Maggie stretched her aching arms, and limbered up, readying to take over the kheel from Pariqamtu. The idea of The Jupiter falling from the sky while under tow by the mantas had scared her rigid at first. With Jupiter in charge, and Breeze spinning the kheel, that had seemed unlikely. But now she felt as if they trembled on the edge of chaos.

She no longer looked down, but instead looked to the horizon.

‘We’ll see the rebel skyships soon,’ Maggie said. ‘I hope. But we’ve no real way of knowing where the mantas take us. It could be anywhere.’

‘If Samavati leads us, we are safe,’ said Pariqamtu. ‘We go where we are needed most.’

‘Though not where we want to go. But at the whim of the mantas.’ Maggie sighed. ‘I don’t think I like your Sea Goddess. Moby was a lot nicer. He gave use eggs to eat. And maybe the eggs created within us tulanvarqa — connexion.’

‘An act of Samavati. Where do you think this Mobee found the naqovaravi — the eggs of the sea gods?’

‘It seemed like magic. And after… I still thought it all a dream. I sometimes still think it is. But I am not sure I believe in your sea gods.’

’So what are those?’ Pariqamtu swept her arm to the huge mantas that swept their wings up and down as they flew in escort.

Maggie felt sure the huge sea creatures, these air and sea mantas, had taken turns at towing them through the sky. But at night it had been hard to know. Even now, in the first blush of dawn, above the purple sea, the mantas looked identical to her.

She liked to watch the movement of their sleek fighter plane bodies and wings, the iridescence sparking in the dawning light. Their dreamlike movement against the pink clouds relaxed her, and the fear The Jupiter would fall receded.

‘Maggie,’ said Parimqamtu. ‘I see them.’

‘The rebel skyships?’

‘In the lee of that island. Straight ahead.’

Maggie leaned to the side, her hand slipped from the kheel, and she shifted onto the outrigger platform to see ahead, beyond Pariqamtu and the mast.

‘I see the island. But nothing more.’

‘Wait. Human eyes are weak.’

‘Which skyship is it?’

‘It is both. Captain Qharamaraham’s Karakatun and cousin Ganarasha’s lumaviq class ship, Kitaraham. They’re on the shore. They work to repair damage from the battle.’

‘We’re dropping lower.’

‘Yes. But don’t you need to keep spinning the kheel?’

Maggie pushed back into the cockpit and spun the kheel up. But a sense of calm eased over her.

‘I think…’ Maggie said.

‘They want us to fly lower.’ Pariqamtu said. ‘I’ve never…’

‘Spoken with the gods?’

Pariqamtu’s aura flashed confusion then settled back to calm.

‘To speak with gods…’ Pariqamtu started to sing.

‘Is to be touched in the head.’ Maggie laughed. ‘Pari-pari. I’m joking.’

‘Yes. There a little madness in this.’ Pariqamtu hummed a lilting tune to unspoken words.

They dropped slowly, Maggie gave occasional lazy turns to the kheel to maintain their flight, but the manta brought them low, and then to the water in a hissing splash. She and Pariqamtu jolted forward so Maggie gave the kheel a spin to steady The Jupiter.

The island lay a hundred meters away. They approached out of the sunrise, but cries of alarm from the lookouts soon came to them across the rolling waves of the sea.

A canoe paddled fast towards them. A thunderous rhythm crossed the water ahead of the warrior sailors, a drumming threat display.

Pariqamtu banged a complicated beat upon the side of The Jupiter, then stood, her back to the warriors. Then Pariqamtu flashed her tail at them.

Maggie goggled, but then bit back a laugh. Jupiter had spoken how manisaurs could speak out their butts. The white underside would be seen with ease from the approaching canoe, and make a clear signal. The drum beats changed.

‘At least you lot are not flashing your bums at me,’ Maggie said, her sides shook with the effort to hold it together.

And then they did just that. The whole side of the canoe flickered with a message.

