Ajiro motioned them into a corner of the shop and opened the door.

He jumped back in horror as Breeze bounded inside. The imp leapt for Jupiter and Maggie who had peered around a partition as nervousness had gripped them

‘Breeze. How did you know?’ Jupiter said. But he knew. The dream, and weird feelings. Breeze coming to their hiding place seemed part of it all.

‘It’s all connected isn’t it?’

‘Yeah. Connexion. Tulanvarqa,’ Jupiter said. ‘Something really bad is about to happen. And it’s close by.’

‘Pain… Fear… Hurt…’ Breeze warbled.

‘You felt it?’

‘Laughter… Happy… Relief…’

‘Yeah. Me too buddy. Me too.’

‘Aramqhami — agent of fate!’ Ajiro said. ‘This is very bad. Make him go.’

‘It’s okay. He’s a friend.’

‘Make him go.’

‘Breeze. Make friends with Ajiro-san.’

Breeze turned to the old man but the Japanese threw a cloth at him. ‘It must go. Bad things happen. Aramqhami, a very bad thing.’

‘Can we at least finish…’

‘It goes away. Now.’

‘Breeze. Can you wait outside?’

‘Breeze bobbled his head in his ironic imitation of a manisaur and slipped out the still open door. Ajiro closed it with a bang and slipped the bar across. His hand shook.

‘It’s okay Ajiro-san…’

‘No. You go. You finish eating. Then you must go.’

Maggie frowned at Jupiter who shrugged.

‘I’m sorry. Sure thing.’

He and Maggie finished the rice. Maggie even tried the chopsticks but used them more like a fork. All the while Ajiro kept watch on the door, the windows, and them. Almost as if an attack might come from one of them.

‘Sorry Ajiro-san. We thank you.’

‘Thank you,’ Maggie said. She gave a small bow. The old Japanese bowed uncertainly back.

Jupiter reached into his pocket and pulled out an oilskin pouch. He had kept the tools stowed on the outrigger ever since he had found it in the cave on Black Spire. The tools had helped him build The Jupiter. They were incredibly useful, but inside lay a knife.

‘I want to give you thanks,’ Jupiter said. He brought the knife out. Ajiro shrank back at the sight of the steel blade when Jupiter pulled it from the covering. His eyes widened.

‘Tanto?’ Ajiro stepped closer as Jupiter held the short knife out.

‘I would like to thank you. The knowledge…’

Ajiro bowed his head deeply as he took the knife. The bow turned into a close examination of the blade.

‘But this is… impossible.’ Ajiro said. His voice wavered.

‘What is it?’

‘I lost this blade…’ He stared at the oilskin pouch. ‘And the tools…’

‘These are yours’

‘Hi. So desu. They are. From Earth. I lost them when… the rescue. I had no time.’

‘If they are yours,’ Jupiter said. ‘You must have them back.’ He held out the oilskin and the tools towards the Japanese officer.

Ajiro bowed even deeper. He held out the short steel blade. ‘No. That time is passed. You must take them. I wish to forget…’

Jupiter saw the determination, and the sadness in the old man.

Maggie stared at the knife. ‘I didn’t know you had that.’

‘I didn’t want to scare you… Japanese martial knife. A fighting blade.’

‘No. I used it for fish.’ Ajiro laughed. ‘Only for fish.’

‘But if we found it,’ Jupiter said. ‘It means the place you arrived at… did it have a tall black peak. A spire?’

‘Hai. So desu. Sharp mountain. Like a knife.’

‘So he left Earth at the same time you did. And arrived at the same place we both did. Black Spire Island. But decades before.’

‘We have to get home Jupiter. If there is any chance…’

A sharp bang rattled the door once more. Jupiter opened it. ‘Cool it Breeze. We’re coming.’ He pushed Breeze away as the eager imp bounced. He held the door open for Maggie.

She gave the old man a hug, which startled him almost as much a Jupiter.

Ajiro smiled, reached out and squeezed her hand. ‘May you live in peace, far from war and fear and strife. A good friend held close.’

Jupiter took a breath and felt Maggie’s tears well. The words seemed like a poem as well as a blessing.

‘I’m sorry,’ Maggie said. ‘I have learned today more about myself than I believed possible.’ She sniffed and joined Jupiter at the door.

Stolen novel; please report.

