The governor’s safety was secured by the looming bulk of Lord Jinai, who hovered ominously overhead in the shallow waters just off the coast, and a dozen Japanese dragons also in attendance, most of them in polished armor. There were not very many friendly looks exchanged between them and the British dragons: Temeraire had come ashore, and Iskierka, to keep close watch on Jinai; she in particular kept a gimlet and suspicious eye upon the sea-dragon, and occasionally remarked audibly of her perfect willingness to set the entire city ablaze if he should make any motion towards the ship and its precious cargo.
Only Kiyo, who had hauled herself out of the nearby river mouth to attend the feasting, was in good humor. She had greeted Laurence cheerfully: no-one had dared to challenge her on the matter of the assistance she had given him. “No, why would anyone mind that?” she said, with perfect unconcern, when he had asked if she had been put to any distress. “I have been meaning to have a good look at one of these Western ships, anyway, that I have been hearing about the last century, and I am glad especially to have seen such a prodigious one, because I suppose most people would not have believed in it, otherwise. How large it is! I have swum all around it,” she added, a piece of intelligence which would not have failed to horrify Captain Blaise, or for that matter any of their party, “and we must certainly have some like it.
“I petitioned the bakufu on the subject myself, and they have agreed we must let these Americans show us how to build them. And that good little fellow Wampanoag has promised that his crew will perform your Julius Caesar for me, before they sail away,” she added, with great satisfaction. “So you see, it has all worked out splendidly. And there will be fireworks, after dinner!”
She put her head back into her wine-bowl and glugged away; but Laurence grimly realized she was by no means a mere carefree fool, pleasing herself, as he might have supposed before. He did not think Hammond would consider it a splendid outcome, to have the Japanese allied with the colonials, and busy at building a navy of their own.
The fireworks, set off above the harbor and splendid, were a relief to all present, as preventing any further need of conversation: all rose and stood gathered near the shore to watch the blooms of glittering light. Laurence took the opportunity however of speaking with Kaneko, who had been seated some distance down the table from him, at Lady Arikawa’s side.
He bowed deeply, when Laurence approached him, and addressed him as a prince; Laurence received the title with dismay. “I beg your pardon,” he said, “but I assure you I cannot consider myself deserving of the mode of address: I am not a prince, whatever fiction may have been invented for political necessity.”
Kaneko said quietly, “A thing cannot be at once true and fiction: and this, I think, must be considered true, when it is the foundation of an alliance of two great nations.”
He made no outward reproach, but Laurence could not help but feel one: he had lied to Kaneko, even if not deliberately. He awkwardly made his apology, on that score, and hoped rather than thought he was believed: Kaneko received it only politely. “I wished also to promise you,” Laurence said, “that I will do whatever is in my power to secure Junichiro’s future. His familiarity with dragons—”
“The fate of the criminal you mention is none of my concern,” Kaneko said with an unanswerable finality, although when he turned back towards the fireworks the spray of the lights shone wetly in his raised eyes.
Laurence did not press him. “May I ask you, sir,” he said, “if honor is satisfied?”
Kaneko was silent, and then said, “Lady Arikawa insists it must be so,” somewhat reluctantly. He paused and added, “She has honored me with an invitation to take up residence upon her estate.”
Laurence wondered at the significance, and still more at Kaneko’s evident doubts. Kaneko glanced at him and said, “The honor of dragons can only with great difficulty endure conflict with their affections. The authorities hold that their best and wisest course is to retain a proper distance from any particular individual. I fear I have been the instrument of diminishing her standing.”
Laurence was silent, thinking of Temeraire’s willingness to spring out a cause for war and all for his sake. “Perhaps I take your point,” he said, soberly, and then had to raise a hand: as if knowing himself spoken of, Temeraire had broken off his own rapt contemplation of the fireworks, and looked over anxiously towards him, until Laurence went to his side.
“I do not see why you must be speaking with that fellow who tried to kill you,” Temeraire said, putting out a foreleg, as if he would have liked to gather Laurence in close.