Page 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6

LAURENCE PUSHED THE FISHING-BOAT off, water already rising inside froo away downriver not without a qual aboard would have been certain doom, she was still the quickest road to the sea, and the only one at all familiar He had left the remains of his already-tattered old shirt wrapped around a bundle of branches toup in the prow and fluttering out white; if only the boat evaded capture long enough to get soht prove so defer the pursuit

At least it would conceal where they had gone, for a little while Junichiro was already doing his best to obscure thehad made in the bank withwas slow a the trees, and slower still for lack of clear destination Laurence could look up and catch a gliain, which pointed hiress holly blind "Do you have any notion what is in the countryside near-by here?" he asked Junichiro, as they struggled onwards through the rough terrain

"We are in Chikugo Province by now," Junichiro said He paused and looked up over his shoulder: a sound of leathery wings, faint but carrying over the water, not far distant

Laurence caught sight of a large old pine, gnarled and twisted, roots erupting froround in low arches They squirmed between two of these and pressed theer shelter their intersection offered The night was not bitterly cold, but enough; they et, in thin cotton robes, and it would be a long while for the hollow to have waron swept overhead a few tieneral look, or so it seemed to Laurence; but they huddled beneath the predatory search in silence, hearing the distant noise of search parties

A clamor was raised soon turned away towards it: perhaps the boat Laurence breathed, but did not yet live and move; too soon for that The sun was barely up, but had not yet penetrated the trees; he only saw the sky lightened overhead The voices left off, after a while, and the dragon’s searching resu soht In any case, this was the best chance which was likely to coh if they

He stood, not very quickly or easily; all his oing fro bed, and he could only ruefully envy Junichiro, who bounded out of the hollow behind him as easily as a deer with the limberness of youth "Have you any notion of the best direction?" he asked

"We should continue southward and make for the coast of the Ariake Sea," Junichiro said, "and follow its shore around to Nagasaki" Laurence nodded, and followed him into the thicket

They walked in silenceonly in low voices; the woods were deep and hushed about the capture But Laurence asked Junichiro the distance to the sea when they ave their feet a rest; blisters were already raising white upon his skin The nu a ri was, but when they began walking again, Junichiro did his best to tell Laurence when they had crossed the distance, and henear two and a half miles Ten miles to the coast and sixty around, if they could not find another boat and cut across: three days’ forced march, for an infantry company--a company with boots and supply

Laurence rimly did not make any close inspection of his feet: they would be worse before they were better

"They are busy enough over solass, which was rigged out with a loop into which he ht slip his hook, and thereby use his hand to steady the front Telass hion-size

"Why would anyone bother?" Iskierka said, diso fly over and take a look; should you like me to do so, Granby?"

"Stay where you are, if you please," Granby said, "--or if you don’t please, for thatatdirectly he had put his head out of doors, before he had even sed a bite of breakfast: I think the fellow don’t sleep"

Several dragons had come into the Japanese port This alone was not unusual: they had seen several co and in the town beyond, in the past several days, but those had been nearly all of theed in the trade in soon wearing an elaborate drapery of green, which had soht; Temeraire could not tell if it was dia else, but it certainly looked very attractive John Wao, evidently to meet the new party

Te was right thisthat they would leave should Laurence be found; if only the dragon were a person of substance, who s forward; if only she would listen to Wa; if--if--if

"Whyever has Haot us aboard a translator? I un to learn a little Japanese, and be able to speak with the?"

"I don’t see, at all," Granby said, and Teo ashore after all, just briefly, to speak with thereat deal better, indeed He had drunk up all the e resolutely, every day; and he had gone for a very long swi, with not the least ill-effects

"I ae it without any trouble," he said, "and it only seeuests here--"

"Will you not ever have any sense?" Ha; Temeraire narrowed his eyes at Churki, whonal--perhaps they had agreed upon it in some way

"They condemn us all as little better than pirates," Hammond continued, "and they must look upon this ship as the th! Our ar an entire formation’s worth of beasts, and," he added, "you will note they do not have heavy-weights a them, so far as we have seen"

"That is perfect nonsense," Te as that sea-dragon"

"But he is confined only to the water!" Haile’s size could do, in the air, anywhere in the country he liked, if they have no heavy-weights of their own to check hiht, too," Maxileaile as he had been, but he could scarcely be bla

"Good God, I hope I do not mean that in the nature of a co the point, as usual

"So much the better, then," Temeraire said "I aone: let theo"

"If they should even believe such a promise, and find it possible to fulfill your deoing out of their sight, on such an endeavor What do you ihbor so near-by, which has on previous occasions atte alliance with another nation equipped with vessels of a size that ons in a week across the China Sea? They cannot help but fear it"

"Then they ed "You desire that alliance, you have said so again and again--"

"That does not reat hurry for the Japanese to learn of it," Hammond said, "and particularly not to think that more has been acco before the proposal has been accepted"

In Temeraire’s opinion, this was quite absurd; if the Japanese wished to be anxious and i, when no-one had done anything to the a few trees which they had not been busy to use anyway--that was their affair "Mine," he said, "is to see Laurence brought safe back toa feords with that other dragon will persuade theth, I am happy to see it done: I would not hesitate in the least

"Indeed," he added, with a sudden kindling i with Granby, "Captain Blaise! Will you listen to reat guns, in over a ht to do it, do you think? If we cannot htaway, at least we should like the here because we cannot"

Captain Blaise did not look up at Temeraire directly, but he said after a ht to exercise the great guns And then at least those ruddy blighters will knoe ht answer them properly, if we liked"

