Page 4 (1/2)
Chapter 4
A SHARP POKE IN HIS side roused Temeraire from his torpor; he lifted his head only slowly The steady rocking of the ship had cradled him in comfortable withdrawal They had put food in hisover his body, and the heat of the galleys below "It is time you were awake," a voice said, in Chinese
"Yes, I am awake," Temeraire said, and put his head back down and closed his eyes once lare of the sun upon the waves ached
"No, you are not," the stranger said, and prodded hi sharp and cold in the pit of his shoulder; Te grey clothing, looked back at hi beard with trailingmouth
"Stop that," Temeraire said, irritably "I do not wish to be prodded; take that away"
"Oho, next you will tell me how to mix yourfor the purpose a very long and narrow silver stick, with a sharpened end "Up! Up! How do you expect to get well, lying around on hot rocks day after day?" He jabbed Temeraire sharply with the stick, in his hindquarters, and Telain here, and it is not hot rocks but the galley, anyway," Temeraire said "And for that er, three points to port, arode at anchor; and beyond this, only a little way off, the tight-cra and beautiful harbor A ring of Chinese junks surrounded the Potentate, bobbing gently with the waves, like a garland made of ships
"Where aht me?" He turned to look furious reproach at Maxi beside him and did not ions were all further out to sea on the other side of the ship, all of the theasaki Harbor," the stranger said, "and you have been here three days and nights"
Laurence was falling, wet leather slipping between his fingers and a s to provide purchase, and he jerked up gasping fro of leaves Beside him, Junichiro slept on as soundly as if he had been upon a featherbed in a palace, his cheek pillowed on his arms and his face serene Laurence ran a hand over his face, wearily, and pushed aside the reht, though he could not see it very clearly for the leaves overhead
They had continued on all the night, stuon’s roars had pursued theht had fallen behind; she had turned one direction and another away from their trail, it seemed to Laurence, perhaps led astray by so in fear froine
Junichiro had turned aside abruptly, near the dawn, and led Laurence down a narrow barelyplace: overshadowed by a great standing gate, two enore now faded and peeling A little beyond it they had found a stand of trees groild and engulfed in vines, sheltered fro hiain The scale was immense, and yet it seeh the frame in either direction was only wilderness
In the diht they had buried themselves beneath dry leaves and slept as the dead Laurence was yet tired and footsore, but he did not think they dared linger for long There was a little trickle of a strea over rocks in a great clear pool beside the gate Laurence limped to it and drank deeply, washed hands and face, and took off his sandals and soaked his feet in the cold water as long as he could bear: it was a long time since he had scrambled barefoot over the ropes and planks of a ship as a boy, and the sandals had left him bruised and sore
He rose at last and tied theone very still The boulder he had noted last night had raised its head and was regarding hion, hide dark greenish black and with large eyes of pallid grey, which evidently had curled up to sleep against the comfort of the trees
It yawned, widely, and said so to him in Japanese; Junichiro, still soundly asleep and huddled up against its side, ith a start and scraon turned and inquired of hihtly evasive air, backing away towards Laurence "What is it asking?" Laurence asked hion overheard
"Ah! So you can speak!" the dragon said triumphantly, in Chinese "Are you," it leaned towards hi air, "a Dutchlishon rolled the sound around slowly, tongue flicking out to touch the air It was only the size of a Yellow Reaper, perhaps, with a wide ruff and long dangling tendrils that hung down about its ely fah Laurence had certainly never seen a beast anything like "I have never heard any English poetry," the dragon announced, after soo up to the te to eat and drink"
He uncurled hi hi and as narrow in the chest as at the base of his tail, with feet widely spaced; his wings were short and peculiarly stubby, folded against his back He a briefly to knock his head against one of the posts three ti slope beyond, where now Laurence saw the underbrush was lower, and tralanced at Junichiro--he was not sure if they ought to take the chance and try to flee But Junichiro was trailing wide-eyed after the dragon, and the promise of food was a powerful one The beast at least did not seem to be i way through increasingly difficult undergrohere at last the dragon paused and looked back and said, "Why, you are falling quite behind Up you get," and reached out a taloned hand to deposit them each in turn upon his back Junichiro made a small sound almost of protest, and Laurence would have liked to question him--as the beast, and why did it seeainst a foreigner--but he could not find it politic to do so when aboard the very beast’s back
They continued on to a final steeper slope, where at the summit at last a sh that the dragon could coe in plan; and in two great silver bowls at the center stood a pool of clear liquid, sly of plureat heap of rice and
