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"laurence, surely we can reach capetown from here, quicker than the ship can go," temeraire said at last, grown weary of the oppressive atmosphere. they were still nearly a month's sailing from that port, however, and the country too dangerous to risk a long overland passage. the interior of the continent was notoriously impenetrable and savage, and had without a trace swallowed whole parties of men; more than one courier-dragon tempted off the coastal route had likewise vanished. but the suggestion appealed, with its prospects of quitting sooner the unhappy conditions of the voyage, and advancing more quickly the crucial research which was their purpose.
laurence persuaded himself that he should not be derelict in going on early, once they should be near enough to make the flight one which might be accomplished in a day, if a strenuous one. with this incentive, temeraire was easily induced to eat properly and go for long and uninteresting circular flights around the ship, to build up his strength; and no one else raised objection to their departure. "if you are quite sure you will reach in safety," catherine said, with only the most obligatory reluctance; none of the aviators could help but share the urgent desire to have the work begun, now they were so close.
"you shall of course do as you please," riley said, when officially informed, without looking laurence in the face; and bent his head down again over his maps to pretend to be making calculations: a pretense which succeeded not at all, laurence being perfectly aware that riley could not do so much as a sum in his head without scratching it out on paper.
"i will not take all the crew," laurence told ferris, who looked dismal, but even he did not protest over-much. keynes and dorset would come, of course, and gong su: the cooks in the employ of prince yongxing, on their previous visit, had experimented with great enthusiasm on the local produce, which thus formed one of the surgeons' foremost hopes of reproducing the cure.
"do you suppose you can prepare these ingredients in the same way as they might have used?" laurence asked gong su.
"i am not an imperial chef!" gong su protested, and to laurence's dismay explained that the style of cooking in the south of china, whence he hailed, was entirely different. "i will try my poor best, but it is not to be compared; although northern cooking is not very good usually," he added, in a burst of parochialism.
roland and dyer came to be assistants to him, and run and fetch in the markets, their slight weight a negligible burden; for the rest, laurence packed aboard a chest of gold, and took little more baggage than his sword and pistols and a pair of clean shirts and stockings. "i do not feel the weight at all; i am sure i could fly for days," temeraire said, grown still more urgent: laurence had forced himself to let caution keep them back a full week, so they were now less than two hundred miles distant: still a desperately long single day's flight, but not an impossible one.
"if the weather holds until morning," laurence said.
one final invitation he made, which he did not think would be accepted, to reverend erasmus. "captain berkley begs me inform you he would be happy if you continued aboard as his guests," laurence said, rather more elegantly than berkley's, "yes, of course. damned formal nonsense; we are not going to put them overboard, are we?" could be said to have deserved. "but of course you are my personal guests, and welcome to join me, if you would prefer it."
"hannah, perhaps you would rather not?" erasmus said, looking to his wife.
she lifted her head from her small text on the native language, whose phrases she was forming silently with her mouth. "i do not mind," she said; and indeed climbed up to temeraire's back without any sign of alarm, settling the girls around her and chiding them firmly for their own anxiety.
"we will see you in capetown," laurence told ferris, and saluted harcourt; with one grateful leap they were gone, flying and flying over clean ocean, with a good fresh wind at their heels.
a day and a night of flying had seen them coming in over the bay at dawn: the flat-topped fortress wall of table mount standing dusty and golden behind the city, light spilling onto the striated rock face and the smaller jagged sentinel peaks to either side. the bustling town crammed full the crescent slice of level ground at the base of the slope, with the castle of good hope at its heart upon the shore, its outer walls forming a star-shape from above with the butter-yellow pentagon of the fort nested within, gleaming in the early morning as her cannon fired the welcoming salute to leeward.
the parade grounds where temeraire was lodged were beside the castle, only a few dragon-lengths from where the ocean came grumbling onto the sandy beach: a distance inconvenient when the wind was blowing too strongly at high tide, but which otherwise made a pleasant relief against the summer heat. although the courtyard enclosed within the fort itself was large enough to house a few dragons in times of emergency, it would not have made a comfortable situation, either for the soldiers stationed in the castle barracks, or for temeraire; and happily, the grounds had been much improved since their last visit breaking their journey to china. while the couriers no longer flew routes this far south, too remote for their failing strength, a fast frigate had been sent on ahead of the allegiance with dispatches to warn the acting-governor, lieutenant-general grey, both of their arrival and, secretly, of their urgent purpose. he had widened the grounds to house all the formation, and put up a low fence around.
