‘Qhayunpa is a continent. It’s enormous. And there is no place like the snow lands in New Zealand. That’s almost like Siberia or Canada.’

‘Haven’t you seen it though. The trees with the black forest beech. The nikau palms, the tree ferns and the tussock. I’ve seen rata trees and got stuck in bush lawyer.’

Peter looked away then. ‘Bush lawyer. I’ve seen it too, and remember it, always thought it a funny name for a prickly vine.’

‘No. Not very complimentary.’

‘But appropriate.’

‘For a defense lawyer perhaps.’

‘But this land is so much bigger. It can’t be.’

‘It’s Earth though isn’t it? The stars. Even if I only recognize the South Cross constellation. Or is it wishful thinking?’

‘I don’t know.’

The riders and their mounts began to gather. Their heads in to form the moot circle. Sarah on her mount threaded her way into the center where Grey had taken up a position. Peter brought Girl into the circle where she stood next to Twig with Dusty upon her shoulders.

Sarah ignored Grey who had a smirk on his face.

‘What does he know Dusty?’

Dusty’s bleak gaze made Peter’s gut wrench.

Grey stood and held his hands out as if to embrace the Clan as his mount reared up on rear legs. ‘So do we go north, into the warm lands?’

Sarah’s frustration flashed on her face as if she had a manisaur’s aura. Peter searched for Kituqarup. The shaman did not ride and so did not stand in the circle of mounts representing the Clan. But he stood with Jan and the boys with the group of younger riders that had tended the grazer herd. With little to eat here deep within the Teeth the World they had been kept busy holding them together. Now though they and come to witness the moot and the decisions that would carry their fate.

The mounts reared up acclaiming the decision.

‘Peter,’ said Dusty. ‘How do you choose?’

‘I have no place in the moot.’

‘But if you did?’

‘I would go north. I know the lands there. Kituqarup thinks the same. The snow lands in the south are overrun by blackbirder aliens.’

Dusty hesitated a heartbeat and then Twig rose up higher than any. A murmur of surprise came from riders near him and several of their mounts reared up.

Girl remained on the ground but Peter stood to see better. Sarah shook her head as she saw the decision to cross north had carried.

She reared up her mount and stood. The mounts dropped to all fours with a rumble of exertion. Steam rose from the warm bodies and the breath of a hundred massive lungs billowed around so that Sarah appeared to stand in a sea of mist. The cold wind blew it clear as she spoke.

‘Clan. We act as one. Snow Rivers joined and decided. We go north.’ Sarah’s gaze flicked to Peter’s then she looked towards the pass. She surprised him then.

‘And who shall lead?’ Grey said as his mount rose up.

Sarah’s mount gave an owl-like hoot, deeper and more resonant but with the same questioning element.

Somehow she has something like the imprint the native born Clan have with their mounts.

‘You called me and Grey to lead,’ Sarah said. ‘But now? Who do you choose?’

Grey’s mount moved to face Sarah’s to mirror the union of the two Clans performed just days before.

‘No change. We stay as before,’ said Grey. His eyes remained on Sarah even as her face seemed to plead with the Clan to refuse him.

A ripple of movement passed around the circle and the Clan rose up again. They supported Grey. But Sarah remained co-leader.

Peter looked at Dusty who frowned. ‘Don’t we want to remove Grey? He’s a liar and a traitor.’

Dusty dropped his head, shoulders slumped. ‘He still has support. It would be too much to challenge him. Even Sarah does not openly.’ The old Snow had deflated.

‘Sarah and Grey will never agree now,’ said Peter. ‘We need a third to break any impasse. She wants to return south. He to go north where he will deliver the Clan to the blackbirders.’

Dusty nodded and opened his eyes. Twig rose slow and steady and let out a bellow that called attention to the huge beast with the old man now stood upon her head.

‘I do not know what lies ahead. Except now I see division where we need unity. Two voices that weigh choices make for better decisions, but three voices settle matters where two would be locked in opposition. We need a third.’

Voices rose up around the clan calling for Dusty to take that role and Sarah seemed poised to proclaim it to the moot. But Dusty shouted them down.

