The skyship shuddered, and rattled, and skidded, then bucked against the wind. It didn’t sail very far.

Meanwhile the torch bearing blackbirders rode ever closer. Smoke rolled in advance of their approach.

‘We have to cut loose,’ said Peter. ‘This is not working.’

Varuq'hat had not reappeared, so no one heard.

‘It’s crazy to try to sail this skyship on my own. Needs a full crew of fifty.’

Even to bring the sail down to slow their movement seemed too much for him. He stared at the approaching enemy.

There has to be fifty of them at least.

They’re on mounts, but they will still have guns, and radios, and other high tech gear. I guess.

‘Varuq'hat?’ Peter shouted then. ‘Varuq'hat, where have you got to? Could use some help here.’ He coughed in the thick white smoke from the burning grass and scrub.

Wish we were still in snow country. Hard to burn the white stuff.

The blackbirders emerged from the firelight and gathered beneath the skyship. He saw them then, an officer with elaborate webbing and a large old Arthan. Not a soldier. Not a technician. Someone he sensed had authority here. A bulky blackbirder in sailor’s webbing stood next to them.

I’m sure I saw you two. At the portal. And I know that’s a sailor.

He racked his brain.

Where have I seen you? When I was on Eoth before?

The two blackbirders gestured and spoke to the sailor officer, and to those others around them. From the height of the skyship Peter could only hear the crackling of the grass fire as it burned to windward. The blackbirders waved and directed groups of soldiers to secure the area. One group found the skyship’s dragging anchor and dug it in to stop any movement. The skyship shook but sailed no more, and instead wobbled and surged against the line like a caught fish.

You’ll still have to get up here to capture Hope.

Beyond the fire Peter saw shifting shadows in the remaining embers. The fire, without the encouragement of the blackbirders had begun to gutter out. The thick pall of smoke hung over the skyship but the breeze began to push it away.

The blackbirder Arthans did not seem upset by the smoke.

Have those lot been holding their breath or something? They’re aliens. Maybe they have gas masks or something.

Though he had not seen anything like that. The chatter of audio from a radio echoed from below. An officer rushed up to one of the technician types and shouted for them to silence the device.

I need to find Varuq'hat.

Peter went down into the belly of the skyship and began his search.

Peter couldn’t find the imp in the hold. He had stabled Girl in a separate stall from the one before, away from the dead blackbirders and the smear of blood on the ground.

I’m not ever going to forget the violence mounts are capable of. Not ever.

He shook his head to try to clear the memory.

The fully-lit zharaqsa in the flight engine glowed strong and green, the light filtered out into the corridor. Few globe globes remained after Girl’s rampage, and the deep blue of night made the shadows deeper.

Peter looked up to the grating that formed the top of the corridor.

The moon will rise soon. Even a crescent would brighten things enough to see better than this.

In the flight chamber the two stunned and drugged blackbirder techs still slept.

’Varuq'hat, where the heck are you?’

He stood in the middle of the corridor and considered his options. Neither looked very good.

Cut the anchor line. Then drift aimlessly across the plains, Until I hit the mountains — until I crash into the mountains.

Hold out alone. Fight as many blackbirers as I can, until the Clan arrived. If they ever do. But who am I kidding? I’m not a killer.

At that moment Girl set up a mewling cry, almost of despair. Nothing like the vicious beast that had broken free from her bond to him.

She’s the killer. Somehow her aggression came out when the blackbirders broke the imprint. The riderless mounts didn’t act like man eaters.

The gharumal stomped in their stalls.

Then the imp leapt into view down the corridor. One moment the corridor had been empty. The next the imp had appeared and ran towards him.

‘Peter. I’ve been looking for you. The Arthans are here. I heard them on their radio. They’re preparing to board.’

‘Only if we land.’

‘Which is exactly what we will do.’

‘Why would we do that?’

‘I have a plan.’

Peter stared at him. None of his own ideas had made much sense. Stuck here, surrounded by angry blackbirders, with no escape.

‘That doesn’t make much sense,’ said Peter. ‘Why would we do that?’

‘We land and make a run for it.’

‘I don’t think I can trust Girl any more.’

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‘You’re going to have to. It’s the only way out of this.’

‘We should wait for the Clan to get here.’

