards and saw The Jupiter still remained too close to the pylons. He eased the mainsheet out and steered downwind. Breeze spun up the kheel and they rose higher in the water, the main hull hit a submerged object, and they jumped into the air. The rudders came free of the water and The Jupiter spun to the side, and to windward — back towards danger. Then they were in the water is a burst of water. Jupiter regained their heading, they sped on once more with the main hull just kissing the water.

Behind them the skyforts tumbled from the sky in a slow motion ballet of disaster. Gan’s last words came to him.

‘Stay close…’

Jupiter eyed the manisaur. It stared ahead scanning, perhaps for danger. ‘What do they call you?’

‘I was Tambuqaram… Copper Meadows…’ The manisaur paused and Jupiter rolled his eyes.

‘So Tambu…’

‘But I am no longer. I am reborn, Dhakara. I have no name.’

‘I’ll just call you Tambu…’

‘I am no longer…’

‘I get it. So what should I call you then? Tamm.’

‘Tamm? As you wish, Dhakara.’

‘You’re getting on my nerves.’ Jupiter gave up. He steered towards the wind, pulled the sail in and in a broad reach sped up. Then with a cry of ‘Lee-oh…’ He turned The Jupiter into the wind and close-hauled onto the opposite tack, then headed back towards where he guessed he had last left Gan.

‘Dhakara?’

‘Yeah?’

‘The signal now says to steer for the landing.’’

‘And where away is that?’

The manisaur pointed.

‘Okay. Keep pointing Tamm. I’ll aim for there.’ It did not first occur to him to question the signal might be wrong, or that the manisaur tried to trick him. He just did what seemed to be right. And Gan had wanted him to stay close.

‘Breeze. Keep an eye out on our friend here, but also for Gan… And for anything in the water.’ Jupiter did his review of sail, sea, and wind. ‘I’ll give this craziness another ten minutes and then we’re getting out of here.’

Across Narushkam lights moved, both on shore as high as the upper parts of the encircling Chilakam hills, and upon the dark waters of the harbour. The rebel’s attack no longer had any element of surprise.

The rescued manisaur, Tamm, kept pointing to the landing like some sort of weather vane. The landing lay in a good sailing direction — a broad reach across the wind — so Jupiter could aim more or less straight there. Jupiter kept the hulls on the water, and spilled most of the strong wind out of the sail to keep the speed down as the storm increased. He had no intention of ripping a hole in the hull from a sunken mast or whatever else had fallen in the harbour.

He searched the shore. Lights backlit the dock. The landing still lay within the naval yards of Vanukam but to the right — to starboard, away from the chaos of the pylons and the huge fallen skyforts.

As they came within a few tens of meters of the landing he bore into the wind, let the sail flap in the change of direction, this slowed them until they were balanced and stationary. Then he pulled the sail in a little to get them moving forward, the luff bubbled as a little wind got on the rear of the sail. He could always bear away from the wind, fill the sail, and haul in to make a fast getaway.

‘Breeze… Do you see Gan?’

The anxious imp scrambled from one outrigger platform to the other chittering in fear.

‘What?’ Jupiter could not understand what the imp tried to say. The storm wind tore his words away.

‘No people… nothing… why here?’

‘Our friend…’ Jupiter nodded to the manisaur still pointing to shore. ‘Tamm. Saw a signal to come here.’

‘Nothing… no people… why trust?’

‘I don’t know Breeze. Sometimes…’ He paused. ‘I took a hunch…’

Tamm’s arm stretched out straight to the shore with the strange bobbling steadiness manisaurs could manage. All the while his head remained motionless even as The Jupiter moved under them.

Jupiter searched the shore. A light flashed in a rapid staccato.

‘Approach,’ said Tamm still pointing.

‘Well… I guess.’ To left and right he saw nothing in the water nearby, or on shore — except for the pattern of flashing light. ‘I can come closer at least… it’s still easy to get away.’

He strained his eyes, searching for the large frame of the rebel marine Gan. But would he even recognize them? The connexion seemed to help there somehow — he did not have much hope he would recognize them?

The Jupiter steered closer to the wind and he pulled the mainsheet in to adjust the sail, to keep the sail in the same direction as the hull rotated. The fabric rattled and shook in the violent gusts but they were able to ghost closer even as the storm winds mounted.

A light appeared and glowed a brighter orange. Jupiter saw the tall silhouette of a manisaur outlined. Their face and aura were hidden in the shadows as the light kept behind them. Jupiter squinted and shaded his eyes from the light.

‘Gan. Is that you?’

‘Indeed no… friend.’

And in a flash Jupiter recognized the officer who had been pursuing them. All the way from Black Spire island, then here to Zenska and the Upariha water court. Now they had been tricked to come ashore.

Jupiter pulled the sail in. ‘Breeze. Push that liar Tamm overboard…’

The Jupiter sped forward at first, closer to shore, then with the renewed speed he swung the tiller towards himself. The outrigger spun stern to the wind, and he rolled his weight to bring the sail over in a crash gybe. They shot away from the landing as the strong wind filled the sail.

Breeze bounced onto the shoulders of Tamm in the bow. The rescued manisaur still pointed, but now behind. Caught in the light, the sight burned into Jupiter’s mind. Then something yanked the whole outrigger to a dead stop.

Jupiter tumbled forward, hit the hull with his chest, and bit his lip.

Coppery blood filled his mouth. He spat, then raised himself. The Jupiter strained with a full sail for a second, then veered off as the rudders swung free. The sail flapped, flogging itself in the storm winds. Jupiter saw then that a rope had been thrown over the outrigger. Caught — they were hauled backwards like a fish on a line.

‘Breeze. Where’s that knife?’ Jupiter shouted. ‘Cut us away.’

‘Yes Dhakara.’ Tamm intoned.

‘Okaaaay…’ Jupiter didn’t know what to think as he watched the manisaur shrug off Breeze, and move towards the rope, knife in two thumbed hand. He leaned down to make the cut.

The manisaur officer shouted then. ‘Hold friend.’

The officer had run along the landing and now stood close by. Light from glowglobes shone along the landing and Jupiter knew for sure then. The same navy officer stepped into view. The one who had captured Qhawana, chased them from Black Spire island, and then again in the Upariha water court where they almost caught them again but still would have learned of the rebellion’s attack plans.

A navy crew of manisaurs paced backwards and pulled The Jupiter towards the landing as if they hauled the rope in a one-sided tug of war.

Then the outrigger slipped alongside the landing. The tow rope broke then as Tamm’s knife at last sawed through. The navy crew fell over. But Jupiter had no time to turn his craft away. The Jupiter sailed onto the landing with a crunch. Three enemy manisaurs climbed aboard. Breeze scrambled back next to him.

‘Okay. You got me,’ Jupiter said to the navy officer. ‘What do you want?’

‘You have the crystals?’ The officer’s aura flashed with concern.

Jupiter could not help himself. His eyes dropped to the muddy green gems in the bottom of the centre hull. He had not touched them since Gan had left. A subtle glow surrounded the gems nearest the kheel.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Jupiter said.

‘I think you do.’ The officer scrambled over the outrigger platform close to Jupiter. He leaned forward, face directed at Jupiter so it filled his vision, so close he could feel the heat from the manisaur’s body. The alien smell rose strong in Jupiter’s senses.

‘Now. Where did you put them?’