Empire of Ivory Page 0,90

somewhere, where it could come in upon us?"

"No, no," Dorset said. "The dung has been spread. Deliberately," he added, seeing their confusion. "These are cultivated."

"What, do you mean men, farming the things?" Chenery said. "What the devil would a person want with the nasty stuff?"

"Did you say there was dragon dung?" Laurence said, and a shadow falling over the mouth of the cave drew their attention outside: two more dragons landing, smaller creatures but sleek, wearing harness made of ropes, and a dozen men armed with assegai, leaping down off their sides.

The new arrivals all stayed well out of rifle-range, conferring. After a little while, one of them came towards the entry cautiously and shouted something in at them. Laurence looked at Erasmus, who shook his head uncomprehending and turned to his wife; she was staring out the door. She had her handkerchief pressed over her mouth and nostrils to hold out the smell, but she lowered it and edging a little closer called back, haltingly. "They say to come out, I think."

"Oh, certainly." Chenery was rubbing his face against his sleeve; some grit had entered his eyes. "I am sure they would like it of all things; you may tell them to - "

"Gentlemen," Laurence said, breaking in hastily, since Chenery had evidently forgotten his audience, "these are no ferals after all, plainly, but under harness; and if we have trespassed upon the cultivated grounds of these men, we are in the wrong: we ought make amends if we can."

"What a wretched mischance," Harcourt said, agreeing. "We should have been perfectly happy to pay for the damned things, after all. Ma'am, will you come out and speak to them with us? We should of course understand if you do not wish it," she added, to Mrs. Erasmus.

"A moment," Warren said, low and cautiously, catching at Harcourt's sleeve. "Let us remember that we have never heard of anyone coming through the interior; couriers have been lost, and expeditions, and how many settlements have we heard tell of, destroyed, in just this region north of the Cape? If the dragons are not feral, then these men have been responsible, viciously responsible; we are not to rely on their character."

Mrs. Erasmus looked at her husband. He said, "If we do not conciliate them, there will surely be battle when your dragons come back, for they will attack in fear for your safety. It is our Christian duty to make peace, if it can be done," and she nodded and said softly, "I will go."

"I believe I am senior, gentlemen," Warren said, "as our dragons are not here," a specious claim, as precedence in the Corps went by dragon-rank regardless, with no such qualifier involved, outside flag-rank. Coming from the Navy, with its rigid adherence to seniority, Laurence had often found the system confusing if not outright maddening, but it was a pragmatic concession to reality: dragons had their own native hierarchies, and in nature the twenty-year-old handler of a Regal Copper had more authority, on the battlefield, over the instinctive obedience of other dragons, than did a thirty-year veteran on the back of a Winchester.

"Pray let us have no nonsense - " Harcourt began impatiently, when her first lieutenant Hobbes broke in to say, "It is all a hum; you shan't go at all, none of you, and you ought know better," a little reproachfully. "Myself and Lieutenant Ferris shall escort the parson and his lady, with their permission, and if all goes well, we will try and bring one of the fellows back here, to speak with you."

Laurence could not like the arrangement in the least, but for its keeping Catherine out of harm's way, but the other captains looked guilty and did not argue. They cleared back from the entrance, the riflemen covering the open ground from either side. Mrs. Erasmus cupped her hands over her mouth and called a warning, then Hobbes and Ferris stepped out, one after another, cautiously, each with a pistol held muzzle-down and ready, swords loosened on their belts.

The strangers had stood back again, spears held lightly, the tips pointing towards the ground, but gripped ready to pull back and let fly. They were tall men, all of them, with close-cropped heads and very dark coloring, skin so deep black it had almost a bluish cast in the sunlight. They were dressed very scantily, in loincloths of a remarkable deep purple, decorated in a running fringe with what looked like gold beads, and wore thin