Page 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3

THE LANTERNS WERE COMING alight, one after another, all through the house Laurence could trace the servants low spread behind the walls The sentry at the door aking with a snorting start and jerking to his feet, blinking around Laurence for a moment considered: the man was paunchy and sleep-dazed, arht see hi froons, rather, for there were two iainst the ht One, the larger, had wide green eyes that glowed like a cat’s: it was not looking at him presently, but if it could see in the dark, like the Fleur-de-Nuit, nothing could be easier than for the beast to hunt hiround in the dark

Quickly, Laurence turned instead and thrust his sainst the side of the house, and then went and stood by the door of the house to wait, as though he had been brought there The sentry looked at hi face, brazening it out, and the man was in aout into the garden Junichiro appeared by Laurence’s elbow

"What are you doing out here?" the young man demanded, but preoccupied himself did not wait for an answer; instead he seized Laurence by the ar with the flow of people "They have certainly come on your account," he said, "so youout of the house himself, dressed in formal robes; he wore two blades at his belt and came past his servants, who had arrayed themselves in a square as neat as any infantry troop Two last stoned courtyard, lighting laether as the dragons ca into the square, Kaneko out ahead of the rest of the party

The dragons settled therey in body and soreen silken dressings the color of its eyes wound about its neck and wing-tips and forelegs, which coraceful arcs about its body like sails spilling their wind It had not a single er than a Winchester though not up to coentlens of some sort of office, and the others were evidently servants who carried boxes and one an ar him down unfolded a set of steps to enable hirey dragon bent its head towards Kaneko while the ue, and he bowed ht the name Arikawa out of it, but he saomen; perhaps these were Lady Arikawa’s e to bode well for his future in their cold faces

There was a little e between them, which Laurence could not follow: he was all the more conscious of his utter isolation, of hiers, unable even to pick out a word or to conceive their intentions The servants were disuests and Kaneko went inside the house; Junichiro took hi after them They turned immediately from the entryway into a chamber on the side, whose entire outer as slid back and left wide open to face upon the courtyard where the dragons had settled themselves

The servants brought great kettles of stea sharp-nosed tea out to bowls laid before the beasts The official and Kaneko were served afterwards; they drank,what Laurence assumed from their tone was mere small conversation, until abruptly he was drawn in front of thee of demeanor the official addressed hi to our nation?"

"Sir," Laurence said, "I have no purpose but to be restored to my country- salvo of an interrogation which proceeded despite the hour of the night, and was as frustrating to Laurence as it was to his interlocutor He could not but be conscious of the i hiht a liar than a lunatic, he was sure, but unable to confess this truth, he felt every other word hung upon a knife-edge of honor He did not knohy he was here, and therefore could not say with honest confidence that he meant them no injury What if the Japanese sheltered some French ship, which he pursued?

"I am a shipwreck: I did not choose to be thrown on your shore, and ain, the best he could do "And as you have received no declaration of war, fro as much was true, "then, sir, I hope you will believe I aine me intended in any way to be a spy, and His Majesty’s Government does not behave in so underhanded aor quarrel"

The official, who had been addressed by the others as Matsudaira, was an older man, with a narrow beard that frarey; his mouth was thin and hard "Indeed," he said, and put down his teacup "With your gracious perlishman to Hakata Bay, and consult him upon the evidence there"

Laurence looked in confusion for any new arrival; then the grey dragon answered, in Chinese, "Let it be done," with sohtly, looked at her: the dragon shook her head at hi

The sun was rising, little by little, as they went Kaneko alone ith the grey dragon--who, Laurence somewhat doubtfully supposed, was Lady Arikawa She bent her foreleg and invited Kaneko upon her back: evidently soreat condescension on her part, and one of which Matsudaira did not approve, judged fro of his lips Laurence himself and the rest of the company went aboard the second, smaller beast

Junichiro, left behind to watch the house, had watched the anxiously froistrate’s frowns Yet he ons leapt aloft, his face turned up to follow the Laurence recognized it as kin to the feeling which he had worn hi on the prow of his uncle’s ship, although he had never thought of attaching such a feeling to dragons

