Halfway through his leap from the roof to the deck of blackbirder skyship the thought struck Jupiter — humans could not fly either.

The deck rushed at him, his feet hit, he tucked his head under his shoulder, and rolled.

Can't fly. But I'm getting the hand of falling well.

He fetched up under the legs of two fighting manisaurs, and toppled them over.

He drew a breath, then coughed as smoke burned into his lungs.

At least I’m not winded this time. I'll never mock training to fall off a Mountain Bike again.

Tamm landed beside him, swung his blade from his back scabbard, and parried the thrust from another manisaur. He kicked his clawed foot out and punched the other’s gut sending them tumbling away.

‘Remind me never to get in a fight with you,’ Jupiter said.

‘Never Dhakara. Never,’ Tamm dragged Jupiter to his feet. ‘The fighting is hot here, and I’m on no one’s side. Both see me us enemy. This way.’

They moved forward away from the fiercest fighting

Jupiter looked up. Through the clouds of smoke, between the rigging, he spotted Maggie’s wild eyes, then Tamm pulled him sharply to the side.

‘Eyes inside the ship.’

‘Yeah. I get that. My sailing coaches…’

‘Where are these confounded mantas you seek?’

‘Forward. Near the bow.’

The smoke cleared, but as they reached the front of the skyship the deck lurched, tilted sideways, and Jupiter fell to his knees.’

‘The skyship’s hit the building,’ Jupiter said.

‘This is no place to be hanging about.’ Tamm bounced around checking for attackers. ‘Which way?’

Jupiter searched the deck, for Zaj, for the blackbirder captain, and for a way below. But the mess of fighting manisaurs, the shifting light and shadows from the fires, made it impossible to pick out individuals. On the foredeck, with no fighting he saw want he wanted.

‘There.’ Jupiter ran forward. ‘Help open this hatch.’

They cleared the hatchway on the foredeck of debris. The fires still burning astern had not reached so far, but the smoke grew thick now. A steep manisaur ladder led down into the interior.

To Jupiter it smelt of fear, and death, and horror. ‘They’re dying. The mantas are dying.’

They slid down into the belly of the skyship.

‘Aft. Towards the middle of the ship.’

They ran down the skyship’s wide central corridor. The floor had angled so much Jupiter had a hand to the corridor wall to keep balance. He slapped his way along as much as ran. The stamping of feet on the decks above meant the fight continued.

Only minutes had passed since the two skyships had collided, yet Jupiter felt it had been an age already. He and Tamm reached the centre balance point of the skyship. Smoke filled the ship and Jupiter stopped, and ducked low to find clearer air.

‘In there,’ Jupiter said. ‘The flight engine.’

The engine room’s locked door slowed them a minute while Tamm hacked at the panels with his tarusha, frantic to get through. Smoke filled the corridor now.

Jupiter got inside first. The light of the flight engine lit the smoke the sickly green of death and decay. His sense of the mantas overlaid the immediate sensations of sight, and sound, and smell.

‘They’re dying.’

‘They’re charging the zharaqsa,’ Tamm said. ‘Look.’

The flight engine hung in its metal polygon at the centre of the black skyship, somewhere just above the centerline. The glow from the polygon lit the meshwork sphere an eery putrid green. And upon the sphere were the bound bodies of three large mantas.

And they screamed.

Jupiter staggered under the sudden cries.

‘I’m here. I’ll save you. Just…’

The chorus of pain dampened down and Jupiter could function once more.

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‘Tamm? You don’t feel it?’

‘I do not like this place. I feel unease, and death. But it is always thus.’

‘What are they doing to the mantas?’

‘They use them to light their zharaqsa, to give it power to lift the skyship. It is wasteful, but fast.’

‘Can we free them?’ Jupiter stepped around the engine.

‘There are but two of us. And the creatures are large.’

‘I didn’t think this through did I?’

‘You can free them of their pain.’ Tamm drew his blade.

‘No. I told them I’d save them. Not kill them.’

‘You speak to nakharavi - the mantas?’

‘Yeah. They don’t have many nice things to say about you quevantaq — manisaurs.’

‘I don’t suppose they would.’

‘You there,’ a voice came from the other side of the flight-engine. ‘Human.’

They turned on the voice. Tamm held his blade ready to strike.

‘Hold Tamm,’ said Jupiter. ‘That’s no soldier.’

‘No,’ said the manisaur. ‘They are not. Step into the light engineer. Where we can see you.’

Jupiter guessed the flight engineer had hidden from the fighting. They posed no threat.

‘But I can stop you destroying the flight engine,’ said the engineer.

‘Ah. But you see,’ said Jupiter.

A female manisaur.

He put as much calm and confidence into his voice and thoughts as he could. ‘We don’t want to destroy it. Do we Qharvan?’

‘We don’t?’ Tamm said.

’No,’ Jupiter said. ‘We need more lift.’ He stared at the mantas.

Forgive me for this. But I need your help.

Tamm said, ‘Yes. More lift. Can you do it?’

The manisaur studied the two. ‘The captain instructs me to power zharaqsa further?’

‘Yes,’ said Jupiter. ‘We need to take flight, and fast.’

Jupiter turned to Tamm and gave a submissive bow to his friend.

