Empire of Ivory Page 0,119

trying to get into his netting.

Laurence clenched his jaw, and permitted himself to be concealed behind the closed ranks of his ground crew; he handed the pistol forward to Mr. Fellowes, and instead went to speed aboard the now-desperate men, harried on all sides, into the stretching leather of the netting.

Lily, who could not take as many, had been loaded already; she lifted away and spat at the flood of men coming in through the ruined wall, filling the empty space with smoking, hideously twisted corpses. But she had to go towards the ship, and the survivors behind at once began to knock down more of the rubble from the walls to bury the remnants of acid.

"Sir," Ferris said, panting as he came back; his hand was tucked into his belt, and a gash brilliant cerise through his shirt, running the length of his arm, "we have embarked them all, I think; the settlers, I mean, those left."

They had cleared the courtyard, and Temeraire with more savage work had killed those manning the guns; although only a few gun-crews still labored, their irregular fire all that still kept off the dragons. The ship's boats were dashing away over the sea, the sailors pulling on the oars with frantic back-straining haste; the barracks were awash with blood, bodies of black men and white rising and lowering together in the pink-stained froth where the waves were coming in upon the strand.

"Get the general aboard," Laurence said, "and signal all retreat, if you please, Mr. Turner." Turning he offered Mrs. Erasmus his hand to climb aboard; Ferris had escorted her back, and her daughters in their pinafores, dirty and marked with soot, were clinging to her skirts.

"No, Captain, thank you," she said. He did not understand, at first, and wondered if she were injured; if she did not realize the boats had left. She shook her head. "Kefentse is coming. I told him that I would find my daughters, and wait for him here in the castle: that is why he let me go."

He stared, bewildered. "Ma'am," he said, "he cannot pursue us, not long, not from shore; if you fear his capturing you again - "

"No," she said again, simply. "We are staying. Do not be afraid for us," she added. "The men will not hurt us. It is dishonor to stain their spears with a woman's blood, and anyway I am sure Kefentse will be here soon."

The Allegiance was already weighing anchor, her guns roaring in fresh vigor to clear her skies to make sail. On the battlements, the last working gun-crews had abandoned their posts, and were running madly for escape: to Temeraire, to the last boats waiting.

"Laurence, we must go," Temeraire said, very low and resonant, his head craning from side to side: his ruff was stretched to its full extent, and even on the ground he was instinctively breathing in long, deep draughts, his chest expanding. "Lily cannot hold so many of them, all alone; I must go help her." She was all their shelter from the enemy beasts, who were cautious of her acid having seen its effects now at close range, but they would encircle her and have her down in a moment; or draw her too far aloft, so that some of their number could plunge down upon Temeraire while he remained vulnerable upon the ground.

More of the men had come pouring into the courtyard through the yielded ground; they were keeping beyond Temeraire's reach, but spreading out along the far wall in a half-circle. Individually they could do no great harm, but by rushing together with their spears might drive Temeraire aloft; and above Laurence could see some of the dragons skillfully maneuvering around Lily and into lower positions, ready to receive him onto their claws. There was no time to persuade her; in any case Laurence did not think, looking at her face, that she would be easily persuaded. "Ma'am," he said, "your husband - "

"My husband is dead," she said, with finality, "and my daughters will be raised proud children of the Tswana here, not as beggars in England."

He could not answer: she was a widow, and beholden to no one but herself; he had not the right to compel her. He looked at the children holding on to her, their faces gaunt and hollow, too exhausted by extremity even to be afraid any longer. "Sir, that's everyone," Ferris said at his shoulder, looking anxiously between them.

She nodded her farewell to Laurence's