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"Laurence," Te over, "whatever are you about? Surely you do not ood? Iskierka is asleep: I aht to be consulted on the subject"
"That is all I need, at present," Granby said, under his breath "Let her sleep, if you please, and Laurence, I would be glad of so to bite on"
Laurence nodded, and rose to call Forthing and Mayhew to assist hi Granby down; abruptly fro dragged into the river headfirst, a pair of massively wide crocodilian jaws clamped about his skull They all stared, horrified; threeon flailing arth: before even Tee pulled out only a headless corpse, lacking also a leg, with a crocodile dangling still clenched upon the other
"Oh!" Te hiely into thewaters: he caht, and holding them in his jaws cracked them with a sound nottheain, until he had piled up a dozen carcasses; by then the rest had slunk beneath the surface and glided prudently away
"There," Te, "they will think better of it, next tiue with his estience: in any case theanywhere near the riverbanks without great care
Iskierka had been roused by Temeraire’s frenzy; she sat up and yawned and said, "Whatever did you do that for? They are not good eating; but I will have a couple, if there is nothing better," and several of the men crept away into the trees to be noisily and emphatically ill
The crocodiles were abandoned uneaten; but the slaughter forced their ile were too enraptured by the i prepared for theons, and neither were the beetles Granby said uneasily, "I will have to ainst his waist once more before he pulled hirown used to the treons consu pace, and as many as two hundred in a day, with no obstacles to be surmounted or roads to clear and no dependence upon the wind; but their passage through the jungle was h the doldru She leaned heavily on Kulingile and Temeraire, who took it in turn to brace her up, but even they could not support her th of time Granby drooped upon her back; she drooped in mid-air, and often ca like so
The heat was trele close and thick around them when they fle, or crept after Iskierka in the river Haed speed, and looked piteous for it: hehands nearly every minute, and slept fitful and feverish; the other iven the impression of particular resilience, and their journey had strained stronger y, it see black dress, was an iure of civilization aed by dint of quiet but firm requests of a feell-chosen men--those not so tired as to refuse toarrange a small separate campsite and fire for herself and Roland, and even hot ater
They dragged thele, until Laurence drea, and woke to hear their voices: when Te and circling in the distance over the great mouth of the river where it met the open endless ocean blue: they had come to the shore of the Atlantic
Iskierka lay down in a tidal pool and shut her eyes; Granby was lifted down from her back and carried into the shade of palile went out into the ocean, and did not coun to fear in earnest when looking out over the waves, under his shading hand, he saw the strange apparition approaching: a vast s and no limbs
"Clear the shore, there," he called, when they caons set down their prize: a true rown, but even so nearly larger than the twenty thousand pounds rendered down, I expect," one of the sailors, an old whaler, said in hushed tones, as they sank a sharpened spear into the blubber and cut away to find it nearly a foot deep Every ood two tons of the stuff; Teile had already eaten
"I killed it with , when it came up for breath, and then we took it in turns to keep the whole above water while the other ate," Temeraire said, drowsily, while Laurence stroked his ht that shouldto you, Laurence, that I rather worried it was too large even so Oh! I a, Iskierka finished another h from her torpor to say peevishly, "Where is Granby? Why is he not with , I am," she said fiercely, when she had overcome her first confusion, after Granby did not answer her: his eyes were heavy-lidded and far-away, lost in fever and in pain "He eon; you will put hi with fevers and the mortification of s which had at first gone unnoticed, until they had gone quickly to rot; two had already been buried Laurence had not yet decided to press forward, undecided as to the greater evil: he had seen enough eons’ hands, not to easily take on the risk ofGranby only to deliver hiht be found near-by
But Iskierka’s determent there was scarcely any risk to be run, anymore Gently they bundled Granby onto a stretcher made of branches and woven vines, and covered hi on to him, sir," Roland said, and not even Te aboard Iskierka’s back to help keep Granby shielded and in place
They turned southward, and came within a day to Belém: the s out wildly in alarons ca too late: the inhabitants saw only four dragons of enors, and of no easily recognizable European breeds: Temeraire was Chinese, Iskierka Turkish, Churki Incan, and Kulingile a fresh cross and wholly unfamiliar "Temeraire, pull up, and make Iskierka do the saht only of Granby, at present, and was diving for the city square: Teed beneath her, and bodily heaved her up and out of range even as pepper-guns spoke by the dozen; the thin black clouds spread like a pall over the city’s walls, and then the narrow, long-throated cannon roared out at them and the seneraled: the first spurt of firing died away, and a second did not co in their direction despite all the dragons having withdrawn beyond the range; when this had finished, Laurence touched Tei to for
"Stop that," Terily, in French, "we are not here to attack you, at all: we are British, not the Tswana, and we are here to help"