Laurence was grateful to find both his stoe easily equal to the journey; he had been able to make his way up the harness without hesitation or aardness, and the wind cool and fragrant and crisp in his face was a pleasure despite the great rushing speed They were near the ocean: dawn broke over the water brilliantly, sunlight a strea silver path towards thereen fabric on Lady Arikawa’s back, which she had drawn taut about herself for the flight, was bordered with innuht She averted her eyes froon’s shadow could land upon her head and give her soratitude: she would be no very effective searcher during the daylight, perhaps--if he could soe his escape

The tenor of Matsudaira’s interrogation had left Laurence in no doubt of the increasing urgency of flight He could curse the ill-fortune that had brought the dragons down at so unexpected an hour, but not berate himself for failure He had planned his attempt at escape as well as he could, and at least he had avoided giving rise to suspicion--he was neither bound nor chained at present, and Kaneko had not even missed the sword yet

As soon as another opportunity afforded, even perhaps during this excursion, Laurence old bars tucked into the sash of his garment, so he was not wholly without resources even without his lost bundle The flight indeed ht aid him, for they were aloft ht so far from the shore, but Kaneko’s house evidently stood perhaps fifteen or even assound, however: at least he should be on the coast again, and if there were any chance of slipping away, he could -boat So, at least, he told hirim internal voice which would fain have whispered in his ear at length of the impracticalities of any such plan, and the absurdity of escaping alone froons, no less Hopelessness was a worse defeat than any other; he did not mean to yield to it

The countryside beloas not unpro for his purposes At first the land beloas settled; but towards the end of their flight, the dragons turned away fro the line of an old low stone wall--so so ainst Napoleon, on Britain’s own shores It carried the of the coastline, where there was only aup to a thick forest of tree-trunks, which Laurence thought ons

But as they landed, the waters of the bay shuddered and broke open, and afro like the sea-serpents of half-legendary repute, but eous and absurd sea-tales Laurence had ever heard passed off for truth by sailors; he had never even conceived its like

The sons landed before it and bowed their heads low to the ground; the men slid to the sand and all knelt deeply before the creature It climbed a little way out on the shore to es in the sand, so deep that water pooled up in them as it lifted the speech to the party, per them to rise, and even inclined its head a very little to Lady Arikawa; but when at last it swung its heavy finned head towards Laurence, a glitter of angry h with broken black vessels of blood

"Pray be reasonable," Hareat lump of coca leaves in his distended cheek, an effort to make up for the wad he had lost when the Sui-Riu had swao on to Nagasaki, as soon as we may, and there make amends Only consider: if the beast was not some mere feral creature, and it should report our quarrel, any efforts to find Captain Laurence will certainly be grievously hampered by the opposition of the authorities--"

"What you mean is," Teon like cowards, only because you are afraid he will come after the ship"

He did not bother to be polite about it Captain Blaise had not been the least reluctant to express his own sentiments, when Temeraire and the others had returned, on the subject of the Sui-Riu as it was described to him--sentiments which did not in Teet out of these waters at once," Blaise had said, and he had h there had not been any sign of the other beast all the long flight back

"And," Temeraire added, "this after we blacked his eye for hiht have a little confidence in us"

They aiting now only for high tide to finish coreat tree-trunks had been with enored slowly and painfully between the ship and the reef; the anchor-cables oven in and around Messoria’s harness and Iile the other, and Temeraire thebut criticizing--Temeraire snorted--and Lily would look on, and perhaps strike the shoals with acid, as they tried to get the ship off them, if that should seem useful

"And if he does show hi, "I am perfectly able to breathe flareat deal presently He will certainly think better of attacking us, then"

"Dear God," Captain Blaise said, and seized Granby by the ar: the sailors were really unreasonable on the subject of fire, Teh Iskierka had proposed setting the sails alight

He withdrew along the line of the shoals to wait alone until the tide should rise, and simmered quietly beneath the steady cold wash of the waves He would not go on to Nagasaki He did not knohere precisely Nagasaki was, but it was not near-by; he did not er than the ship’s rescue required The egg would be quite safe, once they were afloat again

The eered in the back of his mind like an unpleasant aftertaste It had been three days and nights since Laurence had been swept away--already any visible signs upon the shore one inland for water, perhaps; or perhaps he had even been lying under so up to Temeraire from a distance, unheard Temeraire still had not the least doubt of Laurence’s survival, but that alone would be of little use if he could not find Laurence

