‘Where are the cousins?’ Peter stood and looked around even as Girl lowered her head and dropped to all fours. ‘They had been together, with the families.’

‘Peter we have no time. We have to get the skyship flying again. But I needed your help.’

‘We can’t go back to the skyship yet. Jan, Walt, and Tiz should be with me.’

‘It’s too dangerous,’ said Varuq'hat. ‘They’re safer with the Clan. The Arthan’s will take the skyship now the Clan don’t care about it.’

Peter wavered. ‘Girl, raise me up will you? I need to find them.’

The mount reared high and lifted her head so Peter could look across the massed Clan. The sun cast long shadows now, and with the dust and haze he could not see how things lay.’

‘You’re calling attention to us,’ said the imp. ‘If you will not help me I will go alone.’

‘It’s no use. I can’t see them anyway.’Peter swung around to where the blackbirders fought the Clan. ‘They’re retreating from the skyship.’

The imp tugged at Peter. ‘Down. Away. Now.’ The imp’s urgent manner reminded him of Breeze.

‘Okay. You’re right.’

In one movement Girl dived down and forward and raced towards the skyship. It cast a long shadow across the Clan. Streams of people moved around it towards the east, towards where the bulk of the defenders lay. The skyship ended up on the edge of the Clan.

With the skyship less defended a group of blackbirders peeled off their attack to board the skyship.

Peter recognized them.

‘Those blackbirders. I saw them at the portal. The old one, more stooped than the others. He’s the leader. And that big one…’

‘Yes. I know them too. This is not good news. If the leaders are here they will be more determined.’

‘You were at the portal?’

‘Yes. Do you remember the chocolate? I took that and other things from your bags when they were not looking.’

Girl reached the side of the skyship. The imp leapt down.

‘No. Stay with me. I’ll bring Girl into the hold. Where is the zharaqsa?’

‘In a strong room near the bomb bay,’ said Varuq'hat.

‘Then come with us to the cargo door.’ Peter wheeled Girl around and ran her along the hull to the stern where the doors still remained open. Most people used it to enter the vessel when on the ground. A wide keel served as a landing platform so a ramp led into the hold. Girl took this with a couple of hops.

She knew the way to her holding pen by now and Peter got her secured while Varuq'hat bounced beside him impatient.

‘The zharaqsa. It’s close by.’

‘Never mind that. We just need to get flying. Stop any blackbirders from boarding. Then we can deal with everything else.’

Peter pounded down the corridor towards the flight engine.

But when he reached it a small blackbirder stood in the way. They warbled and twittered in surprise.

‘What? Where?’

Peter did not hesitate but whipped a leg out, hit his opponent behind the then thrust with his hands upon the blackbirder’s chest.

Nothing much happened. The blackbirder swayed back and to the side, but did not fall. Peter had an instant to regret trying a move that worked on human knees before he looked into the face of the now angry blackbirder.

They had raised a gun to his head.

Varuq'hat shot the blackbirder and it crumpled to the ground with a sigh as the stun dart worked upon them.

‘That won’t work on these creatures,’ said Varuq'hat. ‘They’ve not got knees like yours, or mine.’

Peter wasted no more time. He lit the zharaqsa and worked the controls. The skyship lurched up in the familiar surge of vertigo.

‘They’ll be here any moment now.’ The imp slipped into the corridor. ‘Get us high so the winds will blow us further from the rest of them, and the Clan.’

‘We’ll only rise as far as the tether lines allow us. Probably.’

’You didn’t release the anchor hooks?’

‘There didn’t seem much point. The skyship had been grounded.’

‘We’ve got to cut them free. I’ll do that.’

A trumpeting road came from down the corridor.

‘Girl. What’s got into her?’

‘The blackbirders have got to her,’ said Varuq'hat.

But Peter had run from the engine room so the imp talked only an unconscious Arthan blackbirder.

Peter sprinted down the length of the corridor towards the stabling. A group of three blackbirders clustered at the door to Girl’s stall. They had just enough time to turn to see Peter’s approach before he rugby tackled one to the ground, knocked the others over in the process. Peter rolled to his feet and jumped into the stable. A blackbirder had just spiked something into Girl’s skin. She wavered from side to side and Peter sensed a dullness in her eyes.

‘What are you doing?’ Peter barged into the blackbirder and with a hit from his palm knocked the medical device from their hand.

The huge mount seemed to slag as she fell to her knees.

‘You beasts. He grabbed the blackbirder and swung them out the stable into the recovering three in the corridor. Blackbirders had less mass for their size than humans so Peter’s weight did more damage. And these were not warrior type blackbirders.

Varuq'hat arrived then. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Keeping them from hurting Girl, that’s what.’