"i am not afraid you will be pestered; but it may keep away prying eyes, and stifle some of this damned noise," he said to laurence, referring to the protests of the colonists at their arrival. "it is just as well that you have come on ahead: it will give them some time to get over the notion, before we have seven dragons all in a lump. the way they wail, you would think they had never heard of a formation at all."
grey had himself reached the cape only in january; he was the lieutenant-governor, and would soon be superceded by the arrival of the earl of caledon, so that his position, with all the awkwardness of a temporary situation, lacked a certain degree of authority; and he was much beset by cares not a little increased by their arrival. the townspeople disliked the british occupation, and the settlers, who had established their farms and estates farther out into the countryside and down the coast, despised it and indeed anything in the shape of government that would have interfered with their independence, which they considered dearly and sufficiently paid for by the risk which they ran, in pressing the frontier into the wild interior of the continent.
the advent of a formation of dragons was viewed by them all with the deepest suspicion, especially as they were not to be permitted to know the real purpose. thanks to much slave labor cheaply acquired, in the earlier years of the colony, the settlers had come to disdain manual labor for themselves and their families; and their farms and vineyards and herds had expanded to take advantage of the many hands which they could forcibly put to the work. slaves were not exported from the cape; they wanted rather more slaves than they could get: malay by preference, or purchased from west africa, but not disdaining, either, the unhappy servitude of the native khoi tribesmen, who if they were not precisely slaves were very little less constrained, and their wages unworthy of the term.
having thus arranged to be outnumbered, the colonists now exerted themselves to maintain the serenity of their establishments by harsh restrictions and an absolutely free hand with punishment. a resentment yet lingered that under the previous british government, the torture of slaves had been forbidden; on the further outskirts of the town might yet be observed the barbaric custom of leaving the corpse of a hanged slave upon his gibbet, as an illustrative example to his fellows of the cost of disobedience. the colonists were well informed, also, of the campaign against the trade, which they viewed with indignation as likely to cut them off from additional supply; and lord allendale's name was not unknown to them as a mover of the cause.
"and if that were not enough," grey said tiredly, when they had been in residence a few days, "you brought this damned missionary with you. now half the town thinks the slave trade has been abolished, the other half that their slaves are all to be set free at once and given license to murder them in their beds; and all are certain you are here to enforce it. i must ask you to present me to the fellow; he must be warned to keep more quiet. it is a miracle he has not been already stabbed in the street."
erasmus and his wife had taken over a small establishment of the london missionary society, lately abandoned by the death of its previous tenant, a victim of malarial fevers, and in far from an ordered state. there was neither a school nor a church building, yet, only a mortally plain little house, graced by a few depressed and straggling trees, and a bare plot of land around it meant for a vegetable-garden, where mrs. erasmus was presently laboring in the company of her daughters and several of the young native women, who were being shown how to stake tomato plants.
she stood up when laurence and grey came into view, and with a quiet word left the girls at work while she led the two of them inside the house: built in the dutch style, the walls made of thick clay, with broad wooden beams exposed above supporting the thatched roof. the windows and door all stood open to let air the smell of fresh whitewash; inside the house was only a single long room, divided into three, and erasmus was seated in the midst of a dozen native boys scattered around on the floor, showing them the letters of the alphabet upon a slate.
he rose to greet them and sent the boys outside to play, an eruption of gleeful yelling drifting in directly they had gone spilling out into the street, and mrs. erasmus disappeared into the kitchen, with a clatter of kettle and pot.
"you are very advanced, sir, for three-days' residence," grey said, looking after the horde of boys in some dismay.