Maggie gasped then, not able to contain herself, she guffawed in huge sobbing cries laughter.

The stress and fear and tension released as she saw Gan, her friend the noble warrior, shaking his bottom like a ballet dancer in a tutu.

‘This. Is. Too. Much. Help. It hurts.’

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The canoe slid alongside and Gan leant over the side to take stock of the arrivals. The crew took hold of the tow rope and readied to bring them under control.

‘Maggie,’ Gan said. ’Are you alright?’

Maggie wiped the tears from her eyes. ‘Ah yes. I’m fine. Just do me a favor Gan. Don’t dance like that for me again. I don’t think I could survive another performance.’

‘Nuvra,’ Pariqamtu said with a flash of her aura. ‘Rude and crude, with no sense of decorum.’

The mantas jumped from the sea then, and the crew of the canoe started in surprise. One reached for the blade across his back.

‘Leave them,’ Maggie said. Anger replaced her laughter as fast as it had erupted. ‘They are our friends. Never hurt them. Never again.’

Maggie saw Gan and Pariqamtu glare at one another. But Pari-pari bowed in acknowledgement of her senior cousin.

‘Tharumiyo will want to see you both,’ said Gan.

Maggie’s gut lurched then.

No. The traitor still runs the show.

There would be no rescue for Jupiter now, or a way home.

She watched the mantas leap away. Hope faded the closer The Jupiter got to the island.

‘How is any of this our problem?’ said Gan.

They stood on the deck of Gan’s Kitaraham. The skyship lay on the beach propped on their keels. The crew had been rigging sails and reaving ropes when Gan had brought them on board. Maggie couldn't see much evidence of the damage from the huge naval battle only three days before.

Captain Qharham now strode across the sand to join them from his skyship. Gan stood on his bridge, aura flashing, as he stared at her, and his cousin Pariqamtu.

‘Jupiter Drake. He did so much for you, for the rebels,’ Pariqamtu said. ‘Without him the Imperial Navy would have zharaqsa from the Zenska flight works . Without the catalyst he stole you would not have the resources to fly your skyships.’

“And yet you do not know where he is,’ Gan turned and looked for Qharham. ‘And you yourself abandoned him.’

‘Only because the two of us could not do anything,’ Maggie said.

‘If we attack the Empire. A fortress no less, we will fail.’ Gan did not show his aura though Maggie did not read them as well as Jupiter, she knew enough to sense his anger and frustration.

‘You attacked before. On Zenska.’

‘That was before they knew of us, our intent. And our attack on the vanukam came from within. The fortress of Qhayuvakham is built to see off an attack like the one you propose. It is madness.’

‘But we destroyed the flight-works there.’

‘This makes it even less necessary for us to do so. Your attack the last day succeeded for the same reasons. You came from within the fortress, unexpected, and with considerable luck. How you managed to steal, and then guide, a gharumal, urge the beast to break the flight works, and then flee is beyond any tale I have heard.’

‘You owe us. You owe Jupiter.’

‘And you owe the gods for uncanny luck and good fortune. Songs will be sung of your success. But we can do nothing. To go to rescue would undo all that Jupiter has done.’

Maggie stared at Gan. She had been sure the brave manisaur would leap to help Jupiter. ‘The gods? I not did not tell you how we found your ships.’

‘How did you? We are in the lee of a remote island, far from shipping lanes, and upwind of Qhayuvakham. No vanuqa could sail from the long land, yet you said you did. That is sailing beyond even Jupiter.’

‘We did not sail on the wind. Instead we flew,’ Maggie paused and made sure all the officers heard her words.

‘We flew in the company of mantas. They towed us through the sky,’ said Maggie.

‘What a tale you spin.’ Gan said. ‘There is no place for poetry in this. Or human untruths.’

Pariqamtu stepped beside Maggie then. ‘Samavati brought us to you. Divine fate rules us here.’

