said: that was all he said, but O'Dea subsided, abashed, and muffled his further hiccoughs into his hand.
"Should I try for some of those water-casks, sir?" Roland called up.
"Tell her no," Laurence said to Temeraire, "but you ought to drink whichever of them you can reach, yourself, and let Iskierka and Kulingile do the same; and you had better eat those sheep."
"Those fellows in the belly-netting will be thirsty very soon," Temeraire pointed out, "and so will you, Laurence."
"Let Roland light along a couple of canteens, and as for those bastards, they may go hang," Laurence said, and it was not only his altered voice which made him sound grim. "You must travel as light as may be, my dear: we will want land sooner than water."
An hour passed, dragging up supplies and a few more survivors from the ship, and then Iskierka was winging by. "We aren't pulling anyone else up," Granby called over wearily; his arm and his shoulder were bound up tightly against his body. "Not alive, anyway: the water is too cold. We had better go."
"Set your course northeast," Laurence said, "and keep as far apart from the others as you can and still be in sight of one another, so we may best watch for land; make sure Iskierka and Kulingile have lanterns for the night."
It was very strange and lonely to fly away from the remains of the Allegiance for good, out across the open ocean with no destination. She was nearly all beneath the water now and sinking more rapidly; only the dragondeck yet jutted out into the sky. The ship's boats were pulling away, crammed with sailors. They could not keep in company with them, of course; there had only been a brief shouting back and forth. Lieutenant Burrough was in command of the launch, and Lieutenant Paris, a boy of fifteen, in charge of the one cutter which had survived, with Midshipman Darcy to assist him.
"You do not see Riley anywhere, do you?" Laurence asked quietly, after they had spoken with the boats.
"No - " Temeraire said, after a moment. Riley had fed him that enormous red-fleshed tunny, three days after his hatching. Temeraire had never been quite so hungry ever in his life as those first few days, and Laurence had been asleep at the time - Riley had come down to the cabin with the fish himself because most of the sailors were too afraid -
"No," Temeraire said. "No, Laurence, I do not see him."
Laurence said nothing; when Temeraire glanced back, his face was set and grim, his eyes looking over the smoking wreckage distant; he only nodded, and turned to ask Mrs. Pemberton, "Ma'am, would you prefer to go in the boats?" She had been retrieved along with Mr. Hammond from the bow cabins: they had pushed out a window and waved her spare petticoat to attract notice, and been pulled up by a rope. "We can lower you down to them, and take off one or two of the men, if they are crowded."
"Thank you, sir; I should rather stay aboard," she said.
"You must realize," Laurence said, "dragons can stay aloft at most two days - perhaps three - "
"As I understand it, there is very little chance of a boat making landfall, either, from these latitudes," she said. "If it were done, t'were well it were done quickly, I think."
"Of course you are much better remaining with me than going in one of those boats," Temeraire said, swallowing a last morsel of raw mutton. After all, Lung Shen Li flew all the long way from China to the coast of Australia, scarcely landing along the way. Laurence might be pessimistic, but Temeraire was quite certain he was not going to sink in an ignominious fashion, without even a battle for excuse; he would certainly not drop before they found land.
"I still think we ought to pull her up," Iskierka grumbled, circling the tip of the Allegiance once more: all her prize-goods had been in the hold, and Granby's coat was entirely spoilt. That did not cheer Temeraire precisely, because one could not be happy that anything so very nice was ruined, or going to the bottom of the ocean for no-one but sea-serpents to enjoy, but it was something that Iskierka could not show away anymore, and meanwhile Laurence's own formal robes were safely aboard in their oilskin bag, with Temeraire's talon-sheaths for company; he could congratulate himself on having detailed Roland to keep them