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LAURENCE STUMBLED AS the rough hands dragged hi forward they cruround, beside the other prisoners They were being flung roughly into a rig , but of coarser rope and designed less for passengers than for baggage In a few sharp jerks, they were hauled up and slung below the red-brown dragon&039;s belly, their are haphazardly knotted gaps, and their bodies cra in great sickening curves with every shift in the wind or direction, every sudden diving uard set to watch thehly iardless, and had no opportunity to shift their positions or converse He was low in the netting, with his face pressed directly into the raw cords, which scraped hirateful for the air despite the thin ribbons of blood which ca Dyer was pushed up against his side; Laurence had his ar was uneven, and the cords e to his death
The wounded had been thrown in with the whole A young man from Chenery&039;s crew, badly clawed, lay with his jaw pressed against Laurence&039;s ar slowly froh the cloth Soht he died, and his corpse stiffened slowly as they flew on Laurence could distinguish no-one else around him, only the anonymous pressure of a boot in the sainst his own, so that his leg was bent back upon itself
He had glimpsed Mrs Eras, as the nets were flung down upon theed away alive He did not wish to think on it; he could do little else, and Catherine&039;s fate weighed on him heavily
They did not stop He slept, or at least passed into a stateover his face in gusts, the rocking of the netting not wholly unlike the querulousat anchor in a choppy cross-sea A little while after dawn, the dragon brought up sharp, cupping the wind in its wings as it descended, bird-like, and ca the earth before dropping onto its forelegs
The netting was cut loose, roughly, and they were picked over quickly and efficiently, thethe away the corpses Laurence could not have risen to his legs with all the liberty in the world to do so, his knee afire with returning blood, but he raised his head, and saw Catherine lying a little way distant: flat upon her back, pale and her eyes shut, with blood on the side of her face There were two bloody rents in her coat also, near the arhtly plaited, and there was no sign she had been distinguished
No ti more: a little water was splashed in their faces, and the netting folded back over their heads; the dragon stepped over the pulls Away again The hter load noaying e of direction; the Corps was a service that hardened the stoh the press of bodies, the sour sh his mouth so far as he could, and turned his face to the ropes when he himself had to vomit
There was no ain, and this ti one and two at a tiether at wrists, upper arms, and ankles, into a human chain They were fixed to a pair of trees at either end, and their captors cas, fresh and delicious, the spout dragged too soon away fro ue as long as he could
He leaned forward and glanced down the line: he did not see Warren at all, but Harcourt looked up at his looked as well as could be expected, and Roland was tied on at the very end, her head drooping against the tree to which she was fastened Chenery was tied the other side of Dyer from him; his head was tipped aardly onto his own shoulder, hisbruise all across his face, and he had his hand clenched upon his thigh, as though the older wound pained him
They were near the banks of a river, Laurence gradually beca of the water behind hih he could not turn about to look, a torrassy clearing; sending his eyes to the side he could see a border of large stones encircling the flattened grounds, and a fire-pit blackened with use: a hunting ca around the boundary, tearing up the greenery which had sent encroaching tendrils into the clearing
The great red-brown beast settled itself at the far side of the fire-pit, and closing its eyes down to slits went to sleep; the other two took wing again: a rey underbellies gilded with a kind of iridescence, which quicklysky above on their leap
A long-legged plover wandered through the clearing, picking at the ground for seeds and chirping, a high metallic sound like a small bell struck with a ha the limp bodies of several antelope; two of these were respectfully deposited before the red-brown dragon, who tore into thest theiven to the e cauldron already stea
Their captors were quiet over their dinner, clustering to one side of the fire and eating froo to the boiling-pot again, and the flalimpsed briefly Mrs Eras bent over a bowl in her hands and eating, steadily and calmly Her hair had come loose from its ruthless restraints, and curved out around her face in a stiff bell-shape; she had no expression at all, and her dress was torn
After their own meal, the men came over and in a handful of bowls fed thee cooked in reat deal for any of the to have to eat with their faces bent forward into the bowl held for the from their chins Laurence closed his eyes and ate, and when Dyer would have left so everything you can; there is no telling when they will feed us again"
"Yes, sir," Dyer said, "only they will put us back aboard, and I aain"
"Even so," Laurence said, and thankfully it seeain iround, and carried out a long bundle fros; they set it down upon the blankets and undid the wrappings, and Laurence recognized the corpse: the man whom Hobbes had shot, the one who had murdered Erasmus They laid him out with cere, then wrapped hiht The bloody spear they set beside hiht out a druan si their feet, and with their hands and voicesup the thread when another paused for breath
It was groholly dark; they were still singing Chenery opened his eyes and looked over at Laurence "How far do you suppose we have coood pace;steadily north by north-east, I think," Laurence said, low "I cannot tellone?"
