Jupiter fumed at the strange ways of manisaurs.

What the heck is wrong with asking a princess to take her clothes off?

He laughed then. On Eoth everything had became strange, twisted beyond recognition.

Well not really. It just seems like it most of the time.

The regal princess strode just behind the Qharvan Tambuqaram. His friend, now posing as lieutenant, had somehow got good at acting. Zaj had protested that the three could not convince anyone. That they would be caught. But Tamm insisted he could fake the situation because in truth he did hold the rank of Qharvan in the Imperial Navy. He wore the insignia of office on the webbing across his body.

He would have to manage the rest of the lie somehow.

Jupiter believed he could. Tamm had changed since he had recovered from the imprinting potion. The layers of imprinting he had endured had worn out something deep within his manisaur nature.

He had been brainwashed, but free of some restriction.

This worried the ‘Princess’. But to Jupiter Tamm had become more human and understandable, even if a little less predictable.

And that’s a good thing.

They exited the palace. The guards had not given an aura blink at the officer escorting his assistant, and a young human male. They did not recognize Zaj’quetza Tesubahm-zah — the lady of the court. She kept her head low, or aimed at Jupiter’s back. The guards did not spot the lie in her aura. And without her vishakala — the drapery of diaphanous color, no one suspected her identity. Her house arrest had been strangely lax. Jupiter did not understand it. Had the cloth of color been enough to tie her to the mansion?

Jupiter had made the plan, but still did not quite believe the craziness of manisaur society that a rule breaking change of clothing could be so effective.

As he walked the song his mother loved so much ran in his head.

We're all a little crazy,

It’s what makes life sublime,

The embrace of maybe, maybe

maybe gets us through bad times

‘Crazy, gets us through bad times,’ Jupiter muttered under his breath.

Still have no idea how the heck I got here? Less than a week now to find Maggie and get home.

The sudden cries of the hunting beasts came to him then. A rush of memories took him back to when he had been hunted. To the braided river, the forest, and the leap from the cliff.

Now the hunt ran through the streets of Qhayuvakham. He imagined the hobbled manisaurs running but not being able to kick and fight. The humans, isolated from the rest of humanity, become game, as if animals to be struck down for sport.

‘Is this a good idea?’ said Tamm.

‘With the hunt in the streets around the fortress we will not be noticed. Or rather we will be, but as we do not look like the hunted, we will not be seen.

‘Amid the crowd, the truth hides in plain sight,’ said Zaj.

‘Yeah. Something like that,’ said Jupiter. ‘And please don’t start singing. I know you want to. But I already have one song in my head.’

‘The baying of the beast?’

‘No. One telling me I’m crazy.’

As they passed more garrison soldiers, with no recognition from them, Jupiter began to think the plan might work. The hunt unsettled the garrison, like an upset bee hive.

They came close to the flight works. More garrison workers and soldiers hurried down the alleys and paths near the water court where the fallen skyship had produced zharaqsa flight catalyst.

‘We cannot risk going there again,’ said Tamm. ‘I’m sorry Jupiter. But Maggie will not be there anyway.’

‘I thought the idea was to escape, not get caught up in adventures,’ said Zaj.

‘Escape yes. Abandon friends? No,’ said Jupiter.

‘We should get to The Jupiter, find Pariqamtu,’ said Tamm. ‘Then we will have a chance to get away.’

‘Then find Maggie?’ said Jupiter. ‘How?’

‘Once you are safe I will search for her,’ said Tamm. ‘If she is captured, as you were, I will find her.’

‘Then we can rescue her,’ said Jupiter.

I feel powerless without The Jupiter. Just another kid.

‘And what of me?’ Zaj stepped beside them as if to remind them of her presence.

‘The best disguise for you would be to remain a commoner,’ said Tamm. ‘Amongst commoners.’

Zaj’s aura flashed then, anger, and humiliation, but also resignation. Then she laughed. ‘It is what I have wanted for so long. To escape the fate the Imperial Aelqemist set for me. I will become used to this.’ She waved her hands over her nakedness.