‘The best years of my life I lived in the snow lands. I have lived a proud Snow. But my thoughts now go to those younger than me. Those with their lives yet to be lived. The lands in the south are hard and harsh. Too many young lives lived too short. You have called for the Clan to go north. But I will stay in the south, and seek out the other Clans. I do not seek a new life. I’m still Dusty.’

Many of the Clan called out to him to reconsider.

‘I call for Kituqarup the shaman to be that third voice.’

‘They’re not Clan.’

‘Only riders can be leaders.’

‘They’re is not even a man.’

Twig roared then as Dusty’s frustration mounted.

‘It is because they are not Clan, not a rider, and not a man that they should be the deciding vote. They are honorable and true. Honest and steadfast. He has my trust and he should have yours.’

Grey frowned but Peter saw the realization in his face even as he understood it too. Kituqarup wanted to go north.

And so Grey’s faction agreed with Dusty, much to his surprise. The Clan made preparations to break camp and cross the pass.

Sarah stomped towards Peter. ‘Kituqarup? That was your idea.’

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‘It was. Before, on the plain. But Dusty acted on his own.’ Peter shrugged. ‘I don’t know what the best thing to do for the Clan is. I wish to go north. I have to get Jan and the boys to the portal. To give them a chance at their lives. But I can do that without the Clan.’

‘It is too dangerous to risk the Clan to the unknown lands of the north,’ said Sarah.

‘That is why Kituqarup makes a good third for you and Grey. He knows manisaurs, and the klaeds of the north. You should trust him. We should trust him. And how much of your opposition to crossing to the north comes from opposition to Grey.’

Sarah turned and walked away.

Then stopped. ‘Perhaps too much. I will follow Kituqarup’s advice and support him. But I do not like how Grey seems to have won again.’

The clan crossed over the divide and down the steep valley leading to the north. Ahead of them lay the broad plains that led into the misty distance.

Peter tried to recall the view of the plains from the years before, but he could not remember. They merged with his own memories of his home. Back on Earth.

Could they be the same place as Sarah said?

No Qhayunpa is so much bigger, the mountains so much higher. And I saw the tropical lands, the islands. There’s nothing to compare them with Earth.

Girl trudged along win the midst of the Clan. Mounts and grazing beasts and people on foot made their way up the valley and over the saddle. Broad and covered with small lakes and tarns all wreathed in mist.

‘I’m just glad a nor-wester is not blowing.’

That made him think. The nor-wester winds back home would dump moist cool air on the western coast and flow over the mountains to create a hot dry wind that blasted the plains.

He saw this would be the case here.

But before the plains came the forest. Walt and Tiz rode grazing beasts that pestered Girl to distraction. And yet all she did was snap at their more extreme runs under her feet.

The tree line took over from the tundra and tussocks heights first with scrubby matagouri bushes, cabbage trees and prickly spaniards.. Sparse stands of manuka and kanuka trees crowded out the scrubby shrubs until tall beech, rata and totara trees reared free of the ground and shielded the sky.

Peter recalled the story of the creation of the world. Papatuanuku forced away from the sky mother Ranginui by her children the forests led by Tane Mahuta. As the Clan moved from the realm of sky and mounting down into the dark and misty forests he became more sure Sarah had it right.

This is the land of greenstone and water, Te Wai Pounamu. Clothed by the Tane Mahuta, wreathed by the gods of cloud and wind, where the gods of heaven and earth forever yearn for each other.

Rain fell then. Through the green leaves to fall upon the thick peaty floor of the forest. Bird song rang out together with the bull grumble of the lead mounts.

Peter saw trees be knew. Matai, and Five Finger, stinging onga-onga, and kowhai.

‘How could I be so blind to this before? Nowhere on Earth has the same trees and plants that Aotearoa has. And yet somehow Eoth, Qhayupathi this long land, has the same flora. How?’

The Clan skirted a huge totara tree, the bole of its trunk three meters across. A rata vine climbed its smooth trunk, it wound about its host to spread out and take over the canopy.

‘The master taken over by the insignificant parasite. A vine that becomes a tree, that become lord of all the forest.’

He saw the red blossom of the rata rise high upon the tops of the canopy across the valley and remembered a poem he learned in school.

‘From humble beginnings, the young ascend,

To tread the bones of greatness,

To spread their boughs to fleeting skies,

And cast their shadows wide.’

