They, of course, had been required aboard earlier as they were not passengers but prisoners; and even if Laurence had been disposed to forget their official status, the first lieutenant, Lord Purbeck, was not. A guard, two Marines armed with muskets, had been placed on the steps to the dragondeck, and when Laurence looked for his things, he found them stowed in a small, dark cabin beside the stern ladder way, two decks down: as near to the gaol-deck as was practical, without being right in it, and full of the stench. His guard looked as though they would have liked to keep him in it; until he said, ‘You may go up, then, and explain to Temeraire that I am not allowed to come to him.’

The aviators began to come aboard irregularly: they were not an assembled crew with their own dragon, but were drifting over from Dover covert, in twos and threes. They included two of the captains Jane had sent: both of them older men lately consigned to earth by the death of their dragons, in the dreadful epidemic, long before anyone had looked for such an event. They were experienced men who might otherwise have looked for long careers ahead of them. They would take another man aboard in Gibraltar; three eggs were to be sent with them.

These were delivered, with great care and attention, by a party of three dragons. The eggs, swaddled in cotton wadding and lowered down into a nest built for them over the galley, were not what anyone would call a real prize: one a Yellow Reaper, and one an unfortunate cross between a Chequered Nettle and a Parnassian, which had produced a shockingly small egg that looked more likely to produce a Winchester than a heavyweight. The third, delivered by Arkady, was his own: or so he smugly informed them, and had lately been produced by Wringe. He was not at all sorry to see the egg go, convinced it was an especial honour to have it sent to a wide-open and unclaimed territory. Although he stayed a long time lecturing Temeraire sternly on his duty of oversight and care, and extracting the promise that Temeraire would make sure the egg was not touched by anyone at all, and that only someone very rich should be permitted to become the captain.

‘I am glad to see you again, before we go,’ Laurence said, to Tharkay, awkwardly. They had not spoken since that day in the camp, when Tharkay had cut him to the bone; Laurence scarcely knew whether to apologize or to express his gratitude.

‘You need not bid me farewell, just yet; I am coming,’ Tharkay said. ‘Captain Riley has been good enough to invite me as his guest.’

‘I did not know you were acquainted,’ Laurence said, as near as he could come to questioning.