"there is a great thirst for learning, and for the gospel, too," erasmus said, with pardonable satisfaction. "their parents come at night, after they have finished working in the fields, and we have already had our first service."
he invited them to sit: but as there were only two chairs, it would have made an awkward division, and they remained standing. "i will come at once to the point," grey said. "there have been, i am afraid, certain complaints made." he paused, and repeated, "certain complaints" uneasily, though erasmus had said nothing. "you understand, sir, we have but lately taken the colony, and the settlers here are a difficult lot. they have made their own farms, and estates, and with some justice consider themselves entitled to be masters of their own fate. there is some sentiment - in short," he said abruptly, "you would do very well to moderate your activity. you need not perhaps have so many students - take three or four, most promising; let the rest return to work. i am informed the labor of the students is by no means easily spared," he added weakly.
erasmus listened, saying nothing, until grey had done; then he said, "sir, i appreciate your position: it is a difficult one. i am very sorry i cannot oblige you."
grey waited, but erasmus said nothing more whatsoever, offering no ground for negotiation. grey looked at laurence, a little helplessly, then turning back said, "sir, i will be frank; i am by no means confident of your continued safety, if you persist. i cannot assure it."
"i did not come to be safe, but to bring the word of god," erasmus said, smiling and immovable, and his wife brought in the tea-tray.
"madam," grey said to her, as she poured the cups at the table, "i entreat you to use your influence; i beg you to consider the safety of your children." she raised her head abruptly; the kerchief which she had been wearing outside to work had slipped, and by pulling her hair back away from her face revealed a dull scarred brand upon her forehead, the initials of a former owner blurred but legible still, and superimposed on an older tattooed marking, of abstract pattern.
she looked at her husband; he said gently, "we will trust in god, hannah, and in his will." she nodded and made grey no direct answer, but went silently back outside to the garden.
there was of course nothing more to be said; grey sighed, when they had taken their leave, and said dismally, "i suppose i must put a guard upon the house."
a heavy moist wind was blowing from the south-east, draping the table mount in a blanket of clouds; but it abated that evening, and the allegiance was sighted the next afternoon by the castle lookout, heralded by the fire of the signal-guns. the atmosphere of suspicion and hostility was a settled thing by then, throughout the town; although sentiments less bitter would have sufficed to make her arrival unsettling for the inhabitants.
laurence watched her come in, by grey's invitation, from a pleasant cool antechamber set atop the castle, and seeing her from this unfamiliar and reversed direction was struck by the overwhelming impression of terrible force: not only the sheer vastness of her size, but the hollow eyes of her brute armament of thirty-two-pounders, glaring angrily out of portholes, and what seemed at this distance a veritable horde of dragons coiled upon her deck, uncountable for their lying so intertwined that their heads and tails could not quite be separated one from another.
she advanced slowly into harbor, dwarfing all the shipping in the port into insignificance, and a kind of grim silence descended upon the town as she fired her salute to the fort: a rolling thunder of guns that echoed back from the face of the mountain, and settled gently upon the town like a fog. laurence could taste the powder-smoke at the back of his mouth. the women and children had vanished from the streets by the time her anchors were let plunging down.
it was dreadful to see how little they had truly to fear, when laurence went down to the shore and had himself rowed across to aid with the maneuvers under way to get the dragons transferred off the deck. the long cramped journey had stiffened them all badly, and though the allegiance had made good time, still every day of the two months and more had eaten steadily away at their strength. the castle was established only steps from the sandy beach, the parade grounds beside it, but even this short flight wearied them now.
nitidus and dulcia, the smallest, came across first, to give the others more room; they drew deep breaths and lunged valiantly off the deck, their short wings beating sluggish and slow, and giving them very little lift, so that their bellies nearly scraped the top of the low fence around the parade grounds; they landed heavily and sank down into a heap on the warm ground without even folding their wings back. messoria and immortalis then dragged themselves up so wearily to their feet that temeraire, who was watching anxiously from the grounds, called out, "pray wait, and i will come and carry you in," and ferried them one after another upon his back, heedless of the small scrapes and scratches which he took from their claws, as they clutched at him for balance.
lily nosed maximus gently, on the deck. "yes, go on, i will be there in a moment," he said sleepily, without opening his eyes; she gave a dissatisfied rumble of concern.
