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Te and fighting at once, and Laurence had all the pain of feeling himself and his crew useless in their present circuuns, nor incendiaries, nor even flash-powder, which ainst ene on and hope they did not obstruct Temeraire’s own efforts
"Mr Ferris," Laurence called, leaning over, "do we have that netting--the rope and sailcloth netting, have you any of it left, below? Light it along, if you please--"
"Aye, sir," Ferris called, and ca up Temeraire’s side with a rope lashed around his waist, a tether to the heavy entangled bundle; Forthing and Roland and even Hammond joined their hands to the cable, and they drew it up, brine-stinking cloth and half-rotten rope Laurence hacked apart a portion with his sword, Roland setting her knife to the sailcloth: she and Ferris and Forthing, aviators all since childhood, h to heave it out as one of the green-feathered dragons swung close to Te, and settled on the dragon’s head
The beast squalled,blindly at the unexpected attack; it ran into a second beast and fouled her flight for a ed cloth, throwing it out over the trees It sank, a momentary flash of pale cloth, and vanished away amid the trees behind them
The effort won Temeraire only the briefest respite, but at least it was sorie of his blade, and they reen dragons had groiser Three ain where theherded back ard, and the dragons’ chirping calls were growing etic
Iskierka also had not loosed her fla a beacon of invitation to the eneons evidently already knew to fear it, anyway She bore the brunt of their sweeping attacks, one pass after another which only herenabled her to avoid; and even so she was clawed and bleeding from a dozen sht her along one shoulder, and turned to lash out reprisal at the slancing blow, feathers bursting loose, but the effort left an opening which the eneons flew at Iskierka’s head, one fros furiously to obscure her vision; a third, the largest of the eneed at the side which Iskierka’s strike had bent into a wide and open curve, unprotected by the chained her with tooth and claw both, opening the flesh to the air
Iskierka roared in agony, and turning blasted flaon who had already lifted away, too late Her head agging back and forth in pain; and Laurence could see a line of steam in the air where her blood ran freely away Then he heard Granby crying out, "Sear the wound! If you go down, it doesn’t matter, Iskierka; sear the damned wound, or I swear to you on my honor I will ju on her back, harness-straps hanging loose save one that he gripped in his hand Iskierka cried out in protest, and then bent her head back and breathed fire upon her own side: flath as she flew Laurence saw Granby and Bardesley silhouetted black against the yellow-red banner of fire for a ht was pitch-black, darker for the ht, and he did not knohat had happened to theile had ranged hi to shield her wounded side with his bulk, and Te to her other side: but behind theether for another run at her, one which should surely bring her down Their light chirping voices rang clear, incongruous and dreadful as they arranged themselves for the strike and came, arrow-shape for hireat breaths one after another which expanded out his lungs, and yet so different: when Laurence put down his bare hand, he felt nearly a dru, swiftly; then Temeraire turned and roared: but not once only; he roared, low, and roared again, and a third ti, terrible sound that was the divine wind
The very air see away froht spindled clouds The first dragons of the for to pull up, as the ripple struck, and Laurence saw blood coons foremost in the formation fell from the sky without a sound, stone-dead; Laurence heard their bodies crashing through the branches below Others, too, were falling, thrashing inon blood; and only the hindmost beasts survived, sheltered by the bodies of their fellows: survived, reeled back, and fled away into the night, shrilling out their horror
Chapter 15
THEY WERE PURSUED NO LONGER That night they lay exhausted aely dile floor populated by ferns and the deco resent birds plumed in colors Laurence had scarcely seen in artificethey buried Lieutenant Bardesley there, in a grave as deep as Te the funeral, as the ordinary course of putrefaction seemed accelerated by the dah Mrs Pemberton had sacrificed her petticoat and Eht the corpse was crawling with ants the size of grasshoppers, whose jaws left angry bites as they were beaten away They did not open the shroud to look on his face before they laid him to rest
Iskierka’s wounds had not mortified, cauterized as they had been by her fla: the steam which ordinarily issued frolassy and bloodshot nearly to black The heat of her body was become intolerable for close quarters
"She must have water, and soon," Churki said, after a sniffed inspection of the injuries, and with a decided air Laurence had known dragons of more years--Messoria, of their formation, and Excidium--but these had been raised in the British fashion, to obey rather than to command, where Churki seemed to take a certain precedence as a ons by far "Where do your family live, Hammond? We must determine the best course to reach theree of duplicity, explained their desire to reach Rio and thence to take ship for Britain, she looked at Laurence’s sketch of their proposed route and shook her head, ruffling "This will not do very well: guessing at water is not sensible We o to the Ucayali and follow it to the sea"
They were no longer pursued, though they did little to conceal their passage Three ht theish-brown, enormous, swollen with all the ice-melt of the Andes
"If it is not the Amazon, ithis hand to look down along its length while Iskierka crawled into the river and sub snouts say resentfully, and she rested her head upon the bank and closed her eyes as steaainst the scales