He stared at the rata trees, their blood red flowers bright in the afternoon sun against the dark green of the forest.

‘Sarah’s right. There is no place in the universe this could be except Aotearoa. We’re home in New Zealand. Somehow. Somewhen.’

The world turned then as Peter tried to understand.

The Clan emerged from the misty forest onto a rocky spur. They had descended several hundred meters below the tree line and remained deep within the forest. Birds flew through the skies scolding the Clan. Smaller ones darted amongst the ground disturbed by the great beasts. While above them all Peter saw huge raptors, as big as fighter jets that circled as if they sought a stray they could pick out from the group.

‘Haast eagles. No way.’

All that had been unfamiliar had become twisted versions of home.

If this is Earth. Aotearoa. Why is the land so big? The moon so bright? When the heck are we. There has never been such huge beasts like mounts, and gharumal, and moasaurs, or any of it.

Peter caught Sarah’s eye but she remained oblivious to his turmoil. He thought he had a handle on this place. He would have been less surprised if New York or Paris appeared on the horizon.

And so Peter remained unprepared for when they left the deep forest and emerged back into scrub land. Kituqarup rode up to him on the back of a grazing beast. It bounced and danced when brought close to Peter’s mount. The huge carnivore would likely eat it, or its kin in the near future. Peter did not blame it.

‘I do not know the way of this pass. But ahead advance riders see a wayhouse. What do you suggest? It is too small to sustain our Clan.

‘But it will have word of blackbirders, and of the state of the Empire. Why don’t we go together. Rest the Clan for a time.’

‘Darkness falls soon,’ said Kituqarup. ‘We could make camp here, or descend upon the varunaraqayu - the wayhouse. There is no time to debate.’

‘The varunaraqayu then,’ said Peter. ‘They can stand some scaring, especially if we are there to talk them down from their fright.’

‘I agree.’

‘But why do you speak with me. You should decide with Grey and Sarah.’

Kituqarup’s aura flashed both humor and annoyance. ‘Those two spend too much time of things that do not matter today. I will force this decision on them. Sarah sides with me to spite Grey, while Grey does the same to spite Sarah. I can get my way. Your way.’

Peter sighed.

‘I hate politics.’

But politics had a way of hating Peter more.

The Clan spread out around the wayhouse. The mounts stabled in the small courtyard ill-equipped for two hundred hungry meat eaters. More grazing beasts had to be slaughtered.

Kituqarup and Peter entered to find the varaqayumi — the wayhouse keeper and make arrangements. Though they had no Imperial money to pay, it would be a barter deal. Or a question of an immovable object the varaqayumi had no choice in.

Just as they arrived at the wayhouse Varuk’hat bounced in front of Peter.

‘You took too long to come. I have waited. Hidden and secret. The skyship flies. Why? I had grounded.’

‘I gave them zharaqsa,' said Peter/

‘You gave the enemy the power to use their killing craft?’

‘It made sure the blackbirders would leave, and the Clan would live.’

‘They could not have lain so many.’

‘One would have been too many.’ Peter kept walking.

‘And so they fly.’

‘I do not care. I just want to get to the portal at Naz’naska. I found it once. I must find it again.’ Peter frowned as he said this but kept up his pace even as the imp bounced beside him.

‘I don’t know what you mean. We have to stop the skyship.’

‘You did. They did not get the zharaqsa did they?’

‘No. It is safe.’

‘And they have flown away.‘

‘Yes. I do not know where, but they are not on the mountain.’

‘Then the problem is solved.’ Peter shrugged.

‘For the moment.’

‘It’s enough. I just need to get to the portal before the next full moon so we can return to Earth.’

‘And you do not care what happens on Qhayumpa? The fate of Eoth and the worlds?’

‘Of course I care,' Peter stopped walking and turned on the imp. 'I just can’t do anything about it.’

‘Peter. We have a task at hand. You can talk, once we have removed ourselves from this creature and we have secured a place for the Clan for the night.’

Peter shrugged. ‘He’s right imp. Later. We’ve got more things to worry about.’

Varuk’hat stepped aside. Peter turned as he neared the wayhouse. ‘We’ll save the Clan. maybe the world. Somehow. But first. I need a meal. And a hot bath.’

‘You stink.’

‘Yeah. I do. I really do.’