Victory of Eagles (17 page)

then, as we had blacked their eye a couple of times, but soon as the orders came in, off they went; and

they sent all the cattle on ahead,” he finished, in gloomy tones.

“Blacked their eye,” Miller said, with a snort. “Yes, damned likely.”

“Like enough,” Hollin said, and pointed. Laurence looked: an eagle standard was jutting from the

ground, the
13ème
regiment blazoned on the banner. “I’ll take the news, sir,” Hollin added, looking at

Laurence. “Me and Elsie can make the dash quick, on our own, and let them know—”

Page 56

“Damned nonsense,” Miller said. “The news you ought to be taking is, there are sixty dragons as need

rounding up, and herding back to the breeding grounds—” He cut off abruptly, as Temeraire took a step

and lowered his head very close.

“We are not going to be herded anywhere we do not like,” he said, dangerously, “by Napoleon or by

your admirals; and if you like to ask the other dragons of the Corps to try it, I expect they will see at

once how very foolish it is, and if not, I will explain it to them, and I dare say they will join us instead.”

Laurence had a fair notion which dragons would be perfectly prepared to join Temeraire under such

circumstances, with very little explanation required. That would bring the tally to two Longwings, even if

one of them was surely past his real fighting days, and two Regal Coppers; to join with the five other

heavy-weights Laurence could see, and a full complement of middle-weights and couriers, which would

make Temeraire’s army very nearly the equal to the Corps in strength, at least those forces presently in

England and under harness.

If he were not fully aware of these prospects, Miller was wise enough to blanch at the suggestion and to

be quelled at least a little. He settled for writing a letter, in a quiet corner, while Temeraire dictated his

own:

Gentlemen,

I am very happy to accept your commission, and we should like to be the eighty-first regiment, if

that number is not presently taken. We do not need any rifles, and we have got plenty of powder

and shot for our cannons,

—Laurence wrote with a vivid awareness of the reactions this should produce—

but we are always in need of more cows and pigs and sheep, and goats would also do, if a good

deal easier to come by. Lloyd and our herdsmen have done very well, and I should like to

commend them to your attention, but there are a lot of us, and some more herdsmen would be

very useful.

“Pepper, put in pepper,” another dragon said, craning her head over; she was a middle-weight,

yellowish striped with gray, some kind of cross-breed. “And canvas, we must have a lot of canvas—”

“Oh, very well, pepper,” Temeraire said, and continuing his list of requests added,

I should very much like Keynes to come here, and also Gong Su, and Emily Roland, who has my

talon-sheaths, and the rest of my crew; and also we need some surgeons for the wounded men.

Dorset had better come, too, and some other dragon-surgeons.

You had all better not stay where you are at present—

“Temeraire, you cannot write so to your superior officers,” Laurence said, breaking off; he had forgone

Page 57

any attempt at explaining that the commission should be instantly withdrawn, and had swallowed many

protests already on the language of the letter, in favor of getting its urgent news sent quickly; Jane would

understand it, at least; but there were limits.

“But they really had better not,” Temeraire said, surprised. “They have not got enough soldiers, not

anywhere near, because they are not moving quickly enough.”

Laurence persuaded him at last to soften the language:

Napoleon will be attacking you on Tuesday, with nearly all his army, as the French are going

very quickly because they are all being carried about by dragons, and your reinforcements will not

reach you in time—our couriers have seen them on the road and they are only going fifteen miles

in a day.

“But what if they do not realize that means they ought to retreat?” Temeraire objected.

“They will understand it, I assure you,” Laurence said; he did not bother to say that they would very

likely not believe it, and that nothing would come of Temeraire’s advice.

In this at least he was thoroughly wrong: a great deal came of it, if nothing very desirable. Laurence

awoke the next morning, on his dragon-arm pallet, to a furious yelling noise outside the sheltering

membrane of Temeraire’s wing. He was not allowed to get down to his feet; he was snatched at once

and put on Temeraire’s back, by the breastplate-chain, and then Temeraire pushed himself up to his feet,

just as a couple of courier-weights came bounding in urgently from the boundary-line of the camp,

half-flying and half-leaping, and gasped out, “Temeraire, she hasn’t the watch-word, but—”

“I do not need any silly watch-word,” Iskierka said, padding into the clearing, and coiled herself back on

her hindquarters and snorted a thin stream of fire for emphasis, and the whole mess of the Turkestan

ferals came tumbling along behind her.

“WHAT DO YOUWANT?” Temeraire said, very ungraciously. He did not see why Iskierka had to

come along, showing away and making a great noise of herself.

“To fight,” Iskierka said, as if the answer were obvious. “We are supposed to be in a war, and there has

not been any fighting for four days, and I have not even been let to go flying anywhere and,” she hissed

smoke again, “they came and lectured my Granby, when I went out for just a bit of hunting.”

“Well, there is about to be a great deal of fighting over there,” Temeraire said, “so you ought to go

back.”

“No there is not,” Iskierka said, “at least, they are not getting ready for any fighting; they said it would be

another week before there is a battle. But then we heard that you had had two battles already, and your

letter came saying that there was going to be some more, so we have come to have a share of the fighting

also. And,” she added, “when we have finished and beat Napoleon, I have decided that you may give me

an egg.”

“Oh!” Temeraire said, swelling with indignation, “how very kind! I am to be honored, I suppose.”

Page 58

“Well, I am much richer than you are,” she said, “and also I can breathe fire, so you ought to be.”

“I would not give you an egg,” Temeraire said, “if you were the very last dragon in the world, but me; I

should rather have none at all.”

“You haven’t,” Iskierka said. “No-one has got an egg by you at all yet, so you see, I am very generous

to try.”

