‘Sarah, why do you fight us?’ Varuk’hat’s mount shifted backwards when faced with Sarah’s aggressive threat. The stink of burning rose on the wind while the lowing of gharumal told of maneuvering skyships nearby. The aerial battle moved closer to them now.

Sarah’s mount squared up against Varuk’hat’s again, threat of attack burned in her mount’s eyes.

Sarah’s eyes bored into him evidence of her determination. ‘I will fight you. You’re running away, when the Clan needs you. How could you?’

‘You said it before,’ said Peter. ‘This is not our fight. If there is a chance for us to return to Earth… you should help us, don’t stop us.’

Sarah’s mount stepped forward and she glowered down from the height of the carnivore’s head. ‘But there is no way home for me. Is there?’

‘Would you really want to go to Earth?’ Jan called from behind Sarah. Walt’s frightened face peered around her shoulder. ‘You said…’

‘Never mind what I said. Peter’s taking the wealth of the Clan with him. Stealing the Clan’s future. All of the zharaqsa catalyst from the blackbirder’s skyship. It’s the magic gem that powers a skyship’s flight. I can see the stuffed panniers, the saddlebags. You carry them with you now don’t you?’

She’s right, but so wrong too.

‘Zharaqsa is the reason the blackbirder’s chased us for so long,’ said Peter. ‘And the only reason they let us go when they bested us at the mountain pass, because they knew we did not have it. We need to get the catalyst somewhere safe. Away from them.’

A mount screamed behind her as it attacked a zugulu moasaur ridden by a klaed militia manisaur. Smoke and embers from a fire roiled around as the wind began to rise. Peter stared behind Sarah as a form emerged from the billowing smoke.

‘Grey,’ Peter shouted in warning. The River Clan warrior rode with five other deserters from the Clan.

Sarah’s mount pirouetted, and Varuk’hat’s mount stepped beside her to face the new enemy.

‘I heard it all,’ said Grey. ‘So. You have all the catalyst. All the wealth with you. Hand it over.’

‘If you don’t Sarah, you betray the Clan,’ shouted Grey. The other riders with him spread out to block their way. ‘I realize now you never had the best interest of the Clan at heart. How could you? You’re not truly of the Clan. What did I ever see in you?’

‘You saw someone you could control,’ said Sarah. ‘That’s all you ever wanted.’

’No,’ Grey shouted. ‘I saw a way to make the Clan stronger by bringing The Snows and Rivers together.’

Peter understood then.

He speaks for the benefit of the deserters, so they will remain loyal to him.

But Peter guessed more. ‘You helped the invading blackbirders from the beginning didn’t you? I thought you got the communication device later. But you had the radio from the beginning.’

‘What nonsense is this?’ Grey scoffed. But Peter’s tulanvarqa read the truth in his expression, almost as if his face had become as readable as a manisaur’s aura.

‘Did you help the blackbirders take the Snow Clan village?’ Peter said. ‘Did you pressure the Snows to join with you once you had deposed the River Clan leadership?’

Sarah’s glance flicked to Peter and he saw surprise harden into understanding.

‘You always pressed for the Clans to join,’ Sarah said. ‘But we would never have considered it before we lost our home. A true Clan-friend would have shared food, gone into battle against the blackbirders together. But you always wanted to take me and join the Clans, on the condition you had leadership.’

‘Do you work for them now?’ Peter said. ‘What have they promised you if you take the zharaqsa to them?’

Grey’s other riders shook their heads but some of the five looked sidelong at their leader.

‘Give over the crystal gems, you can go your own way. Sarah, you said it. He takes the wealth of the Clan with him. I can help you keep him from stealing it.’

The lowing of a gharumal sounded nearby, through the smoke that blew from the east on the mounting wind. Another joined it.

‘A skyship’s coming,’ Peter yelled. ‘Imperials. The Rebels have not got their beasts to the ground yet.’

The deja vu rocked him. He knew what would happened.

’Sarah,’ Peter shouted. ‘Turn away. We’ll be trampled.’

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Grey’s group drew weapons, their mounts reared up and freed their to attack. If Sarah’s mount showed weakness and it back they would fall upon it and she and the others would be lost.

The lowing came close now. Peter looked high in the air above, the Imperial skyship would be blown downwind ahead of the gharumal beast as they maneuvered the skyship. But he saw nothing through the smoke. Only sky. Varuk’hat beat screamed defiance at Grey’s stronger force.

Sarah’s mount stepped to the side, it’s clawed forelegs raised to counter an attack from Grey. But then sidled backwards as if it sensed Sarah’s unease and indecision.

‘Varuk’hat, back away, get us out of here,’ called Peter. ‘We’re not going to fight them are we?’

‘I agree. But those are no gharumals that approach. It sounds much like them but…’

Out of the smoke came a wedge of riders on mounts led by Dusty. His mount lowed in imitation of a gharumal and ran at Grey.

‘Varuk’hat,’ Peter shouted. ‘Run.’

The imp swung his mount away even as Dusty’s Snow River clan fell upon Grey’s rear.

‘Grey. I knew it was you,’ Dusty shouted as he brought his lance down to impale Grey’s mount. The rest of the Clan fell upon Grey’s riders from their flank.

