‘We are not lost!’ Temeraire said, rather coldly. He did not much like Elsie, Hollin had been a very good ground-crew chief. Fellowes did his best, but he was not quite as attentive to the way the harness lay against one's hide, or as prompt in getting it off in the evenings. Not that Temeraire had much of a harness at present, but it was the principle of the thing. Fellowes was also a little dull, if one were alone in the evening, and wanted a little conversation. In short, Hollin had been his first and Temeraire had not ceased to regret the loss. ‘We have not gone the wrong way,’ he repeated. ‘We are waiting for Laurence and Tharkay to rescue Granby: Iskierka has had herself captured.’

‘Oh, Lord,’ Hollin said, sliding down from Elsie's back. He had a satchel over his shoulder. ‘When did they go?’

‘Hours ago,’ Temeraire said, despondently, ‘though Laurence said, they would most likely need a day to reach the city on foot, and that if they could locate Granby, they would not try and get him out until it was dark, and nearly everyone asleep. So they are not late, at all; they are in good time.’

Hollin rubbed a hand over his mouth and said, ‘I have a dispatch—’

‘How large is it?’ Temeraire inquired, and Hollin took out a folded snippet of paper from his satchel, handsomely sealed with red wax, and too small for Temeraire to read from. ‘You will have to read it to me out loud,’ Temeraire said.

‘I am not sure I ought to,’ Hollin said, apologetically. ‘It says it is for Captain Laurence, you see here.’

‘I am sure Laurence would want us to know if it is anything important,’ Temeraire said. ‘Anyway, if contains our orders, then I suppose that whomever addressed it must not quite understand that I am colonel of the regiment, and they have simply made a mistake.’

Hollin hesitated and, looked around the clearing at the other men. None of them ranked higher than lieutenant.

‘Stop looking at them,’ Perscitia said irritably. ‘It stands to reason that it is orders for us. And since we cannot carry them out without knowing what they are, you had better tell us, or go back and see what this Wellesley fellow wants you to do. But if you ask me, he will only be annoyed that you have wasted so much time going back and forth.’