‘We’re not here to save the Empire, or anyone. We just want to go home,’ said Maggie. ‘And we have one chance, Naz’naska - the temple.’

They sheltered under the outrigger platform as the day dawned gray and overcast. Jupiter stretched. He had slept well, but his rough bed of leaves had given him aches in his back and neck.

‘Time is of the essence,’ said Berg. ‘The Empire, and all it stands for is threatened…’

‘By the rebels?’ said Jupiter. ‘I thought you’re on their side.’

‘No. The rebels are the true patriots. The rot comes from within. That the Air Lord has allied blackbirders to him does not bode well for the future of the Empire.’

‘We’ve just one chance to get home,’ said Maggie. ‘But there are many who can warn the Emperor. And who is to say that the Emperor is the good guy here?’

‘The blackbirders threaten everything,’ Berg said.

‘Jupiter, do you hear this? Do you want to get caught up in the politics of this place?’

‘Yeah-no, Politics is meant to be all elections, and choosing the right government. Not this mess.’

‘You live under the government you are given,’ said Berg. ‘And defend it from those would would defile it.’

‘Blackbirders?’

‘Yes blackbirders, and this Air Lord…’

‘And Tharumiyo,’ said Maggie

‘What?’ said Berg. ‘No. Of course not. He is Upariha and is one of the leaders of the rebel factions that wish to realign the Empire.’

‘Tharumiyo works with the Air Lord. I saw them,’ said Jupiter. ‘There’s something strange about them both. They are not like other manisaurs.’

‘Jupiter,’ Maggie said. ‘We must get to the temple before it’s too late. It’s only five days until the full moon, right? It can’t be ten days travel. Berg does not understand how far and fast The Jupiter can go.’

Berg moved to get up from under the outrigger platform. ‘The day progresses and the rain has stopped. Time we got on our way.’

Tamm stood to let Berg out, but got no thanks from the old manisaur. Jupiter roused himself and began to set the sail back into the mast track.

‘We need to get food,’ Tamm said. ‘You qvaziri — humans need more than the rest of us.’

‘Tamm. Where we should go?’ Jupiter said.

’Follow this river,’ said Tamm. ‘It will show our way until we find a settlement.’

‘South then?’

‘Yes, Dhakara. South of here, in the central Empire, are many towns and villages.’

‘Tamm. I’m no leader.’

‘You must act so,’ Tamm said as he came close along side and lowered his voice to a warbling whisper. ‘We cannot let Bergwash Bamrushi order us about. We do not serve him.’

‘Tell me about it.’

Tamm gave him a questioning look but Jupiter just grinned back.

‘Jupiter,’ said Maggie. ‘We’re not going haring off on an errand for Berg.’

Jupiter tied off the halyard rope that had raised the sail. He tightened the rope so the luff of the sail next to the mast had the right tension.

‘We will head south at least,’ he said. ‘But do you ever wonder why we are here on Eoth? Is it all a cosmic accident that can fix by somehow returning home?’

‘Of course it’s an accident. Unless you believe in destiny,’ Maggie said with a scoff. ‘But why would you want to stay here? Home is where our future lies. I have plans. Remember?’

‘There is a fate that rules our lives, and we must seize it.’ Berg stepped close to the outrigger and studied the sail as it ruffled in the wind.

Jupiter adjusted the other ropes to get the sail shape right, the cunningham, kicker, and the outhaul.

‘I cannot allow the Empire to fail,’ said Berg.

‘You’re zavaqara — Trium,’ said Tamm. ‘It is time for you to enter contemplation. Leave this to others in their middle lives.’

‘And you sejrat’sha, are a danger. A turned-blade that has no fixed loyalty.’ Berg’s reply had the quality and assurance that once had the power of command. ‘If I had my way you would be left here.’

‘As if that’s going to happen,’ said Jupiter. ‘He is my qhavarata — my right hand. Where I go, he goes.’

Then even as Jupiter set the sail Breeze came running across the island.

Quick… We fly… River comes…

Jupiter looked upstream. A roaring came to him on the wind.

‘The river. It floods,’ cried Tamm.