‘Qharvan Tambuqaram sir. We should cut the mooring cable. If the captain orders us to fly we must ensure his word is followed. He wants us into the air, away from the fortress. The town will burn. It is a matter of life or death.’

Tamm blinked at him with his aura. ‘Yes. Thank you for reminding me, vanathkara.’ He leapt away out of the engine room.

‘So engineer. Can you get this engine running? We need altitude. Now.’

‘But the engine… it’s not fully lit… we cannot…’

‘You must. And you will.’

Help me nakharavi - mantas - you wise sea gods? Will you give me a little more of yourselves so I can save you, save us all?

The surge in light, and the shiver of power, answered him.

’What is this?’ The engineer stammered. ‘Where did...’

‘Now engineer. Give it all you have. Get this ship flying again.’

Maggie blinked back the smoke and swirling embers thrown up by the heated air from the fires.

This is like a really bad Guy Fawke’s night. Just no explosions. Not yet.

The rebels fighters had swung below, led by Gan and his bravest crew. The rest of the rebels dashed water over their deck, and down the side of the hull. But the fires on the black skyship burned hotter now.

‘The Jupiter!’ Maggie shouted. ‘It’ll catch alight.’

She ran along the deck until just above the outrigger. The fires had not reached the outrigger yet. But no water cooled the timbers of hull. A smell of burnt toast rose from the wood.

‘Pari-pari. We’ve got to get The Jupiter free.’

The manisaur joined her, brandishing her blade. ‘Would you stay still. If I’m to mind you like a clutch of eggs then at least remain in one place.’

‘If we don’t get The Jupiter free it will burn.’

‘How would we do that? It took the work of five crew to secure her.’

‘Then gather the crew. They owe me, they owe The Jupiter.’

Pariqamtu’s aura flashed frustration as she sheathed her tarusha blade. Maggie ran off and dragged two reluctant crew to the railing. One, a qharvan — lieutenant, flashed anger at her rudeness.

‘Get water,’ Maggie said. ’The hull is hot, about burn.’

The qharvan sniffed the air and saw the fire beginning to catch the timbers. ‘More crew. To me.’ the qharvan shouted. Their aura shifted to urgency. ‘To me.’

Soon water poured down the hull, and steam billowed amongst the smoke.

‘Now, Qharvan Vilakshaat. Help me free The Jupiter.’

‘But Captain Ganarasha did not…’ Vilakshat stammered.

‘The Jupiter is my ship. I need it freed,’ Maggie bumped her chest against the taller manisaur. Maggie might be shorter but she weight more than the female Lieutenant Vilakshaat who bounced back a step.

‘With The Jupiter free…’

‘We can get a message to Karakatun,’ said Pariqamtu.

Pariqamtu pointed over the fortress towards The Way. The Air Lord’s skyfort had maneuvered close now. Gharumals hauled the huge vessel through the open streets and they would reach the courtyard soon.

In the distance Maggie saw the other rebel skyship, Karakatun had grappled the last pylon of The Way. The Captain Qharham wanted control of the route in and out of the north to be either damaged or in the hands of the rebels.

‘Gan’s attack had been a distraction?’ said Maggie.

‘Of course,’ Qharvan Vilakshaat said.

‘But now we need to prepare flee,’ said Pariqamtu. ‘Or we will lose Kitaraham to the fires.’

‘You talk sense, but I am in command,’Qharvan Vilakshaat. ‘We do as Captain Ganarasha ordered. We hold Kitaraham ready for his return.’

‘But he said nothing of The JuPiter. Help us release her.’

Qharvan Vilakshaat’s glare shifted from Maggie to Pariqamtu. Distain rippled across her aura, but Maggie thought it could have been the shifting firelight.

‘I can spare you three crew,’ the Qharvan said. ‘We must prepare to bring Captain Ganarasha up.’ She swept off, the three assigned to remain shuffled their feet impatiently.

‘Get to it,’ said Pariqamtu. ‘There is no time.’

The crew released the ropes where The Jupiter had been bound on its side to the hull of the rebel skyship. As the ropes eased they supported the top hull of The Jupiter but let it lever down until it lay upright, one side to the skyship hull. The other supported by the ropes angling out from the railing.

Maggie and Pariqamtu clambered into The Jupiter and spun up the kheel. The blue kheel did not glow as strongly in the red light of the fires, but the swirling smoke turned blue, as if they stirred a magic potion.

Something angled through the smoke, struck the hull beside Maggie, and bounced up. Maggie ducked and shouted as the imp knocked her away from the kheel.

‘I do… I spin… We fly…’

“Where on Earth did you come from?’ Maggie sat up and slapped Breeze on his shoulder

‘Not Earth… Aeth… We fly…’

With the kheel spinning, even without sails, The Jupiter strained to be released from Kitaraham. The crew cut them free. Pariqamtu brought all the ropes aboard and coiled them next to the mainsheet.

’So?’ Pariqamtu said. ‘What? We just drift?’

Breeze tugged at the sail and boom with one hand even while he spun the kheel up.

She began to unroll the sail from the boom. ‘We’ll drift, like the Kitaraham. But with intent.’

Suddenly the black skyship lurched upwards.

Maggie yelled as an eruption of sparks and smoke burst from the black skyship, it’s rigging cracked and snapped against the underside of Kitaraham. And The Jupiter smashed into the skyship’s hull.

Then with a piercing wail Breeze fell from the cockpit.