‘No. Get the Arthans into the stable.’ The imp waved his gun to intimidate the blackbirders.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘What about Girl? I’m not leaving her in there.’

’They’ve broken the imprint.’ The imp gathered up the medical device after kicking the blackbirder again for good measure. He took their kit bag too. ‘Might have more here. Very useful.’ Then he shot one of the blackbirders leaving two to deal with.

But Varuq'hat had it right. These blackbirders had little fight in them.

‘Wait for the soldiers,’ one said to the other. ‘They will free us.’

‘But they’ll shoot us.’

‘Drugged not killed. This one will not kill. They are weak.’

‘Strong enough.’

Peter understood their words, but could not tell if they understood him.

‘Varuq'hat, enough of being nice. Give me your gun and set it to kill. You may not want to kill these beasts, but I’ve no concern.’

The imp’s mouth dropped open but he saw Peter’s wink. And miracle of miracles somehow the wink got translated. Tulanvarqa again, somehow leaked the meaning of Peter’s very human gesture. and the imp pretended to reset his gun before passing it to Peter.

He raised it and aimed it at the nearest blackbirder.

They fell to the ground shaking.

‘So you do understand me.’ Peter pretended to shoot the blackbirder with a ‘bang, bang.’ Then gestured for the other to move inside. They froze. ‘I’ll not hurt you. You think he has a gun that could ever kill?’ Peter laughed. ‘But everything will change if you ever hurt my mount.’

Girl still had the glassy look to her eye.

‘Lock them up then we need to get about things,’ said Varuq'hat.

‘With Girl?’

But the imp had dashed off. Peter shrugged and went to close the door.

‘The beast. It will attack us,’ said a blackbirder.

‘I thought your drugs had fixed that?’ Peter pushed the door closed.

‘No. It’s not done. Not yet.’

‘You should have thought about that before.’ He swung the door latch over. ‘If you keep motionless she’ll leave you alone. Probably.’

Then he raced after Varuq'hat before they came across some blackbirders who knew how to fight.

The skyship swung and lurched as the hooks that had first anchored it to the ground broke free and dragged along the ground.

‘We need to get lower, and get the hooks up,’ said Peter.

‘We need to get away with the zharaqsa,’ said Varuq'hat.

‘We can do both. I have an idea. There are gharumal in the stables.’

‘Can’t you just fly us free?’

‘Not with anchor hooks dragging upon us. Come on.’

They led the gharumal from the stable and led it to the bow where the chain lockers had housed the hooks. Peter tied ropes to the gharumal’s harness and the imp led it stomping along the corridor drawing the hook rope up.

The skyship lurched lower.

‘I’ll trim the height. You keep the gharumal hauling that line in.’

By setting the flight engine lower, and shortening the rope, the skyship rode closer to the ground. Peter opened the bomb bay doors to have a view of the Clan, but the skyship had dragged clear of the fighting. Peter slipped into the viewing turret under the hull, the last light of the setting sun made for a confused view. As far as he could make out Grey’s group had run clear of the rest of the clan, but been isolated by the blackbirders.

More of the attackers had gathered below the skyship.

‘Looks like stealing the skyship helped. They really want it don’t they?’

‘With several lifetimes worth of zharaqsa catalyst I should think so,’ Varuq'hat said. ‘We need to secure it.’

The two made their way towards the flight engine again. The strong room lay next to it.

‘What did the blackbirders want with Girl then? If all they needed was the catalyst.’

‘Perhaps they were worried if one of the mounts got loose it would attack. And so it would.’

‘Except Girl had been locked in her stable.’

The imp bobbled his head. ‘Maybe they had orders from their superiors. They thought the skyship grounded. It might make sense to send the mount out to their warriors.’

The skyship lurched then.

‘The zharaqsa. It’s failing.’

They broke into a run. ‘We have to change over the catalyst.’

The vessel slipped to one side.

‘Will it drop suddenly?’

‘No. It will slip lower as gravity begins to take effect. It fails, no one turns it off.’

Peter had a terrible thought. ‘Perhaps one of them got out. Or there are more of them onboard.’ He sprinted the final distance to the flight engine. The room remained empty. Peter worked to stabilize the catalyst.

‘Won’t we have to get to the ground to change it out?’ Peter said as Varuq'hat came into the flight chamber bearing a crystal in its shroud of metal so he did not have to touch it.

’You can replace one crystal at a time. I don’t know if the remaining one will support the vessel.

Peter remembered an earlier aerial battle - the lurching of a skyship as their zharaqsa got replaced.

‘We have to land,’ said Peter. ‘To replace the flight crystal catalyst.’

‘This is not good. The enemy will attack.’

‘We have to close the cargo door. And the bomb bay,’ Peter paced as he considered what to do.

