Empire of Ivory Page 0,46

take sick; if you bring them back well, which God willing, you can hold the Channel while we treat the others."

"Then I may see Maximus and Lily again, now," Temeraire said jubilantly, and would not wait, but insisted that they go at once: they had scarcely set down outside the barren clearing where Maximus slept, before Berkley came striding out to them and seizing Laurence by the arms nearly shook him, saying ferociously, "For God's sake, say it is true, and not some damned fairy-tale," and he turned aside and covered his face when Laurence gave his assent.

Laurence pretended not to see. "Temeraire, I believe your harness is loose, there over the left flank, will you look at it?" he said firmly, when Temeraire would have kept peering at Berkley's bowed shoulders.

"But Mr. Fellowes was working on it only last week," Temeraire said, diverted, nosing over it experimentally. He delicately took up a bit of the harness between his teeth and tugged on it. "No, it lies perfectly well; it does not feel the least bit loose at all."

"Here, let's have a look at you," Berkley interrupted brusquely, having mastered himself. "A good twelve feet more since you sailed away to China, no? And you look well, Laurence; I expected to see you ragged as a tinker."

"You would certainly have found me so, when we had first returned," Laurence answered, gripping his hand. He could not return any compliment; Berkley had put off some six stone of weight, at first glance, and it did not suit him; his jowls hung loose from his cheeks.

Maximus looked still more dreadfully altered, the great scaly red-and-gold hide sagging in folds around the base of the neck, and forward of his chest with the massive fretwork of his spine and shoulders holding it up like tent-poles, and what Laurence supposed to be the air-sacs swollen and bulging from his wasted sides. His eyes were slitted nearly shut, and a thin raspy noise of breathing issued from his cracked-open jaws, a trail of drool puddling beneath them; the nostrils were caked over with dried flaking effluvia.

"He will wake up in a bit, and be glad to see you both," Berkley said gruffly, "but I don't like to wake him when he can get any rest. The blasted cold will not let him sleep properly, and he don't eat a quarter of what he should."

Temeraire, having followed them into the clearing, made no sound, but crouched himself down, his neck curved back upon itself like a wary snake, and sat there utterly still, his wide unblinking gaze fixed on Maximus, who slept on, rasping, rasping. Laurence and Berkley conversed in low voices, discussing the sea-voyage. "Less than three months to the Cape," Laurence said, "to judge by our last voyage; and we had some fighting off the Channel to see us off, which did not speed matters."

"However long, better on a ship to some purpose than lying about like this, if we all drown at it," Berkley said. "We will be packed by morning, and the lummox will eat properly for once if I have to march the cows down his gullet."

"Are we going somewhere?" Maximus said sleepily, in a voice much thickened, and turned his head aside to cough low and deep, several times, and spit into a small leaf-covered pit dug for the purpose. He rubbed each of his eyes against his foreleg, in turn, to clear away the mucus, and then seeing Temeraire slowly brightened, his head rising. "You are back; was China very interesting?" he asked.

"It was, oh, it was, but," Temeraire burst out, "I am sorry I was not at home, while all of you were sick; I am so very sorry," and hung his head, miserably.

"Why it is only a cold," Maximus said, only to be interrupted by another bout of coughing, after which he added regardless, "I will be perfectly hearty soon, I am sure; only I am tired." He closed his eyes almost directly he had said this, and fell again into a light stupor.

"They have the worst of it," Berkley said heavily, seeing Laurence away; Temeraire had crept very quietly out of the clearing again, so they might go aloft without disturbing Maximus. "All the Regal Coppers. It is the damned weight; they do not eat, so they cannot keep up their muscle, and then one day they cannot breathe. Four lost already, and Laetificat will not see summer, unless we find your cure." He did not