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"Youused, by Napoleon," Laurence said, "to an end which would see ated state; indeed he has reinstated slavery, rather than forbidden it, in the territories of France Can you have found so many survivors of your own particular tribe, with this assault, as to justify the toll in life ahter," she said "We did not burn the city: the Portuguese did that themselves, in their panic, while we stayed upon the mountains and made our demands for the return of the stolen We took the city only after they had fled it As for the survivors, you may couided Laurence and Granby and Hah its cramped and narrow lanes, which housed to his surprise many thousands: men, women, children, dazed with both destruction and liberation "Some are the descendants of those stolen," she said, "and do not remember their home in Africa"

"And others," Granby said to Laurence in an undertone, "haven’t anything to do with the Tswana at all, I ions don’t seem likely toas they have found so Lethabo’s eye upon hi," Laurence said to her, when they had gone back into the dockside house which, being one of the res, served presently as her headquarters Supplies of foodstuffs and clothing salvaged fro barrels of salt beef "I can scarcely believe that sothat anshich your dragon country- the slave ports; and you yourself have told reater share of those you have rescued cannot be of the Tswana"

"If it were so," Lethabo said, "and yet they claimed ancestry or some distant memory, would that be less true than the rebirth of our ancestors as the dragons who guard us?"

He did not kno to answer her: she had been the wife of a ood a Christian to believe in that superstition; she saw his confusion and shook her head "I do not call that a lie," she said, "which when believed is true; and I think God loves justice better than the letter of the law You will forgive me a moment"

She rose, for another four survivors had thatinto the house: ato her hand They looked with fear over their shoulders at the on who had deposited them before the door; in contrast the beast stood outside hunched down and peering in after theuese; Laurence could not follow the conversation, but saw the back at the dragon with doubt writ on their faces At last Lethabo went to the table before the s and opened a great ledger in which nah it and found the name Boitumelo solitary on the left, and read it aloud to them

The man repeated it slowly, and looked a question at the woman; she looked at the children, and in a moment repeated the naht-hand coluon, and spoke with the creature in the language of the Tswana Laurence went to stand by the doorway, and heard her tell the dragon that the randson of Boituled joy and answered that he had thought so: there was a decided likeness, in the little boy; and he put his nose down to the older child, who after a ave it a pat

In a little more than a quarter-of-an-hour, Lethabo came back inside: the new arrivals had been seen off to shelter in the settle her She raised an eyebrow at Laurence, who stood looking over the ledger "Do you have any other quarrel with my work?"

"No," Laurence said quietly, as she shut the book again, "none; save to wonder how you will take so many home"

"The French have promised to sail us back," she said, "and then return for reat transports near one thousand can sail, and in better coo to freedom and not to slavery" She nodded at his look "And on their return the ships will bring back stillus: and we the knows better than to trust Napoleon, but we have had not much opportunity to choose our allies in this cause"

"Would you prefer others?" Laurence asked outright, ignoring Granby’s startled look, and Hammond’s barely restrained flinch of protest

"Perhaps, Captain," Lethabo said, "and I think we must have others, if we are all not soon to witness the very slaughter of which you first accused us"

"Captain," Haan the walk back to the city’s edge, where Temeraire waited to carry the in a direct action on behalf of the colony is presently soed a look with Granby, whose face shohat he thought of this as a description of a confrontation between three dragons and near two dozen

"--but I feel I uese are our allies, and invaluably so--even this veryon their soil--and I cannot countenance any arrangee our relations with that nation"

"I hope to do no such thing," Laurence said

"Sir, you will forgive me," Hammond said, "but as a point of law, thesethese alleys are escaped slaves--the legal property of landowners subject to the Portuguese Crown: in the--the tacit encouragement, the, I must say, near endorsement--sir, you did not at any hts of the--of the owners--"

Laurence stopped in the lane and took Hammond by the arm and turned hi toy forts fro; a scene whichruins "Mr Hammond," Laurence said, "if you came here with the purpose to render thousands of hue, for the mere worldly profit either of landowners or of nations, then you brought the wrong man to assist you; and I think, sir, you well knew as much, when you solicited that I should come"

"Oh--" Hammond tried to draay, uncomfortable and without nty--the necessity of balancing--I must assert that ill not secure the liberty of these uese Crown: in breaching the subject of negotiations with the Tswana first, without reference of any sort to the wishes of the prince regent, you have usurped his authority--"