He pushed the oil skin pouch into his jacket again. He nodded at Ajiro knowing he could not better Maggie’s farewell and closed the door behind him.

Breeze led the way, with Maggie and Jupiter close behind. At first they ran, but as the number of people on the streets grew they stumbled into a walk. Breeze climbed up the side of one building and kept to the roofs to avoid startling manisaurs fearful of Aramqhami and what crossing the imp’s path might mean.

But no sooner had he reached the roof top when Breeze leapt to the ground.

‘Black… Skyship… Bad…’

Jupiter got a bad feeling. He turned back to look where they had just come from. The black skyship hung low above the buildings where the plaza and Ajiro’s noodle shop stood. He heard it then — the lowing of a gharumal beast towing the skyship in the early morning stillness before the land breeze rose to take the fishing boats to sea.

Jupiter saw crew in the rigging as if they readied to set sail to help turn the craft. But now the black skyship bristled with its many masts. The three main masts along the back of it, and the smaller double masts that stuck out either side. The crew clustered thickest on these masts.

‘That’s not good. It looks even more like a pirate than Red-Back’s Karakatun,’ said Jupiter.

‘Come on then. Let’s get away.’ Maggie pulled at Jupiter and he followed on at a walk down the stone paved ally. An uneasy sense of dread welled in him. He watched the black ship swing out towards the docks. It seemed to almost graze the rooftops of the wooden buildings.

‘It’s near the black buildings, the ones we saw over the wall.’

‘Jupiter!’ Maggie called heedless of the stares she drew. ‘We’ve got to get going.’

Jupiter ran to catch up.

‘It’s dangerous enough without you dawdling,’ Maggie said.

‘Or your shouting.’

Maggie grunted and walked on at a faster pace, her feet tapping on the stone flags of the paving.

Jupiter glanced up at Breeze once more on the rooftops. ‘This way. Follow Breeze.’

Together the two made their way to quieter sections of town, away from the street markets, down quiet side streets where the buildings dropped to two levels, and the wood shaded to an unkempt darker gray. They saw few manisaurs about, and those they did see might hesitate when they caught sight of the humans, but hurried away on errands. Some had the small four legged beasts trotting at heel. But they heard no signs any had called for the watch.

Jupiter guessed most manisaurs did not like the crackdown that meant humans had been banished from the town. But ignoring the two humans would be as much as he could hope for as help. His gratitude for Ajiro’s help increased. Perhaps the old man’s soldier bravery remained intact.

But even as they left the edge of the town and approached the trading dock a nagging sense worried the back of his mind. The black vessel remained in his thoughts. He kept an eye out behind even as the hulking skyship slipped from view behind the buildings that crowded close to the allies Breeze led them down.

The booming call of a gharumal moaned and echoed through the town. The black skyship hung over the port pulled by the huge tow beast as it approached the docks. A sense of unease nagged at him as he picked up his pace.

‘Maggs? You alright?’

The glance she shot him was all he needed. She too experienced the pall of fear that came with the black skyship. Something awful loomed above them. It spurred them on. Breeze dropped to the cobbled alley and led them on as they neared the trade docks.

They broke free of the confining and claustrophobic laneways and came onto the stone praya. The Jupiter lay nestled next to a broken down fishing boat. Moved there by Pariqamtu who sat nearby on guard. She leapt to her feet and hurried over. Tamm stood out from the wreck and bounced on the pier almost as if possessed by an imp.

‘We thought you lost. And the imp ran off this morning and we feared the worst. Aramqhami are well named for bringing the fate of the world upon those too close to them. I was sure we would be stranded here with your crazy craft we can not sail.’

‘Nice to know you were worried for our skins, and not just your own,’ Jupiter said. He regretted the words the moment he said them. A captain did not speak like that. But then no one had made him captain, and he knew they should not.

Pariqamtu’s aura flashed embarrassment. She opened her mouth and the white of her tooth-plate flashed in the morning sun.

‘I’m teasing Pari-pari.’ Jupiter laughed. ‘It’s good to see you,’ He gripped the young female manisaur’s arm. ‘I’m sorry we had you worried. But it could not be helped.’

‘Or perhaps it could but we could not seem to get away.’ Maggie shuddered, and Jupiter felt an echo of the same fear.