‘The rain overnight,’ Jupiter said in alarm. ‘We should not have landed on this island.’

‘And by who’s suggestion?’ said Berg. ‘The sejrat’sha’s.’

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‘Get aboard. Now,’ Jupiter commanded. ‘Breeze. Spin up.’

The brown water of the flash flood surged towards them as Jupiter’s crew leapt to their positions.

The imp set the kheel spinning, and Jupiter braced his feet on the stony ground to tug the outrigger around. The Jupiter bumped up as the kheel lifted her the sail caught the wind. He pushed forward, hard on the stern, to get the outrigger moving. His feet splashed in the muddy flood waters as the first waves reached them. Then with a last shove, Jupiter pushed himself aboard and sent the outrigger higher, out of reach of the water.

Ahead a tree trunk, caught in the torrent, hit the island and turned over. It’s dead branches tumbled over towards them.

Jupiter pulled the mainsheet tight and steered the tiller so the outrigger bore away from the river, and the chaos that raged along its course.

If the flood had arrived in the night, or when we had not been prepared…

Jupiter shuddered at the thought. He gazed at Breeze. The imp had warned them. If he had not, they would have been caught up in now, just as much as a flood in the dark of midnight.

‘Thanks Breeze,’ Jupiter said. He leaned forward and laid his hand on the imp’s back. ‘You always seem to save us just when we need saving.’

‘He is Aramqhami — agent of fate,’ said Tamm. ‘There is truth in the poetry.’

Jupiter nodded.

But how does Breeze do it?

The more Jupiter considered that thought the less he understood and he had to remind himself.

Correlation does not mean causation.

‘He’s my friend,’ said Jupiter under his breath. ‘That is enough.’

‘You cannot satisfy all. You must decide,’ said Berg. ‘Which way shall you go?’

The Jupiter flew south over the river bank. They followed the river, but the raging flood meant Jupiter had no desire to fly above it.

‘We find food first,’ said Jupiter. ‘We’re all hungry.’

‘A good leader always attempts to make the right choice. But that requires them to find a balance between what is purposeful to them, with what is purposeful to others.’ Berg said. ‘That is seldom the same thing. So always you should seek rathasha — balance.’

Maggie frowned at this. Jupiter knew she had grown tired of insisting they sail directly to the temple.

‘Is that what you told your Emperor?’ said Tamm.

‘You see,’ said Berg. ‘It has no loyalty. It is an officer in the Imperial Navy, and should be obedient to the Emperor and his servant.’

Tamm glowered, his aura flashed, but Berg had turned away.

‘We will take Berg towards Naruham,’ said Jupiter.

‘What?’ said Maggie. ‘Why?’

‘Wait. I’m not finished,’ said Jupiter. ‘I will fly them close enough to a cable way that travels to the capital. Then we will sail for the temple. No detours.’

‘So you still wish to have it both ways?’ said Berg. ‘You risk success in both, so you will achieve neither. You are no leader, and should not lead.’

‘You’re right Berg. I am not a leader. I never asked to be. Nor want to be. But I am Captain Jupiter, and I have made a decision.’

‘You help others in spite of what is best for yourself,’ said Berg. ‘Your decisions lack rathasha — balance. You cannot help everyone.’

‘I can try.’

‘You will fail.’

‘Maggie, what are these plans of yours that are more important that the fate of an Empire?’ said Berg.

‘To live my life in Christchurch, the place I was meant to be. To study, and become more than what my mother…’ Maggie trailed off. ‘I want to be a teacher when I return back home.’

‘But you can be a teacher anywhere,’ said Berg. ‘And what do you know that you can teach? You have not lived your life, so how can you guide others in theirs?’

‘I will teach children.’

‘Ah. The unformed lead the unformed,’ said Berg. ‘That makes much sense. But it hardly bears weight enough to balance the life of an Empire. Does it?’

‘It’s my life to lead. Why should I not have it. Besides. I will train to be a teacher.’ Maggie sniffed, and Jupiter knew the wind had not been the cause, though the wind sapped heat from his face and hands.

Berg turned away.

‘Maggs, it’s going to be impossible to make this old manisaur understand the way we live our lives.’ Jupiter said.

