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A LONG AND desperate flight, then, to the Austrian border; all of the the hi, without answering to Laurence&039;s soft calls except to keen back his ed, the wrath of the Kazilik dragons striped across the sky, trying to find theht but the clouded stars, and an occasional risked sliver of lantern-light to see the coht hide was nearly invisible in the dark, and his ears pricked sharp for the sound of dragon wings Three times he veered away to one side or another as faster couriers dashed by, carrying the alarainst the to the li-strokes like flashing oars dipping into the night, driving them on

Laurence did not try to hold him back; there was no exhilaration or battle-fever, nohich on other occasions ht have driven Temeraire to exceed the bounds of his own endurance I; beneath thelow of a chiainst Te wind

The eastern edge of the night, behind the out No use in urging Tereater speed; if they could not reach the border before dawn, they would have to hide, so across during the day

"Sir, Ithe silence, his voice stifled and still thick with tears; he pointed away and north One after another the torchlight gli the border, and the lorathful roaring of dragons, calling one to the other in frustration They were flying along the border in s birds, all of the into the darkness

"They haven&039;t any night-flyers; they are only venturing a shot in the dark," Granby said softly into Laurence&039;s ear, cupping his hand around the noise Laurence nodded

The agitation of the Turkish dragons had roused the Austrian border as well; on the far bank of the Danube, Laurence could see a fortification not far distant, set on a hill and fully illuminated; he touched Tereat eyes shining and liquid in the dark, Laurence pointed hio straight at the border, but flew parallel to the line of fortifications a while, watching the Turkish dragons in their flights; now and again the crews did even go so far as to fire off a rifle into the dark, likelya noise than in real hopes of striking a target They were sending up flares occasionally, but it was hopeless, with miles of border, to illuave theathered; Laurence pulled down Allen and the other lookout, Harley, and stayed low to Te hireat deal of speed; ten dragon-lengths fro the breath that distended out his sides; gliding he went straight across at one of the dark places between the outposts, and the torches to either side did not so ain for as long as he could; they drifted so low to the ground that Laurence smelled fresh pine-needles before at last Temeraire risked a fresh stroke and then another, to lift himself clear of the tree-tops He went to north of the Austrian fort, better than a ain; the Turkish border noaspaler, and there was no sign they had been noticed in their crossing: the dragons were continuing their search-flights

Still they had to get under cover before light; Tee to easily hide in the countryside "Run up the colors and hang out a white flag with theet in and land as quick as you can; better to have them make a noise inside the walls than on our approach"

Te low; he had flown harder than perhaps ever before in his life, and after earlier exertion and grief; his wingbeats were slo not from caution but from exhaustion But he drew hi himself up towards the fort and over its walls in a desperate heave, and ca upon his haunches, scattering in terror a troop of cavalry-horses on one side, and a co wildly as they fled

"Hold your fire!" Laurence bellowed out of his speaking-tru up to wave the British flag He won some hesitation frohed and settled back upon his haunches, head drooping forward over his breast, and said, "Oh, I aher provided them coffee and beds, and for Te; the rest were hurriedly taken outside the walls of the fort and left in a paddock under guard Laurence slept through until the afternoon, and rose froed in the murk of sleep, while outside Temeraire continued to snore in a iven him away even to the Turks half-a-mile distant across the border, if he had not been curled up securely behind the thick wooden walls of the fort

"They her said, when given a fuller account of their adventure than Laurence had been able to ht; his own preoccupation, quite naturally, with the state of relations his nation et of hiood dinner, and some sympathy; but he had little to spare "I would send you on to Vienna," he said, pouring yet another glass of wine, "but God in Heaven, I would be serving you an ill turn It sha themselves men ould serve you to Bonaparte on a platter; and bend both their knees to him while they were at it"

Laurence said quietly, "I aiven us, sir, and I would not for all the world embarrass you or your country; I know you are at peace with the French"

"At peace," Eigher said, bitterly "We are cowering at their feet, you may say; and with more truth"

By the end of the meal he had drunk nearly three bottles; and the slowness hich the wine had any effect upon hientleh estate, which had lis beneath, Laurence suspected, what his coht have deserved; but it was not resentment drove hi drew on, and the coue

Austerlitz was his deeron in the fatal battle "The devil gave us the Pratzen Heights," he said, "and the town itself; took his round deliberately and played at a retreat, and why? So that ould fight him He had then fifty thousandus to battle" Huive theh, a few days later" He waved his hand over the map-table, on which he had laid out a tableau of the battle: a task which had taken hihly taken in drink

Laurence, for his part, had not drunk enough to nureat disaster at Austerlitz while already at sea, on his way to China, and only in the vaguest teriven hies allowed hiher&039;s tin soldiers and wooden dragons in their stately array made a deeply unpleasant impression as the colonel moved them about

"He let us entertain ourselves by beating upon his right a little while, until we had eher said, "and then they appeared: fifteen dragons and twenty thousand ht them up by forcedWe limped on another few hours, the Russian Imperial Guard cost them so out he tipped over a little ure with a commander&039;s baton, and lay back in his chair, his eyes shut Laurence picked up one of the little dragon-figures, turning it over in his hands; he did not knohat to say

"E," Eigher said after a little while "The Holy Ro to a Corsican who snatched hiain but fell slowly into a stupor

Laurence left Eigher sleeping and went out to Teby would be bad enough," Teonet, too, and it did not have anything to do with all of this; it did not choose to be sold to us, or to be kept back by the Turks, and it could not get away"

He had curled hi theainst his body, perhaps by instinct, and occasionally putting out his long forked tongue to touch the shells He only with reluctance admitted even Laurence and Keynes to exaeon impatiently said, "Get your bloody head out of the ill you; I cannot see anything with you blocking all the light"

Keynes tapped the shells lightly, pressed his ear to the surface and listened, wetted a finger and rubbed theht it to his mouth When he was satisfied with his exaain, and Tes and looked anxiously to hear his verdict

"Well, they are in good form, and have taken no harmful chill," Keynes said "We had better keep them wrapped up in the silk, and," he jerked his thu nurseer at all; by the sound I should say the dragonet is not yet forht have ht weeks, and no less than six; there is not ait home"

"Austria is not safe, nor the Gerround as they are," Laurence said "I h Prussia; a week and a half should see us to the coast, and froht to Scotland"

"Whichever way you go, you should go quickly; I will contrive to delay my report to Vienna a little, so you are out of the country before those damned politicians can think of some way they can her said, when Laurence spoke to hiive you safe-conduct to the border But should you not go by sea?"

"It would cost us at least anotheraround by Gibraltar, and ould have to find shelter along the Italian coast a good deal of the way," Laurence said "I know the Prussians have accoo so far as to surrender us to hioing to war"

"Against Napoleon?" Laurence exclaiood news he had not expected to hear The Prussians had long been the finest fighting force in Europe; if only they had joined the earlier coalition in time, surely the outcome would have been very different, and their entry into the struggle now seereat victory for Napoleon&039;s ene to be pleased with in this intelligence

"Yes, and when he has trampled them into the dirt, and the Russians with them, there will be no one left at all in Europe to restrain him," the colonel said