Jupiter stared. Manisaurs looked a lot alike, but he knew Tamm. More than just his appearance, tulanvarqa gave him connexion to Tamm as an individual.

And yet.

Tamm caught Jupiter’s gaze, his aura flashed contempt and not a hint of recognition. And manisaur auras did not lie, even Tamm’s.

A shock ran though Jupiter then, the hair on his arms stood up, and he shivered.

That’s not Tamm. Except…

The surprise of seeing his friend distracted Jupiter from his plan to escape to the shadows. He took a step forward. The last of the humans moved through the lighted doorway. The manisaur prisoners jostled amongst them, and held up the line. They squawked and cackled like a disturbed hen house.

No way I’m getting caught up in another hunt.

Jupiter stepped away from the rear of the group, back to the wall of the corridor until the wooden planks pressed against his hands. He crouched lower, and looked for a deeper darkness to hide in.

If the other guards see me now… If Tamm raises the alarm…

The other guards shoved at the humans and manisaurs and took no notice of the shape in the shadows. But Khav had.

The big man nodded, then whipped an elbow into the face of a manisaur prisoner. The lighter manisaur staggered back, tripped on its shackles, and knocked others to the ground. Sudden uproar rose between the two species as they traded blows. The manisaurs attempted to kick, but their hobbled legs forced then to slap with their hands.

But human fists are made for punching, so the humans got the better of the fight. Some even managed a few blows on the guards who had raced to break up the fight. Jupiter skittered away.

For millions of years, the darkness beckoned mammals when faced with fearsome reptilian claws. Jupiter made it away down an unlit side passage, then pressed into the dark shadows. He breathed a sigh, then inhaled deeper to calm his thrashing heart. A dank smell of mould and rot enveloped him.

‘You there!’ A manisaur’s deep warble brought Jupiter’s heart to his mouth.

Jupiter turned with a groan. Then stood up.

I’ll have to make a run for it.

The outline of the shadow resolved. Someone familiar.

‘Tamm. It’s Jupiter.’

‘You ran.’

‘Come on.’ Jupiter pleaded then.’ We can get out of here now. We have to find Maggie.’

‘You’re a prisoner. I…’

Tamm had changed in some subtle way. His features had become familiar again, but something in the connexion warned him.

‘Whose side are you on, Tamm?’

‘I am Tambuqaram, Officer of the Imperial Navy at Zenska Vanukam.’

‘But you’re not there now are you?’

Tamm’s voice wavered with uncertainty. ‘I… I…’

‘You’re my friend. We sail my flying sailboat. The Jupiter. You’re my right arm.’

‘I am Qhavarata? I am right hand?’

‘Yes. We’re…’

Jupiter reached out and placed his hand on Tamm’s shoulder. ‘Tamm? What happened to you?’

Tamm rocked a little, freed himself from Jupiter’s hand, then stepped back. The light from the corridor fell across his alien features. His aura roiled with colours, too fast for Jupiter to read or understand.

Tamm moved towards the corridor back to the raucous noise of the fighting humans and manisaurs.

Jupiter turned Tamm, took up his two thumbed hands, and placed them on his own shoulders. They stared deep into one another eyes. An opening in Jupiter’s mind extended. He felt another room beyond, as if his mind’s eye, his inward gaze, found another place. Different to his visual imagination, no images existed here. Only the sense of place of space. The presence of another mind. Jupiter reached out.

Tamm’s aura flashed slower and steadied.

‘I feel…’

‘I too…’

‘Who…’ Tamm said.

‘Jupiter. I am Jupiter.’ The space within his mind opened and Jupiter saw/felt/sensed…

‘Dhakara… my captain.’ Tamm said. ‘Joopahtah Drayeehk.’

…a smile in his mind, in his aura.

‘Hey there. Welcome back,’ Jupiter said.

Tamm blinked and his aura settled to a sense of determination. Jupiter stepped back. The space with the smile in his mind faded away until it became the simple and familiar knowledge he stood with his friend Tamm again. A manisaur who could not smile, but Jupiter saw the sense of it flash in Tamm’s aura again.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘We’ve got to find Maggie. And Breeze is stuck on that black skyship.’ Jupiter said. ‘What happened to the manta? Did Maggie…’

‘Zaj’qetza!’ said Tamm.

‘What?’

‘She is here.’ Tamm’s aura showed surprise then determination. ‘I saw Zaj’qetza.’

Realization hit Jupiter then and he stepped into the light next to Tamm.

‘Zaj?’ Jupiter said. ‘The manisaur on the beach! The talisman? She gave it to me. Berg’s friend… That’s why…’ He took a deep breath then exhaled. ‘Just everything. What happened to her?’

‘Zaj’qetza is a prisoner here,’ said Tamm. ‘I know where.’

‘Zaj?’ said Jupiter. ‘How do you know?’

‘I saw her. I recognized her,’ Tamm said.

“It’s more important we find Maggie. Where is she?’

‘Maggie?’ Tamm spoke with hesitation. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘How can you know about Zaj, and not Maggie?’

Tamm pulled Jupiter away from the corridor. ‘No time. We have to get away from the other guards.’

‘The prisoners. They’re going to be hunted. Aren’t they?’

‘You cannot help everyone Jupiter. No matter how much you want to.’

‘You’re a prison guard. You could…’

‘No. You broke the last of the naraqhasa — imprinting.’

Jupiter stepped towards the corridor again as if to follow now there were two who might…

I don’t know.

‘Dhakara, Jupiter. We can not,’ Tamm said. ‘If we are to help we have to remain free.’

