It was nearly morning: a certain pallid quality to the sky behind the mountains ahead of them as they flew back to the city, Temeraire carrying a couple of extra cooked llamas, which he meant to show to Gong Su for his approbation. "What is going on, there?" Iskierka said suddenly, as they drew near: smoke was coming from one of the palace wings, one Temeraire quickly recognized as the one where their company was located.
They landed in a courtyard, which to their horror was littered with dozens of dead bodies and debris. Temeraire froze when he saw Laurence, lying against the wall, a pool of blood surrounding him. It was coming from a small hole in the side of his head. Temeraire knew what a bullet-wound meant in that place of the body of a human.
He touched Laurence with his nose, and the lack of movement proved his fears true. His captain was dead. In the background Iskierka shrieked, and Temeraire knew that could only mean that she found her Granby.
Time stopped. Temeraire's joints felt weak, he was about to fall to the ground when a torrent of fire engulfed the courtyard. He could somehow tell that it was not Iskierka's fire, and when he looked up he saw one of the black-yellow Flamme-de-Gloire's flying away from them. The fire had hurt, but it was only a background sensation as both went aloft, chasing their opponent, thirsty for revenge. He saw that the French dragon was luring them to another one of his species, and he didn't care. He noticed Lien on a rooftop beside them, and didn't look as he flew past. His wings started to hurt as dozens of arrows punctured the membrane, yet he only accelerated.
When he thought he was close enough, he roared at the Flamme-de-Gloire, taking it down along with a good portion of the palace. Iskierka spew fire simultaneously, and her flames were scattered by the divine wind, setting the new ruins ablaze. The French beast was no longer alive, but Iskierka kept firing at it, releasing the acrid smell of burnt flesh.
"You killed Granby!" she screamed at the garbled corpse, despite the men's fate obviously inflicted by humans. "You killed him! You did it! You took him from me!"
As two more Flamme-de-Gloire's and dozens of Incan dragons filled the sky, fear replaced anger in Temeraire's veins. "We have to go." he said quietly to Iskierka, who was still yelling at the now thoroughly charred remains. She looked up, and then at Temeraire, and not even a tiny shred of fear could be noticed in her eyes, underneath all the rage.
Temeraire roared upwards, and a beast fell down, quickly replaced by others. They were too spread out to be able to hit more, and Iskierka roaring invitations to duel her wasn't helping either. One of them accepted by pinning her tail to the ground, but he quickly regretted the act as he was impaled on her spikes, and then seared by the hot steam. His sacrifice had not been for naught, as having a middle-weight stuck to one's tail was not an improvement to one's flight.
Temeraire dodged attacks and roared at Iskierka, who was now getting quite covered by dragons, even more anxiously urging her to fly away, but she was still in a blood rage, clawing at whichever beast was in her reach.
"Stop you monstrosity and look! She is the one who really killed Granby!" pointing to Lien, who had held back, enjoying the spectacle. Iskierka looked and nodded, but was unable to fly under the weight of the Incan beasts. Temeraire flung his long tail and slapped most of them off, as many were scarcely the size of Winchesters.
They went aloft, storming at Lien, who quickly flew away, just as Temeraire had expected. She was heading towards the edge of the plateau on which the city was located. Then, she suddenly arced up, made half a loop, corkscrewed and was suddenly flying over and away from them.
Iskierka wasted no time to try to imitate this impressive stunt, but Temeraire launched himself atop her, grabbing hold of the numerous spikes and he folded his own wings, effectively dragging her down into the valley. Iskierka was baffled and furiously beat her wings but could no longer gain altitude, and when Temeraire deflated his air sacs a little they started gliding downwards into the valley.
"What are you…" she started, just when the terrible sound of the Divine Wind prevented all communication. Lien had miscalculated the distance, they were too far away to be seriously hurt, but their bones and spikes rattled and the wind blew them downwards even faster.
Right when they would hit the treetops, Iskierka remembered to fold her own wings so the fragile membrane wouldn't be torn apart by the branches, and they tumbled into the jungle. The leaves formed a roof above them, and suddenly it was very quiet.
"What did you do that for!" growled Iskierka, while shaking off vines which had stuck to her spikes while falling through the trees.
"You know what I did that for. There were hundreds of dragons ready to tear us apart!" Temeraire said, exaggerating in an attempt to keep her from rushing back.
"I could have had them. I could have defeated every single one of them!"
"I am sure you would have easily defeated every single one of them, but not all of them at once."
Temeraire paused before continuing: "This valley is huge. Lien is the only one who saw where we landed, and I bet she will consider it below her standing to go down this stinking jungle and search behind every tree for us."
"You can hardly call that a landing, the way you dragged me down and into this terrible forest."
"If I hadn't done it you would have rushed back and gotten yourself killed."
"Why do you care if I get myself killed? You only care about that stupid Laurence and I'm glad he's dead!"
Temeraire swallowed his grief and then replied quasi-calmly:
"I care because your egg was placed in my responsibility back in Istanbul. Three eggs, actually. The first one was destroyed, seconds after I first touched it. Then I swore to myself not to let anything bad happen to the other two. You hatched and I gave you my first lieutenant. I carried you for thousands of miles over French armies and the cold ocean, and all you did in return was getting heavier and burning everything in sight. I managed to get you safely to England, only because it was my duty to the King whom I have never met, and because Laurence told me so, and because you were still being as stupid as an egg. Even though you are now a great deal bigger, you are still so stupid you are an egg to me, and I feel responsible for you."
He paused. "Now that I have figured this out for myself, I no longer care if you get yourself killed or not. You can now either go back to Lien and die like Granby, or you can join them if you want and have fun with Maila, or you can follow me to the Portuguese on the other side of the continent, as they are the only nation in the area we are not at war with, with no thanks to you. They will take us back to Britain and we will fight Napoleon along with all of our friends, where we do stand a chance. The sun is not up yet, we can still slip past their patrols and make some good distance as we head for the Atlantic Ocean."
Iskierka did not know how to respond, so she didn't. They went aloft, and managed to escape the Cusco area unnoticed… or so they thought.
"Shall I send my Ayllu after them?" the Sapa Inca asked.
"Oh, don't bother my dear, there is just no way two dragons without a crew can cross the great Amazon rainforest." said Napoleon Bonaparte. "Now let's make preparations for the wedding."