"we will get him across, never fear," harcourt said coaxingly; and at last lily was persuaded to submit to their precautionary arrangements for her own transfer: a muzzle had to be fitted over her head, from which a large metal platter was suspended beneath her jaws, and this covered with more of the oiled sand.
riley had come to see them off; harcourt turned to him and held out her hand, saying, "thank you, tom; i hope we will be coming back across soon, and you will visit us on land." he took her hand in an awkward sideways grip and bowed over it, somewhere between saluting her and shaking her hand, and backed away stiffly; he still avoided looking at laurence at all.
harcourt put her boot on the railing and jumped up to lily's back; she took hold of the harness to steady it, and lily unfurled her great wings, the feature from which the breed took its name: rippled along the edges in narrow bands of black and white with the dark blue of her body shading across their length to a brilliant deep orange the color of old marmalade; they shone iridescent in the sun. fully extended, they made double the length of her entire body, and once she had fairly launched herself aloft, she scarcely needed to beat them, but glided stately along without great exertion.
they managed the flight across without spilling too much of the sand, or dripping acid upon the castle battlements or the dock; and then there was only maximus left upon the deck. berkley spoke to him quietly, and with a great heaving sigh the enormous regal copper pushed himself up to his feet, the allegiance herself rocking a little in the water. he took two slow gouty steps to the edge of the dragondeck and sighed again; his shoulder-muscles creaked as he tried his wings, and then let them sink against his back again; his head drooped.
"i could try," temeraire offered, calling from shore; quite impractically: maximus still made almost two of him by weight.
"i am sure i can manage it," maximus said hoarsely, then bent his head and coughed a while, and spat more greenish phlegm out over the side. he did not move.
temeraire's tail was lashing at the air, and then with an air of decision he plunged into the surf and came swimming out to them instead. he reared up with his forelegs on the edge of the ship and thrust his head up over the railing to say, "it is not very far: pray come in the water. i am sure together we can swim to the shore."
berkley looked at keynes, who said, "a little sea-bathing can do no harm, i expect; and perhaps even some good. it is warm enough in all conscience, and we will have sun another four hours at this time of year, to dry him off."
"well, then, into the water with you," berkley said, gruffly, patting maximus's side, and stepping back. crouching down awkwardly, maximus plunged forequarters-first into the ocean; the massive anchor-cables complained with deep voices as the allegiance recoiled from the force of his leap, and ten-foot ripples swelled up and went shuddering away from him to nearly overturn some of the unsuspecting slighter vessels riding at anchor in the bay.
maximus shook water from his head, bobbing up and down, and paddled a few strokes along before stopping, sagging in the water; the buoyancy of the air-sacs kept him afloat, but he listed alarmingly.
"lean against me, and we shall go together," temeraire said, swimming up to his side to brace him up; and little by little they progressed towards the shore until the ocean floor came up abruptly to meet them, clouds of white sand stirring up like smoke, and maximus could stop to rest, half-submerged yet, with the waves lapping against his sides.
"it is pleasant in the water," he said, despite another fit of coughing. "i do not feel so tired here," but he had still to be got out and onto the shore: no little task, and he managed it only in slow easy stages, with all the assistance which temeraire and the oncoming tide could offer, crawling the final dozen yards nearly on his belly.
here they let him rest, and brought him the choicest cuts from the dinner which gong su had spent the day preparing to tempt the dragons' appetites after their exertion: local cattle, fat and tender, spit-roasted with a crust of pepper and salt pressed into their flesh, as a flavoring strong enough to overcome the dulling effect of the illness on the dragons' senses, and stuffed with their own stewed tripes.
maximus ate a little, drank a few swallows of the water which they carried out to him in a large tub, and afterwards fell back into sluggish torpor, coughing, and slept the night through on shore, with the ocean still coming in and his tail riding up on the waves like a tethered boat. only in the cool early hours of the morning did they get him the rest of the way to the parade grounds, and there settled him in the best place at its edge beneath the young stand of camphor trees, where he might have a little shade as well as sun, and very near the well which had been sunk to easily bring them water.
berkley saw him established, and then took off his hat and went to the water trough, to duck his head and bring a couple of cupped handfuls to his mouth to drink, and wipe his red and sweating face. "it is a good place," he said, his head bent, "a good place; he will be comfortable here - " and ending abruptly went inside the castle, where they breakfasted together in silence. they did not discuss the matter, but no discussion was required; they all knew maximus would not leave again, without a cure, and they had brought him otherwise to his grave.