Throne of Jade Page 0,68

by his buoyancy. "It is very pleasant," he called out. "The water is not cold at all, Laurence; will you not come in?"

Laurence was by no means a strong swimmer, and uneasy at the notion of leaping into the open ocean: they were a good mile out from the shore. But he took one of the ship's small boats and rowed himself out, to keep Temeraire company and to be sure the dragon did not over-tire himself after so much enforced idleness on deck. The skiff was tossed about a little by the waves resulting from Temeraire's frolics, and occasionally swamped, but Laurence had prudently worn only an old pair of breeches and his most threadbare shirt.

His own spirits were very low; the defeat at Austerlitz was not merely a single battle lost, but the overthrow of Prime Minister Pitt's whole careful design, and the destruction of the coalition assembled to stop Napoleon: Britain alone could not field an army half so large as Napoleon's Grande Armee, nor easily land it on the Continent, and with the Austrians and Russians now driven from the field, their situation was plainly grim. Even with such cares, however, he could not help but smile to see Temeraire so full of energy and uncomplicated joy, and after a little while he even yielded to Temeraire's coaxing and let himself over the side. Laurence did not swim very long but soon climbed up onto Temeraire's back, while Temeraire paddled himself about enthusiastically, and nosed the skiff about as a sort of toy.

He might shut his eyes and imagine them back in Dover, or at Loch Laggan, with only the ordinary cares of war to burden them, and work to be done which he understood, with all the confidence of friendship and a nation united behind them; even the present disaster hardly insurmountable, in such a situation: the Allegiance only another ship in the harbor, their familiar clearing a short flight away, and no politicians and princes to trouble with. He lay back and spread his hand open against the warm side, the black scales warmed by the sun, and for a little while indulged the fancy enough to drowse.

"Do you suppose you will be able to climb back aboard the Allegiance?" Laurence said presently; he had been worrying the problem in his head.

Temeraire craned his head around to look at him. "Could we not wait here on shore until I am well again, and rejoin the ship after?" he suggested. "Or," and his ruff quivered with sudden excitement, "we might fly across the continent, and meet them on the opposite side: there are no people in the middle of Africa, I remember from your maps, so there cannot be any French to shoot us down."

"No, but by report there are a great many feral dragons, not to mention any number of other dangerous creatures, and the perils of disease," Laurence said. "We cannot go flying over the uncharted interior, Temeraire; the risk cannot be justified, particularly not now."

Temeraire sighed a little at giving up this ambitious project, but agreed to make the attempt to climb up onto the deck; after a little more play he swam back over to the ship, and rather bemused the waiting sailors by handing the skiff up to them, so they did not have to haul her back aboard. Laurence, having climbed up the side from Temeraire's shoulder, held a huddled conference with Riley. "Perhaps if we let the starboard sheet anchor down as a counterweight?" he suggested. "That with the best bower ought to keep her steady, and she is already loaded heavy towards the stern."

"Laurence, what the Admiralty will say to me if I get a transport sunk on a clear blue day in harbor, I should not like to think," Riley said, unhappy at the notion. "I dare say I should be hanged, and deserve it, too."

"If there is any danger of capsizing, he can always let go in an instant," Laurence said. "Otherwise we must sit in port a week at least, until Keynes is willing to grant him leave to fly again."

"I am not going to sink the ship," Temeraire said indignantly, poking his head up over the quarterdeck rail and entering into the conversation, much to Riley's startlement. "I will be very careful."

Though Riley was still dubious, he finally gave leave. Temeraire managed to rear up out of the water and get a grip with his foreclaws on the ship's side; the Allegiance listed