They stepped into the wide stone-walled alcove.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

‘Let me check the way forward,’ said Tamm. ‘Wait here. I will return.’

‘That’s not a good idea,’ Jupiter said. ‘Without you with us things start to look suspicious. A human and a manisaur without apparent rank...’

‘Or clothes, or webbing…’ Zaj said.

‘Step inside here.’ Tamm said. ‘I have been this way before. There is a guard. But once through this building there is but a short way until we can pass outside the walls.

Manisaur benches lay either side of the opening and Zaj sank onto one, Jupiter on the other. With both looking from the shadows to either side they could watch the approaches. But had to hope Tamm would keep the doorway secure from the other side.

Jupiter tensed when two garrison manisaurs marched towards the alcove.

It had seemed like a good idea.

He glanced at Zaj, but she had tilted her head onto her shoulder as if in sleep.

‘You there. Qvazira — human. What do you do here? The hunt progresses, and yet you dally close to it.’

Jupiter stared blankly at the manisaurs. His best hope lay being mistaken for nuvra.

‘And you.’ The manisaur kicked at Zaj with the back of his clawed foot. She had to ‘wake up’ but the flashing of her aura expressed surprise and confusion. True emotions, but appropriate to the situation.

‘Dhakara Va’haq,’ said Jupiter in an intentionally broken Thaluk. ‘Master come.’

‘Nuvra?’ The senior of the manisaurs turned to his colleague. ‘You understand Qvaziri babbles?’

‘A little. The human has someone overseeing them.’

‘I don’t like this. And you.’ The senior manisaur shoved at Zaj again. ‘Are you awake? Can you speak sense now?’

The door opened and Tamm strode out.

‘Here boy, carry this.’ Tamm shoved his bag at Jupiter who stumbled and dropped it. Zaj’s cloth of color lay wrapped up inside. Tamm turned to the garrison soldiers. ‘And you, stand aside…’

‘Yes Qharvan. Sorry Qharvan,’ the manisaurs’ auras flashed their recognition patterns at one another.

‘Follow me. And you, Kanyalayaqum. Slumbering again? I’ll have you up all night writing reports.’

The manisaur guards recovered their surprise and flashed amusement at Zaj’s fake name. Kanyalayaqum’s — Delicate Dream.

‘Spends a lot of time dreaming does she?’ The guard said. Zaj had hung her head as if in shame.

‘Oh yes,’ said Tamm. ‘Wants to have a life of luxury and ease.’

‘Dream on,’ said the manisaur soldier.

‘Indeed. Dream on. Now,’ said Tamm. ‘Be off.’

‘Yes Qharvan.’ The garrison soldiers turned and walked away, the opposite direction to where they had been heading earlier.

‘I hope they are not going to raise the alarm.’

‘No. They are removing themselves from my sight until I am gone.’

‘You’re a great actor,’ said Jupiter.

‘How will I ever trust you?’ said Zaj.

‘I said no lie.’ Tamm looked at Jupiter. ‘Except your new name. Which suits you.’

‘You would not dare.’

‘I do not lie.’

But Jupiter saw the wink Tamm gave him. Somehow he had picked up that human mannerism from him or Maggie.

Jupiter laughed. Zaj opened her mouth but only gaped in confusion.

‘Follow now. Time runs short,’ Tamm said. ‘We will have to brave the hunt. It runs on the docks.’

They stepped through an entry hall, then out into a loggia that ran alongside the building. More of the sprawling garrison fortress lay beyond.

The baying of the beasts echoed closer now.

The fortress had become a maze to Jupiter, and he had long lost his way. Manisaurs somehow not only had better eyesight, they had an uncanny sense of direction.

Figures. Their ancestors probably flew north for the winter.

The sound of the hunt gave him a sense that they approached the dock edge of the fortress.

