Empire of Ivory (45 page)

had lately been driven up the Channel by a gale.

The Allegiance had now the advantage of sailing to head

them off, rather than directly in their train. Riley said,

"We may as well keep on them a little while longer," with

studied calm, and put the ship after them, much to the

unspoken but evident satisfaction of the crew: if only the

other ship, which as yet they could not see, were fast

enough! Even a single frigate might do, imbued by the near

and awful presence of the Allegiance with greater force,

and so long as the Allegiance was on the horizon at the

climax of the chase, she should have a share in any prize

taken.

They searched the ocean anxiously, sweeping with their

glasses, without success; until Nitidus, who had been

jumping aloft at intervals, landed and said breathlessly,

"It is not a ship; it is dragons."

They strained to see, but the oncoming specks were lost

among the clouds, nearly all the time. But they were

certainly coming fast, and before the hour had closed, the

convoy had altered their course yet again: they were now

trying only to get under cover of some French gun

emplacement along the coast, risking the danger of running

for a lee-shore with the wind behind them. The Allegiance

had closed the distance to some thirty miles.

"Now may we go?" Temeraire said, looking around; all the

dragons were thoroughly roused, and though crouched to keep

from checking the ship's way, they had their heads craned

up on their necks, fixed intently upon the chase.

Laurence closed up his glass and turning said, "Mr. Ferris,

the fighting crew to go aboard, if you please." Emily held

out her hand for the glass, to carry it away; Laurence

looked down at her and said, "When you are finished,

Roland, I hope you and Dyer may be of use to Lieutenant

Ferris, on the lookouts."

"Yes, sir," she said, in almost a breathless squeak, and

dashed to stow the glass; Calloway gave her and Dyer each a

pistol, and Fellowes their harnesses a tug, before the two

of them scrambled aboard.

"I do not see why I must go last," Maximus said petulantly,

while Temeraire and Lily's crews scrambled aboard; Dulcia

and Nitidus already aloft, Messoria and Immortalis to make

ready next.

"Because you are a great mumping lummox and there is no

damned room to rig you out until the deck is cleared away,"

Berkley said. "Sit quiet and they will be off all the

sooner."

"Pray do not finish all the fighting until I am there,"

Maximus called after them, his deep bellow receding and

growing faint with the thunder of their passage; Temeraire

was stretching himself, outdistancing the others, and for

once Laurence did not mean to check him. With support so

near at hand, there was every reason to take advantage of

his speed; they needed only to harry and delay the convoy a

little while in order to bring up all the pursuit, which

should certainly make the enemy shipping strike.

But Temeraire had only just reached the convoy when the

clouds above the leading frigate went abruptly boiling away

in a sudden blazing eruption like cannon-fire, and through

the unearthly ochre glow, Iskierka came diving down, her

spikes dragging ragged shreds of mist and smoke along

behind her, and shot a flamboyant billowing arc of flame

directly across the ship's bows. Arkady and the ferals came

pouring after her, yowling fit for a nuisance of cats, and

went streaking up and down the length of the convoy,

hooting and shrilling, quite in range of the ships' guns;

but what looked like recklessness was not so, for they were

going by so swiftly that only the very merest chance could

have allowed a hit, and the force of their wings set all

the sails to shivering.

"Oh," Temeraire said doubtfully, as they went dashing

crazily past him, and paused to hover. Iskierka meanwhile

was flying in coiled circles over the frigate, yelling down

at them to strike, to strike, or she would burn them all up

to a tinder, only see if she would not; and she jetted off

another burst of flame for emphasis, directly into the

water, which set up a monstrous hissing pillar of steam.

The colors came promptly down, and meekly the rest of the

convoy followed suit. Where Laurence would have expected

the lack of prize-crews to pose many difficulties, there

were none: the ferals at once busily and in a practiced

manner set about herding the prizes as skillfully as

sheepdogs tending their flock, snapping at the wheelmen,

and nudging them by the bows to encourage them to turn

their heads for England. The littlest of the ferals, like

Gherni and Lester, landed on the ships directly, terrifying

the poor sailors almost mortally.

"Oh, it is all her own notion," Granby said ruefully,

shaking Laurence's hand, on the bow of the Allegiance; when

that vessel had met them halfway and traveling now in

company they had resumed their course for Dover. "She

refused to see why the Navy ought to get all the prizes;

and I am afraid she has suborned those damned ferals. I am

sure she has them secretly flying the Channel at night

looking for prizes, without reporting them, and when they

tell her of one, she pretends she has just taken it into

her head to go in such and such a direction. They are as

good as any prize-crew ever was; the sailors are all as

meek as maids, with one of them aboard."

The remainder of the ferals were aloft, singing lustily

together in their foreign tongue, and larking about with

satisfaction. Iskierka however had crammed herself in among

the formation, and in particular had seized the place along

the starboard rail where Temeraire preferred to nap. She

was no small addition: having gained her full growth in the

intervening months since they had seen her, she was now

enormously long and sprawling, the heavy coils of her

serpentine body at least as long as Temeraire, and draped

over anything which happened to be in her way, most

inconveniently.

"There is not enough room for you," Temeraire said

ungraciously, nosing away the coil which she had deposited

upon his back, and picking up his foot out of the other

which was slithering around it. "I do not see why you

cannot fly back to Dover."

"You may fly to Dover if you like," Iskierka said, flicking

the tip of her tail dismissively. "I have flown all

morning, and anyway I am going to stay with my prizes. Look

how many of them there are," she added, exultant.

