Tongues of Serpents Page 0,105
permanent sort stood upon the shore all looked to be of the Chinese style, amongst which however the peripatetic natives seemed to be entirely comfortable: there were several younger men, hunters, bringing in game to cooking-pits; and women could be seen working in the enormous courtyard of the pavilion, and also peering down with interest at the ceremony.
If the Chinese gentlemen found the act objectionable, they concealed their feelings, and having risen from the sand invited them into the pavilion, where Laurence halted on the threshold, dismayed: a Yellow Reaper, perhaps a week old, was sleeping comfortably on the stone beside a small fountain, and there were several native women sitting beside it and working with some rocks.
"Oh, here you are," the dragonet said, lifting its head, and turning said something to one of the women in what sounded like their tongue. "I am Tharunka," the dragonet added, and a little critically, "you have been quite a long time coming after me."
"So long as you are hatched, I do not see you have anything to complain of," Temeraire said, having put his head inside the pavilion. "Who are these people, and what did they mean by taking you, I would like to know?"
"These are the Larrakia," the dragonet said, "who had me from the Pitjantjatjara, who had me from the Wiradjuri; and pray do not be angry, for they needed me quite badly. You see, we are sending goods so far that all the directions are in different languages for all the different tribes, and of course all of you in Sydney, and there is no one who can speak to all of them; but now I can, as I have heard them all in the shell," she finished, with some complacency, "and I am learning Chinese, too, as much as I can; and they have given me a great many jewels."
"Where?" Iskierka instantly demanded, and Tharunka nosed over a large basket, filled near to the brim with glowing, burnished opals, and the women working around her were polishing still more.
"I do not see much use in just a basket of jewels," Temeraire said later, in private, drinking a bowl of light fragrant tea prescribed for its cooling properties. "If one had them strung, on gold wire perhaps, there might be something to admire; one cannot wear a basket. At least, not without looking silly."
"Well, I want some," Iskierka said. "I like the way they shine, the dark ones. Granby, I am sorry we did not bring more gold with us; do you think there are any prizes we might take, hereabouts?"
Granby very emphatically did not.
The chief of the outpost was Jia Zhen, a gentleman of perhaps thirty years of age, young for so isolated a position of responsibility, and full of energy; he had presented to them with earnest satisfaction all the details of the pavilion, established for the comfort of dragon visitors, and beside it across the courtyard stood a large and comfortable house in the Chinese style, offering an excellent prospect upon the harbor.
Laurence disliked extremely feeling inadequate to his social occasions, and all the more so that the Chinese might have expected him, by the grace of his rank, to be more versed than he was; but the courtesies had baffled him in his short stay at the Imperial court, and he had not improved in the intervening time. He did not know how to tactfully inquire after their purpose in being here, nor how far that purpose went: did they think to establish a colony of their own? It did not seem very probable - the Chinese did not have anything like a merchant marine; the little junk in the harbor looked to him a wallowing death-trap, and he was astonished they should have survived the journey: a matter of sheerest luck.
"I suppose you could not have been very comfortable: it must be two thousand miles of ocean and more," Laurence said to Jia, doubtfully.
"The journey was tiresome, of course," Jia agreed, "two weeks nearly without land! But one must endure," which became comprehensible to them that afternoon, watching as the great-winged dragon came in landing before the pavilion, and yawned hugely before dipping her head to the courtyard's fountain to drink.
"They cannot colonize very well by dragon, at least," Laurence said, after a dismayed silence: two weeks to China! He did not suppose one could make it in under two months by sea, even if the monsoon were cooperating.
"No," Granby said judiciously, peering down