"Take cups! Help yourselves!" the dragon said, sprawling himself across the floor--or herself, Laurence belatedly corrected, when some portions of anatomy were thereby more exposed to view; he had been mistaken by a series of low finned spines which curved out froood fortune of this , and then you will recite soon asked, anxiously
"Ma’a where the attendants were, who had prepared this repast, and how he ive you a little Shakespeare, if that will suit you, but I do not knoill do in Chinese"
"No, no," the dragon said, coiling back with an air of relief "I do not want it in Chinese I already know Li Bai and Wang Wei, and lish poetry"
"But--you cannot speak the tongue?" Laurence asked
"You will translate it for ed across to hier than a thimble, and another for Junichiro
The excuses a rather shamefaced Granby provided Temeraire for their deca unknown danger of the sea-dragon, the uncertainty of their position, the ship’s need of further repair, the safety of the egg--
At the thought of the egg, he could not forbear putting his head over the side carefully and peering in, with a single eye, at the porthole which looked into the egg’s chaalleys, carefully kept war swaddled in a great s, and then hay, and then packed into a crate But they had shown it to him, when he had first awoken: a splendid smooth pale-cream shell speckled with a very attractive pattern of red and violet spots, and one notable larger ht
"You must see it, surely" Teh she had looked at it doubtfully
"It looks more like a cloud to ht be a cloud Temeraire pressed his other friends for their opinion, and finally Kulingile and Dulcia were brought to agree, when he had drawn theht, that it was not unlike; with this he was satisfied to consider his opinion confirined
Sipho had knocked hie piece of discarded sailcloth, which was now draped over the crate and ain--a risk Tereed could not be taken under ordinary circuh he was of course deter as soon as he was found
"And that," he said store it: I am very sorry indeed, Granby, to have found you so false as to allow the ship to leave Laurence behind; what heof me, at present! You may be sure I will not be silent on the subject, when I have seen hiain; he will know of this treachery"
"Oh! That is quite enough," Iskierka said, cracking an eye "For Granby did not wish to go, at all He said you would be very upset, and it could do you no good, but Captain Blaise would not stay and the ship is his; and Haed him on, naturally"
"Pray be quiet, wretched creature, you are not , and called up, "Tery You were very ill, and still are; you couldn’t have gone searching for Laurence any road And Ha to the local authorities of the port to have the us any news of Laurence, I proure of himself, you know--he is a tall fellow, and they haven’t yellow hair here; he will stand out a mile Someone is sure to have taken him up, if--if he has come to shore"
"If Hammond should coood deal more than I look for," Tereater for his indeed feeling very ill--very wretched He did not like the thought of a long flight at present, and disliked still o back, if I et there," he added, in defiance of that consciousness
Wen Shen, the physician, who had been hired to assist in his care, shrugged equably from the deck "You will drop dead somewhere over the middle of the country, then," he said, and ate an enore, flavored with tunny froile’s spare catch, which he had commanded to be worked up supposedly for Temeraire’s benefit
Temeraire did not think much of him, despite his physician’s knot He had insisted on Te infusion, and on his flying a full circuit around the ship, though he did not feel at all like flying and his wing-joints ached fiercely afterwards Wen Shen had alsoreeneral habits, some of them quite untrue: he did not eat an entire roast cow every day Even if he had liked to, which he did not, they did not have enough cattle aboard for that
Gong Su had dug up this physician, having rowed over to each one of the Chinese ships in the harbor on their arrival, where he had reatest deference Since he had openly avowed hied his clothing for the formal robes of a scholar; he had shaved his head and put his hair into a severe topknot, with a blue button upon his hat, and now openly carried the pouch with the great red-sealed letter of his authority around his neck
Tearded this alteration of his costu Su had deceived the, and spied, and passed on inforated now by Gong Su’sof himself; he was still, Temeraire considered, a member of his crew And after all, why should Crown Prince Mianning not wish to send a er, a trusted servant, to accompany his brother? But Laurence had re it only with a snort
In addition to digging up Wen Shen, Gong Su had spoken with the captains of the Chinese ships; all the vessels had subsequently weighed anchor and maneuvered, aardly, into places around the Potentate, evidently with the design of providing her some protection Temeraire had heard this with some skepticism: the Chinese ships were so very much smaller, but Captain Blaise was very well pleased
"At least it ive us some notice, if a monster like the one you knocked heads with decides to come up from under us," he said to Captain Berkley "Hoill come off in such an encounter, I aive hiives us a chance, and see what he thinks of that," and he gave orders that ht
