Pariqhamtu led them away from the repair yards and the foul air from the docks. Breeze ran ahead. He would pause for them to get close, and then scamper on as if he scouted for them. They walked on through the old trading district where the reek of rotten eggs changed to the musty sour smells of decaying things - vegetables and fruit.

Jupiter wrinkled his nose until they came into the warren of stone cobbled shopping alleys and lanes on the edge of the harbor market. As a fishing port the market stalls had stacks of fish fresh. More came every minute as the fleet landed on the dying sea breeze. The scent of the sea followed the fish but it not the unpleasant sulfur stink of the dock. This fish smelled fresh and clean.

The streets and lanes thronged with carts piled high with the day’s catch, some still flapped around. People took little notice of Jupiter and the crew, but somehow their arrival unsettled a balance, as if they sent ripples through the crowd. And that made Jupiter uneasy because even though they were surrounded by hordes of people somehow he felt exposed. He smiled to himself them. Alien manisaurs counted as people to him now, but did the manisaurs return that view of Maggie him?

The manisaur market unsettled him like the homey farmers markets at home never did. The alienness accentuated by the raucous cries that rose to a dizzying level of confusion and sensory overload. His tulanvarqa sense failed him and the cries devolved to something more like a seabird colony but with an undertone of deeper rumbles like an angry football crowd.

That the human language Thaluk had any direct relation to the manisaur tongue amazed him, thought experience told him it did. Somehow. After the weels he had been on Eoth it still amazed him how many tones manisaurs could make with one breath. Almost like they could sing soprano and bass at the same time. With different words spoken simultaneously.

And yet, if he concentrated, snatches of meaning could be understood. Tulanvarqa gave him a window on the language even in the crowd noise. With a start of surprise he realized he heard songs with repeating lyrics and musical themes. Another layer of understanding came to him then and he glanced at Maggie.

‘Do you hear that? They’re singing the same tunes, similar but each twisted a bit different from one another.’

‘Yes. It’s like a whole lot of big band orchestras playing at once. I can almost hear an individual voice, and then it changes and I hear another.’

‘I would have said jazz. A crazy improvised jam session. Or the maddest hip-hop rapping ever. But for advertising. They’re belting out jingles and slogans in song.’

They walked further into the market. In the crowd Jupiter began to note that there were not many humans about. And the looks from those few were of surprise, not friendly, and instead almost worried, as if he and Maggie were a threat somehow. He could not read the manisaur auras, but a growing sense of unease filled him.

Maggie drew near as if about to speak but Pariqhamtu pulled them both aside into an alley off the main street where market noise had quietened.

‘You need to stay here,’ she said. ‘I was wrong to bring you.’

‘It’s not a problem. We’re used to crowds. In Zenska…’

‘There are no humans. Or rather…’ Pariqhamtu held her hand up when she saw Jupiter about to correct her. ‘You’re the only young humans. And your clothing is all wrong.’

Jupiter nodded. They still dressed more like they had at home. He in his wetsuit covered with a flying jacket from Gan. Maggie in her T Shirt and shorts with a felted crew coat. His wetsuit and rash guard visible under the flight jacket seemed practical to him but looked like nothing ever seen on Eoth. Maggie’s felted coat looked like others in the market, but a glimpse of the now ragged Comsat Angels T-shirt peaked through. And now he though on it, both their jackets looked military.

‘Yeah. I guess we do look like thieves in this hand-me-down military gear.

‘We’ll stay here then.’ Maggie said. ‘You think this is safe?’

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‘Should be.’ Pariqhamtu stepped to the corner of the alley and looked out and then back to the humans. Her aura flashed calm. ‘I don’t know this town, but most ports are the same. There will be sections of the market where we can get what we need. I will bring it back here when I’m done. Then we leave. Fast.’

Pariqhamtu eyed them each as if they had auras to read. ‘Do you know the way back?’

‘I think so,’ Jupiter said. He looked at the imp. ‘But Breeze probably does.’

‘Do not rely on the imp. Do not trust it… that you understand and communicate with it…’

‘Him.’ Maggie said. ‘And his name is Breeze.’

Pariqhamtu warbled something unintelligible. ‘If I’m not here within a handspan of time.’ She looked at Jupiter’s watch a moment. ‘Listen for the market bell. When it chimes get back to the harbour. I should only be a short time however.’ And then she ran off.

