herd all that way by tomorrow,” Lloyd said.
“Then you will have to bring them as close as you can, and we will manage somehow,” Temeraire said;
he was done listening to difficulties. “I have seen Napoleon’s army fight, and in a week they will be in
London, so we must be, also.”
“We are a hundred fifty miles from London,” Lloyd protested.
“All the more reason to travel fast,” Temeraire said, and flung himself into the air.
Chapter 5
Page 38
L AURENCE STOOD BEWILDEREDin the empty grounds, and called Temeraire’s name a few times.
There was no answer but the mumbled echoes that the cliffs gave back, and the momentary attention of a
small red squirrel which paused to look at him, before continuing on its way. Elsie landed again, behind
him. “Not a wing in the sky, sir,” Hollin said, “But we found—”
Elsie carried them up to a cave, reaching deep into the mountain face. Though the light was failing
rapidly, Laurence could trace with his fingers the letters of Temeraire’s name, carved deeply into the
rock: so at least he had been here, and well enough to leave this mark. They managed to fashion a torch
to inspect it, but the cave was too tidy, inside, to guess when his habitation had ended: no bones or other
remnants of food.
It was only two days since the landing, but with as many dragons as lived in the breeding grounds, if the
herdsmen had all abandoned their posts, and the regular delivery of cattle had been interrupted, the
provisions would quickly have been spent. The dragons must have scattered from hunger, and likely in all
the directions of the rose.
“Well, let us not borrow trouble,” Hollin said, consoling. “He is a clever fellow, and it cannot have been
so long since they left. There are some fresh bones down by the pen, from this morning by the look of
them.”
Laurence shook his head. “I hope he would not have been so foolish, as to stay to the last,” he
answered, low. “So many dragons will undoubtedly be eating up all the local supply, as they go, and he
must have more food than a smaller beast.”
“I am a smaller beast,” Elsie said, a little anxiously, “but I must have something to eat, too, and there is
nothing here.”
They went to Llechrhyd, the nearest settlement they found, and bought her a sheep from a small
cottager, who told them the village by some lucky chance had not been raided. “Flew off east, all of
them, at once this morning,” the old woman told Laurence, while Elsie discreetly made her dinner out
behind the stable, “like a plague of crows: it was dark half-an-hour, all them passing over, and us sure
they would fall on us in a moment; more than that I can’t say.”
“Hollin,” Laurence said, when he had turned away, disheartened, “I cannot tell you what your duty is;
we have no very good intelligence, I am afraid, and if he is flying to feed himself, we cannot well imagine
where he may have gone.”
“Well, sir,” Hollin said, “they said to bring you back with him, and I suppose those are my orders until I
hear otherwise. Anyways, I dare say we will find him tomorrow, first thing or good as. It’s not as though
he’s so easy to miss.”
But this was not reckoning with the confusion of dozens of beasts all flung out upon the countryside at
once. Certainly dragons, in the plural, had been seen everywhere—dreadful marauding beasts, and no
one knew what things were coming to when they were just allowed to go flying around loose. But as to
one particular dragon, black with a ruff, no-one had anything to say.
One farmer thirty miles on, belligerent enough to be brave, had not hidden in his cellar during the
Page 39
visitation, and swore that a giant dragon had eaten four of his cows, informing him they were being
confiscated for the war effort and he should be repaid by the Government. He even showed them where
the dragon had scratched a mark in an old oak-tree for his reimbursement, and for
“Then you will have to bring them as close as you can, and we will manage somehow,” Temeraire said;
he was done listening to difficulties. “I have seen Napoleon’s army fight, and in a week they will be in
London, so we must be, also.”
“We are a hundred fifty miles from London,” Lloyd protested.
“All the more reason to travel fast,” Temeraire said, and flung himself into the air.
Chapter 5
Page 38
L AURENCE STOOD BEWILDEREDin the empty grounds, and called Temeraire’s name a few times.
There was no answer but the mumbled echoes that the cliffs gave back, and the momentary attention of a
small red squirrel which paused to look at him, before continuing on its way. Elsie landed again, behind
him. “Not a wing in the sky, sir,” Hollin said, “But we found—”
Elsie carried them up to a cave, reaching deep into the mountain face. Though the light was failing
rapidly, Laurence could trace with his fingers the letters of Temeraire’s name, carved deeply into the
rock: so at least he had been here, and well enough to leave this mark. They managed to fashion a torch
to inspect it, but the cave was too tidy, inside, to guess when his habitation had ended: no bones or other
remnants of food.
It was only two days since the landing, but with as many dragons as lived in the breeding grounds, if the
herdsmen had all abandoned their posts, and the regular delivery of cattle had been interrupted, the
provisions would quickly have been spent. The dragons must have scattered from hunger, and likely in all
the directions of the rose.
“Well, let us not borrow trouble,” Hollin said, consoling. “He is a clever fellow, and it cannot have been
so long since they left. There are some fresh bones down by the pen, from this morning by the look of
them.”
Laurence shook his head. “I hope he would not have been so foolish, as to stay to the last,” he
answered, low. “So many dragons will undoubtedly be eating up all the local supply, as they go, and he
must have more food than a smaller beast.”
“I am a smaller beast,” Elsie said, a little anxiously, “but I must have something to eat, too, and there is
nothing here.”
They went to Llechrhyd, the nearest settlement they found, and bought her a sheep from a small
cottager, who told them the village by some lucky chance had not been raided. “Flew off east, all of
them, at once this morning,” the old woman told Laurence, while Elsie discreetly made her dinner out
behind the stable, “like a plague of crows: it was dark half-an-hour, all them passing over, and us sure
they would fall on us in a moment; more than that I can’t say.”
“Hollin,” Laurence said, when he had turned away, disheartened, “I cannot tell you what your duty is;
we have no very good intelligence, I am afraid, and if he is flying to feed himself, we cannot well imagine
where he may have gone.”
“Well, sir,” Hollin said, “they said to bring you back with him, and I suppose those are my orders until I
hear otherwise. Anyways, I dare say we will find him tomorrow, first thing or good as. It’s not as though
he’s so easy to miss.”
But this was not reckoning with the confusion of dozens of beasts all flung out upon the countryside at
once. Certainly dragons, in the plural, had been seen everywhere—dreadful marauding beasts, and no
one knew what things were coming to when they were just allowed to go flying around loose. But as to
one particular dragon, black with a ruff, no-one had anything to say.
One farmer thirty miles on, belligerent enough to be brave, had not hidden in his cellar during the
Page 39
visitation, and swore that a giant dragon had eaten four of his cows, informing him they were being
confiscated for the war effort and he should be repaid by the Government. He even showed them where
the dragon had scratched a mark in an old oak-tree for his reimbursement, and for
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