Teg’s security; the sea-dragon had been so very unfriendly, even when there did not seem to Temeraire to be any excuse for such a cold reception But he was not in the least pleased that Gong Su had also inflicted Wen Shen upon him, whatever any of them liked to say about the i him with the physician’s recipe
"For I ao, yet," Teain--soe, after all "If I ht to work"
"Well, you are better already than you were," Lily said, consoling "It was a great deal of tiain, you know, after that nasty cough we all had a few years ago"
"You had better eat soo, in a few days, I will have a ith Berkley and ill go and have a look around for you, I dare say," Maximus said, which was very kind, but Temeraire did not believe it in the least: Berkley was like all the rest of them, quite insistent that Laurence was dead, and Teorous in any search
"I only wish I knehere he was now," Teain
"Kanpai!" the dragon cried, when Laurence had finished e, and dipped her own head into the silver bowl Laurence was forced to at least moisten his lips in a show of accompaniment, and hope that he had indeed buried Caesar and not praised him, or for that matter raised him from the dead one act too soon; he was not perfectly sure He did not think he had been this appallingly drunk since he had been a boy of twelve, trying to ood on every toast at his captain’s table
Junichiro had fallen asleep perhaps an hour ago, overcoht He had by slow degrees eased to the floor, until his head had fallen onto Laurence’s bundle and his eyes had closed, alhted with it," the dragon continued, and hiccoughed "Neither wit, nor words, nor worth," this repeated unslurred and with a startlingly good accent, despite the truly remarkable quantity of liquor which the beast had consu rhythm This is part of your funerary rites?"
"In the theater, when they have killed hiinning to find it difficult to ives the speech," he added, with soht be of interest to another beast, trying with ing, which he had seen once as a boy of thirteen
"I would be glad to see it," the dragon said "I have lately seen a splendid perforive you a little of it"
She began to recite in a low e Laurence was not proof against so much inducement added to his oeariness, and before she had completed the third line he had fallen to sleep beside Junichiro When he woke, the dragon was gone; Junichiro was stirring beside hi down His head ached like the very devil
"The guardian o onwards"
"Yes," Laurence said, wearily, "but we had better wait until the sun has gone, and eat," the bowl holding still a handsome share of leftovers, "and in the rateful, but I would knohat you are about Did you--seek to escape Kaneko’s service, yourself?" He spoke dubiously; he could scarcely iine that to be Junichiro’s motive The boy’s affection for his master had been too visible and sincere for that, and yet it seemed equally unlikely he had been motivated by any sense of injustice done to Laurence himself; there was certainly no personal attachment between them
"Of course not," Junichiro said, bitterly; he was brushing his own garments clean as best he could "I heard my master tell Lady Arikawa you were too much of a coward to take an honorable death There was no course of honor left for hiistrate, he would have failed in his vow; and he could not disobey the bakufu to protect you What else was there to do?"
"What was this vow?" Laurence demanded "Why would he have sworn an oath to aid a perfect stranger?"
"He uards travelers, to ask him to look after his wife and son"
His manner did not invite further inquiry But Laurence recalled the silence of the house, the absence of a chatelaine, Kaneko’s black clothing, and thought he ht understand: a wife lost in childbirth, and the child with her Enough cause, surely, for a ion, and to hold the oath he had made for their sake more dear than a mere promise to be put aside when inconvenient
"So I will keep you alive, and get you away," Junichiro went on "My ht shauilt will be on my own head"
Laurence shook his head in dismay: it was a solution which he felt could only have appealed to the excessive opti istrate is a fool, he will hold your ained a crime to your account and his," he said
"He cannot," Junichiro said "Kaneko is my teacher, not my lord I am not yet sworn to service My fanize the word, but Junichiro looked away and spoke as though asha was complete, he meant to present me to Lady Arikawa, to see if she would--" His voice died away, and he sed visibly: a dreahtened "My family are dead The shame of my behavior falls only on myself, not on him," he said "Why do you think Lady Arikawa let us escape?"
Laurence paused and looked at hiood fortune for the iht, but he could scarcely deny that a deliberate ily more plausible "If so," he said slowly, "then you have achieved your aion will free you You can tell them that I forced you to assist , and saying I yielded to you to preserve my life?" Junichiro said, with perfect scorn "In any case," he added, "you will never get to Nagasaki alone; and there will be no use in et you away," he added, and there was enough likely truth to that, to force Laurence to silence