Empire of Ivory Page 0,45
ready basin held by Dorset was filled, and Keynes said, "There," and clapped the cautery, waiting ready in the fire, to the nick at once.
They would have carried the steaming bowlful of dark blood away without another word, if Laurence had not chased after them to demand their verdict: "No, of course he is not sick, and does not mean to be, so far as I can tell," Keynes said. "I will say no more at present; we have work to do," and went away, leaving Laurence almost ill himself with reaction; he felt a man who had stepped out of the shadow of the gallows, two weeks of anxious dread giving way quite suddenly to this almost shattering relief. It was very difficult not to yield to the force of his emotions, with Temeraire saying, "It is not very nice to be cut open, and I do not see what good it will do at all," nosing experimentally at the tiny seared-shut wound, and then nudging him in alarum. "Laurence? Laurence, pray do not worry; it does not hurt so much, and look, it has already stopped bleeding."
* * *
Jane was writing papers before Keynes had half made her his report, her face lit with energy and purpose, the grey shroud of sorrow and weariness fully visible only now with its removal.
"Let us not have any rioting, if you please," Keynes said almost angrily. His hands were still gory with blood crusted under the fingernails; he had come straight from his work, in making comparisons of the samples of blood beneath his microscope. "There is no justification for it. It may very well be merely a difference in physiognomy, or an individual trait. I have said only there is the merest possibility, worthy of a trial - worthy of a small trial, with no expectations - " His protests were useless: she did not pause for a moment. He looked as though he would have liked to snatch away her pen.
"Nonsense; a little riot is just what we need," Jane said, without even looking up, "and you will write the most damned encouraging report ever seen, if you please; you will give no excuses to the Admiralty."
"I am not speaking to the Admiralty at present," Keynes said, "and I do not care to give unfounded hopes. In all likelihood, he has never had the disease - it is some natural resistance, unique to his breed; and the cold which he suffered last year merely coincidence."
The hope was indeed a very tenuous one. Temeraire had been ill en route to China, briefly, the sickness settling itself out of hand after little more than a week in Capetown, and so dismissed at the time and afterwards as a mere trifling cold. Only his present resistance to the disease had given Keynes the suspicion that the illnesses might perhaps have been one and the same. But even if he were not mistaken, there might be no cure; if there were a cure, it might not be easily found; if it were found, still it might not be brought back in time to save many of the sick.
"And it is by no means the least likely possibility," Keynes added peevishly, "that there may be no curative agent whatsoever; many a consumptive has found a temporary relief in warmer climes."
"Whether the climate or the waters or the food, I do not care two pins; if I must ship every dragon in England to Africa by boat to take the cure, you may be sure I will do it," Jane said. "I am almost as glad to find some cause to lift our spirits again as for the chance of a cure, and you will do nothing to depress them again," Little hope riches enough to those who until lately had none, and worth pursuing with every means at hand. "Laurence, you and Temeraire must go, though I hate to give you up again," she added, handing him his orders, hastily written and scarcely legible, "but we must rely on him to remember best whatever might have suited his taste, and be the foundation of the cure. The ferals come along as well as could be hoped, thank Heavens, and with this latest spy captured, perhaps we will be lucky, and Bonaparte will not be in such a hurry to send good dragons after bad.
"And I am sending along all your formation," she continued. "They are in urgent need, having been among the first to