I shook my head, sending the cabin spinning. “Farthing …”

“The lizard is right here, Covington, perfectly healthy. You wouldn’t settle until it was by your side.”

Mr. Darwin lifted a small crate with slats at the front, through which I could see a flicker of green, a disc of copper. I reached out but hardly had the strength to lift my arm. Farthing wouldn’t like being confined in there. When she hoot-growled at me, a lump filled my throat. She was safe, which was all that mattered right now.

“She’s a new species, boy, and quite unique. I’m calling her the Galapagos green lizard.”

The master offered me the water again and I sipped, finding it both sweet and salty with a bitter edge. So, so good. When I attempted to gulp, it ran down my chin. I spluttered and Mr. Darwin wiped my mouth with his handkerchief. To see those intelligent blue-gray eyes, the bushy eyebrows high, so serious and concerned over me, gave me a nasty shock. I was the servant here—I tended Mr. Darwin when he was sickened by heavy seas, and that was how it should be. This felt all wrong.

“Don’t trouble—” It came out as barely a rough whisper.

“Nonsense, boy. You’ve had rather a rough time of it.” He leaned in closer. “You saved my life, Covington. I have told everyone. We didn’t expect … We saw the eruption on Narborough.”

I slurped at the drink and the clouds in my mind parted. So the island was Narborough and the volcano had brought them to me.

“The eggs? The dragon eggs?”

Mr. Darwin chuckled, and that familiar light appeared in his eyes. His side whiskers had merged into a new growth of beard; he couldn’t have shaved since I last saw him.

“Rather unique specimens, I do agree. How clever of you to retrieve them despite your ordeal, although I dare say you would not have survived without the watertight chest to act as a buoy. Did you happen to see the bird that laid them? I am imagining a giant ground grouse, or was it some form of greater Galapagos penguin … Forgive me, dear boy, you must not even think of it until you are more yourself.”

He dabbed at my forehead with a damp cloth as I stared up at him. I raised myself on my elbows.

“It was … a dragon,” I whispered.

Mr. Darwin smiled again, but concern crumpled the corners of his eyes. “Bynoe says you were frightfully battered and may easily have a concussion. Your eardrum is perforated, you’ve suffered the effects of exposure, and the toxic gases released by the volcano may have caused—”

“No!” I surprised myself with the sudden strength in my voice. “There was a dragon. I found her nest. Those are the dragon’s eggs.”

I shocked myself at my rudeness, speaking to my master in this way, but Mr. Darwin laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. I was bandaged there. I realized I was bandaged almost everywhere. The burns.