Victory of Eagles

But despite this setback, it was in any case satisfying to be flying back south, even though they were not to stay, because it felt to Temeraire a little as though they were reclaiming their territory; or at least refusing to acknowledge it was not theirs anymore. He still did not like to fall back all the way to Scotland, no matter how much more secure it should be, for regrouping; but if they must do it, at least they should not have run there directly from the battlefield, with the French dragons on their heels all the way: and perhaps they would even have a little fighting, if the French tried to attack the infantry on the march.

WEEDON WAS VISIBLE aloft from a long way: the walls of the depot were built of thick grey blocks of granite, with tall narrow turrets at each corner reaching far into the air, bristling with pepper guns. Around the walls, enormous stands of long halberds and arrow-headed spears had been planted on the ground in lines, so a great company of men might sleep safe from aerial assault, and the remnants of the infantry and cavalry were bivouacked among them. It did not look at all comfortable to attack, and thanks to the defenses, Temeraire had to lead everyone else to land all the way on the far side of the camp.

Wellesley came the long distance out to speak to them with no good grace, especially as he had to walk most of the way. “What the devil are you doing here? You ought to be nearly to Scotland by now, and half my cavalry are in fits.”

“We are here to protect you,” Temeraire said, injured, “and also to talk to you about pay, and our rights, since we did not win treasure.”

“Why, damn you, you can wait to bring the lawyers into it until after we have run the French out,” Wellesley said. “Good God, you may be sure Bonaparte does not have to argue his way through every battle.”

“If you would like to be compared to him,” Temeraire said, “then Bonaparte has also made a marketplace in Paris, for his dragons, and built them pavilions, and he is not pe

Laurence laid a hand on Temeraire’s leg, and Temeraire swallowed the rest of his remarks; it was difficult to remember that one must be respectful to a senior officer, even if the senior officer was unpleasant in return, and to have to think carefully about what one said, instead of laying everything out plainly, even if it was perfectly obvious and fair.

“Sir,” Laurence said, “we have been ordered to cover your retreat,” and handed Wellesley the note from Admiral Roland: a brief scrawl in her bad handwriting, which Temeraire could not quite read from overhead.

Wellesley scowled through the explanation, and then he crumpled the note and pitched it away; one of his aides hastily retrieved it out of the mud behind his back, to be sure it did not lie about to be picked up. “That woman is more to be relied on than half the general staff; it is a damned embarrassment. So this Chinese beast is managing Bonaparte’s dragons for him? How did he get the creature to obey him in the first place? He was not there for her hatching.”

“She is snobbish, so I suppose she liked that he is an emperor,” Temeraire said, “and that he should make it easy for her to be nasty to me: she is a very unpleasant sort of dragon.”

“I think perhaps you dislike her too greatly to be just, Temeraire,” Laurence said, and to Wellesley said, “Sir, she had lately lost her companion before coming to France, and being bereft was perhaps more vulnerable to a kindness which ordinarily pride would have armored her against. But Bonaparte has not won her by any trick, but with a high degree of real affection, and certainly all the outward shows of respect; and he has materially altered the conditions for dragons under his rule, for the better.”

“So anyone can manage a dragon, then, if you bribe the creature properly, and cosset it like a woman,” Wellesley said.

Temeraire laid his ruff back. He did not think he was unjust to Lien at all, himself; but he did see that of course, Laurence’s explanation was the more important one, for their own case, and even Lien was not just helping Napoleon because he had given her a few presents. Not that Temeraire would have said no, to a diamond as handsome as the one she had been wearing at the Battle of Jena; but that was after she had decided to help. “It is not bribery or cosseting, if you pay someone what they deserve, and if they do not like to help you otherwise.”

“It is a good two thousand pounds to feed a beast your size for a year,” Wellesley said. “Do you expect more?”

“Then give me the two thousand pounds,” Temeraire said, “and I will undertake to feed myself, and put aside some of the rest, as I like.”

“Hah,” Wellesley said, “and when you gamble it away, and are starving, and you steal a cow to eat, then what is to be done with you?”

“Of course I would not gamble with treasure,” Temeraire said repressively. “If I wanted to take someone else’s treasure, I would fight them; and if I did not want to fight them, then I would not want to take it with a game anyway, because if I did win, then of course they would want to fight to get it back afterwards.”

“And I suppose every other dragon has as much sense?” Wellesley said.

“If you prefer, sir,” Laurence said, “you may pay them their board and a wage above it; the form matters little. The question at hand is, whether you will agree they have a right to pay, and to all the same rights and liberties under which any man serves.”

“Why the devil ask me?” Wellesley said. “Go speak to Dalrymple, if you like. I have no authority to make commitments on behalf of the Government.”

Laurence said, “Sir, you are likely to be appointed to the command, and to just that authority; we both know that their Lordships are not likely to overrule, in the broad strokes, what commitments you feel necessary to make to secure so critical a victory, nor even question them greatly, if those commitments should deliver to the effort a substantial force of dragons, which otherwise have no inclination to remain and to serve.”

Wellesley tapped his boot again, and said nothing for a moment, looking at Laurence. “I can give you my word it will be considered, shall we say,” he offered, “and I can promise your beast the two thousand pounds per a

“Hah,” Mi

Wellesley started back: he had evidently not noticed Mi

“Yes, but I am not going to take it,” Temeraire said, and lowered his head more closely, so Wellesley had to look at him directly. “I do not choose to wait, and rely on generosity: I know perfectly well how generous their Lordships are. If you would like our help now, then you may say how much it is worth to you, also now. And if it is not as much as I think it worth, I will tell the others so, and they will leave, I expect. I will stay myself for Laurence, but I will not keep the others for my own personal sake. And it is not very handsome of you to propose anything so insulting, either,” he added reproachfully, lifting his head back away, “when you know I ca

“Do you know, you are the most damned peculiar pair of traitors I have ever heard of,” Wellesley said to Laurence. “Are you trying to get yourself into Foxe’s Book of Martyrs?”

Temeraire snorted angrily: Laurence had read him bits of that book, and it was all about people who had died in especially unpleasant ways. But Laurence only said, “Sir, there are abundant proofs for any man, by now, that any nation which gives its dragons liberty and brings them into the life of the state, wi