Temeraire had expected more complaining, but quite to the contrary, Caesar instead made himself unbearably smug about it, when Mr. Fellowes had rigged him out with more harness straps, and he made a point of learning the names of all his crew and saying such things as, “Mr. Derrow, my third lieutenant, has done good work today: very handy managing the distribution of weight across the hindquarters,” whenever they landed, or, “It is a fine thing to have a proper ground crew, instead of only one or two unofficial attendants, I will say that much: a great advantage, if one would like perhaps to be scrubbed a little, or to have a harness-buckle adjusted just a touch.”

Caesar did complain about Kulingile, endlessly: every bite of food which Kulingile took might have been snatched from his own mouth, and he would have it that they were robbing him, even though he had a perfectly fair share himself, and really, Temeraire felt, more than quite justified by his size and prospects. Caesar had begun to slow down growing, it seemed, Dorset thought: he was now three months out of the shell, which startled Temeraire to think; had they really been traveling so long?

“Longer than that,” Laurence said, tiredly, dragging a sleeve over his forehead, “and a fortnight more to reach the coast, at this pace.”

“Laurence,” Granby said quietly, “we had better think about how we mean to get back, too. I don’t like to ill-wish, but—Kulingile is nearer to being a real difficulty every day. I know he is the size of a rabbit, as dragons go, but without the air-sacs doing their share, he is getting to be as heavy as though he were carved out of gold. I think Iskierka could take Caesar on her back more easily than him. If it keeps up in this way, I don’t see how we can manage him on the way back.”

Demane overheard enough of this to look rather desperate, and Temeraire saw him saying to Kulingile, “You cannot eat so much: you cannot. Promise me you will only eat half-a-kangaroo today.”

Kulingile said sadly, “I will try not to; only it is very difficult to stop after half of anything, as the other half is right there,” which Temeraire had to agree as an argument possessed a great deal of justice.

At least Kulingile would eat almost anything, without pausing; if they took some more of the cassowaries, he would have them with the feathers on, so they did not need to spend the effort to butcher them. Temeraire tried a small wing just to have a taste—of something, anything, other than soup—and found it very awkward getting a proper bite: the feathers would cushion his teeth, and they tasted wrong in his mouth, as though he were trying to eat something like rope or sailcloth.

He gave up and set it down for Gong Su to put into his vat of soup after all, and shook his head. Kulingile shrugged and said, “I only swallow it anyway,” and tipped his head back and sent down all the rest of the bird, squirming a little to work it down into his belly.

“I suppose it does make it easier to take it all for yourself,” Caesar said, “before anyone else can get in a taste; but what use you are going to make of it, I would like to know.”

Temeraire snorted, wordlessly disapproving, as Caesar had eaten two himself, and did not need any more; but it was true he did not see how Kulingile could enjoy his food at all, taking it so quickly.

Temeraire found that his thoughts drifted easily as he flew, with the stars unchangeable slowly turning above their heads, and through the afternoons; when he could not speak there was not even conversation to break the stillness. The days crept onward and blurred, one very much like another; and with a quality of strangeness. The country rolled away beneath them, and dust whispered against Temeraire’s wings when he tucked his head beneath them to rest in the hot wind.

He found he did not really mind the soft haze of one day to the next: it was a relief of sorts from the weight of anxiety, and he certainly preferred to fly at night and to lie down afterwards in the middle of the day, when the heat of the sun might be a pleasure, as one did not have to work. Each morning a little before noon, when they found water, they landed and encamped. Temeraire would make sure that Laurence and all his crew were safely established upon the rocks, and that there was someone patrolling the sand, just in case the treacherous bunyips decided to make some other attempt, and then he would stretch himself comfortably and sleep for several hours in the steady, baking heat.

To-day he yawned after some time, raising his head, and squinted at the shadows: it was a little while past noon, and still very hot; he was glad not to be flying. He pushed up and went over to the hole for a little drink of water, and returning frowned at Kulingile, who looked very strange: his sides had swelled out again, and he was sleeping in an improbable posture, crouching low to the ground with his head and limbs dangling. Temeraire put his head down and nudged him, and Kulingile did not tip over or lie down properly, but bobbed away over the ground.

He raised his head and blinked reproachfully. “I am sleeping,” he said.

“What are you doing?” Temeraire said, unable to resist asking. “Are you trying to fly?”

Dorset was roused from his own nap, and irritable and vague with drowsiness said, “It was not wholly unexpected, given the growth rate. Tether him,” and would have gone back to sleep without further explanations.

“What do you mean, not unexpected?” Rankin said. “I believe we have had enough of this evasion, Mr. Dorset: what is his prognosis? I do not recall that I have heard of any dragon floating away without its own accord. If he is to become still more of a burden, I will hear of it now.”

“The phenomenon is seen occasionally,” Dorset said in his most biting tones—he did not like the heat, and most days came out unevenly red and speckled in the afternoons, if he did not stay always in the shade—“in Regal Copper hatchlings: it is an indicator he will make twenty-four tons, at the least, when he achieves his growth.”

The response silenced Rankin entirely. Temeraire did not mind that, but everyone else was gone quiet, too, and he could not help but eye Kulingile dubiously: the dragonet was certainly growing very quickly, but that was not saying very much, when he had begun scarcely the size of one of Temeraire’s talons, and now was perhaps a quarter the length of his tail.

“Dorset,” Granby said after a moment, equally doubtful, “I don’t suppose you are quite sure of it?”

“That he will make a heavy-weight, yes, now that the sacs have inflated permanently,” Dorset said. “As for the particular weight, I will not swear to it; but the extreme disproportion of the air-sacs to the rest of the frame exceeds any other recorded to my knowledge, and any hatchling which has exhibited a negative total weight at any point in their development has achieved that size or more.”

No one said anything much afterwards; except Roland gave a sort of squeaking noise and pounded Demane on the shoulder—he looked wary and dazed at once, and said, “He is not going to die, then?”

Temeraire was a little torn over the whole matter: so he would be losing Demane, after all, but on the other hand, there was the very great, very real satisfaction of being proven right, or rather seeing Laurence proven right; but Temeraire might have the credit of trusting Laurence, as anyone else ought to have, and also of having been charitable, with so pleasant a result for once. To further add to the glory of the coup, Rankin was not at all pleased, and now Caesar might not make any more noise about it, either, as Kulingile would outgrow him.

“I will believe it when I see it,” Caesar said, loftily, and then would have tried to sneak another of the cassowaries which Gong Su was cooking for Temeraire to eat, later, if Temeraire had not warned him off with a snap near his hindquarters.