Jupiter wondered if he or Pariqhamtu was leader of the crew. Did it matter?

It sort of does. I thought I had command. But what proof is there?

Behind them the alleyway rose steeply away from the street and harbour market lanes in a twisting route. Around a hundred metres along it turned far enough that the rest of it lay hidden from view. Less an alley and more like the space between the back of the buildings perhaps. Most structures had no door onto the alley. Ledges ran along sections of the buildings. Breeze climbed up and ran along one side for a bit, then leaped across the alley and back to them. He rattled one of the many hatches that opened from the buildings onto the ledges.

‘Breeze. Shh!’ Maggie flapped her arms at him to get down and be quiet.

Jupiter stepped over a slick of water flowing down a slot in the centre of the rough cobbles. A foul smelling drain opened in the slot and Jupiter guessed a stream ran under the cobbles, or even a sewer, covered over by the town. The hatches might be to stop flood waters getting into the buildings while still giving access to the alley.

Passersby walked across the entrance to the alley, but no one looked inside. The pedestrians flashed by as bursts of movement and color. Then gone just as fast, only to be replaced with more momentary glimpses of town life.

Then no people passed for a time. Curious, Jupiter moved towards the entrance.

‘What are you doing?’ Maggie said with a hiss. ‘We have to stay here.’

‘Know your enemy.’

‘Really?’ Maggie sighed. ‘The last time you pulled that trick…’

‘On Black Spire? I found out vital information.’

Jupiter, poised to step out of the ally, but Breeze tugged frantic at his arm. The first tug enough to stop him, but when Jupiter still made to step out, Breeze dragged him back and to the side.

‘Bad… People… Hide.’

‘What do you mean?’

Breeze put his head out from the alley. Jupiter smiled as the imp waved his hand behind him as if telling him to stay back. Jupiter moved to join him instead. He looked around the stone wall.

A group of rough looking manisaurs dragged two others in brightly colored clothes. Or the webbing and pouches that passed for clothing on manisaurs. Jupiter frowned. Something about the toughs disturbed him more than usual. They pulled their protesting victims along the street towards the alley.

‘Blackbirders.’ Jupiter’s heart raced and he stepped back. ‘Maggie. We’ve got to get away from here. Blackbirders. Coming this way.’

They ran a little along the alley up the twisting stone slabs avoiding the slick slimy water in the centre where it overflowed its slot. Jupiter looked back. The turn that might hide them from view lay further ahead. Breeze rattled more of the hatch doors. But all seemed locked. Jupiter and Maggie ran on another few metres.

Then he noticed that Breeze had fallen behind and no longer with them. Jupiter twisted to look beyond the alley’s curve. The imp had climbed up a ladder like structure in the stone wall on side of an alley building. He waved his hand again, gesturing them to get back - not as funny as Jupiter had first thought. But there was no way to get out of sight.

The Blackbirders trooped past the entrance to the alley. The first did not look down as they pulled the colorfully dressed captives along with them. But as luck would have it, one of the blackbirders following paused, then stepped into the alley. It squatted to do a dump.

Jupiter had a momentary flashback to the Blackbirders on the beach. And the slave that had given him the feathered talisman. He touched where it lay under his wetsuit. He pressed himself into the shadows next to Maggie and hoped the manisaur would not look.

Berg said that a manisaur captive called Zaj had made the talisman. Somehow that had started this whole adventure. If not for the talisman, Berg would not have chased them, and not have been so frantic to escape the island. The talisman had warned of the arrival of the Imperial Navy and Qhawana’s capture. If not for the talisman they might still be on the island.

‘Or already safely in the mountains talking to the priests about our return home.’ Jupiter muttered this under his breath as he stared at the Blackbirder. In a way the Blackbirder represented everything that had gone wrong for Jupiter since he had somehow gone through the portal from Earth to Eoth.

Just as the Blackbirder stood to leave it turned its head towards them. Then things happened fast. Breeze jumped from where he had hidden on the ledge onto the manisaur’s head. The manisaur squawked in alarm, and Jupiter ran at them both. While Breeze’s thumps and kicks distracted the Blackbirder Jupiter shouldered the lighter manisaur back to the ground.

‘Maggie. Run for it.’

Breeze pummeled the surprised manisaur to keep it on the ground long enough for Maggie and Jupiter to escape.