‘They won’t get here in time, if at all.’

‘Why not?’

‘The Arthan’s have set a team climbing the anchor rope. They’ll be here any moment.’

‘If we land they’ll just board us.’

‘Just before that we’ll jump out the cargo doors. Or maybe the bomb bay doors. Depending.’

‘Depending on what?’

‘Where the Arthan’s with the guns are.’

‘Great. Why don’t we just fly away. That’s the best option, if we worked together.’

‘Drifting away will only lead them to follow us.’

‘Better than being captured. The Clan might be close. If we just hold out.’

‘You’re sure they would follow you? The Arthan’s are boarding now. Time is running out. Get the cargo door open, and bring us down. Then get ready to ride your monster out.’

‘I don’t trust her anymore.’

‘Better her than the Arthans, who never liked you.’

They ran the length of the corridor towards the stern cargo bay doors. Peter outpaced the imp, but when he looked back Varuq'hat had run to the flight chamber.

‘What are you doing?’ Peter shouted.

‘Checking on the prisoners.’

Peter released the cargo doors. They had never been fully closed, but now they fell open all the way leaving a ramp, but into thin smokey air.

The skyship lurched lower, then rushed higher again.

‘Varuq'hat? What’s the story? Do you know what you’re doing?’

‘Trying to shake the climbers loose. Go get your mount.’

‘What about you?’

The imp ran back towards the stabling stalls.

‘Your mount is going to drive the gharumal off the ramp.’

‘Oh.’

‘Those creatures will distract the blackbirders long enough for us to escape.’

That’s not such bad idea.

Peter ran into Girl’s stall, and without waiting for his mount to decide to eat him, he climbed up her flank, into the saddle webbing.

As he rode Girl along the corridor and the skyship fell a little, then steadied, as if the zharaqsa had begun to fail again.

The imp rode a gharumal now, while pulling two others along in his wake. The huge beasts lowed and grumbled, not used to moving in the dark without their handlers. But picked up their pace when Girl came at them from behind

Girl roared, and that got the other beasts moving faster. The two laggards overtook Varuq'hat’s, and pressed him to the side.

‘Back you miserable creatures,’ shouted the imp.

They all reached the cargo ramp about the same time. The first gharumal balked at the unseen ground below. But when the skyship hit, the two stumbled out, onto the ground, and into the smokey night. Varuq'hat waited no longer, and urged his beast but it refused to trust the dark and the drop to the ground.

Girl screamed and bit the gharumal’s flank, Varuq'hat and his creature leapt from the ramp. Peter stared from the edge of the ramp and considered the leap.

Across the fires, what he had seen as shifting shadows, now resolved into the Clan attacking across the burning plain.

‘I knew they would come,’ Peter said.

Blackbirders had turned to face the Clan and did not watch the skyship. The crescent moon had risen now and the blue white light lit a land studded with orange fire smashed under the feet of a massed pack of mounts that charged each other’s lines.

Girl screamed then. Peter’s heart seemed to stop. The shock of her return to made his heart thump. She leapt then to attack the rear of the blackbirders’ line.

Confusion broke any order that they had shown. The Clan fell upon them from the front, kicking fire and arrows at them even as they lowered lances as they attacked. Girl raked her claws upon the rear of the line and screamed.

Peter saw then the reason for the Clan’s fury. The blackbirders had taken a herd of grazing beasts. But upon those animals backs Peter saw children and teenagers. Amongst them Walt and Jan.

The Clan may have been willing to sacrifice the skyship, and retreat across the plain, but none would leave the children.

Why Walt. Why did you have to play at mounted warriors?

Blackbirder guns fired and the Clan’s line faltered. But the charge steadied as they pressed the attack. The Clan needed to get close enough so their mounts could strike, their lances could prick, and their blades could cut.

Girl ran along the rear of the line and without hesitation she took her rage out on the unsuspecting beasts. She leapt, landed on the rear haunch of one beast, and in a stroke set the blackbirder rider flying off.

Peter looked for Varuq'hat on his gharumal fearful the imp might get caught in the cross fire. But the imp had gone.

Two Clan pulled their mount short of attack on Girl when they spied Peter on the back.

‘Turq,’ Peter called out when he recognized them.

