‘Yes, you may all eat, but have half now and take the rest to eat along the way, otherwise you will fly slowly, and be hungry again anyway at the end of it,’ Temeraire said. ‘Lloyd, we are going to Abergavenny, or outside it, anyway; do you know where that is?’

‘We can't drive the herd all that way by tomorrow!’ Lloyd said.

‘Then you will have to bring them as close as you can and we will manage somehow,’ Temeraire said; he was done listening to difficulties. ‘I have seen Napoleon's army fight, and within a week they will be in London, so we must be, also.’

‘We are a hundred fifty miles from London,’ Lloyd protested.

‘All the more reason to travel fast,’ Temeraire said, and flung himself into the air.

Chapter Five

Bewildered, Laurence stood in the empty grounds and called Temeraire's name a few times. There was no answer but the mumbled echoes that the cliffs gave back and the momentary attention of a small red squirrel, which paused to look at him before continuing on its way. Elsie landed again, behind him. ‘Not a wing in the sky, sir,’ Hollin said.

Elsie carried them up to a cave, reaching deep into the mountain face. Though the light was failing rapidly, Laurence could trace with his fingers the letters of Temeraire's name, carved deeply into the rock. so he had at least been here, and was well enough to leave this mark. They managed to fashion a torch to inspect it, but the cave was too tidy, inside, to guess when his habitation had ended: no bones or other remnants of food.

It had been only two days since the French landing, but many dragons lived in the breeding grounds; if the herdsmen had abandoned their posts and the regular delivery of cattle interrupted, the provisions would quickly have been spent. The dragons must surely have scattered from hunger, and likely in all the directions of the rose.

‘Well, let us not borrow trouble,’ Hollin said, consolingly. ‘He is a clever fellow, and it cannot have been so long since they left. There are some fresh bones down by the pen, from only this morning by the look of them.’

Laurence shook his head. ‘I hope he would not have been so foolish, as to stay to the last,’ he answered, low. ‘So many foraging dragons will undoubtedly be consuming all of the local supply, and he must have more food than a smaller beast.’

‘I am a smaller beast,’ Elsie said, a little anxiously, ‘but I must have something to eat too, and there is nothing here.’