"Temeraire!" Dulcia landed on his back and knocked hi and calling: it is tiet the ship off the rocks"

"Oh!" Te, and found hireat dark circling of his thoughts; the water was almost halfway up his hindquarters, and the short harness about his shoulders was sodden and heavy and dragging as he went into the air, a reminder of his empty back

Messoria and Immortalis launched themselves with the cables; Dulcia and Nitidus each took another cable, for what help they could give, and Captain Blaise gave the word to throw the sea-anchor over the side beyond theed in carefully under the hull, and their long trunks were jutting up fro up around theile

"I still say there is soondeck, gripping the railing hard; he had been reluctant to see Kulingile lent to the atteile, you are sure you will do this? I don’t see how it can work--"

"I’ve told you!" his brother Sipho hissed at him

Temeraire flattened his ruff: he understood a little Demane’s anxiety--there was every reason to believe the Adhted to push hiile were lost: he had still not been confirmed in his rank, and Laurence had been his only patron But it seemed to Temeraire that this was all thehiile said easily, however "If it don’t work, ill only sit on those logs for a while, and nothing ain, why it would work, after all; then he forced hiether they flung themselves down upon the levers, and as one exhaled as deeply as they could, from all their air-sacs

Temeraire had worked it all out on paper, or rather, Sipho had worked it out to his direction, with help fro to the experience of plunging deep into the icy cold water, feeling his body pulling at hih an anchor He had to scrabble desperately to keep hied him instantly deep beneath the surface of the water

"Hold on, there, you da "Breathe in again!" Maxi so deep the water was nearly to his fore shoulders

"Oh, but it is working!" Lily cried, on the far side of the ship, and then with alarm, "Look out--" as the ship caan to slide down the levers towards them

Laurence had made one of the party which had taken the Tonnant, at the Nile, after the Longwing forreat pitted sh the decks, and the screams of the wretched seaman who had incautiously put his bare foot upon one s One of his mess-mates had chopped his foot off at once, there upon the deck, and so saved the fellow’s life; although the wound had nized, therefore, the characteristic spattering of the Longwing acid upon the tree-stu theh the stolen trees had provoked such hostility in his captors, Laurence could not help but rejoice that at last he could begin to understand; he could ns offered hi near-by, and it had come and taken away three prime pieces of ti a picture of a sailing ship in the wet sand to translate the word for theon transport for sure, which in any event should have been required to carry a Longwing and its usual formation; and that, surely, explained Laurence’s own presence The Reliant er ship, to serve her as a ile defender: no-one could call transports easy to handle, for all theto bear

The coat--the green coat--must have come off some aviator’s back Perhaps it had been thrown up on the shore beside him by the same storm that had wrecked the ship’s masts, and in the first early moments of cold and delirium Laurence had put it on He wondered now if the sword, too, had come from another man’s hand; but he put that doubt aside If it had, he could more easily restore it hio home

And home was now a real possibility There was a British ship here, in these very waters She was not sunk; she was injured, but afloat, and her crew hoped to repair her The Allegiance? Laurence wondered Or perhaps the Doh that ship was ordinarily on the run to Halifax He still did not knohat they had been doing with a transport so near Japan, but those questions were as nothing to the sheer inexpressible relief of knowing hiun to feel, wholly adrift, unmoored from any connection to his own life

Laurence looked up froain "Sir, I will say on behalf of my country-men that I a only to take some necessary material for their ship’s repair, from what they must have supposed to be a stand of unused timber"

"And where is this ship, now?" Matsudaira said

His expression betrayed nothing but the sahout all the conversation, but the question ca he ht ask for a map of the coastline, or for a local fisherht near fifty feet: she could not anchor in shalloaters, and would not risk coe sheltered from the worst of the ocean by shoals was the ht frouess a likely place, and even direct a boat thence, given soreat serpentine creature looence in its eye was plain, despite itstheir conversation with a keen, cold interest It had co--evidently it could breathe underwater Laurence could easily ion could do to a ship, even one the size of a transport Come up from below, throw her on her bea her down--he could envision no easy defense Perhaps the Longwing ht be able to strike the beast, but in time to save the ship?

