Tongues of Serpents Page 0,33

advise you keep your purses close when you are coming back."

Though they were nearly one and all a little intoxicated, and the hour early enough to yet be dark when they had been marched up to the promontory, the convicts balked at dragon transport, seeing Temeraire's head swinging towards them through the foggy dimness, and were inclined to withdraw at once.

"It's more than you can ask a man," one almost fragile, reedy-voiced fellow said: Jack Telly, sad-eyed and disappointed in his face, his stunted person incongruous with the aggression of his protest. "I can swing a pick all day and all night, and will, too, but I ain't to be thrown in a dragon's belly without so much as a by-your-leave."

The general agreement with this sentiment resisted all logic and was only overcome with sufficient doses of rum and cajolery to leave the men in a more or less stupefied state - not unlike the methods used for transporting cattle, Laurence with some resignation noted - before they could at last be marched aboard. Green alone refused the bribery, with a shake of his head when offered a glass; he was one of the convicts who had only lately been brought over in the Allegiance, and climbed aboard rather with no confidence but a stoic resignation: as though he did not care very greatly if he were to be fed to a dragon.

Forthing saw the loading managed efficiently under Temeraire's darkling gaze and said, "I believe we are ready, Mr. Laurence," a little stiffly but without open discourtesy: Granby, Laurence thought, had made him a few pointed remarks, on the subject of his prospects and how likely these were to be advanced through behavior which should irritate the dragon overseeing the remaining eggs that were all his hope of promotion.

"The eggs are quite secure?" Temeraire said, nosing down at his own belly, where they had been snugged in: he had utterly refused to leave them behind, even in Riley's care.

"No: for Bligh is still aboard the ship," Temeraire had said, "and apart from any other mischief he might do them, if one should hatch, I should not be at all surprised if Bligh should try and take it for himself, since Rankin is not going to oblige him after all. I would not worry ordinarily, but plainly the sea-voyage has affected the eggs badly: that is the only explanation for Caesar, in my opinion," with great disapproval.

"Pray be sure that the little one is in properly," Temeraire added now. "It would be quite dreadful if it were to slip out."

"The netting is tight, and the padding will not shift," Laurence said, pulling against the thick hawsers of the belly-netting with his hand, and leaning his weight against it, without much yielding. "And we cannot have any fear of the temperature falling too far. Try away, if you will."

Temeraire reared himself up on his hindquarters and shook; not with quite the usual vigor, as he had too much care for the eggs, but enough to be sure nothing was ready to tumble free or break loose. "All lies well," he said.

"If you are quite ready," Iskierka said, "perhaps we might leave in reasonable time, instead of sitting about for hours."

"Some of us," Temeraire returned smartly, "are carrying things, instead of being quite useless; and if you would not mind being careless with the eggs, I would."

Iskierka could not easily be used for transport: her spikes, which jetted steam almost perpetually, rendered her hazardous to all but trained men and packages securely wrapped in oilcloth; so she was a good deal more unburdened, carrying only Granby and her makeshift skeleton crew.

"I don't see why we must be in such a hurry," Caesar said, disconsolately, to take the opposing position; he was not inclined to do much of anything yet but sleep and eat, in the way of new hatchlings, and did not seem much affected by the boredom which had rendered Iskierka an imminent danger. "We might leave tomorrow; or when it is less hot."

"That," Temeraire said, "will not be for three months; now stop complaining, and let us be off."

For all the apprehension of difficulty and tedium, Laurence could not yet repress a sensation of pleasure in climbing aboard Temeraire's back, the familiar and solid snap of the metal carabiners locking in his hands, securely fixed on to the harness-rings; the sense of a crew, however small, moving about behind him; other beasts in company. And then the great coiling leap