Page 7 (1/2)

II

Chapter 6

THE SMALL IVORY fountain, athered upon the orange-tree leaves and fruit hanging low over the pool, ripe and fragrant and tre, Temeraire lay sun-dappled and drowsy after his substantialcleaned hiainst his side The chamber itself was fairytale-lovely, tiles of lapis-blue and white laid upon the walls fro, shutters inlaid with mother-of-pearl, velvet-cushionedseats, thick carpets in a thousand shades of red heaped over the floors, and in the center of the rooht of a man stood upon a low table, full of a profusion of flowers and vines Laurence could gladly have hurled it across the rooh," Granby said, blazing away as he paced "Fobbing us off with a pack of excuses, and then to heap on such vile insinuations, and as good as call this poor wretch Yary, of regret: the agreened, he explained, fresh concerns having arisen to delay the matter; and as a consequence the payment had not yet been delivered when the ambassador had met with his accident When Laurence had received these excuses with all the suspicion the circumstances commanded, and demanded at once to be taken to the ambassador&039;s residence and to speak with his staff, Mustafa had with an air of faint discomfort confided that upon the ambassador&039;s death, his servants had departed post-haste for Vienna, and one, his secretary James Yarmouth, had vanished entirely

"I will not say I know any evil of hi his hands wide, his implications plain "I am sorry, Captain, but you must understand we cannot bear the responsibility"

"I do not believe a word of it; not a word," Granby went on, furiously, "the notion they would send to us, in China, to coreement only half-reed "Lenton would have spoken quite differently in his orders, had the arrangee upon it, with as little embarrassment to themselves as possible"

Mustafa had smiled and smiled relentlessly in the face of all Laurence&039;s objections, and repeated his apologies, and offered hospitality once again; with all the creeary and thick with dust, and no alternative to hand, Laurence had accepted, supposing besides that they would only find it easier to work out the truth of the affair, and exert soht, once ensconced in the city

He and his crew had been settled into two elaborate kiosques upon the inner grounds, the buildings nestled ah for Temeraire to sleep in The palace crowned the narrow spur of land where the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn together met the sea, and endless prospects showed in every direction during their descent: horizons full of ocean, and a great crowd of shipping on the water Laurence only too late recognized that they had stepped into a gilded cage: the matchless vieere so because the palace hill was encircled all around with high less walls that barred all communication with the outside world, and their quarters looked upon the sea through s barred with iron

Fro palace complex, but the connection proved only a roofed cloister, open to the air: all the doors and hich ht have led into the palace proper were locked and forbidding, black and shuttered against even the entry of their gaze More of the black slaves stood guard at the foot of the terrace stairs, and in the gardens the Kazilik dragons lay in sinuously knotted heaps, their glittering yellow eyes slitted open and resting watchfully on Teenial welcome, Mustafa had vanished away as soon as he had seen theue promises to return very soon But the call to prayer had come thrice since then; they had explored the limits of their handson of his returning The guards made no objections if any of theardens just beneath the kiosques, but they shook their heads genially when Laurence pointed over their shoulders to the paved ay that led towards the rest of the grounds

Held at this remove, from the terraces and s they could watch the life of the palace as much as they wished, a curious kind of frustration: other rounds, busy and preoccupied; officials in high turbans, servants carrying trays, young pages darting back and forth with baskets and letters; once even a gentle-bearded and in plain black clothing, who disappeared into a small kiosque of his own some distance away Many looked over curiously at Laurence and his crew, the boys slowing in their progress to stare at the dragons sitting in the garden, but theyon prudently

"Look; do you suppose that is a wo one another for the glass, hanging nearly halfway over the terrace railing with twenty feet down to solid stone pavearden: an official was speaking with a wo, so far as could be told fro a veil not of heavy silk but dark, which rapped around her head and shoulders and left only her eyes uncovered; and despite the heat of the day her goas covered with a long coat, reaching to her jewel-slippered feet, and a deep-slashed pocket in the front concealed even her hands from view

"Mr Portis," Laurence said sharply; the older ers to his lips to whistle, "as you have nothing better to do, you will go below and see to digging Temeraire a fresh necessary; and when he has done with it you ain; at once, if you please" Dunne and Hackley hastily lowered the glass as Portis slunk off abashed, atte without much success an air of innocence; Tharkay silently relieved theentlee and dislass at the veiled woainst his teeth, "I will thank you not to ogle the palace women either"

"She is not a woman of the harem," Tharkay said "The hareh walls, and the women are not per nearly so htened away frolass: the woman had turned to look at them, a pale narrow strip of skin all that the robes did not cover, only just large enough to leave her dark eyes exposed

Thankfully she made no outcry, and in a ain Tharkay shut up the glass and gave it to Laurence, and walked away, insouciant; Laurence closed his fist around the barrel "You will go and ask Mr Bell to find you some way to assist him with the newest leather he has to hand," he said to Dunne and Hackley, restraining hi theoat for Tharkay

They rateful escape, and Laurence paced the terrace length again, stopping at the far end to look out over the city and the Golden Horn; dusk was descending: Mustafa would surely not come today

