‘Who is this Air Lord and how do you know?’ said Sarah.

‘I saw myself tonight, flying The Jupiter. And the Air Lord is chasing me, or him. The flying outrigger at least.’

‘And you saw this Air Lord…’

‘His skyfort. He’s an alien, like the blackbirders. He’s from Arth, the same place as the blackbirders. I think they work for him, but he’s also a leader of the Imperial Navy.’

Sarah stared at him. Her face in shadow, but her eyes reflected the clouds lit by the rising full moon.

‘You mean there’s two of you? One’s being chased by the biggest of the blackbirders, and the other one, you, is trying to get to the same place this monster is going? Why?’

‘It’s the only way to get to Earth. You want to go home don’t you?’

‘Yes. But isn’t there another way?’

‘It’s get there tonight,’ said Peter. ‘Before the portal closes, or stay here forever.’

’You mean go there, get caught by the evilest of the blackbirders and be killed forever, or ride away somewhere safe?’ Sarah pulled her mount to a halt. Varuk’hat stopped his mount. It turned its head sideways and looked back before turning to face the other mount.

‘Yes. But that’d mean never getting home.’ Peter’s voice rose in frustration. ’It’s my duty to get them home safe. I promised. No arguments. Let’s go.’

Sarah looked away. ‘You didn’t say how dangerous it would be. That we’re not just riding towards freedom, but risking everything.’

‘I didn’t know. I’d begun to guess. But when I saw The Jupiter, and the skyships, and the Air Lord…’

‘Time travel is impossible,; said Varuk’hat. ‘He’s mistaken. These are not events that could have happened before.’

‘Let’s not get into this again. No matter what.’ Peter pushed at Varuk’hat to get the mount moving again. ‘We all saw that skyfort sail past. Time is running out. We’ve got to follow it to the pass.’

‘I have not been to the place where the portal lies,’ said Varuk’hat. ‘This temple. But we cannot go the way of the skyship. That way takes us over a low pass, then follow the river to the south.’

And we flew up the cliff last time. Up the waterfall.

‘No. We will go another way,’ said the imp. ‘Higher, colder, steeper. But it is less distance to travel.’

Peter stared at the Imp. ‘Another pass?’

At least we don’t have to do that climb on foot.

‘What’s the imp saying?’ Sarah demanded, but Peter did not reply.

‘How do you know the way?’ Peter said.

‘I have…’ The imp paused. ‘Navigation tools.’

‘Like GPS? Where? Show me.’ Peter looked the imp up and down but he held no device.

‘It’s internal to me. I see it in my mind and know.’

‘An implant? Okay.’ Peter regarded the complex webbing the imp wore over the their black fur-feathers. ‘You seem to know things…’

‘Peter. It’s frustrating to only hear one side of the conversation.’ Sarah’s voice rose in anger. ‘What is he saying? Where are we going?’

‘Varuk’hat knows the way to the temple where the portal is. We have to go over the divide, high into the mountains. And we leave now. He knows a safer way for so we can avoid that skyfort.’

‘That means it will be cold, with snow,’ said Sarah.

‘We have to get going,’ said Peter.

Sarah stepped down onto the flanks of the saddle webbing and looked in the pannier bags. ‘Trust me Sarah. You know I have take the kids back home.’

‘And how does the imp know this.’ She pulled out warmer clothing. And trail food.

‘We follow the Seven Sisters - Matariki,’ Peter said. ‘They guide us west and south. Up the mountain to the portal. Plus somehow he has GPS. Inside him.’

‘So he swallowed a mobile phone?’

‘Either that or the webbing he wears works like one.’

The bright moon lit the way up the mountain path. They had long left the tree line and wound up between black rocks that gave way to brilliant snow. Peter had lost sight of the skyfort and though he looked for The Jupiter flying over the pass he never saw his outrigger.

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The spiked halo formed about the moon like a compass and he urged Varuk’hat to ride faster.

‘These beasts are remarkable. But they cannot fly. They will get us over the pass tonight.’

‘But will it be in time?’

The moon fell beneath the ridge of the mountain and the path became dime, lit only by the snowy slopes that glowed above them. The mountains here rose higher, scraped against a sky strewn with stars. Matariki - the Seven Sisters guided them south as much as the stone cairns that marked the trail. The way had been covered by snow as the wind chilled and they bundled themselves into warm clothing. But the imp wore only his webbing. It seemed to glow a little and Peter almost felt warmth come from the imp. Varuk’hat slipped a headpiece over his head.

‘A wooly hat?’ said Sarah.

Her mount rode close behind. It’s huffs of breath as regular as a steam trains. Though both great beasts had tired, the imprint forced them on.

If we drove them to their deaths would they do it?

Then they crested the divide and the moonlight shone bright upon the hanging valley. Peter saw the lake, and the nimbus of ice that rose from the waterfall to wreath the moon in a spiked halo with a cross around it. And he remembered the night when he had left Eoth with Maggie.

I have to get them home. It’s my duty.

That manta ran through his mind, but he never let himself think of Sarah who would be left behind.

‘The skyfort,’ Tiz shouted from behind Peter. ‘I see it. Over the trees.’

But Peter looked for The Jupiter, the flying outrigger. He could not see it.