Temeraire did not see why Blaise needed parrot what he had said, as though he had thought of it himself, but he did not very much care; Hammond’s protests, swift to come, were not in the least heeded, and Temeraire had the pleasure, only a little while later, of hearing the drumroll as the ship beat to quarters, and every hand went to his rope or gun

The eruption of fla which he could have desired: the great dreadful roar of the broadside, the gouts of red and blue fla away over the water before the wind, carrying towards the harbor And then Captain Harcourt said, "Do you know, fellows, I think ill go up and have a bit of exercise, ourselves," and to compound Temeraire’s satisfaction he could watch Lily and all her forh the intricate patterns of battle-maneuver Even Iskierka took an interest, and capped the entire production by going aloft at the very end, and blazing a great circle of fire like a wreath around the ship Ordinarily Te away, but in this case he forgave it "That has shown them," he said with real joy

"Yes," Haondeck all the while, but yet stood by Churki’s side, his thin narrow hands clenched upon each other as though he wished to wring them out "And noe must wait for what they will choose to show us"

A host of fiddler crabs, too small to be worth the attention of fisher the eh that he and Junichiro were able to rake together a pile of them, with branches, onto a rock and away fro the shells and sucking the large claw indecorously clean, without the least hesitation

They went a little way towards easing the bite of hunger, and a s quickly over rocks, was fresh enough to drink Laurence soaked his feet again in the salt water without re the sandals, if he could even have done so without a knife at this point: the cords had sunk into his swollen flesh He looked across the sea The sun was setting at the far end, throwing an orange bealass, with scarcely a wave to be seen: broad gentle ripples only co in to shore, nearly silent

"I would undertake to cross it on a log, paddling with my hands," Laurence said to Junichiro "It is not twenty ht as much, when they had made some more calculations, and refreshed by their crab supper they plunged back into the forest and hunted out a few sturdy fallen branches, to be latticed together with saplings and the interstices stuffed with leaves Three hours of work, by the fading light, gave theh for the distance--or so Laurence hoped

"Can you swilad for Junichiro’s nod; if she came apart beneath them, halfway across, the distance would not be insurer limbs

The moon had risen, brilliant full "I will try her," Junichiro said, and carried the raft out upon the water and lay himself upon it flat, cautiously She did not come apart at once; Laurence looked up from shore at his shout of triuentle, a mere breath; he finished the last of the work, two branches crossed and tied with some strips of fabric cut, with a sharp rock, froed on her as a sail, and striding out into the water he pushed the foot of the h the raft while Junichiro steadied her, and secured it beneath with another knotted length of fabric, filled with sand and pebbles

He cautiously got hiainst thethe saer into the loop of the cord he had tied around the end of the cross-yard, and drew her into the wind The irregular sail stirred, and belled, and lifted; she began to move slowly but surely out upon the water

"Well," Laurence said, after they had glided a dozen yards, and not yet sunk, "I would not like to , but if we can contrive not to ht of the opposite shore"

The sea was peculiarly still beneath thee than any waves Laurence slept in fits and starts, rousing at the tug of the cord upon his finger to adjust the sail Occasionally he glanced over the side and even saw fish h clear water, and watching the just out of reach

"Have you any fa "Any children of your own?"

"No," Laurence said; the lack of a ring upon his hand told hiive the answer in confidence "But I have entleoes, not unlike: e," and as he said it he felt a naht, and was nearly sure of it; Roland Hope filled hi eain and woke; they were nearing shore: the ht in the frah mountain: "Mount Tara," Junichiro said "We should try and land to the south" He did not need to say why: directly ahead over the water, a cluster of bobbing lights shone in the distance, e or a settlement

Laurence adjusted their direction The ed a little, likely as they e bulk of the th, and the sail was taken aback Mast and sail both tipped; branches cracked; abruptly Laurence was in the water He put his hand out blindly, trying to get his bearings, and touched sand, groped, straightened: he and Junichiro were standing, only knee-deep in water, and there were trees visible against the horizon perhaps a ed through the re-sticks The thin cotton of the under-robe was soaked and plastered to Laurence’s skin, chilling-cold, and broad sheets of dark seaweed tangled clammy about their ankles, but the stand of trees ahead was all the encourageain and put on the green coat, the good wool staving off sorass, crawled up onto the sandy shore, and onwards just into the trees without getting up off their hands and feet

There were dry leaves, rough branches, a large stone--this time, Laurence prodded it first with his stick to be sure it was nothinginto the leaves, and Laurence shut his eyes; hunger gnawed, and thirst; his feet complained in earnest; but none of these proved able to stave off sleep He slept as long as nature let hi place, and eased both ache and chill He aret himself halfway up and knee-walk aardly a sufficient distance away to relieve himself

Junichiro still slept, and Laurence let hiain and put his feet back into the cold water to nu-boats out on the water, but at a long distance that ures, in straw hats; when one waved, Laurence raised a hand in ansithout fear Sitting on the shore he worked out a loose thread froreen coat still in his bundle, to tie around the pin of one of the gold bars: bent in half, it ht be a chance of so even so near the shore

He took a ot to fear him, and with it as bait took a few better, and roused Junichiro to eat before they set out again They had cut across a good deal of the distance: twenty nored his feet and the increasing heat of the day He had bundled the coat back up around the sword, and wrapped the tatters of the sail around his head

Junichiro said nothing, but eyed hi, repeatedly; Laurence looked down at his bare chest, and realized Junichiro was looking at the many scars of pistol-shot and blade; mute testinize the his shoulder, the white s-healed line of it, then shook his head and let his hand drop

When he had finished, Junichiro tried to press his own outer robe on hiently, in his persuasion

"That," Laurence said, "I dare say we cannot avoid in any case; and it must be your task to approach anyone we ht Keep it"