through the threadbare shirt and piercing to the skin. He did not mind in the least, except to wish they might go quicker still; he resented now every mile remaining.
Goodrich Castle swelled up before them, on its hill, and Hollin put out the signal-flags as they flashed by: courier, with orders, and the fort's signal-gun fired in acknowledgment, already falling behind them.
The mountains were growing nearer, and nearer, and as the sun began to set Elsie came over the final sharp ridge and over the broad packed-earth feeding grounds, stained dark with much blood, and the cliffs full of dragon-holes. She landed. The cattle pen was empty, its wide door standing open. There were no lights and no sound. There was not a dragon anywhere to be seen.
Chapter 4
OVERNIGHT, ICICLES HAD grown upon the overhang of the cave, a row of glittering teeth, and now as the sun struck they steadily dripped themselves away upon the stone, an uneven pattering without rhythm or sense. Temeraire opened his eyes, once in a while, dully to watch them shrink back away towards the edge; then he closed his eyes and put his head down. No one had further proposed his removal, or disturbed him.
A scrabbling of claws made him look up; a small dragon had landed on the ledge, and Lloyd was sliding down from its back - "Come now then," Lloyd said, tramping in, his boots ringing and smearing field-muck on the clean stone. "Come now, old boy, why such a fuss, today? We have a lovely visitor waiting - a nice fat bullock will set you up - "
Temeraire had never very much wanted to kill anyone, except of course anyone who tried to hurt Laurence; he liked to fight well enough, as it was exciting, but he had never thought that he would like to kill anyone just for himself. Only, in this moment it seemed to him he would much rather anything than have Lloyd before him, speaking so, when Laurence was dead.
"Be silent," he said, and when Lloyd continued, without a pause, " - the very best put aside for you special, tonight - " Temeraire stretched out his neck and put his head directly before Lloyd and said, low, "My captain is dead."
That at least meant something to Lloyd: he went white and stopped talking; he held himself very still. Temeraire watched him closely. It was almost disappointing. If only Lloyd would say something else dreadful, or do something foul as he always did; if only - but Laurence would not like it - Laurence would not have liked it - Temeraire drew in a long hissing breath, and drew his head back, curling in upon himself again, and Lloyd sagged in relief.
"Why, there's been some mistake," he said, after a moment, his voice only a few shades less hearty. "I've heard nothing, old boy, word would've been sent me - "
It made Temeraire angry all over again but differently; that sharp strange feeling was dulled, and now he felt quite tired, and wished only for Lloyd to be gone away.
"I dare say you would tell me he were alive, if he had been hanged at Tyburn," he said, bitterly, "only as long as it made me eat, and mate, and listen to you; well, I will not. I have borne it, I would have borne anything, only to keep Laurence alive; I will bear it no longer. I will eat when I like, and not otherwise, and I will not mate with anyone unless I choose." He looked at the little dragon who had brought Lloyd up and said, "Now take him away, if you please; and tell the others I do not want him brought again without asking first."
The little dragon bobbed his head nervously, and picked up the startled and protesting Lloyd to carry him down again. Temeraire closed his eyes and coiled himself again, with the drip-drip-drip of the icicles his only company.
A few hours later, Perscitia and Moncey landed on the cave ledge with a studied air of insouciance, carrying two fresh-killed cows. They brought them inside, in front of him. "I am not hungry," Temeraire said sharply.
"Oh, we only told Lloyd they was for you so he would let us have extra," Moncey said cheerfully. "You don't mind if we eat them here?" and he tore into the first one. Temeraire's tail twitched, entirely without volition, at the hot juicy smell of the blood, and when Perscitia nudged the