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Chapter 2

ANOTHER FULL DAY PASSED in sleep and eating restored Laurence to nearly all the outward se minute of the inward: he could not conceive of any course which should have deposited hihways of Japan He could not even be grateful to find himself equipped, apparently by the hand of deity, with the Chinese language to hand: he would have preferred to have been made mute, and known in the confines of his own mind whence he cae to his captors

And captors they certainly were: his request for transport to Nagasaki remained notably unanswered He had learnt a little more of his situation from Junichiro, who had despite his earlier flash of resentment continued to wait upon him punctiliously His host’s name was Kaneko Hiromasa; his exact rank Laurence could not entirely work out, but he was at the least a reasonably wealthy ed by the size of his house and the nued on important affairs by the quantity of papers in his study A country-gentle his own estates, or perhaps even an official of soly plain he did not view Laurence as a mere subject of charity, to be fed and washed and sent on his way

Laurence had not been able to marshal his resources to pursue the matter on the previous day Confusion and illness had overcome him, and he had spent nearly all the day asleep, stretched his full length upon the barehe awakened feeling hiain, in body at least; and when the servants came with breakfast, he ain The ordinary maids did not speak Chinese, but when he had repeated their ht Junichiro back with the man came to the chamber door and stood outside, his face hard and remote "My master is presently occupied," he said "Permit me to address your needs" His voice was flat, and he did not look Laurence in the face There was a strangeof formality and palpable resentment in his manner: all the outward shows of courtesy, and no evidence of any real feeling which ht have motivated it

Laurence could not reat burden for the household, he ht better have understood, but Kaneko need not have picked hiesse which had been shown him, so far, scarcely seemed of a kind which would have troubled the finances of such a house

But a full understanding was not his present concern: the et back to his ship "I rerateful for your master’s hospitality," he said, "but my health is recovered, and I will trespass on it no further: I would ask you for the return of , and my sword, and to show me the way to the road"

Junichiro looked at hih Laurence had asked his "What would you do?" he said, with sincere confusion "You cannot speak the language; you are a foreigner and a barbarian--"

"And," Laurence said, cutting him off short; he could not have said how he knew the word had the flavor of an insult, but he did, "if I o to the devil, that is my business, and surely no concern of yours"

He would indeed have been glad of help, but not of the sort which would keep him penned in a rooure at once as an unexpected but welcoe: Junichiro plainly wished hione--or never co worried looks that required no translation

At the very least, Laurence hoped his deht draw out some response which should illuminate matters, and let him kno better to proceed: and indeed Junichiro hesitated; he left and in a little while returned and said, "My master will see you"

Laurence hoped to ; he had asked for a razor, and conquered the disquiet of looking at his strangely unfah to clear away the several days’ growth of beard The servants had brought hi room, peculiarly divided with a wooden-slatted floor on which they insisted on scrubbing him in the open air, surely unhealthy in the extre hie bath, itself excessively hot; at least, he had thought it so, but on e he could not deny it had done splendidly to ease his aches

When ushered into the office this time, he was able to fold himself down in a better i posture; his legs still complained of the position, but he was not so weak he was at everyto reach out a hand to steady hiertips

Kaneko was frowning, however: Laurence’s sword lay on the desk before hih the openlooked even leaon’s-head of the hilt, and the blade shone His fingers itched to hold it again "Where did you have this fro the hilt

Laurence could not bring himself to make the fantastic if honest answer that he did not recall: in any event, he did not feel himself compelled to answer such a question, personal and unjustified "Are you proposing, sir," he said, "that I have stolen it? The sword is mine, as are the coat, the shirt, and the trousers you found upon me; I am sorry to be equally unable to provide you with the bills of sale for any of them, if you should require the same to restore them to me"

Kaneko hesitated "This is a very fine blade," he said, finally

He see more, but Laurence could not provide it "Yes," he said, unyielding, as he could not be otherwise "I a-officer of His Majesty’s Navy, sir; I rely upon my sword"

He waited; he did not entirely understand what concerned Kaneko so about the blade Finally, Kaneko said bluntly, "It is of Chinese make," and Laurence inwardly flinched not with surprise, but with the absence of surprise: he realized he knew as e, before

"I have another of Spanish," Laurence said, sing his confusion, "and one of Prussian Do you nation, but Kaneko did not answer, only looking down still at the sword: Laurence had an impression he was dissatisfied with the answer, but why he should have cared where the sword had come frolad for its return"

"Ah," Kaneko said, and tapped his fingers once upon the desk, before stilling his hand "The bakufu has directed that only a sa sword"

"If that is, as I suppose, a knight," Laurence said, "I am the third son of the Earl of Allendale and, as I have already said, a ship’s captain: I must consider both my birth and my rank adequate to my arms by any reasonable standard I will speak plainly, sir: if you e me, I should be hard-put to prevent you under the circumstances, but I will thank you not to dress it up with justifications as ungentlemanly as they are unwarranted"

"How dare you speak so toon his knees "You should have died, but for his intervention--"

"I did not request your aid," Laurence said flatly, to Kaneko rather than to his squire, "and should rather have had none of it than a pretense at the saainstyourself rounds I am to meet with such treatment So far as I know there is peace between our nations, and a shipwreck has in every civilized society all the claims to human sy the victim of such a disaster"

"One who breaks the law may desire sympathy and yet not deserve it!" Junichiro said, and then subsided: Kaneko had raised his hand a very little

"If ahurled unwillingly upon your shore," Laurence said dryly, "then they seek to constrain not the will of h, Junichiro," Kaneko said quietly, when the young ain "The objection is just: I have not been of true service to you, as I vowed to be"

He sat in silence adown at his desk, while Laurence wondered at vowed: he had done nothing to earn any proious obligation?

