‘We should not fly towards that… thing?’ Maggie said. She craned her neck around the mast. The buildings bulked around them, almost leaning in to squash them.

‘Can’t you feel it?’ Jupiter didn’t look at her, but instead focussed on the path they would have to thread towards the black skyship. The buildings under it were where the presence seemed strongest.

‘Yes. Scares me rigid. So why aren’t we going in the opposite direction? Why are you risking us… and everything?’

‘Yeah. Everything. Like someone in terrible pain,’ Jupiter said.

‘Terrible? If it is anything like what we feel as a reflection…’

‘What are you two talking about?’ Pariqamtu rolled on her side. She shifted her read foot where it gripped the webbing of the outrigger. ‘Slow down won’t you?’

‘You don’t know?’

Pariqamtu’s aura flashed and Jupiter did not need to hear what she had opened her mouth to say.

‘I know you don’t. I have no idea what’s happening. Why Maggie and I feel this person in need. Ever since last night…’

‘There is something evil ahead of us,’ Maggie said. ‘Someone in unbelievable pain. And we should be going as far away from it as possible.’

‘Tulanvarqa. Jupiter said. ‘We feel it. Their fear and agony.’

‘But that is…’ Pariqamtu said.

‘Yeah. I know. Crazy. And when it hits, it’s bad. Like torture for us too.’

‘Which is why Pari-pari is right. This is madness…’ Maggie said.

‘Madness to go any slower.’ Jupiter angled around a hulk in the shallows. ‘We have to get there before the next wave hits.’

Ahead he saw the canal opening. He gazed up at the black skyship, lower and closer now. He sensed agitation and disquiet upon the skyship. No pain. That came from the buildings on the ground. Emotions roiled around him as if everything had been amplified.

‘Get ready,’ Jupiter said. ‘I’m bringing The Jupiter back to the water.’

‘As you wish,’ said Tamm.

‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’ Maggie’s voice cracked at the tension Jupiter himself felt.

Pariqamtu rolled onto her front and scanned ahead. Breeze slowed the kheel until the rudders bit and the leeward hull kissed the water.

‘Phazhaqava shaqarun…’ said Jupiter under his breath. The poem came back to him now as the hull skimmed the water. He resolved to bring everyone out safely. Never lingering. They had the advantage of surprise. Who would be crazy enough to attempt this? ‘Phazhaqava shaqarun…’

‘Kiss of death more like,’ Maggie scoffed. But even she settled in to watch ahead for anything in the water.

Jupiter felt the weight of responsibility fall upon him then. The crew accepted his decision as captain. The decisions he now made had better be the right ones.

In a corner of his mind a glimmer of hope sparked.

The sides of the canal sped by, too close for comfort. The Jupiter skimmed the water surface, but the wind died away, shadowed by the buildings hard up to the edge of the canal. The outrigger began to settle lower into the water and spray flew from the hulls.

‘Breeze. Spin up the kheel. Keep the her out of the water. We need to use the speed as much as we can before we lose all the wind.’

The kheel blurred blue in his vision again, its thrumming spin tugged at his body and mind, and The Jupiter rose a little higher. But the rudders still sent up a plume of murky grey as they maintained their grip in the water. The canal stank. It also ended just ahead of them

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

‘Breeze. Stop the kheel,’ Jupiter said. ‘Fast.’

The Jupiter slapped into the water with the sudden removal of the kheel’s lift. Water boiled up around the crew, then burst upon the walls of the buildings leaning over the canal.

Maggie coughed and spluttered. ‘Did you have to do that?’

‘Breeze. Get to the front. Tamm, Pari-pari, keep us from hitting the side of the canal.’

‘Do you actually have a plan?’ Maggie said.

‘No. Rushing in where fools fear to… um… swim,’ Jupiter said.

As he spoke a wave of pain rolled over him. He fell back, the tiller slipped from his hand, the rudder swung to the side, and the starboard side outrigger hit the stone of the building with a crunch. The nose swing to the right and they slid to a halt.

Jupiter looked up under his brow. Breeze had slipped to huddle in obvious pain next to Maggie while Tamm and Pariqamtu fended them from the walls.

Jupiter concentrated on the source of the burning pangs.

‘You’ve got to stop. It hurts too much. Stop. Please.’

The words came from his mouth, but he did not know from whom. Had he thought to speak them? Or did the words come from the person…

‘It’s not a person. Is it?’

Slowly the pain subsided. Jupiter lifted his head.

‘What is the matter?’ Pariqamtu said. ‘Why did you steer into the wall?’

Tamm bent over Maggie and Breeze.

‘I don’t know why it is happening,’ said Jupiter. ‘But we feel someone. They’re in pain.’

