sentences:  She is seen in company with the French diplomat de Guignes, which Laurence feels cannot bode well.Deciding to eschew the "Allegiance," which suffers fire damage at the opening of the novel, Laurence takes the services of a guide named Tharkay, the well-bred but ostracized child of a British diplomat and a Nepalese woman.With his help, the group survives ambush in the Central Asian deserts, befriends a pack of feral dragons in the mountains of Turkestan, and makes its way to Istanbul.