as far as that goes," Temeraire said, "I must say I do not see why it is just that I should be left behind, when Iskierka is not; for you cannot argue she is any more obedient to the Government than I am. But I do see the point: eggs are not always being stolen, and I am sure she would be tiresome again as soon as we had it back; and I dare say wanting to eat all the cows. For that matter, we ought to send Caesar back, also, I suppose?"
He finished hopefully, but this, of course, was by no means desirable: keeping Caesar and Rankin from interference in the colony's affairs was no longer their most pressing concern, but that scarcely meant they now wished to encourage it; and Caesar was not leaving with the Allegiance, in any case.
"We might go," Granby said reluctantly, "and come back, if you would build some cairns to show us which way you have gone. It isn't as though you would be moving very quickly, chasing a bunch of fellows traveling on foot: thirty miles in a day must be their utmost limit. We could catch you up if Riley thinks he can give us the time: I suppose he wouldn't mind that new mast, or at least it is an excuse. At this rate we will be chasing these fellows clear across the country, anyway, and we might well meet him on the other side, if he goes sailing around."
They did not immediately settle on this course: Iskierka continued to resist, and then there was the question of the convicts, and what was to be done with them. The men themselves were all for being taken back to Sydney, or at the least returned to the comfortable valley; Granby did not wish to leave Laurence so deserted.
"I know one can't call them reliable," he said, "but they are hands, and if you do find these fellows who have the egg, and need to work it away from them, you may need more than just your own and Temeraire's. It's precious easy to keep a dragon pinned down if you have an egg it is brooding: a little child could make Temeraire come to heel like a well-trained hound, with nothing more than a rock. And," he added in an undertone, "Rankin mayn't be good company, and he is a bounder, but in justice one can't call him a coward."
Rankin did not immediately offer his own opinion; Laurence was a little surprised to find him consulting quietly with Caesar, away to one side - he could scarcely have imagined an aviator less likely to inquire after a dragon's wishes. But Caesar's interests were the only ones aligned with Rankin's, of their company, which perhaps had driven him to such straits; and having conceded so far, no one could deny Caesar a great deal of sharpness, if he was too ungenerous for wisdom.
"Certainly I am not leaving," Rankin said, at length returning, when Granby pressed him. "If you are going, Captain Granby, I must necessarily assume command of the search; the recovery of the egg is our highest duty, and there can be no question of our returning to Sydney at present," by which he likely meant no value in finding himself again awkwardly committed to Bligh. "As for the men, for my part, you had better take this lot and deposit them back on the sufferance of the colony; they will hardly be of much use to us."
"Well, sir," O'Dea said to Laurence, "I do not mean to be quarrelsome, but we were offered our liberty for cutting a road: and I don't suppose we will get the one without the other."
"Those who wish to remain, and carry out their service, may," Laurence said. "Any man who prefers to return to the security of the colony, likewise; I prefer no unwilling hands."
Temeraire sighed a little, watching Iskierka go, after a great deal of urgent persuasion from Granby and only with the promise of returning, within the narrowest span of time. "And she is flying flat-out," he said, "and on quite a straight course; none of this tiresome sweeping. I do not suppose Tharkay might be able to make out their trail a little better, now that he knows they are natives and not smugglers, so we might not have to go hunting quite so wide?"
"First," Laurence said, "we must have water."
Water they might not have, however; not easily. The trees were