Its eye was fixed upon him, badly bloodshot Was that lanced around the clearing The ground was trah after heavy rains; and when he looked he saw s crushed, branches fallen There had been

Laurence rose slowly to his feet "I cannot hazard a guess," he said grimly, and watched Matsudaira’s expression harden

Te else, at first, and then his head was out in the air, and Iskierka was hissing at hi into his shoulders, saying, "Quick, quick, breathe in!"

The water held hi Temeraire tried to breathe and could not: his chest clenched and he vo away down his neck in long strea streaet her head under his foreleg He clung to her, and scrabbled with his other foreleg at the great side of the ship, rising up before hied to catch at a porthole, but the ship listed towards hi came down

"Oh! Why will you not listen to et more air in, I cannot lift you if you will be so heavy!" She lowered her head and butted hi," Te; every breath was a battle His sides were filling a littledown his shoulders and he felt so very heavy His head was ringing in a very peculiar way, and everything seeile ca in under Teet out of the water a little runted with the effort "Get under his hindquarters, if you can," Berkley was calling down

"Coood chap," Maxi as ile’s back; he was sliding back into the water, but he could not mind that so much It did not feel so cold any over the side, "if you droe shall all sail away and leave Laurence behind! You know no-one else thinks he is alive You o"

Te to drown, at all; he could swi Laurence behind--

"You will, too, drown, and then we shall leave him, see if we don’t!" Iskierka said, and bit him sharply "Get out of the water What else do you suppose you are doing?"

He tried to hiss at her, but he had to get another breath in to do it, and when he had that one, he got another By slow ed to help hih the rocks cru him back down He crouched huddled on the rocks at last and breathed again in slow delicious sips of sea-air, splendid even though his throat ached badly, getting theainst his back with cold

"Well done, , faintly, to Iskierka "We’ll get hiain" The Potentate was ged out on thea little to one side, but not badly He closed his eyes

"Idiocy," he heard Gaiters saying, so on his back, now, but it did not see your air--what made the lot of you take such a notion into your heads? I should have liked to co drowned themselves not fifty ed eon of the party for incoet him onto the deck at once We alleys below D’you think because he’s a dragon he can’t die of pleurisy?"

"I don’t see why you fellowsnew," Maxiet the ship back into the water, didn’t we? And of course Te little cold But you ain’t comfortable where you are," he added in Te blunt head ca at Temeraire’s shoulder

Temeraire would have preferred not to move very much, at present; his whole body seeht foreleg felt especially tender and bruised He did not quite recall what had happened: the ship had coet out of the way--diving was quite irab a hold of, for he had been on the lever a after that, except the water, and the cold, and the green glaze that still see faintly over all the world

"Come on, then," Iskierka said crossly, above "I do not see why yousuch a fuss at a time like this" She nipped at his hindquarters

"I a a fuss," Temeraire wanted to say, but his throat ached so He let theile put their shoulders beneath his forelegs

"Just hop aloft, when you are ready," Maxiht off: ill see you over to the deck in a trice, see if we do not"

Temeraire did not feel ready, but Iskierka would keep co reathered himself and jumped as best he could "Oh!" he cried, "Oh," for he had not been ready, in the least; the pain flaring along his side was like being burnt with a hot poker, to sear a wound after cleaning, but it ran the whole length of his body His wings snapped tight, and if Kulingile and Maximus had not been beneath hiain

"Ouhff," Kulingile said with a grunt, and wobbled beneath hiht," he said; Tereenish and hazy again, and he felt very queer and ill indeed He clung on blindly only, until they sank all three of theently down

The planks arm beneath him; the ship rocked with the familiar ocean swell Te, and shut his eyes, and knew no h!" Matsudaira struck the table before him with the flat of his hand

They had taken Laurence back to Kaneko’s house, and resu in the open roo in as she devoured the contents of an entire cauldron which had been brought to her s and fresh fish flung in to cook against the heated sides The sh to ht-headed; the servants had provided a similar meal, on a siven nothing

There had been no chance yet of escape or evasion, but Laurence told his, a little They were on the western coast of Japan--a pity, that; with Nagasaki on the west--and some seven miles as the cro from the nearest shore Laurence worked the e froive hion at the door and increased suspicion