Jupiter looked for the sun. Its anti-clockwise path over the sky told him afternoon had advanced. Ajiro-san’s full moon deadline nudged at him again.

Have to find Maggie. Then take a shot at getting home.

Then they came to a stop. The high stone wall stretched to left and right. The hunt sounded close away to the left.

‘The town stands on the other side of the wall.’ Jupiter turned and looked back the way they had come. ‘I remember these black buildings. The hunt must run through the streets just beyond the wall.’

‘We follow the wall to the right where we will find the gate we entered yesterday.’

They ran now. The cries of the hunting beasts, and manisaur shouts mixed and merged into a chaos of noise. Jupiter’s heart pounded, and not just from the running.

As they passed the openings of alleyways Jupiter saw the black skyship still loomed over the great inner courtyard.

‘Blackbirders,’ said Zaj as Jupiter slowed to stare.

‘I thought they were pirates. And no friends to the navy.’

‘That is true,' said Zaj. 'And yet that is Neqharazathesa, the blackbirder skyship. They are the hunters.’

‘You mean its blackbirders that are hunting in the streets? Not the nav?.’

‘They would never. There is honor still in the navy,’ said Tamm. ‘It is hard to believe though, now blackbirders can moor above an Imperial Fortress.’

They ran on, and came to the guard post in the wall. Tamm strode up to the garrison soldiers, nodded and waved the others through.

‘Qharvan. Wait.’ A guard stood before Tamm. ‘It is not safe in the streets. Especially for this one.’ The manisaur waved his hand at Jupiter. ‘Nezhnakhevo — blackbirders run in the streets. We have been ordered to ensure garrison soldiers do not get caught up in the…’

Jupiter saw the flash of confusion and frustration sweep over the manisaur’s aura.

‘The hunt. Air Lord’s orders.’

‘The Air Lord?’ Tamm said.

‘Yes. Orders just received.’ The manisaur gestured them to follow through the wall and a step beyond. ‘You see. His ships are on The Way, but the north wind has delayed them, though the winches will bring them to port before end of day.’

Beyond the wall Jupiter saw the open gravel of the killing ground. Kept clear of structures and vegetation so defenders could have a clear sight of attackers. The buildings next to the docks spread out behind them, while fishing boats had laid up against the piers to wait out the unfavorable north winds.

The garrison guard pointed to the pylons and cables of Qhawadha. The Way stretched from the edge of the bay, then south over undulating hills before they became lost in haze. Above The Way the Air Lord’s large skyfort Hantiviqu led a flotilla of smaller skyships hauled on the cables and powered by huge wind turbines.

Jupiter knew that amongst the fleet would be Dahk’s skycutter Nakhevaqum.

The cries of the hunt grew louder. And then from behind came an echo. Jupiter turned. The rigging of black skyship Neqharazathesa had a small group of manisaurs cheering on the hunt. Neqharazathesa — Our Black Blood.

Then a horde of panicked and sobbing humans ran past the guard post. Hobbled manisaurs amongst them, almost tripping on tier shackles blackbirders and their leashed hunting beasts loped alongside them, cudgels and long blades urging them on. None now turned from their course though Jupiter saw wounds and blood on the bodies of both human and manisaur.

‘They hunt them into the old city,’ said the guard.

‘That’s not a hunt,’ said Jupiter. ‘That’s a chase, a torture.’

Amongst the hunted he looked for Khav, the tall human that had helped him escape. But saw no sign.

Then a blackbirder peeled from the pack and ran at them, his blade swung over his head. Their aura flashed in a crazed unhinged flashing of rage and anger as they cried a berserker scream.

As everyone stepped back, ready to flee, the blackbirder took hold of Zaj, hoisted her over his shoulder, and ran off. Tamm stepped to take after her, but the garrison guards tackled him to the ground, held him down.

‘Leave it. The female is gone,’ said the soldier. He rose and dusted himself off. ‘There is no hope for her now she’s sport for the blackbirders.’