‘And that must be the temple?’ said Jan. ‘That building with the tall spire.’

Peter saw that they had not really crossed the divide, only a saddle in the ridge above the hanging valley where the lake fed the high waterfall. He looked for the true pass and saw the muddy trail like a thin line in the snow far below the lip of the waterfall.

‘That’s the way the blackbirders came over from the southern lands,’ said Varuk’hat. ‘So they could split off and ambush us in the western pass.’

‘Come on. We have to get to the temple before the skyfort.’

He looked again at the moon and remembered the name Naz’naska — Place of the Luminous Moon. The mounts picked up their pace as they ran downhill, their clawed feet gripped the icy snow and threw it behind them. Varuk’hat slipped onto the mount’s head which remained steady as the beast’s shoulders bulged and rocked with the speed of their four legged dash downwards.

Peter looked behind and saw the fear on Sarah’s face written in wide eyes dark against the white of her moonlit face. Jan and Walt grinned like maniacs while Tiz whooped.

‘Shh. There are hunters that can hear?’

‘There’s no one close.’

‘Sound travels. And by hunters I mean thraqanonkra.’

‘What? Walt’s friends?’

‘Not all thraqanonkra have met Walt yet. The Air Lord has a nasty pack. I’ve met them before.’

And killed them.

But he did not tell Tiz this. He felt for his long blade in its sheath on the side webbing. He leaned forward but did not trust to stand on the head like the imp. The crazy creature had gripped the webbing harness with bare feet.

Likely that webbing warms him somehow.

Peter tried to remember the night he had last raced to this temple, but so much blurred after the translation back to Earth.

How much is a memory, how much fear, and how much a dream?

They broke into the tree line and the mounts had to slow. Everyone ducked low to avoid branches. The black beech stood like great shadows against the moonlit snow and tugged at them until the path widened and then the tall spire of the temple loomed above them.

They had only a moment to admire it before the skyfort rammed into it and the structure toppled towards the ground.

The mounts shied at the sudden shock and Varuk’hat flew into the air and fell into the shadows of the black beech trees.

Yips and shrieks from thraqanonkra came through the forest and the mounts drove forward. Without Varuk’hat’s control his mount ran without control straight at the enemy. A mass of blackbirders that raced after a pack of thraqanonkra.

‘Tiz. Jump for it.’

The boy did not argue and followed Peter as he slid, jumped, fell down the flank of the mount and rolled clear of the hind claws as the beast fell into a frenzy and attacked the blackbirders.

Sarah’s mount pulled up and screamed. A gharumal lowed in distress as its handlers worked to maneuver the skyfort away from the ground and the mount that now ran at its towing beast. Thraqanonkra attacked a group of people.

Peter’s mind reeled when he finally saw himself wielding a long blade against the thraqanonkra.

‘Is that…’ Sarah started to speak.

‘Sarah. Take out those thraqanonkra.’

‘No,’ shouted Walt. But Sarah ignored him.

Then the way cleared as the remaining thraqanonkra scattered from the path of Sarah’s mount.

‘Through here,’ shouted Peter. Walt and Jan ran hand in hand away from the fighting towards Peter and Tiz. He led them down a ramp into the earth. The tunnel widened and glow worms lit the ceiling. The feeling of dread and anticipation mixed with the uncanny sense of deja vu as he sprinted down the corridor and into the spherical space that lay beyond. He pulled up short as the beauty of the space hit him.

The moon’s light flooded the space with silver, it lit the tracery of metal, the circle of pounamu greenstone, and the image of Earth’s moon etched into the wall of the stone temple’s walls.

The pool in the bottom of the spherical space shimmered and then the skyfort struck the opening onto the view of the bright moon of Eoth and eclipsed it.

And there, staring at him, himself.

His other self. Maggie. They had turned in horror at the violence of the collision, but Peter had expected it.

The zenvrikan priest’s call echoed within him, thrummed his body as the waves of sound focussed by the sphere struck him and made his bones sing. Varuk’hat stood face to face with his other self. Peter locked eyes with him.

But he flicked his gaze away.

‘Maggie,’ Peter shouted.

But his voice washed away in the song of the zenvrikan priest and it rang only in his own head.

Peter felt the pulse from his own niho taniwha pounamu pendent and reached under his felted fur-feather coat. It throbbed in his hand. As it had before.

Maggie. I can’t let you go. You didn’t want to leave.

He ran towards her. Tiz and Walt and Jan close behind, drawn by his urgency.

The sphere rose from the water as if called by the priest’s song and hung in vibration with the song.

His other self stepped into the portal. Maggie drawn after him, held by her hand.

‘Stop,’ Peter shouted and ran at them.

‘No…’ The imp stepped in front of Peter. ‘Must… Not…’

Peter collided with Varuk’hat. The imp fell into the sphere of moonlight and vanished. Maggie followed the imp, her held hand drew her on. But Peter took hold of her and pulled her free.

He and Maggie fell into the lens of water under the portal even as Walt and Tiz and Jan slipped into the silver sphere even as the song began to falter.

A final thrum peeled out from the zenvrikan priest and the portal vanished.

‘What are you doing?’ shouted Sarah from the temple entrance.

Peter stood up. Water streamed from him, as Maggie screamed.

’No! No! No!’