Maggie groaned. ‘It is worse than before.’

‘But they know we’re here. They’re…’ Jupiter said then realization hit.

‘Not human… or manisaur,’ said Maggie.

‘Breeze. You feel it too, eh?’

‘Pain… Gone… Too much…’

The ached pulled and twisted within him, somewhere deep within himself, as if his bones, his blood, his head all throbbed with the sense of it. But not the overwhelming weight of it as before.

‘Tamm. Pull us along. Forward. To the end,’ Jupiter said.

Tamm slipped to the bow and reached to the rope hung on the side of the building next to the canal. Then drew The Jupiter through the oil slicked water.

‘How do we know this will take us? To them?’

‘We don’t. But we’re closer. And there is water in the building. I… felt it.’

‘Not a building. A skyship,’ said Maggie.

‘You’re right.’ Jupiter closed his eyes. ‘I see it.’

‘That scary one in the air?’ Maggie pointed. The underside of the black skyship hung above them now.

‘No. They’re in water. As if a skyship has fallen. Sunk. We’re close.’

On the side of the canal a landing opened between building. Tamm pulled them to it. A small water court allowed smaller boats to move to the side and out of any canal traffic. They had been alone on the canal, and the ropes along the sides were old and worn. Few had used this old waterway.

‘Maggie, Breeze. Look after The Jupiter. Ready her for a getaway.’

‘Right. Like we’re robbers or something?’

‘Exactly.’ Jupiter laughed. But it rang false as the pain pulsed stronger a moment. It seemed almost like he and Maggie worked together with the tortured being to suppress the pain. He had to concentrate.

‘On second thoughts. Maggie, Breeze. You have to come with me. Tamm and Pari-pari, you must stay.’

’No captain. I should come with you.’ Tamm said. ‘I will not leave you again.’

Jupiter considered. ‘The three of us feel the pain. We need to work together to stop it…’

‘Then I must come,’ Tamm said. ‘If you feel the pain again you would be helpless.’

Jupiter looked at Pariqamtu, and read in her aura flashes of uncertainty, doubt, and fear. He understood then.

‘Pari-pari. I’m relying on you,’ Jupiter said. ‘Keep The Jupiter safe. I have shown you some of how to sail her. If you have no word from us, and are in danger, take The Jupiter and rejoin Gan.’

A war of color erupted over her aura as a complex flow of emotions roiled within her. Jupiter saw them settle.

‘I do not like this. But I know I cannot stop you. I would like to return to Gan, but I will wait. You may trust me to wait.’

And Jupiter saw that he could. ‘Why then did you follow me?’

‘Because you gave me purpose, you gave me respect. And you trust me now. I will return that to you.’

Jupiter smiled. He guessed a song lay behind those words, but so too did confirmation from the young manisaur’s aura.

‘Tamm. You’re with us. Maggie? You see the logic?’

‘No. I don’t. This is madness.’ Maggie frowned. Breeze squeezed her hand. ‘You’re mad. If we are to return home before the end of the month, there is no time to waste. But I feel your determination. Both to save whoever suffers, but also to get to the way home. It confuses me how you can hold both of these things in your head at the same time. But you do. I sense it. This is more than connexion somehow. Tulanvarqa has joined us. It’s stronger here. I believe you, and I trust you. I will follow you.’

‘I trust… I follow… You lead…” said Breeze.

Tamm pulled the outrigger close to the landing. The three stepped out.

‘You should not take Aramqhami,’ said Pariqamtu. ‘This agent-of-fate who has a hold on you. They will bring ill fortune upon you. I have feared this from the first. And now it comes true.’

‘Pariqamtu. You do not hear Breeze talk. You do not know him as I do.’

‘Aramqhami only speaks to those whose fates are destined to fall with them.’

Jupiter laughed. ’Stop quoting poems, and ancient legends. Breeze is a friend and he’s on our side. Aren’t you dude?’

‘Yes… one side… on-side…’ Breeze warbled. ‘Dude.’ This last he said in a good imitation of Jupiter’s words.

Pariqamtu heard the word, and stared in horror. She opened her mouth to protest further.

‘Leave it. We’re good.’ Jupiter nodded at Pariqamtu as her aura flashed both resignation and fear.

That look haunted Jupiter as they stepped away from The Jupiter, and the water court. When he looked back, Pariqamtu had settled into the stern with the tiller in hand. She would do as he asked, despite her reservations. Her courage emboldened him.

‘With luck we’re on the inside of the fort’s stone wall,’ Jupiter said as they slipped along the narrow alley that lead between buildings. ‘Otherwise we will have wished we had flown in.’