eggs and black pudding and bacon; Laurence looked around uncertainly for a sideboard.
‘Morning, Captain; coffee or tea?’ Tolly was at his elbow, holding two pots.
‘Coffee, thank you,’ Laurence said, gratefully; he had the cup drained and held out for more before the man even turned away. ‘Do we serve ourselves?’ he asked.
‘No, here comes Lacey with eggs and bacon for you; just mention if you like something else,’ Tolly said, already moving on.
The maidservant was wearing coarse homespun, and she said, ‘Good morning!’ cheerfully instead of staying silent, but it was so pleasant to see a friendly face that Laurence found himself returning the greeting. The plate she was carrying was so hot it steamed, and he had not a fig to give for propriety once he had tasted the splendid bacon: cured with some unfamiliar smoke, and full of flavour, and the yolks of his eggs almost bright orange. He ate quickly, with an eye on the squares of light travelling across the floor where the sun struck through the high windows.
‘Don’t choke,’ said the thickset man, eyeing him. ‘Tolly, more tea,’ he bellowed; his voice was loud enough to carry through a storm. ‘You Laurence?’ he demanded, as his cup was refilled.
Laurence finished swallowing and said, ‘Yes, sir; you have the advantage of me.’
‘Berkley,’ the man said. ‘Look here, what sort of nonsense have you been filling your dragon’s head with? My Maximus has been muttering all morning about wanting a bath, and his harness removed; absurd stuff.’
‘I do not find it so, sir, to be concerned with the comfort of my dragon,’ Laurence said quietly, his hands tightening on the cutlery.
Berkley glared straight back at him. ‘Why damn you, are you suggesting I neglect Maximus? No one has ever washed dragons; they don’t mind a little dirt, they have hide.’
Laurence reined in his temper and his voice; his appetite was gone, however, and he set down knife and fork. ‘Evidently your dragon disagrees; do you suppose yourself a better judge than he of what gives him discomfort?’
Berkley scowled at him fiercely, then abruptly he snorted. ‘Well, you are a firebreather, make no mistake; and here I thought you Navy fellows were all so stiff and cautious-like.’ He drained his teacup and stood up from the table. ‘I will be seeing you later; Celeritas wants to pace Maximus and Temeraire out together.’ He nodded, apparently in all friendliness, and left.
Laurence was a little dazed by this abrupt reversal; then he realized he was near to being late, and he had no more time to think over the incident. Temeraire was waiting impatiently, and now Laurence found himself paying for his virtue, as the harness had to be put back on; even with the help of two grounds crewmen he called over, they barely reached the courtyard in time.
Celeritas was not yet in the courtyard as they landed, but only a short while after their arrival, Laurence saw the training master emerge from one of the openings carved into the cliff wall: evidently these were private quarters, perhaps for older or more honoured dragons. Celeritas shook out his wings and flew over to the courtyard, landing neatly on his rear legs, and he looked Temeraire over thoroughly. ‘Hmm, yes, excellent depth of chest. Inhale, please. Yes, yes.’ He sat back down on all fours. ‘Now then. Let us have a look at you. Two full circuits of the valley, first circuit horizontal turns, then backwing on the second. Go at an easy pace, I wish to assess your conformation, not your speed.’ He made a nudging gesture with his head.
Temeraire leaped back aloft at full speed. ‘Gently,’ Laurence called, tugging at the reins to remind him, and Temeraire slowed reluctantly to a more moderate pace. He soared easily through the turns, and then the loops; Celeritas called out, ‘Now again, at speed,’ as they came back around. Laurence bent low to Temeraire’s neck as the wings beat with great frantic thrusts about him, and the wind whistled at a high pitch past his ears. It was faster than they had ever gone before, and as exhilarating; he could not resist, and gave a small whoop for Temeraire’s ears only as they went racing into the turn.
The second circuit completed, they winged back towards the courtyard again; Temeraire was scarcely breathing fast. But before they crossed half the valley there came a sudden tremendous roaring from overhead, and a vast black shadow fell over them: Laurence looked up in alarm to see Maximus barrelling down towards their path as though he meant to ram them. Temeraire jerked to an abrupt stop and hovered in place, and Maximus went flying past and swept back up just short of the ground.
‘What the devil do you mean by this, Berkley?’ Laurence roared at the top of his lungs, standing in the harness; he was in a fury, his hands shaking but for his grip on the reins. ‘You will explain yourself, sir, this instant—’
‘My God! How can he do that?’ Berkley was shouting back at him, conversationally, as though he had not done anything out of the ordinary at all; Maximus was flying sedately back up towards the courtyard. ‘Celeritas, do you see that?’
‘I do; pray come in and land, Temeraire,’ Celeritas said, calling out from the courtyard. ‘They were flying at you on orders, Captain; do not be agitated,’ he said to Laurence as Temeraire landed neatly on the edge. ‘It is of utmost importance to test the natural reaction of a dragon to being startled from above, where we cannot see; it is an instinct that often cannot be overcome by any training.’
Laurence was still very ruffled, and Temeraire as well: ‘That was very unpleasant,’ he said to Maximus reproachfully.
‘Yes, I know, it was done to me too when we started training,’ Maximus said, cheerful and un repentant. ‘How do you just hang in the air like that?’
‘I never gave it much thought,’ Temeraire said, mollified a little; he craned his neck over to examine himself. ‘I suppose I just beat my wings the other way.’
Laurence stroked Temeraire’s neck comfortingly as Celeritas peered closely at Temeraire’s wing joints. ‘I had assumed it was a common ability, sir; is it unusual, then?’ Laurence asked.
‘Only in the sense of it being entirely unique in my two hundred years’ experience,’ Celeritas said dryly, sitting back. ‘Anglewings can manoeuvre in tight circles, but not hover in such a manner.’ He scratched his forehead. ‘We will have to give some thought to the applications of the ability; at the least it will make you a very deadly bomber.’
Laurence and Berkley were still discussing it as they went in to dinner, as well as the approach to matching Temeraire and Maximus. Celeritas had kept them working all the rest of the day, exploring Temeraire’s manoeuvring capabilities and pacing the two dragons against each other. Laurence had already felt, of course, that Temeraire was extra ordinarily fast and handy in the air; but there was a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction at hearing Celeritas say so, and to have Temeraire easily outdistance the older and larger Maximus.
Celeritas had even suggested they might try and have Temeraire fly double-pace, if he proved to retain his manoeuvrability even as he grew: that he might be able to fly a strafing run along the length of the entire formation and come back to his position in time to fly a second along with the rest of the dragons.
Berkley and Maximus had taken it in good part to have Temeraire fly rings around them. Of course Regal Coppers were the first-rates of the Corps, and Temeraire would certainly never equal Maximus for sheer weight and power, so there was no real basis for jealousy; still, after the tension of his first day, Laurence was inclined to take an absence of hostility as a victory. Berkley himself was an odd character, a little old to be a new captain and very queer in his manners, with a normal state of extreme stolidity