Jupiter turned then. ‘Alright. What’s the plan?’

‘No plan.’ Tamm paused. ‘Except. There is a way. Come with me.’

Jupiter followed Tamm along the side corridor. It lead out of the prison block, into a courtyard. Perhaps an exercise yard. And them towards a white stoned building that rose above the squalor of the fortress.

‘So. Do you have a plan?’ Jupiter said. He stared up at the white building, but he thought only of Tamm. His friend acted with a sense of purpose he had not known before. Tamm had, until then, always waited for others to give the orders. Then he would spring to obey Jupiter’s command, or slightest comment even.

Now the Imperial officer had returned, no longer sejrat’sha — turned blade. Something more.

‘Tamm. You said your naraqha — the imprint, it had gone.’

‘Yes. I am no longer naraqhan. No longer one who carries an imprint.’

‘And you are still my friend?’

‘As always Jupiter.’ Tamm strode towards the white building. A bold purpose and confidence in his every movement now. Jupiter hurried to catch up.

‘So what is this place? A palace?’

‘No. This is as much a prison as the fortress. At least it is for Zaj’qetza.’ Tamm opened the door and stepped in.

In the lobby a manisaur guard snapped into an upright position, and slapped a blade in a scabbard at their side.

‘Sir.’ The guard said.

‘I take this prisoner within. Stand aside.’

Jupiter saw the interplay of aura between the two and sensed Tamm out ranked the guard and had just dressed them down. Jupiter knew aura expressed the dominance, and position within society, for each manisaur. Tamm had, until now, not been able to stand so straight, to intimidate so well.

Who is Tamm really?

Jupiter had rescued the manisaur from drowning. Had brought him back from the dead with resuscitation techniques he had learned at school. That had been the key to turning him and creating naraqha - an imprint upon Jupiter. Except Jupiter had never asked who he was. What his rank had been. Except all manisaurs who had seen him had derided him as sejrat’sha. It had been obvious. Tamm had diminished in their eyes, and had even become a danger. Untrustworthy.

Tamm’s too confident now. He must have been a senior officer.

Jupiter kept stride with Tamm as he moved his way through the building. It had to be a palace of some sort. The woods of the paneled walls gleamed cleaner and brighter than any he had seen. The many glowglobes that hung on the walls, and the tall wide windows that let in the bright daylight.

The stairway wound human style stair around the climbing pole preferred by manisaurs. The dual nature of the building reinforced what he had learned of Qhayuvakham — the port town had been as much human as manisaur before everything had changed.

On this upper floor more manisaurs in uniforms strode between rooms, documents in hand. Offices opened onto a gallery space and manisaurs busied themselves in a low warbling susurration of activity.

Tamm led them to a side wing with less traffic. There a manisaur stood before a door, a blow dart gun held across their chest. A blade at their side, and a cudgel clipped to their belt.

The manisaurs locked gazes, auras flashed.

‘Stand aside. I have business with the prisoner.’

‘I have orders,’ the guard said. ‘No one is to enter. Even one of your rank. And you bring a human.’

‘It is tame enough, as you see.’

‘What business do you have? Where are your order?’ The guard took a step forward. ‘Where is your shaquroa — talisman?’

Jupiter started then.

I know this. I have…

He reached into the leather ouch he still carried around his neck. He slipped out his grandbam’s niho taniwha carved pounamu pendant. Then the talisman Zaj had given him.

‘I have this.’ Jupiter held the talisman out. And the guard reached for it. ‘No. You don’t get to touch it.’

The guard reached for the cudgel on its side, but Tamm slapped the arm down.

‘You see. It has the royal knots.’ Tamm motioned for Jupiter to put it away. ‘It is not for your eyes. Only for Zaj’qetza to see.’

‘They are detained.’

‘You interfere?’

Their auras flashed again.

And I thought Tamm could not lie.

A shock ran through Jupiter then. Tamm may not have lied. Everything he said might really be true.

Who is Zaj? What the heck are royal knots?

The guard stepped aside then and opened the door. Tamm led Jupiter within and closed the door on the guard.

‘What was all that about Tamm?’

Tamm held his had up and led them into the room.

On a low bench sat a manisaur dressed in flowing cloth that shifted in with colors as if the face of an aura. She stood up.

‘Zaj’qetza… I…’

‘Who are you? What further imposition is this?’

Jupiter stared at her. He had never seen a manisaur dressed like her. Almost like a human. Most manisaurs wore little to nothing, or practical webbing with tools and weapons. Never a dress like this.

‘Qharvan Tambuqaram,’ Tamm said. His aura flashed a manisaur recognition pattern. ‘Naval Lieutenant Tambuqaram.’

‘I’m Jupiter Drake. And… Zaj. We’ve met.’

‘I think not…’

‘On Black Spire. You were…’

‘Nezhnakhevo — the blackbirders. They took me…’

‘Yes. You gave me this,’ Jupiter held up the talisman.’

‘My shaquroa. You were the strange human I saw. Where is Hamrabanarushi? Has Bamrushi come?’

‘Berg?’

Jupiter knew the shaquroa had been for Berg to read. He had only been a messenger. ‘No. Bamrushi escaped Black Spire on the skyship Karakatun with Red-Back weeks ago. We have not seen them since.’

‘So then. Why are you here?’

‘To rescue you,’ said Jupiter.

Zaj laughed then. ‘From the middle of this fortress. That you found me, that you got inside. This is a wonder. That you will get out is impossible.’