‘If we engage, the British ships will not be able to fire upon her,’ Laurence said. ‘There, they have been warned, do you see? He is directing some of their fire against her. Can you come about the other side? If she tries to flee towards France, we may then intercept her course.’

It was a fine and elegant sight to watch the flank of the British line-of-battle turning gracefully, one after another, to present their broadsides to the dragons coming around. But Lien went nowhere near the ships' range; she had stopped far distant, a small white figure against the grey sky, and now was hovering over the waves while the remnants of the French aerial forces wheeled above her in tight circles. She roared. The echoes of the divine wind carried over the water, even at such a distance, and a fine mist of wave spray steamed away from her in clouds of white.

‘Have you any notion of what she is doing?’ Laurence asked, looking out at her through his glass.

‘Perhaps she has gone mad, over losing another companion,’ Temeraire offered. He did not really think so, but he did not see what good it could possibly do her, to roar at the water so. ‘It is not as though water holds shape; even if she breaks it, it will just come back together, so—’ He flicked his tail, uncertainly. ‘She is going nearer the ships now, though,’ he added, ‘so they will be able to shoot her, soon, in any case.’

Lien was indeed gradually approaching the ships, still roaring madly at the waves. She flew so low now the waves were nearly lapping at her belly, rearing up to reach for her after every roar.

‘Those waves are ten foot above the rest of the swell,’ Laurence said. ‘Mr. Allen, a signal for the ships: storm anchors, not in our code, in the Navy's—Yes, the red and white, and then the green, and then the red circle. Temeraire, I do not know what she is about, but I think we cannot hazard her trying it. Go after her, and quickly now—’

Temeraire scarcely waited for the word and threw himself joyously forward. The waves did not seem so very high; they would not have reached over the sides of the tall ships, and he had been to sea enough to know they might manage much higher. But if they should be struck by many such waves, one after another, perhaps they would not be able to fire their guns, and then Lien might come near enough to use the divine wind upon them.