Throne of Jade Page 0,24
fixed in his mind. "Roland, I have not the faintest idea what I said. Does Temeraire know that I am going with him?"
"Well, now he does, since Lenton told me after I came looking for you, but he certainly did not find it in here," she said, and gave him a piece of paper.
It was in his own hand, and with his signature, but wholly unfamiliar, and nonsensical:
Temeraire -
Never fear; I am going; the Son of Heaven will not tolerate delays, and Barham gives me leave. Allegiance will carry us! Pray eat something.
- L.
Laurence stared at it in some distress, wondering how he had come to write so. "I do not remember a word of it; but wait, no; Allegiance is the name of the transport, and Prince Yongxing referred to the Emperor as the Son of Heaven, though why I should have repeated such a blasphemous thing I have no idea." He handed her the note. "My wits must have been wandering. Pray throw it in the fire; go and tell Temeraire that I am quite well now, and will be with him again soon. Can you ring for someone to valet me? I need to dress."
"You look as though you ought to stay just where you are," Roland said. "No: lie quiet awhile. There is no great hurry at present, as far as I understand, and I know this fellow Barham wants to speak with you; also Lenton. I will go and tell Temeraire you have not died or grown a second head, and have Emily jog back and forth between you if you have messages."
Laurence yielded to her persuasions; indeed he did not truly feel up to rising, and if Barham wanted to speak with him again, he thought he would need to conserve what strength he had. However, in the event, he was spared: Lenton came alone instead.
"Well, Laurence, you are in for a hellishly long trip, I am afraid, and I hope you do not have a bad time of it," he said, drawing up a chair. "My transport ran into a three-days' gale going to India, back in the nineties; rain freezing as it fell, so the dragons could not fly above it for some relief. Poor Obversaria was ill the entire time. Nothing less pleasant than a sea-sick dragon, for them or you."
Laurence had never commanded a dragon transport, but the image was a vivid one. "I am glad to say, sir, that Temeraire has never had the slightest difficulty, and indeed he enjoys sea-travel greatly."
"We will see how he likes it if you meet a hurricane," Lenton said, shaking his head. "Not that I expect either of you have any objections, under the circumstances."
"No, not in the least," Laurence said, heartfelt. He supposed it was merely a jump from frying-pan to fire, but he was grateful enough even for the slower roasting: the journey would last for many months, and there was room for hope: any number of things might happen before they reached China.
Lenton nodded. "Well, you are looking moderately ghastly, so let me be brief. I have managed to persuade Barham that the best thing to do is pack you off bag and baggage, in this case your crew; some of your officers would be in for a good bit of unpleasantness, otherwise, and we had best get you on your way before he thinks better of it."
Yet another relief, scarcely looked for. "Sir," Laurence said, "I must tell you how deeply indebted I am - "
"No, nonsense; do not thank me." Lenton brushed his sparse grey hair back from his forehead, and abruptly said, "I am damned sorry about all this, Laurence. I would have run mad a good deal sooner, in your place; brutally done, all of it."
Laurence hardly knew what to say; he had not expected anything like sympathy, and he did not feel he deserved it. After a moment, Lenton went on, more briskly. "I am sorry not to give you a longer time to recover, but then you will not have much to do aboard ship but rest. Barham has promised them the Allegiance will sail in a week's time; though from what I gather, he will be hard put to find a captain for her by then."
"I thought Cartwright was to have her?" Laurence asked, some vague memory stirring; he still read the Naval Chronicle, and followed the assignments of ships; Cartwright's name stuck in his head: they had served together in