"They are all our prizes," Temeraire said.

"As it is the rule, I suppose we must share with you," she

said, with an air of condescension, "but you did nothing

except come late, and watch," a remark which Temeraire

rather instinctively felt the justice of, than disputed,

and he hunched down to sulk over the situation in silence.

Iskierka nudged him. "Look how fine my captain is," she

added, to heap on coals of fire; and much to poor Granby's

embarrassment: he was indeed a little ridiculously fine,

gold-buttoned and-beringed, and the sword at his waist also

hilted in gold, with a great absurd diamond at the pommel,

which he did his best to conceal with his hand.

"She fusses for days, if I will not, every time she takes

another prize," Granby muttered, crimson to the ears.

"How many has she taken?" Laurence said, rather dubiously.

"Oh-five, since she set about it in earnest, some of them

strings like this one," Granby said. "They strike to her

right off, as soon as she gives them a bit of flame; and we

have not a great deal of competition for them: I do not

suppose you know, we have not been able to hold the

blockade."

They exclaimed over this news with alarm. "It is the French

patrols," Granby said. "I don't know how, but I would swear

they have another hundred dragons more than they ought, on

the coast; we cannot account for them. They only wait until

we are out of sight, and then they go for the ships on

blockade: dropping bombs, and as we haven't enough dragons

well yet to guard at all hours, the Navy must stand shipand-ship, to fend them off. It is a damned good thing you

have come home."

"Five prizes," Temeraire said, very low, and his temper was

not improved when they reached Dover, where upon a jutting

promontory above the cliffs Iskierka now had a large

pavilion made of blackened stone, sweating from the

exhalations of her spines and surely over-warm in the

summer heat. Temeraire nevertheless regarded it with

outrage, particularly after she had smugly arranged herself

upon the threshold, her coils of vivid red and violet

displayed to advantage against the stone, and informed him

that he was very welcome to sleep there, if he should feel

at all uncomfortable in his clearing.

He swelled up and said very coolly, "No, I thank you," and

retreating to his own clearing did not even resort to the

usual consolation, of polishing his breastplate, but only

curled his head beneath his wing and sulked.

Chapter 14

Thousands Slain! Cape Coast Destroyed!

Louanda and Benguela Burnt!

It will require yet some time before a complete Accounting

will render final all the worst fears of Kin and Creditors

alike, throughout these Isles, as to the extent of the

Disaster, which has certainly encompassed the Wreck of

several of our foremost citizens, for the destruction of

many of their Interests, and left us to mourn without

certain knowledge the likely Fate of our brave Adventurers

and our noble Missionaries. Despite the territorial

Questions, associated with the War with France, which

lately made us Enemies, the deepest Sympathies must be

extended now across the Channel to those bereaved Families,

in the Kingdom of Holland, who in the Settlers at the Cape

Colony have lost in some cases all their nearest Relations.

All voices must be united in lamenting the most hideous and

unprovoked Assault imaginable, by a Horde of violent and

savage Beasts, egged on by the Jealousy of the native

Tribesmen, resentful of the rewards of honest Christian

labor...

LAURENCE FOLDED THE paper, from Bristol, and threw it

beside the coffee-pot, with the caricature facing

downwards: a bloated and snaggle-toothed creature labeled

Africa, evidently meant to be a dragon, and several

unclothed natives of grinning black visage prodding with

spears a small knot of women and children into its open

maw, while the pitiful victims uplifted their hands in

prayer and cried O Have You No Pity in a long banner

issuing from their mouths.

"I must go see Jane," he said. "I expect we will be bound

for London, this afternoon; if you are not too tired."

Temeraire was still toying with his last bullock, not quite

sure if he wanted it or not; he had taken three, greedy

after the short commons of their voyage. "I do not mind

going," he said, "and perhaps we may go a little early, and

see our pavilion; there can be no reason not to go near the

quarantine-grounds now, surely."

If they did not bring the first intelligence of the

wholesale disaster in Africa, having been preceded in their

flight by many a swifter vessel, certainly they carried the

best: before their arrival, no-one in England had any

notion of the identity of the mysterious and implacable foe

who had so comprehensively swept clean the African coast.

Laurence and Harcourt and Chenery had of course written

dispatches, describing their experiences, and handed them

on to a frigate which had passed them off Sierra Leone, and

to another in Madeira; but in the end, these had only

anticipated their arrival by a few days. In any case,

formal dispatches, even the lengthy ones produced over the

leisure of a month at sea, were by no means calculated to

satisfy the clamoring demands of Government for information

on so comprehensive a disaster.

Jane at least did not waste their time with a recounting of

the facts. "I am sure you will have enough of that before

their Lordships," she said. "You will both have to come,

and Chenery also; although perhaps I can beg you off,

Harcourt, if you like: under the circumstances."

"No, sir, thank you," Catherine said, flushing. "I should

prefer no special treatment."

"Oh, I will take all the special treatment we can get, with

both hands," Jane said. "At least it will make them give us

chairs, I expect; you look wretched."

Jane herself was much improved, from when Laurence had left

her; her hair was shot more thoroughly with silver, but her

face, better fleshed, showed all the effects of cares

lightened and a return to flying: a healthier wind-burnt

color in the cheek, and lips a little chapped. She frowned

at Catherine, who despite a perpetual lobsterish color from