Tongues of Serpents Page 0,89

himself onward, little by little, and they dug around the ends of his wings to free them. Then around the hindquarters, as little by little he crawled the rest of the way out and crumpled exhausted upon the solid ledge of rock, free at last, and caked thickly with red sand dried onto him by the sun.

"Oh, how tired I am," he said, and closed his eyes; they were united in thirst and hunger, but exhaustion commanded still more of their spirit, and the men were dropping where they stood.

Laurence sat down and leaned against Temeraire's side, heedless of the red sand crumbling over his coat, and closed his eyes; then he opened them again, and looked up as Iskierka came spiraling down from the clouds and demanded, "Whatever have you been doing? You are all over sand; and where is the egg? You might have found it again by now."

Chapter 12

ISKIERKA DID at least go hunting for them, when she had understood what had happened, and helped to dig a channel from the quicksand pit which drained the water into a rock basin, where they might drink; so she was not useless, but she was still inclined to be critical and particularly of their having lost the trail.

Temeraire informed her with some asperity that he would have liked to see her do better, with a firestorm and a typhoon to be managed, all at once - if it had not precisely been a typhoon, it seemed far too mild to call it only a thunderstorm, and not at all reflective of the experience - and added, "And there was the third egg to be managed, also, at the time."

"Which was nowhere near as good an egg," Iskierka said disapprovingly, "as anyone could tell, only looking at it, and now you see what has come of it. Finish eating and hurry up, then, as we are bringing you along," she added to Kulingile, "which I do not understand."

Kulingile could not really be accused of eating slowly: he was taking everything which had been left, in gulps the very limit of his capacity. His sides had collapsed into their odd folds again only a little while after they had first swelled out; but twice more during the effort they had inflated and then crumpled once more. Demane was anxious, but it did not seem to have hurt the dragonet, Temeraire thought; at least, Dorset had not said anything dire, though he had examined Kulingile closely afterwards.

"So he might yet fly, after all, even if he cannot just yet," Temeraire said. "I did not always have the divine wind. Anyway, Laurence wished it: it would be immoral to leave him behind, as I understand it."

"I don't see what morality has to do with carrying about someone who cannot fly," Iskierka said.

"We have been carried about by the Allegiance, ourselves, when we could not have flown all the way," Temeraire said, "and if we did leave him, he would have to starve, as he cannot hunt; or what if those bunyips tried to snatch him? He was small enough, when he hatched, that they might have managed it."

"I don't see why you always want to dwell on and on about what will happen with things that are properly none of your affair, and far away," Iskierka said, dismissively.

Even Granby, to Temeraire's dismay, did not seem to wholly approve; he looked wincingly at Kulingile, and Temeraire overheard him saying, to Forthing, "I don't need to be told how it was: I am sure Rankin was a brute about it, and set his back up instead of explaining properly; I only wish I had been here sooner."

To Laurence he made no reproach directly, but said with excessive heartiness, "Well, one never knows in these cases what may happen, after all; although, we cannot be too slow - Riley can give us a little more time, he must wait for something to do with the monsoon, but - although, it is just as well, for there was still no news from England about Bligh, so perhaps ..." and then trailed off in a very awkward way, and began instead to speak of the bunyips.

It was very irritating, and Temeraire was still tired, and sore; there was sand everywhere sand could be, and nothing like enough water to be properly washed, or even to drink as much as he liked; so he was by no means in a happy mood as the men boarded him again.