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"You doubt their continued willingness to pere," Laurence said

Haal," he repeated

Temeraire had scarcely understood at first what Hammond was about; it did not see so momentous should be attended with so little ceremony or notice, but he recalled that just so had it happened to begin with that Laurence had lost his rank Te of it, until one afternoon soone; and now here they appeared again as swiftly, a lovely gleam in Hammond’s pal on the mission; Temeraire looked at hi very unpleasant in what Ha," he ventured He could not--naturally he did not wish Laurence to accept his co dreadful, which they should have to refuse, and then have the saain; but it was very hard to have such a chance extended and then snatched away

"You must be tired, sir, after your journey," Laurence said to Hammond "If you would care to refresh yourself, my hut is at your disposal, and there is clean water to hand here above the falls; Mr Shipley will, I hope, be so good as to show you the way," beckoning to that fellow

"Oh--oh, certainly," Hah he looked over his shoulder round, as if to read Laurence’s thoughts off his face

"Of course you shall not do anything you would dislike, Laurence," Teone away, and left the to object to in going to Brazil, and you should have your title back, and your rank"

"That,more than a polite fiction," Laurence said "I cannot pretend that I am in any real sense an officer of any corps when I aht with it bars of gold, and changed entirely the mode in which persons addressed you, seeh for anyone’s taste "And after all, it is not as though they ive you dreadful orders: perhaps they will have learned their lesson, and think better of it, froreat reliance on the wisdoht be expected to learn, after so many proofs, that he and Laurence were not to be cowed into doing anything which was not just

"I am sure they will not rely upon either of us to any extent further than they , with his hands clasped behind his back, and looking out over the great expanse of the valley; even in his rough clothes his shoulders were as straight as though they still bore the golden epaulets in which Teination was required to restore to hireen coat and the leather harness, and the golden bars Laurence paused and after a o, then?"

It only then occurred to Te their valley He turned and looked at the pavilion, and the herd of cattle orges stretched out before theh the yellow and ochre rock of theto switch uneasily through the air; it seeun the work

Perhaps it was not so exciting as battles--Te splendid even in seeing plants grohen one had helped to sow the fields, and the pavilion half-finished see away

"I suppose--we have been happy here?" Te "And I would not like to leave things undone, but--" He looked at Laurence "Would you rather stay?"

Temeraire drowsed off a few hours later; the handful of small fires near the careat swath of southern stars came out overhead Fro, rising and falling, too distantly for words: the Wiradjuri in their su the river

Toone down to oods, and present for their approval Temeraire’s next intended step in the pavilion’s construction, the acquisition of tie old trees to the north, for the wall-paneling and to build out the rooms which Laurence hiuests

O’Dea would go to Sydney with the mail, and return in a week’s time perhaps with some new book In the meantime, there was the rest of the floor to be laid down, and two of the les for the eventual roof In a few days the cattle would be s Laurence would puzzle out the new voluuidance: the ordinary daily course of their new life

Or instead they ht be aloft for Port Jackson and Brazil: a couple of pebbles briefly cast up and allowed to rest on the shore, carried away again into the ocean by the retreating tide

Laurence knew his decision already made; perhaps had been made even before Hammond had spoken He wished he could be certain his choice was not driven by pride, by the lingering grip of shame: he had done his best to make his peace with his own treason, since it had been a necessary evil, but he could not deny Hah to hope, to plan, that they should do rander orbits of the world, if they should re-enter that sphere; easier still for those hopes to prove false

Easier than that, to allow those fears to imprison them more securely even than the miles of ocean Laurence laid a hand on the war else, Temeraire was not made to lie idle, in a peaceful valley at the far ends of the earth

Teative noise, not quite awake

"No; go back to sleep, all is well," Laurence said, and when the heavy lid had slid closed again, he stood up; and went down to the river to shave