Tongues of Serpents Page 0,74

"we all do; listen!" The dragonet, breathing, was quite audible from across the camp; long effortful hissing breaths, which distended its sides. "And the captain wasn't looking to save it for himself, was he? Only he'll go through fire if he thinks he ought to; he's churchy. You aren't; so I think you are a perfect selfish beast," she added, and stalked away.

"I am not!" Demane said, and looked up at Temeraire. "He might not die," he demanded.

"Well, I do not see any reason he should die," Temeraire said; he was not at all inclined to see the hatchling die, it would be very distressing, "except I do not quite know what he is to do for food, if he should ever have to hunt for himself."

"I can hunt for him," Demane said.

"And he is so very small, that perhaps he will not take a great deal of feeding," Temeraire agreed, and added encouragingly, with a burst of inspiration, "and perhaps he will turn out to be a scholar, and not need to fly at all - or a poet."

Demane did not look very happy at this suggestion; it was always a little difficult to persuade him to sit to his books, and he was already grown deeply disappointed in his brother, who could hardly be got away from them. Temeraire felt however that he had hit upon an ideal solution, "and after all," he said to Laurence, "I do not find that anyone asks a fresh-hatched egg to hunt, when it is a person; Harcourt's egg could only lie about and flap its arms and wail, and at least Kulingile can speak, and eat without someone else putting food into his mouth a bit at a time."

On this philosophy, he tried to begin teaching Kulingile his characters, when he had woken up, but Kulingile only pulled in his wheezing breath and said, "But I am hungry."

"It is only two hours since you ate," Temeraire said, "you cannot be hungry again."

"I am hungry," Kulingile repeated sadly.

"Well, at least learn these first five," Temeraire said, with a sigh, "and then you may have some lizard."

Kulingile looked at the scratched characters, then looked up and said, "I have learned them."

"You have not," Temeraire said, and swept the marks clean from the dirt with the smooth curve of his talon. "Draw them over," but he was forced to yield in the end, for the long claws would not allow Kulingile to write.

So Kulingile was permitted to devour two - three - of the large lizards, which had been cut up and preserved, earlier. Caesar watched disapprovingly, and Temeraire himself could not be exceedingly happy to see them go. He liked the flavor extremely, but he could not at present enjoy very much of it: his throat ached unpleasantly if he tried to eat anything that was not very soft, and the water tasted still ashy and bitter, even where it had been filtered into the small hollow. Anything which Gong Su had tried to stew for him was tainted with the flavor. He ate as much as he could bear, until the worst demands of hunger were satisfied, but sadly that left a great deal of room in his belly afterwards; he would have been glad to look forward to something better, when he could eat again, but at this rate Kulingile would have eaten up all the salted meat before anyone else could have more than a bite.

"I am very ready to go," Temeraire said, however, when Laurence asked: Temeraire could not help but feel that the egg must be found very soon, or not at all, and now that there was no other to worry about, his duty was clear; and oh, he so wished to redeem himself - he had almost thought, for an instant, when Laurence had talked of feeding the hatchling -

Well, it did not bear thinking of; Laurence had said everything which could be reassuring, and he had not after all done it - his explanations were entirely sensible, and after all, Temeraire could not really think that anyone would prefer Kulingile to himself, no matter what; Kulingile was very small, even if he did not mean to die. But, Temeraire could not help but be conscious - he had already lost Laurence his fortune, and his rank, and his home; to conclude that sequence by losing, also, an egg -

"I do feel almost perfectly recovered, Laurence," he said, strongly. "I know I do not