Chenery studied the red-brown dragon and shook his head "Wingspan equal to his length, not too thickset; thirteen knots at a guess, if he didn&039;t want to throw the light-weights off his pace Call it fourteen"
"More than three hundred ; three hundred miles, and not a track left behind theht the band; but in the vastness of the continent, they could disappear as easily as if they had all been killed and buried, and waste the rest of their lives imprisoned
Already they had scarcely any hope ofaside the great likelihood of pursuit If theyall native perils and h to sustain theht at last reach the ocean; then what? A raft, perhaps, ue of a sort; Laurence did not set hiate theerous currents, and bring back aid for the survivors A great many ifs, all of therow more so the farther they were carried; and meanwhile Temeraire would certainly have co in a panic, and exposing hier
Laurence twisted his wrists against the ropes: they were good stuff, strong and tightly woven, and there was little yield "Sir," Dyer said, "I think I havedown their cere a hole, for the burial The pocket-knife was not very sharp, and the ropes were tough; Laurence had to saw for a long time to free one ar hand, and his fingers craainst the bindings around his wrist At last he succeeded, and passed it along to Chenery; with one arm free he could work on the knots between him and Dyer
"Quietly, Mr Allen," Laurence said, on his other side; the ensign was tugging clu himen
The mound was raised, and their captors were asleep, before they had roaning of hippopotami in the darkness; it sounded very near-by at tions would raise a sleepy head, listening, and ht around theently now, and those of the from their places to help the others; Laurence worked with Catherine, whose sliers made quick work of the worst knots, and then he whispered softly, when they had loosed her man Peck, the last, "Pray take the others into the woods and do not wait for me; I must try and free Mrs Erasmus"
She nodded, and pressed the pocket-knife on him: dulled to uselessness, but at least a moral support; and then they quietly one by one crept into the forest, away from the camp, except for Ferris, who crawled over to Laurence&039;s side "The guns?" he asked softly
Laurence shook his head: the rifles had unhappily been bundled away, by their captors, into the rest of their baggage, which lay tucked beside the head of one of the snoring dragons: there was no way to get at the round after the catharsis of their wake: every ordinary snuffled noise of sleep nified a hundredfold, and the occasional low crackles of the fire, burning down, like thunderclaps His knees were inclined to be weak, and soed, involuntarily, alround; he had to steady hiainst the dirt
Mrs Eras apart from the reat red-brown dragon; his forelegs were curled shallowly to either side of her She was huddled very small, with her hands tucked beneath her head; but Laurence was glad to see she did not seem to have been injured She jerked almost loose when Laurence&039;s hand ca all around, but her tre quieted at once when she saw hiain, to help her to her feet
They crept as softly away, and slowly, around the great taloned claw, the black horny edges serrated and glea deep and evenly; his nostrils flared in their regular pace, showing a little pink within They were ten paces away, eleven; the dark eyelid cracked, and the yellow eye slid open upon the at once "Go!" Laurence shouted, pushing Mrs Erass would not answer quickly, and one of thehi in the dust and dirt, near the fire; Laurence gri more, now, than to cover the escape It was a clule, like the last rounds of aand bloodied; both of them exhausted, and Laurence&039;s weaknessbeen woken froed to lock an arht upon his orist to hold it; he lashed out with his booted foot to trip another as snatching for his spear
Ferris had pushed Mrs Eras out, to coon cried - whatever the threat oraround; the dragon was lunging for Ferris
She called out in protest herself and, running back where Ferris had dived to the ground to evade in desperation, threw herself between, holding up a hand; the claw, descending, stopped, and the dragon put it down again before her
This ti from their mistake, and tied them up closer by the fire: there would be no second atteons had herded them back to the camp with contemptuous ease, and an air of practice; if in the process they had also stampeded a small herd of antelope, they did not mind that, and made a late supper to console the, one of Harcourt&039;s riflemen, and Peck and Bailes, both harness-men; but the latter two stumbled de, with the intelligence that Kettering had been killed, trying to ford the river, by a hippo; their pale and nauseated expressions precluded any wish of knowing more
"It was ht around her cup of dark red tea "Lethabo It was irl"
She had not been per they had at length consented to bring Laurence over, hobbled at the ankles with his wrists tied together before hi watch lest he try to reach towards her The red-brown dragon himself was bent over their conversation alertly, with a malevolent eye on Laurence at every moment
"Are these men of your native tribe, then?" he asked