"The obligations of honor are many," Kaneko said at last, "and often contradictory"

Junichiro made a violent motion of protest, a hand chopped across the air, outstretched as if he lanced at hih, Junichiro"

"Master," Junichiro said, "not for this Not--"

Laurence watched theh Kaneko seeh he had wandered into a stranger’s house, and found it full of fah hints

"I must write to Lady Arikawa," Kaneko said, "and offer her ly: I did not have the right to undertake an oath which es of disobedience to the bakufu I regret that you must endure a delay in my answer," he added to Laurence "It must be her will, and not mine, whether I a you assistance, and then make her my amends"

"Pray Heaven she commands otherwise," Junichiro said

"You will desire no such thing," Kaneko said, sharply, and after aman looked away and muttered, "No"

Kaneko nodded once, and then dis his attention to his writing-work as thoroughly as if he had been alone in the chamber

Laurence hesitated, but the decision seemed made: he followed Junichiro’s shoulders, hunched forward a little as though he still felt his h the corridors to his own chaain, at least," he said abruptly, when they had reached the small room, and he had stepped inside, "if there is no objection to that"

"If you wish to look like a ragged beggar, I suppose it can be accoely, and closed the wall-panel behind hilad to be shut in with his own thoughts

It seemed plain that the law here was inhospitable in the extreretted--had impelled Kaneko to undertake the forms of charity towards hirace This Lady Arikahoever she e, certainly a person of authority--would be under no siht wish to leave his fate to the will of this lady, and so propitiate her, but Laurence felt not the slightest inclination to accommodate his plans If return he owed, for hospitality so unwillingly given, then re himself from the situation was all the return he was prepared to e, but hardly fortified, and he had seen only a few enerally barred the possession of blades, his own lack et at the sword; although that, too, ht be accoht, but its sequel He could with an effort summon up the shape of the nation, on a chart, but he had never sailed this way in his life If he had been asked to find Nagasaki by latitude and longitude, frohtaway

But with any luck he could find his way back to the coast, whence perhaps soht be prevailed upon to carry him in secret to the port: and if he had not dreaold If not, in any case there h into the lining, if his things had not been pillaged

They had not Junichiro returned only a little while later with a servant trailing him, who set down on the floor just inside the roo And when the door had closed, and Laurence held the salt-stained and ruined clothes, he found the buttons, still fir narrow bars athwart each shoulder where the epaulettes had ought to be--

--and the coat itself was an aviator’s green

The first order of business was plainly to get the ship afloat again: a ship sitting on rocks was of no use to anyone "But shan’t the ocean get in, once those are underwater?" Lily said, her head tilted to exa holes where the rocks had pierced the hull and yet stood within, keeping the Potentate fixed upon the shoals

"Oh! by no means," Temeraire said "They will patch it, with so else, it makes not a particle of difference That is not our affair: that is for the sailors to worry about"

He spoke with impatience, which he are Lily did not deserve, but he could not quite help himself It was so very hard to stay here, especially when he was forced to overhear the officers, who insisted on speaking to one another in the certainty of Laurence’s death; even Granby, of whom Temeraire would have expected better, had only said to Hammond, "For Heaven’s sake, Hammond, let him think as he likes It will take hioing to believe it, so there," Temeraire said, to hireat anxiety to be away, searching for Laurence; and neither did Churki sitting there like a great unhelpful lu, "This is what co all your heart in just one person! Ha of e, and do not fear that I ah to have a great many children, I will be very pleased, whatever your choice"

Teht be considerably older, and very experienced from her service with the Incan army, but what did she know of it, anyway He was quite done considering her opinion as particularly hile; at least, on this subject

But he very badly wished to go look for Laurence, anyway: and after all, there was no egg yet; there , it was none of his business but Iskierka’s, whatever she one, indeed--if only he could have persuaded hiht with Laurence

But Te to tell Laurence that he had left an egg on a ship swinging about on some rocks, with no-one to look after it but Iskierka And not just any egg, but his very own egg and Iskierka’s: a Celestial and Kazilik cross, which Granby had said that very afternoon, to Captain Blaise, was likely worth more than the croels of Britain--Temeraire had never seen these, but he was sure they reat deal of straw and a warm room set aside for it, if he pleased

"But the ship is not in any real danger, at present," Teined Laurence, "and after all if it did sink, we are close enough to fly to shore And it is not only Iskierka to watch over it: there are Maxig; and the rest of our forile and Churki, besides Really it would be extraordinary if anything should go wrong--"

But the vision of Laurence was unpersuaded, and only looked at hientle reproof: it was not their responsibility; it was his, and not to be pushed off onto souain

"Anyway," he said to Lily now, out loud, with apology in his tone, "I ae that part of the business perfectly well: so pray let us think hoe are to get her off the rocks, instead"

He had hoped, at first, that theytogether, but the ship’s orically ht When he had worked the figures large enough to see clearly, Temeraire had been forced to admit asiron and another four hundred of shingle at the very bottom of the Potentate’s hold was quite a mystery to him, and he could not in the least work out how she stayed afloat ordinarily, but lifting her straight up by even an inch would certainly be beyond their power

"If only we enuity had failed at contriving any way to establish a pulley in mid-air, above the ship, out in the middle of the ocean "Or a lever--"

"Well, what about a lever?" Maxi back on his haunches on the shoals, giving over his own atteh to see them from any distance "That is only a stick, put underneath and pushed, ain’t it?" and Temeraire paused He had been stopped, by the size of the ship, but perhaps--