The fall of the skyship jerked Maggie to her senses. She steadied the tiller as The Jupiter surged forward towards the stern of the Kitaraham. But the outrigger float hit the skyship’s hull and bounced off. The Kitaraham rose higher, and away as Gan's crew released sails on the Kitaraham’s main mast. As the north wind caught the rebel skyship dragged clear.

Pariqamtu pulled The Jupiter along side the Kitaraham’s hull and took hold of a fallen boarding rope.

‘Pari-pari, we have to raise our sail too,’ said Maggie. ‘We're helpless now.’

‘I don’t know how to. Jupiter has a device around his neck to work the fittings.’

Maggie stared down at the blackbirder’s skyship. Amongst the pain she had also felt Jupiter. He had been there with her, with the mantas.

‘We have to try,’ Maggie said. ‘Breeze. Can you do it?’

I Try… I know… Let me…

Maggie slipped beside the imp. ‘I'll take over the kheel.’ She could not keep it up for long. ‘I will try.’

Breeze scrambled forward to Pariqamtu who examined the base of the mast, and studied the long length of it where it hung over the stern.

‘We have to try,’ Pariqamtu said.

I know…

Jupiter stumbled as the blackbirder's skyship lurched again. He ran back through the choking smoke to the engine room.

The mantas lay as if dead upon the deck.

‘I know you live. I sense it. Can you lift yourselves? I will push.’

The mantas flopped, and rose a little.

‘Help me,’ Jupiter yelled to the engineer. Dimly through the haze he saw she still worked frantic at the flight engine.

‘The zharaqsa are failing,’ she said. ‘They lose their light. We almost fell then.’

‘We have to get off this skyship. Help me move them.’

‘Why?’

‘They are creatures of beauty, of light. Don’t you sense the presence of them?’

The manisaur stared, her aura surged with fear. But also determination.

‘The skyship is lost,' said Jupiter. 'At least save the mantas.’

Then engineer began to push one while he moved the other. Jupiter heard an echo from the mantas.

And so we fly

Jupiter pushed his manta into the corridor with gathering momentum. He pushed harder and, as if on ice, they moved with little effort now. He could not see the engineer with the other manta behind, but he got into the missile bay.

‘Tamm. Go help the engineer. They may know how to fly a skyship… but…’

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The other comes

‘Good. We’ll get you out these hatches…’

A great crash, a ripping shudder, and where the hatch had once been now sprouted a broken mast and rigging that whipped around the missile bay.

‘Stand clear,’ shouted Tamm.

He threw a lever and a barrage of round boulders dropped from a rack and punched down through the rigging. The passage of the missiles stripped the rigging away but opened the floor wide open.

‘Tamm!’ Jupiter shouted.

The manisaur clung to the lever over the ragged remains of the deck. Below came the shrieks of injured manisaurs as the great mass of boulders punched into the skyfort.

Maggie saw Gan's skyship Kitaraham rise higher now. Water streamed down the curved sides of the hull and ran in bright fire-lit streams into the smoke below.

Maggie watched as the blackbirder ship fell away into the smokey haze. Its side masts burned like a halo around a black and burning hull. The last grappling lines and boarding ropes fell into the smoke, cut by the Kitaraham crew as they freed themselves from the blackbirder’s clutch.

As the Kitaraham’s sails caught the wind, and the ruins slid beneath them, she heard an echo.

And so we fly.

In that moment she knew the mantas lived.

‘Breeze,’ Maggie shouted. ‘Pari-pari.’ She had to do something.

A huge roaring crash erupted from below, and the burning wreck of the blackbirder skyship shuddered higher, and the ropes binding the two skyships fell slack.

‘Quick. Leave the mast where it is. Pull us to that boarding rope and grab it,’ Maggie shouted. ‘Before the Kitaraham cuts it clear along with the rest.

The Jupiter slid along the Kitaraham’s hull, bumped out, then bounced as the stern line that held them tied to Kitaraham twanged taut.

Breeze jumped from the bow, and took hold of the boarding rope. Pariqamtu grapped his outstretched hand. They pulled the front of the Jupiter close to boarding rope.

‘Tie the boarding rope to our rope on the Kitaraham. Knot them together.’

Realization hit Pariqamtu and Breeze at the same moment, and they joined the Kitaraham to the blackbirders skyship with one last tow rope.

‘You tow them off,’ Pariqamtu said. ‘But why?’

‘We can save the mantas,’ she said.

‘They burn.’

‘Not yet they don’t’

‘Gan will be furious.’

‘So why aren’t you happy then?’

Pariqamtu stared, then erupted with a burst of surprise and delight.

‘You’re an evil human. Very bad.’

‘I try.’

You do… You do… Much bad…

Breeze hooted and croaked in laughter then slipped back to the kheel and steadied them once more.

The Kitaraham's sails caught the north wind now, and below the burning hulk lurched into motion. Maggie's jury-rigged tow line pulled the blackbirders off the Air Lord's skyfort.

Jupiter felt the blackbirder's burning skyship surge into motion. The air cleared in the missile bay as a breeze blew through the huge rip in the hull.

‘How are we moving again?' Jupiter said. 'At least it is sideways and down for a change.’

Jupiter ran into the corridor where the engineer struggled to push the manta. It had struck the floor.

‘I tried human. But it does not move.’

‘Tamm,’ Jupiter shouted. ‘Here. To me.’

Jupiter pushed at the huge bulk of the manta. It felt like he pushed against the weight of a car, but it did move.

‘It still rises, just not enough.’

I fly… I try…

‘Yeah I get it. But not enough. Tamm.’

And then the three of them worked together. They got it into the missile bay so one manta lay either side of the gash in the hull. Below the docks slid past ever lower.

‘I do not know how we still fly,’ said the engineer. ‘Or why we move.’

‘You’ve done well engineer,’ said Jupiter. ‘What is your name?’

‘Qunaaphi — Serene Twilight,’ she said. ‘I am no warrior.’

‘It’s a good name,’ said Jupiter. He took a breath of the now fresh air. The flickering light showed the skyship still burned. Any moment the fire might break into this inner part of the hull.

‘Qunaaphi,’ said Jupiter. ‘We have to stay in the air. Until we’re over the water.’

The engineer ran away down the corridor.

‘Jupiter,' Tamm said. 'That was well done. You are a natural leader.’

‘I’ve made one bad decision after another. You should be in charge.’

‘You have made the engineer, an enemy, into an ally. You have brought these mantas close to freedom. One at least may fly and survive.’

‘They will not leave one another. Either they both live, or they die. We have to land in water.’

‘And then?’

‘I guess we swim for it.’

‘You forget. Manisaurs do not swim.’

Jupiter knew them he had made another mistake. ‘I’m no leader Tamm. I’ll get you killed.’

‘Ah. Perhaps. And yet I follow.’

The ground glowed red below them. The skyship burned bright now, fanned by the wind. They would crash soon.