‘They’ll still board. Won’t they?’ Varuq'hat said.

‘Somehow we have to remove the flight crystal and replace it. When that happens we can’t be floating. There is no option.’

He paced some more.

‘There’s one thing,’ Peter said. ‘It’s crazy, but it might give us enough time. The landing skid is still deployed, and we have the hooks, and the plough too.’

‘What are you planning?’ said Varuq'hat. ‘And why don’t I think I’ll like it.’

‘Ever tried land sailing? It’s fun and fast. But it might get a bit bumpy.’

‘I don’t like this,’ said Varuq'hat.

‘I don’t like heights either, but you’re the better climber.’

‘I don’t climb.’

‘We’ve got to stop being negative,’ Peter said. ‘Get up there, drop the sail. I’ll do the rest.’

The skyship lurched and dropped lower. Peter looked over the side, in the dark he could not see how close the ground was, but amongst the Clan’s camp some fires still burned.

‘Get to it. We’ve no time.’

The imp climbed up the large center mast to the main sail. Peter had already set the sheets that controlled the angle of the spars that held the sail.

‘Let fall,’ Peter shouted, and the imp released the last of the reefing ropes, the spar dropped and the sail billowed out. The dim light of the twilight sun let him see enough.

I wish the moon would come out.

But it would not rise until early morning and even then just be a thin crescent.

‘Now the other one.’

‘Is this necessary?’

‘Varuq'hat. Just do it.’

Once the mainsail and topsail had been set the skyship moved faster in the wind. The imp joined him at the flight engine.

‘Is the gharumal back in its stable?’

‘Do you know how hard it is to get one of those huges beasts to do what you want?’

‘It’s easy. Just give it what it wants to eat.’

‘Oh.’ Varuq'hat sighed. ‘It’s done however.’

‘Get the zharaqsa catalyst ready. I’ll lower us to the ground, and then things’ll get wild until you’ve done the switch.’

The imp held the new crystal. Then Peter dropped the skyship into the dirt. The crunch and groaning from the skid shook the entire skyship as the wind dragged it across the plain.

‘I wish I could see this from the deck,’ said Peter. ‘Go.’ He took the old crystal out while Varuq'hat manipulated the glowing fully lit zharaqsa he had taken from the many stored in the strong room.

The skyship lurched, and leaned over.

‘Hurry.’

He and Varuq'hat flew across the flight chamber, sent sliding by a bump that seemed to set the skyship airborne again.

‘Get it set in place Varuq'hat.’

The imp scrambled up. Dropped the crystal, and he cringed back.’

‘Pick it up.’

‘If it is damaged it might explode.’

‘Really? They do that?’

‘I’ll get a new one. Stop that one from sliding around any more.’

Peter threw his coat over it and the room dimmed down to a dull, but still sickly green, as the failing crystal winked and guttered as the last of its mysterious energy dissipated.

Varuq'hat came back at a sliding walk, one hand on the wall of the chamber. He made a dash tot he flight engine and slid it into its slot within the polygons. Peter manipulated the device, the polygons and metal mesh rotated, twisted, all with renewed vigor, and then the skyship took one last lurch skyward as the flight engine took effect.

The sudden smoothness of the ride came as a sharp contrast and both he and Varuq'hat sihed.

‘We have to get the sails down.’

‘And set the anchors again.’

They raced to get the sails in, but they did not have the manpower needed to pull the spar up to reduce sail, so Varuq'hat cut the bottom of the sail free until it flapped, then they pulled the reefing lines to bunch the sail up again. Once both sails had been furled they took a break.

And then Peter saw where they were headed. Right for the river, just where it curved against a hill.

‘We’ve got to get higher.’

‘We’ve got to drop anchor,’ said Varuq'hat.

‘Do both. You drop the plow, I’m heading for the flight engine.’

Peter sprinted to the engine and set it to rise higher, though after a moment’s thought realized that would make the anchoring harder. He ran and dropped into the bomb turret to see where they headed. The hill loomed just below and closer than ever.

Varuq'hat shouted from the other end of the corridor at the chain locker, anchor room. ‘I need help. Fast. Now. Right this moment.’

‘This is crazy. Two people can’t fly a skyship on their own.’

Then he realized.

There are more than the two of us on board.

He ran to Girl’s stable to get the blackbirders. Inside sat one very content Girl, while three very frightened blackbirders sat frozen in fear.

‘If you want to live come with me.’

Girl opened her eyes, then her mouth, and roared.

‘Oh heck.’ Peter stepped back. ‘Girl. It’s me. Your friend.’

But whatever had bonded her to him had faded away. The huge carnivore opened her jaws and screamed at him in pure rage.