‘But they’re right aren’t they? In a way. My life is so small.’

‘It’s yours to have. I’ll get you home,’ said Jupiter. ‘I’ve promised and I keep my word.’

‘A noble sentiment,’ said Berg. ‘But to change your mind in the face of evidence is reason enough to break a promise when it is revealed to be based on a false premise.’

‘Stop quoting me your poems. You can lie when you do that so I’m not sure you even believe those words yourself, however poetic you make them sound.’

‘You doubt their truth? Have you not ever changed your mind?’

‘Some promises are worth keeping no matter what.’

‘There is no way to answer to such irrationality. Some promises can never be kept when the fate of the world turns you from their path. Did you not promise your whanau — your family to return home? And yet here you are. Far from home.’

‘But trying to return to it.’

‘Can you both stop your arguing? It’s pointless prattle,’ said Tamm.

‘You dare…’ Berg’s warbling cries took on a fierce note.

‘I do,’ said Tamm. ‘I can see clearly now how your words and persuasions can sway a rational being from the path they are chosen to lead.’

‘A turned-blade talks of choice, and the meaning of life?’

‘I see clearly. Without the conditioning of family and clan, no longer an officer in the Imperial navy. Just myself. Free to choose. And I choose for myself, I choose to serve my friends.’

‘You have no loyalty,’ said Berg. ‘And so cannot be trusted.’

‘Should you only trust those compelled to act, and not those who choose freely?’

‘That’s the thing isn’t it?’ said Jupiter. ‘Manisaurs are not free, none of them. They’re bound by whanau — by clan, imprinted upon their seniors…’

‘No. The imprinting such as Zaj’quetza has had is not natural, or normal. The Aelqemist has warped the Empire with their potions.’

‘So what imprinting is Tamm talking about?’

‘All are imprinted upon their whanau clan as new borns. And again upon their elevation. It is the natural order of things amongst we quevantaqi. A subtle imprinting again occurs when soldiers are bound into their hierarchy.’

‘The imprint I had upon you Jupiter,’ said Tamm. ‘That is through trauma. Like a second birth that forces an imprint. It is why turned-blades are not trusted. Their ties to clan and hierarchy are broken.’

‘Are you broken Tamm?’

‘Yes. But I choose loyalty to you. I am not imprinted. I am not turned-blade.’

‘Bah,’ said Berg. ‘You cannot know. It is ever thus with these dangerous creatures.’

In the heat of a noon sun, under scudding clouds that rose high over the mountains to the west, they flew on following the bank of the river until they saw where the flood had issued from. A tributary that still ran dark with mud from a landslide up the river valley.

‘Take the left fork,’ said Tamm. ‘I know where we are.’

‘Where is that?’

‘There is a Way that comes from the coast into the mountains, towards a high pass. We should see an inland Way in the next hour if we fly over the plains that open up just south of here.’

And his reckoning was accurate, for by early afternoon a line of skyships could be seen as they moved along a Way across their path.

‘No one will have word of us.’ Berg said. ‘There has not been enough time for even the fastest traveller to fly along The Way to warn them.’

‘Unless there is a craft that can outfly The Jupiter,’ said Maggie. ‘Is that likely?’

Tamm bobbled his head, his aura flashed with laughter. ‘No. This is the fastest craft I know of. Even a free flying skyfort, in the middle of a river of wind, could not keep up.’

‘So why do so many use The Ways?’ Maggie asked. ‘If flying free is faster.’

‘Skyships have to fly at the right altitude to find advantageous winds. It is faster, but less certain, to fly free. At sea and between islands there is no choice. But over the land, unless you are lucky, or patient, there is no surer way of travelling that by Gharumal drawn dhavara — cable way. Or on the moving drag cables along Qhayudha — The Way that links the sentinels.’

They did not fly close to The Way, and instead followed the river upstream, close to the water, and concealed by the surrounding trees on the river bank. Above the river they startled birds, as well as draft animals and their herders watering in the stream.

They came then to a town on the way, and settled down in a nearby field next to a line of trees to keep from view.

Jupiter, Berg and Maggie walked towards the nearest buildings hoping for food to fill their empty stomachs.