He stared along the edge of the trading docks. Beyond the curve of the trade buildings the black skyship twisted in the wind. One flank of sails had been raised to turn the sinister vessel as the gharumal’s tow rope cut across the sky from skyship to the ground. Then in a flash the sails furled, and the black vessel began to drop lower. His uneasiness mounted.

Can we not escape it?

‘Hurry,’ said Maggie. ‘Did you get everything? Are we ready to sail?’

‘We have been ready since yesterday,’ said Tamm. He led them back towards where The Jupiter floated concealed. ’The land breeze is rising.’

‘That’s good,’ said Pariqamtu.’ It means we can sail into the interior while any pursuit will have to await the sea breeze this afternoon.’

‘So our delay works now.’

‘Was that your plan all along?’ Tamm said.

‘Could have been…’ Jupiter began. ’But no. We had to lie low. And then it grew dark…’

‘When we could have escaped,’ said Maggie.

‘But we ate and slept instead.’

‘And I don’t understand why.’

‘Yeah.’ Jupiter paused as he took in the crew. They stared at him as if waiting for orders. ‘Right. If everything is stowed…’ Jupiter pulled the oilskin wrapped tool kit from his jacket and tucked it into a nook in The Jupiter’s hull. ‘Then let’s be off.’

‘We’ve got a long flight to the mountains. And finally know where we truly need to go.’ Maggie stepped onto the bobbing outrigger. ‘We’re going home.’ In her hand she held Ajiro’s scrawled map to the mountain temple.

Pariqamtu had tied cloth wrapped packages either side of the hull near the kheel. The purchased food and supplies, now stowed out of the way of where the crew needed to move, balanced the weight around the centre of mass.

‘Good job Tamm, Pari-pari. Um. Yeah.’ Jupiter paused. ’Well done Perfect.’

The crew arranged themselves in their usual positions. Jupiter at the tiller, Breeze at the kheel. Maggie before the mast, with the two manisaurs ready to take up positions either side of the outrigger platforms. Tamm stood ready to cast off the rope.

‘Pari-pari. Raise the mainsail. Tamm wait for the sail to reach the top of the mast, then turn her into the wind.’ Jupiter looked over the preparations again. Then his gaze flickered to the black skyship.

‘Okay. Let go.’

Tamm scuttled aboard and dropped to his chest, his aura flashed excitement and anticipation.

That same feeling grew in Jupiter’s chest. He pulled the sail in with the mainsheet rope, eased the tiller away to catch the rising land breeze that came hot and dry from the continent’s interior, and soon the whisper of water hushed along the hulls.

‘Breeze. Hold the kheel slow.’ Jupiter wanted to keep the outrigger in the water and inconspicuous until they were further out into the bay.

Without warning a sharp pain doubled him over, his vision went black.

Pressure… Pain… Poison…

‘Jupiter! Jupiter!’

The blackness faded and Jupiter looked up into the concerned face of Pariqamtu. Her aura flashed worry and doubt.

Maggie slumped near the mast and Breeze had frozen at the kheel. The Jupiter’s sail flapped. The rudder had twisted them into the wind when Jupiter had dropped the tiller.

‘What’s wrong? What is it?’

Jupiter took in the frightened looks from Maggie and Breeze. Fear gripped him, but it came from the skyship hung above the town.

It’s a cry for help.

‘There’s something…’ Jupiter paused and determination gripped him then. ‘We’ve got something to do. And fast.’

He leaned forward past Pariqamtu and gave the kheel a spin. Breeze roused himself and helped him.

Jupiter pulled the sail in. The rudder gripped the water as The Jupiter moved forward once more. He angled along parallel to the trading docks, and not towards the open water of the bay.

‘Where are you going?’ Pariqamtu said.

‘Jupiter. No,’ Maggie moaned. ‘Don’t do it.’

‘We have to. You know it too don’t you? Someone is in danger. No one should suffer like that.’

‘We’ll get caught and captured,’ said Maggie. ‘Just like last time.’

‘Don’t you see? There’s no choice.’

The Jupiter rose form the water and sped along the shoreline until the rudders lifted clear. The outrigger staggered a little at the loss of drag, rose in the air and slipped sideways before Jupiter steadied her heading.

The black skyship loomed above them as they drew near. The sense of dread and despair mounted in Jupiter. But so did his determination.

‘I have no choice,’ he said as if to remind himself.