Temeraire broke away and flew on ahead towards the camp, climbing as he did, then hovered directly above it; the moon had not yet risen, and he did not think they would notice him. It was very peculiar to be so close to the enemy but not yet fighting, waiting to start a battle when he chose. It was not wholly comfortable. It had always seemed so very plain to him, and quite natural, when one should dart in and begin; but that was when he only needed to think of himself. Now there were so many others to consider, and the enemy too. Perhaps, it occurred to him suddenly, there were a great many other French dragons nearby, who they had not seen or heard of, and who might appear out of nowhere and turn the tide. Then they would surely lose, and it would be all his fault; he would have lost the day.

The prospect was alarming as no ordinary fighting would have been, and Temeraire almost thought that perhaps he would go back, and ask the others what they thought. He looked back northwest: he could just make them out, a great mass of shadows darker than the trees and the fields below. They were coming on as slowly as they could, wing-beats lazy so they drifted low and then swooped back up, describing great arcs instead of flying straight, all of them waiting for his signal. If only he might have a little advice …

But he was quite alone. He trembled, but there was no use being cowardly, there was no one to help him, and he must decide. Below, the two Chevaliers slept just one hill beyond the low rough earthwork barricade, where sentries strolled along the line, casually. In the camp, fires were scattered about, and some horses; the wind drifted a little, bringing some eddy with it, and one of the horses raised its head and whickered uneasily; another pawed at the ground and tossed its head.

‘C'est rien, c'est rien,’ a man said, eating his supper near them.

Temeraire drew his lungs full, thought of Laurence, and roared out his challenge.

He kept roaring for a long time. The Chevaliers jerked up in their clearing at once, their wings opening even before their eyes had, and began roaring a furious answer, their heads twisting this way and that as they searched the sky for him. Men came racing from the tents about them. Temeraire saw a captain with flashes of gold on his shoulder, being put up; they sprang into the air half-crewed, men on the ground still leapt for the harness as they rose.