a moment Laurence
entertained hopes. But it was not a Chinese mark, only an X clumsily carved through the bark, with four
scratches below. “Red and yellow, like fire,” the oldest boy said, peering at them from over the
window-sill of the house, despite his mother’s restraining hand, and sank them completely.
Ten dragons had stopped to drink at the lake on the grounds of a stately house in Monmouthshire, the
housekeeper told them, anxiously, and eaten some of the deer: ten neat X ’s were marked in the dirt by
the lakeshore. “I am sure I could not tell you if they were black or red or spotted green and yellow, it
was all I had to do to keep breathing, with half my maids fainted dead away,” she said. “And then one of
the creatures came to the door, and asked us through it if we had any curtains. Red ones,” she added.
“We threw outside all the ones from the ballroom, and then they took them and went away.”
Laurence was baffled: curtains? He would have understood better if they had demanded the silver plate.
But at least they were moving in a group, and in the earnest excuses for the pillaging, he thought he saw
Temeraire’s influence, if not his presence: it was so near a mimic to the Chinese mode, which they had
witnessed, where dragons purchased goods by making their mark for the supplier.
The following day, they discovered another farmer with a collection of marks, who rather astonishingly
was not unhappy: the dragons had eaten four of his cows yesterday, he agreed, but that very morning
some men had come through with a string of cattle, and given him replacements, which he pointed out in
their field: four handsome beef cattle, better in all honesty than the scrawnier animals in the farmer’s own
herd.
Seven dragons had been seen in Pen-y-Clawdd, four had landed by the river in Llandogo, and perhaps
one of them had been black—yes, certainly one had been black. Then a dozen had been seen—no, two
dozen—no, a hundred—numbers shouted by the crowd in the common room of an inn, growing steadily
more implausible. Laurence gave it no credit at all, but a few miles farther along, Elsie landed them in a
torn-up meadow, with a neatly dug necessary-pit on the low side away from the water, filled in but still
fragrant, with signs of occupation by at least some number of dragons. “We must be getting right close,
then,” Hollin said, encouragingly, but the next day, no one had so much as seen a wing-tip, though Elsie
went miles around in widening rings to make inquiries, for hours and hours together. They had one and all
vanished into the air.
“WE WILL BE GETTING CLOSEto the French tomorrow, so beginning today we will fly when it is
dark,” Temeraire said, “and try and be as quiet as we can; so pass the word to everyone, not to fly
somewhere if you see lights; or if you smell cows, because they will bellow and run and make a fuss.”
The others nodded, and Temeraire rose up on his haunches to inspect their own pen of cattle. He missed
Gong Su very much. It was not that cooked food was so much pleasanter, he did not care about the
taste at all at present. But Gong Su could stretch a single cow amongst five hungry dragons, if only there
were rice, or something else like to cook it with.
The farther they got from Wales, the more complicated everything became. Lloyd said that it was
expensive to bring the cows so far, because they must be fed along the road, and they could not be
brought very quickly, because they would sicken and stop being fat and good to eat. It helped a great
deal that Majestatis had suggested the notion of borrowing cows, in advance, and using the later ones to
repay; but if they were always flying about snatching cows from the nearby farms, the French were sure
Page 40
to hear about it: Marshal Lefèbvre’s forces were busy snatching cows themselves.
“Maybe we oughtn’t be having the cows driven to us,” Moncey said. “We could always go
entertained hopes. But it was not a Chinese mark, only an X clumsily carved through the bark, with four
scratches below. “Red and yellow, like fire,” the oldest boy said, peering at them from over the
window-sill of the house, despite his mother’s restraining hand, and sank them completely.
Ten dragons had stopped to drink at the lake on the grounds of a stately house in Monmouthshire, the
housekeeper told them, anxiously, and eaten some of the deer: ten neat X ’s were marked in the dirt by
the lakeshore. “I am sure I could not tell you if they were black or red or spotted green and yellow, it
was all I had to do to keep breathing, with half my maids fainted dead away,” she said. “And then one of
the creatures came to the door, and asked us through it if we had any curtains. Red ones,” she added.
“We threw outside all the ones from the ballroom, and then they took them and went away.”
Laurence was baffled: curtains? He would have understood better if they had demanded the silver plate.
But at least they were moving in a group, and in the earnest excuses for the pillaging, he thought he saw
Temeraire’s influence, if not his presence: it was so near a mimic to the Chinese mode, which they had
witnessed, where dragons purchased goods by making their mark for the supplier.
The following day, they discovered another farmer with a collection of marks, who rather astonishingly
was not unhappy: the dragons had eaten four of his cows yesterday, he agreed, but that very morning
some men had come through with a string of cattle, and given him replacements, which he pointed out in
their field: four handsome beef cattle, better in all honesty than the scrawnier animals in the farmer’s own
herd.
Seven dragons had been seen in Pen-y-Clawdd, four had landed by the river in Llandogo, and perhaps
one of them had been black—yes, certainly one had been black. Then a dozen had been seen—no, two
dozen—no, a hundred—numbers shouted by the crowd in the common room of an inn, growing steadily
more implausible. Laurence gave it no credit at all, but a few miles farther along, Elsie landed them in a
torn-up meadow, with a neatly dug necessary-pit on the low side away from the water, filled in but still
fragrant, with signs of occupation by at least some number of dragons. “We must be getting right close,
then,” Hollin said, encouragingly, but the next day, no one had so much as seen a wing-tip, though Elsie
went miles around in widening rings to make inquiries, for hours and hours together. They had one and all
vanished into the air.
“WE WILL BE GETTING CLOSEto the French tomorrow, so beginning today we will fly when it is
dark,” Temeraire said, “and try and be as quiet as we can; so pass the word to everyone, not to fly
somewhere if you see lights; or if you smell cows, because they will bellow and run and make a fuss.”
The others nodded, and Temeraire rose up on his haunches to inspect their own pen of cattle. He missed
Gong Su very much. It was not that cooked food was so much pleasanter, he did not care about the
taste at all at present. But Gong Su could stretch a single cow amongst five hungry dragons, if only there
were rice, or something else like to cook it with.
The farther they got from Wales, the more complicated everything became. Lloyd said that it was
expensive to bring the cows so far, because they must be fed along the road, and they could not be
brought very quickly, because they would sicken and stop being fat and good to eat. It helped a great
deal that Majestatis had suggested the notion of borrowing cows, in advance, and using the later ones to
repay; but if they were always flying about snatching cows from the nearby farms, the French were sure
Page 40
to hear about it: Marshal Lefèbvre’s forces were busy snatching cows themselves.
“Maybe we oughtn’t be having the cows driven to us,” Moncey said. “We could always go
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