‘I call that hard,’ Requiescat said, mumbling around a sheep. ‘It isn't as though we will not outstrip those redcoats, and nobody minds a snack either.’

‘You may find it less pleasant when we have had to fly thirty miles back to catch Iskierka, and then sixty on to the rendezvous,’ Laurence said grimly. It was the very best outcome they could hope for.

‘Hum,’ Requiescat said, licking his chops thoughtfully, ‘that's so, but I don't see why we have to go finding her at all. She and those fellows know where the rendezvous is as well as anyone, and they have some men and their compasses with them, if they should get themselves lost like hatchlings. We can just go on and let them catch us up.’

‘They must know we would miss them, after they have been gone so long,’ Temeraire said, ‘so I expect that they have got themselves into a fight, and are probably all dying somewhere full of French bullets.’ He did not sound as though he would be very sorry if that proved to be the case.

Wringe squirmed as Temeraire pointedly translated this for her, but remained silent. ‘Temeraire,’ Laurence said, low, ‘this is not only foolishness on her part; this is a challenge to your authority.’

‘Oh!’ Temeraire said, and having told Wringe as much, he added, ‘so now you will tell me, or else,’ and when she continued mute, he drew a great expanding breath and roared out, over her head.

‘Payom zhe reng!’ Wringe said, flattening herself to the ground, as everyone jumped. A gentle pattering like rain came from the trees: old acorns shaken loose into the dead leaves, and among them a few small birds stone dead. Gong Su promptly went in after them while Wringe muttered her confession: the miscreants had gone back towards London with a notion of taking some of Napoleon's army by surprise, and winning either treasure or accolades. There had been no very well-formed goal; they had gone looking for a fight as much as for any practical reward.

‘We ought to go on and leave them to catch up,’ Temeraire said, panting a little, still ruffled and angry, ‘just as Requiescat says. Except then I dare say she will come back with two eagles or something like, and there will be no living with her at all.’

Laurence did not like to ill-wish aloud, but if Iskierka had so over-ridden Granby as to make herself a deserter, she was unlikely to be guided in any other respect of sense either, and he thought Temeraire's earlier expectation was the more likely.

But Temeraire brightened after a moment and added, ‘Anyway, I do not suppose anyone can blame us for going after her, to fetch her back, Laurence? After all, she is very important; or so everyone says.’