This was no comfortable news, and Temeraire drew back a little, startled. He had not been very

enthusiastic about all the breeding, by the end, but one could not help but be satisfied at being wanted,

and think how many eggs there should be. He did not understand why there should be
none.
It did not

sound very well; not, however, that it made him wish any more to give Iskierka one.

She meanwhile preened herself smugly, stretching out her coils in a messy way so everyone would notice

her more. She had on a lot of gaudy stuff on her harness, some chains that were probably not real gold at

all, and which had in them chips of what were certainly colored glass, and Temeraire could not help but

be conscious that Granby, who was talking with Laurence and Tharkay over by the standard in low

voices, was in a very fine green velvet coat, trimmed all over in golden braid, with not one but two

swords at his waist, one of them short but both very brilliantly ornamented at the hilt, in fine shining

leather sheaths; even if he did not look very happy at present. And Laurence was in a shabby coat which

did not suit him at all.

The others were eyeing her with admiration, and Arkady and the other ferals, too, all of whom had

bright stuff on them, hooked haphazardly onto their harness and making them look rather like slovenly

pirates, Temeraire thought, and Arkady, Temeraire realized in outrage, Arkady had Demane on his back;

Demane who was of
his
crew, and he said reproachfully to the boy, “What are you doing with him?”

“He does not know what the other soldiers are saying with the flags,” Demane said, looking up, “so I tell

him, and then we decide whether to listen. The flags are wrong sometimes,” he added.

They had not brought anyone else from his own crew, or any food, or anything useful at all; they had no

notion of how they were to be fed or where they were to sleep, and did not respect the order of the

camp at all. Wringe, who was rather big for a feral, a good-sized middle-weight, tried to shove a Yellow

Reaper out of his place, and so of course all the Reapers jumped up and hissed at her, and then Arkady

and the others jumped in hissing back, and Temeraire had to roar to get all their attention and push them

apart.

“You are new, so you must clear your own places,” he said sternly.

“Oh, that is easy,” Iskierka said, and hissed a command to Arkady, who quickly chivvied his gang to

one side, and she then blasted fire out across a swath of ground at the edge of their clearing, dry leaves

crisping up and tree-bark popping with sounds like gunfire off the trunks. One old dead pine caught like a

torch and went into a perfect crackling blaze, while everyone else squawked and jumped to their feet.

“That is enough!” Temeraire said. “You may not go about setting fires in camp; we have powder all

about, and you will have us all blown up. Now put out those trees, and clear it properly, by pulling them

out.”

The ferals in a rather surly way smothered the flames with dirt and obeyed; but Iskierka did nothing but

sit and yawn and observe, while everyone in the camp watched her, rather impressed than otherwise. It

Page 59

was not at all satisfactory, and when he said as much to Perscitia, she added insult to injury by having no

sympathy, and saying instead, “A fire-breather will be very useful,” and showing him several maneuvers

which she had sketched out, to make use of Iskierka especially.

“THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT,” Granby said to Laurence, no surprise. He was rather

exhausted looking, and left sweat streaked on his forehead when he rubbed his hand against it. “The

generals, anyway; you may be sure
she
swallowed it whole, and nothing would do but we would come

and fight with you, or else Temeraire would be getting all the glory, and prizes, and she wanted an eagle,

too; and once she has decided on something, those ferals will follow her to the end of Creation.” Arkady

was still their leader, but even he had evidently taken to regarding her as a force of nature beyond

ordinary leadership, so much treasure had she led them to seizing.

“Roland was damned understanding,” Granby added. “She sent a courier after me, with orders, after

Iskierka had up and gone; put us on detached duty, scouting, so I am not insubordinate technically.

But—” He raised his hands, helplessly.

“No preparations were made for a French attack?” Laurence said, low. “None whatsoever?”

“To be fair,” Granby said, “there is not much they can do; they haven’t the men yet. Admiral Roland

tried to persuade them we ought to be ferrying in the troops, but to their minds, it will only make a mess,

and mutiny everywhere when the men won’t go aboard.”

“They might retreat,” Tharkay said, “rather than wait to be routed.”

“Well,” Granby said, and Laurence felt much the same; it was one thing to retreat from the coast, having

failed to prevent a landing, and another to let London be taken without a shot.

“Is there any hope you are mistaken?” Laurence asked Temeraire, a little later, after the ferals had been

settled into the camp.

“They are moving their men
somewhere,
” Temeraire said, practically, “and I cannot think where he

would move them, other than London, where your Army is; there are plenty of cows still around here, so

it would not be only for food. But if you like I will ask Moncey and the others to go and see if they can

work out where they have gone, for certain.”

Before this plan could be wholly put into effect, however, it was rendered unnecessary: Elsie came flying

desperately into camp, nearly skidding across the ground. “Hurry, oh, hurry,” she cried, “they are not

attacking tomorrow, they are attacking to-night,” and Hollin came scrambling off her back and said, “It is

all true, sir; the scouts have seen them formed up not an hour’s march away, and there are ten

Fleur-de-Nuits arming to the teeth in their camp.”

Laurence now had opportunity to see for himself how quickly an army of dragons might go, when their

own camp moved: first the herd of cattle gone bellowing down the road in a cloud of dust, with the

herdsmen beating them along, and a few aerial shepherds for encouragement. “We will meet you at

Harpenden,” Temeraire said to the chief of the herdsmen, “or send you word there, where to bring the

cows, and along which road; and if you do not hear from us, only make sure they are safe, and the

French do not get them.”

“Aye, sir,” the man said, touching his forelock, quite automatically, and cheerfully shouting to his men

Page 60

kicked his mule, a placid beast, and moved along.

The handful of tents were struck and bundled up, stakes and all, into a crumpled heap upon one large