‘Sarah. Jan,’ Peter shouted. Varuk’hat’s mount needed no further urging, it twisted from the sudden fight, and ran along the wide road away from the fighting. Peter coughed as the smoke from the burning city followed them, but the air cleared as they rose higher into the upper reaches of Hatunqari.

Behind him Sarah’s mount kept pace. Jan and Walt held tight behind her, their eyes wide and streaming tears from the smoke and their sudden escape.

‘Peter,’ Jan shouted. ‘Where are we running to?’

‘We’re not stopping,’ Peter shouted back to her. Varuk’hat’s mount redoubled it’s efforts to climb up along a South East road. ‘Not until we get to the portal.’

He did not look at Sarah directly, but saw in her face anger, but resignation too.

Behind them the Rebel skyships grappled with their enemy, the screams of injured gharumal followed them as the great shaiyvaqara — east wind pushed the skyships across the city and tossed the huge beasts like they weighed nothing.

He searched for Gan’s skyship Kitaraham and for the small outrigger he knew must fly close by. But the path wound between great houses and hid the battle. Only the smoke and the cries of the fighting carried to them on the wind now.

Peter felt like a coward to run again from his old friends, from the rebel cause he had believed in all those years before. He ran from the klaed militia, and the Clan riders.

Would Dusty and his riders be still dusty tomorrow?

Sarah had spoken truth from her heart and he believed her. Almost.

But duty calls. The zharaqsa is evil. I have to get to the portal again. Get them home, and help get rid of the catalyst.

The consequence of failing them loomed large in his mind. He caught Sarah’s stricken look. If he did not get them to the portal they would be stuck.

Like Sarah. Forever. They would lose their life back home. I have to get them home. It’s my fault they are here.

His hand went to the niho taniwha greenstone pendent around his neck.

Their parents put me in charge. I have no choice. I must. They’re whanau.

He had failed Sarah though. And that hurt.

‘How much more of this running can the mounts take?’ Peter said to Sarah. ‘Running is their advantage. They can run for days as they chase down their prey.’

‘That makes no sense,’ said Peter. ‘Carnivores sprint and if they fail to catch on the first try they rest and go again.’

‘Mounts are not like the lions you know from Earth. They’re relentless. That’s what makes them such good fighting beasts.’

‘And scary as.’

He did not know what had made Sarah run with them. She did not want to fight, but she had stopped arguing with him too. Instead she had withdrawn as a sadness fell over her features. Peter tried to think of what more to say to her, to keep her engaged and speaking to him. But she let her mount fall behind and conversation failed again.

It’s almost like she forgot for a moment she wasn’t talking to me.

They had left the outskirts of Hatunqari as they followed the road to Ruthazuna the pass to the south over into the lands of ice they had worked so hard to leave. Now they returned to the cold. As the road wound higher the land grew icy, but the hot east wind still blew at their back even as it cooled in the thinner higher air.

The last time he had come this way he had flown. He searched the sky for anything flying, but once they entered the forest they could not see beyond the dark trees. Then when they had left the forest the dark of night had gathered. Not until the moon rose would they be able to see much beyond the path that lay before them.

They crested a ridge as the moon climbed the mountain ramparts and came into view. The land became shades of silver and black, with the deep chasm of the gorge below them darker still.

‘This path is wide enough for gharumals to pass,’ said Peter.

‘And it has been trodden recently.’ Sarah came alongside them as the road widened. ‘At least since the last snowfall.’

‘The blackbirders. That’s who came up through this pass. Perhaps even Grey and his followers.’

Peter remembered the bright night and path The Jupiter had flown over the pass. He expected to see or hear it and kept his attention on the sky even as Varuk’hat guided the mount along the pass. They reached the summit of the saddle, an undulating road wound between rounded ridges on the shoulders of the giant peaks that glowed in the light of a brilliant moon.

‘The Moon is full,’ said Peter. ‘This is it. We have to get to the portal tonight.’

The road wound down now and they caught glimpses of a wide gorge and river to the south-west. They returned home in more ways than one. The mounts seemed to sense they faced the plains of the south and the good hunting they had had there and needed less urging down the slope.

The jouncing gait of the mount’s body moved the riders about and Peter began to feel sick. Sarah moved to her mount’s head and stood there like a surfer with Jan and Walt held tight next to her. The uncanny steadiness of the beast’s head made it look like they stood upon a magic carpet. He joined the imp and stood braced precarious but steady above the mount’s eyes and watched the magic land unfold before them.

A sparkle of light came from ahead, between the bulky mountains. A bend in the river to the east caught the light of the moon and glowed like quicksilver, and then a mountain hid it from view.

The great skyship came overhead, it caught the wind and moonlight in its great sails and bore down upon them. The skyfort flew free of the mountain road. It needed no gharumal, no guiding ropes to direct it. Almost heedless of the danger of shooting the pass in the gale from the east the sails raced by. No one on board saw the two mounts moving over the ground below.

‘We’re going too slow,’ said Peter. ‘We’ll not get there in time.’

The others saw the skyship and exclaimed in fear.

How had they not seen it earlier?

‘Blackbirders?’ Sarah wailed.

‘No. Worse,’ said Peter. ‘It’s the Air Lord’s skyfort.’