The two cousins locked auras until Gan stepped back. Confusion wracked his aura.

Maggie nodded. ‘That’s right. We speak the truth.’

Pariqamtu let out a piercing cry then. A call that echoed from the isle’s cliffs to create a reverberant harmony that soared and wove even Maggie’s emotions to one of expectation. All stepped back.

Then Pariqamtu sang an aria, complex, and layered beyond anything Maggie had ever experienced.

Pariqamtu exalted in song.

Samavati, our protector divine,

Soar swift soar high, in her honor we’ll shine.

She brought us here, she knows our name,

Sets a task that we must claim,

She knows you, sees you, in her light,

How can we not rise to her height,

To meet the challenge, grasp the prize,

Return to balance, end the lies.

Jupiter lost, end his demise,

For Tamm, and Breeze, we search the skies,

As the goddess calls, our courage prized,

All good, all great, where hope resides.

Great Samavati knows our way,

The Empire's doom is clear as day.

They seek to bind us, break our will,

But we stand firm, our spirits still.

With humans exile, to stop, we fight,

We starve Empire of zharaqsa, so claim the night,

A chance to strike, a final blow,

Samavati bids us, we should go.

Gan rumbled a guttural challenge as he stepped forward. Maggie knew then he would sing against Pariqamtu.

Thravin, thralin. This enemy cousin nonsense will mess up everything.

But even with that fear, a sense of expectation swept through her. She wanted to hear his song.

Can he match that soaring aria from Pariqamtu?

‘Enough. Stop your petty arguments.’ A new voice rang out before Gan could start to sing.

Maggie turned. Tharumiyo wobbled onto the bridge.

‘I have herd enough. If Samavati bids us aid Upariqami — Jupiter, then who are we to stand against her?’

‘But this human nonsense changes our plan.’

‘Is it nonsense to fight the enemy? These faithful warriors tell us of destruction of the flightworks of Qhayuvakham. We should press this advantage. The enemy will not expect attack from without, even after such success from within.’ Tharumiyo paused and turned his gaze upon Maggie.

The old bird’s regard chilled her. The traitor. She had seen him get ‘captured’ in battle, and taken to the Air Lord’s skyship. After his dramatic ‘rescue’ she knew the old bird could not be trusted. Jupiter had told her of the Tharumiyo’s conversation with the Air Lord.

He lies when other manisaurs can not. But I can not reveal him by persuasion.

Humans do lie, and so are suspected always by manisaurs, and nothing she could say stood against the words of Tharumiyo, or any manisaur.

Except the song.

When manisaurs sang somehow they could take a sort of poetic license. Not all Pariqamtu sung about had been true. The mantas were not gods.

Manisaurs can lie, if they believe what they say is the truth. Except that makes it not a lie, but a delusion. And imprinting can create that delusion.

Maggie shivered. Tharumiyo’s gaze slipped away from her.

He knows. He knows I know. Somehow.

Captain Qharham gained the deck with a twittering of recognition calls from the Kitaraham’s crew. Red-Back strode behind. Her retinue of small four legged beasts gamboled around her until she quietened them with a frown and wave of her hand.

Tharumiyo turned to the Captain. ‘We fly to Qhayuvakham. These fine beings bring news. The Imperial flightworks there are broken. The rebellion has agents within its walls. Shall we strike while the Air Lord is elsewhere?

‘Very well,’ Captain Qharham said. ‘Final repairs will be completed as we sail on this north wind. We shall make haste before the wind bears away.’

‘My point exactly.’

Maggie knew he had not made that point at all. He lied again and the others did not notice. A sort of selective memory meant they believed his last words as truth forgetting the past they had just experienced.

The crew scurried in preparation for departure, and the attack on Qhayuvakham. She did not look at the old bird again. That she saw through his manipulative lies made Tharumiyo her most dangerous enemy.

And yet he had agreed to all she and Pariqamtu had sought. An attack on Qhayuvakham.

Why?