"And there is the day wasted," Granby said, joining hi voices of the led froht have been only on the other side of the high brick wall that divided their courtyard froain at dawn: he had left the shutters all open for the breeze, and so that he ht and see Telow of the scattered lanterns hung on the palace walls And once again they heard it five times over with still no con that their existence was even acknowledged, beyond the ht theone before any questions could be asked them

At Laurence&039;s request, Tharkay tried to bespeak the guards in Turkish, but they only shrugged inarticulate and opened their ues had been cut out, a piece of barbarity When asked to take a letter, they shook their heads firness to leave their posts for such a purpose, or perhaps under instructions to keep them incommunicado

"Do you suppose we could bribe thean to coet out, a few of us: someone in this damned city must knohat has happened to the aone away"

"Weto bribe them with," Laurence said "We are wretchedly short, John; I dare say they would sniff at what I can afford I doubt it would see us out of the palace, when it would mean their positions if not their heads"

"Then we ht have Teht draw so himself down onto the nearest couch

"Mr Tharkay, do you translate for uards once uest-prisoners with good hu the sixth time Laurence had accosted them over the course of the day "Pray tell them we require some more oil for the lamps, and candles," Laurence said to Tharkay, "also perhaps so some small requests

These presently, as he had hoped, brought one of the young pages they had seen from afar, to fetch and carry for them; the boy was sufficiently iree to convey athe candles and sundry, to forestall any suspicion on the part of the guards, Laurence sat doith pen and paper to coe, which he hoped would convey to that sentleman that he did not mean to sit quietly in this bower

"I araph," Temeraire said doubtfully, when Laurence read over the letter, written in French, to hi unanswered all the questions which - &039;" Laurence began

"Oh," Temeraire said, "I think you want conception instead of dessin Also, Laurence, I do not think you want to say you are his obedient domestique"

"Thank you,at the spelling of heuroo, before he folded up the missive and handed it over to the boy, who had now returned with a basket of candles and of small cakes of soap, heavily perfumed

"I only hope he will not throw it in the fire," Granby said, after the boy had trotted away, coin clutched in one fist, not very discreetly "Or I suppose Mustafa ht hurl it in hiardless," Laurence said "We had better sleep while we can If we get no ansill have to think ofa dash for Malta tomorrow They do not have much of a shore battery here, and I dare say they will answer us very differently if we coates behind us"

"Laurence," Te hi; Laurence sat up and rubbed his wet face: a change in the wind had carried the fountain-spray onto hiht

"Yes," he answered, and went to wash in the fountain, still half-asleep; he went down into the gardens, nodding civilly to the yawning guards, and Teed at him with interest

"That is a nice smell," he said, diverted, and Laurence realized he had washed with the perfumed soap

"I will have to scrub it off later," he said, disry?"

"I would notto eat," Te: I have been talking to Bezaid and Sherazde, and they say their egg will hatch very soon"

"Who?" Laurence said, puzzled, then stared at the pair of Kazilik dragons, who blinked their glossy eyes at him in return, with mild interest "Temeraire," he said, slowly, "do you ?"

"Yes, and two others, but those have not started to harden," Temeraire said "I think," he added "They only know a little French, and a little of the dragon-language, but they have been telling me words in Turkish"

Laurence paid this no attention, too staggered by the news; very nearly since any organized sort of dragon-breeding had begun, Britain had been trying to acquire a line of fire-breathers A few of the Flaincourt, but the last had died out scarcely a century later, and since then there had been only failure after failure: France and Spain had naturally denied thee, and for a long while the Turks had been no er to deal with infidels than the British with heathen

"And ere in negotiations with the Inca, not twelve years ago," Granby said, his face flushed bright with passionate excite, in the end; we offered thedoht they returned us all the silk and tea and guns we had brought them, and ran us out of the place"

"How much did we offer to them, do you recall?" Laurence asked, and Granby named a sum which ness, inforher price still, almost impossible to believe

"Good God; how half such a suine," Laurence said "They ht build half-a-dozen first-rates for the saon transports besides"

Teht around his body and his ruff bristling "We are buying the eggs?" he said

"Why - " Laurence was surprised; he had not before realized Tes were to be acquired for money "We are, yes, but you see yourself that your acquaintances do not object to giving over their egg," he said, glancing anxiously at the Kazilik pair, who indeed see

But Temeraire dismissed this with an impatient flick of his tail "Of course they do not ," he said "But as you have told , then you own it, and may do as you like with it If I buy a cow I may eat it, and if you buy an estate then we may live upon it, and if you buy ons that hatch out of theh we are slaves"

There was very little way to answer this; raised in an abolitionist household, Laurence understood without question that ht and sold, and when put on terree; however, there was plainly a vast difference in the condition of dragons and the unfortunate wretches who lived in bondage

"It&039;s not as though we can onets do as ant, once they hatch," Granby offered, a useful inspiration "You could say that we are only buying the chance to persuade theo into harness with us"

But Teleam, "And if instead when hatched they wished to fly away, and come back here?"

"Oh, well," Granby said, lamely, and looked aard; naturally in such a case, the feral dragonet would be taken to the breeding-grounds instead

"At least consider that in this case, we are taking theland, where you will have the opportunity of i their condition," Laurence tried as consolation, but Te in the garden to consider the problem