She thrust a lance with a red banner at him, while Vale pulled their mount to pirouette beside Girl. He searched for the next enemy to attack.

‘Fly this, rally the Clan to you,’ she said. ‘That you are safe will give heart to our fight. Then drive a way for us to rescue the children.’

Then Vale wheeled their beast away and back into the fight, their white banner streamed from Turq’s shoulders. Vale drove the beast towards the herd of grazers and the children huddled frightened upon their backs.

Later Peter did not know if it had been bravery or not. When the enemy have a weapon you do not understand, and cannot defend against, is it brave to stand up to them and fight on unequal terms? To be brave is to know the chance of dying is too great to contemplate, and yet to fight anyway.

Turq never knew what hit her.

The explosion threw Vale’s mount twenty meters crashing on its side sending a spray of embers into the dark. Other mounts screamed and fell to the ground. Girl stopped her charge, and veered away, towards a line of blackbirders. The last he saw, Vale stood over Turq in the face of a charge from a line of blackbirders.

Peter wheeled Girl to go to their aid but the wedge of enemy got between him and Vale. Then he lost sight as Girl leapt and swiped another blackbirder from their saddle webbing. Peter just held on. The wildness that welled in Girl made his heart race, her animal spirit seemed stronger and had been loosened of constraint. She screamed again and took on the next beast.

The red banner now ran slick with blood as Peter lowered his lance in time with Girl’s charge. And so he struck the next rider from their saddle webbing.

Bullets flew around him. He sensed at least the firing of guns, and cries rang out around him. He targeted the gunmen, urged Girl towards them, and let the beast have her way with the enemy. He lost his lance in the first thrust.

He saw Varuq'hat on his gharumal. He stood in a side basket, trying to get the beast to turn from its onward rush away from the battle. Peter had to haul on Girl’s halter and soothe his own thoughts as he ran her up to Varuq'hat to prevent his mount from attacking.

‘Help us. You have the pheromone darts. Can’t you break the imprinting like you did before?’

‘I have to get away. Have to turn this stupid creature who fears fighting and yet will not run to safety. I’ve no time for battle.’

‘What do you mean? They’ve captured children. They’re shooting guns at people with bows and arrows, and lances, and spears.’

‘My mission is too important.’

‘More important that the Clan? Than children?’ Peter’s fury mounted. ‘What’s so important?’

‘The zharaqsa.’

‘So? It’s on the skyship. We’ve lost that already.’

Then Peter saw the bulging baskets on the gharumal. Enough zharaqsa for a navy. The number of mantas that must have been slaughtered to create the catalyst spun his mind.

‘You were going to run away with it?’ Peter shouted. Girl reared up on her rear legs as if to strike the imp.

‘I am going to get away with it,’ said Varuq'hat. ‘The Arthans cannot keep it. I don’t care about the skyship. And there is more at stake than the Clan.’

Peter did not know what to think, but he calmed his rage to bring Girl to the ground again.

‘You lied to me. You didn’t go to sleep. You loaded the gharumal instead. You intended to escape all along.’

‘Yes. But…’

‘You’re a coward and a cheat. How did the blackbirders know where we were? How did they know how to find the skyship? The only person with an understanding of the radio is you.’

Peter drew his long blade and pointed it at the imp.

‘Was it you?’

‘Why would I?’ the imp said. ‘I wanted to get away with the skyship.’

Peter stared at Varuq'hat. Tulanvarqa gave him some sense of others, their nature, and their communications. Somewhere under all the double dealing Varuq'hat he knew had tried to act with honor.

‘Give me the gun,’ Peter said. ‘The one with the pheromones.’

Varuq'hat and Peter locked eyes. In that moment Peter saw the imp’s sorrow. The torn loyalties that drove him. But he passed his small strange gun to Peter. And from around his back he unslung a pack.

‘Hey,’ said Peter. ‘That’s mine.’

‘Yes. Keep it. There are things inside to aid you.’

Shots rang out from the flighting again. ‘Thank you. Do what you need to do. But next time, tell me the truth.’

Peter wheeled Girl around and ran her back to the fighting.

If there is a next time.

As he urged Girl back into the fight he leveled the gun in his hand and sought out the blackbirders.

Time to even things up.