to inquire, a little plaintively, how long he had been flying, and Laurence was generally obliged to inform him that scarcely a quarter of an hour had passed since the last query. Laurence at least could watch the formation wheeling and diving, their bright colours marked against the pale grey sky; poor Temeraire had to keep his head straight and level to maintain the best flying posture.
After perhaps three hours Maximus began to fall off the pace, his great wings beating more slowly and his head drooping; Berkley took him back in, and Temeraire was left all alone, still going around. The rest of the formation came spiralling down to land in the courtyard, and Laurence saw the dragons nodding to Maximus, inclining their heads respectfully. At this distance he could not make out any words, but it was clear they were all conversing easily among themselves while their captains milled about and Celeritas gathered them together to review their performance. Temeraire saw them as well, and sighed a little, though he said nothing; Laurence leaned forward and stroked his neck, and silently vowed to bring him back the most elegant jewels he could find in the whole of Edinburgh, if he had to draw out half his capital to do so.
Laurence came out into the courtyard early the next morning to say farewell to Temeraire before his trip with Rankin. He stopped short as he emerged from the hall: Levitas was being put under gear by a small ground crew, with Rankin at his head reading a newspaper and paying little attention to the proceedings. ‘Hello, Laurence,’ the little dragon said to him happily. ‘Look, this is my captain, he has come! And we are flying to Edinburgh today.’
‘Have you been talking with him?’ Rankin said to Laurence, glancing up. ‘I see you were not exaggerating, and that you do indeed enjoy dragon society; I hope you will not find yourself tiring of it. You will be taking Laurence along with myself today; you must make an effort to show him a good pace,’ he told Levitas.
‘Oh, I will, I promise,’ Levitas said at once, bobbing his head anxiously.
Laurence made some civil answer and walked quickly to Temeraire’s side to cover his confusion; he did not know what to do. There was no possible way to avoid the journey now without being truly insulting; but he felt almost ill. Over the last few days he had seen more evidence than he liked of Levitas’s unhappiness and neglect: the little dragon watched anxiously for a handler who did not come, and if he or his harness had been given more than a cursory wipe, it was because Laurence had encouraged the cadets to see to him, and asked Hollin to continue attending to his harness. To find Rankin the one responsible for such neglect was bitterly disappointing; to see Levitas behaving with such servility and gratitude for the least cold attention was painful.
Perceived through the lens of his neglect of his dragon, Rankin’s remarks on dragons took on a character of disdain that could only be strange and unpleasant in an aviator; and his isolation from his fellow officers also, rather than an indication of nice taste. Every other aviator had introduced himself with his dragon’s name ready to his lips; Rankin alone had considered his family name of more importance, and left Laurence to find out only by accident that Levitas was assigned to him. But Laurence had not seen through any of this, and now he found he had, in the most unguarded sort of way, encouraged the acquaintance of a man he could never respect.
He petted Temeraire and made him some re assurances meant mostly for his own comfort. ‘Is anything wrong, Laurence?’ Temeraire said, nosing at him gently with concern. ‘You do not seem well.’
‘No, I am perfectly well, I assure you,’ he said, making an effort to sound normal. ‘You are quite certain you do not mind my going?’ he asked, with a faint hope.
‘Not at all, and you will be back by evening, will you not?’ Temeraire asked. ‘Now that we have finished Duncan, I was hoping perhaps you could read me something more about mathematics; I thought it was very interesting how you explained that you could tell where you are, when you have been sailing for a long time, only through knowing the time and some equations.’
Laurence had been very glad to leave behind mathematics after having forced the basics of trigonometry into his head. ‘Certainly, if you like,’ he said, trying to keep dismay out of his voice. ‘But I thought perhaps you would enjoy something about Chinese dragons?’
‘Oh, yes, that would be splendid too; we could read that next,’ Temeraire said. ‘It is very nice how many books there are, indeed; and on so many subjects.’
If it would give Temeraire something to think about and keep him from becoming distressed, Laurence was prepared to go as far as to bring his Latin up to snuff and read him Principia Mathematica in the original; so he only sighed privately. ‘Very well, then I leave you in the hands of the ground crew; I see them coming now.’
Hollin was leading the party; the young crewman had attended so well to Temeraire’s harness and seen to Levitas with such good will that Laurence had spoken of him to Celeritas, and asked to have him assigned to lead Temeraire’s ground crew. Laurence was pleased to see the request had been granted; because this step was evidently a promotion of some significance, there had been some uncertainty about the matter. He nodded to the young man. ‘Mr. Hollin, will you be so good as to present me to these other men?’ he asked.
When he had been given all their names and repeated them silently over to fix them in his memory, he deliberately met their eyes in turn and said firmly, ‘I am sure Temeraire will give you no difficulty, but I trust you will make a point of consulting his comfort as you make the adjustment s. Temeraire, please have no hesitation about informing these men if you notice the least discomfort or restriction upon your movement.’
Levitas’s case had provided him with evidence that some crewmen might neglect their assigned dragon’s gear if a captain was not watchful, and in deed anything else was hardly to be expected. Though he had no fear of Hollin’s neglecting his work, Laurence meant to put the other men on notice that he would not tolerate any such neglect where Temeraire was concerned; if such severity fixed his reputation as a hard captain, so be it. Perhaps in comparison to other aviators he was; he would not neglect what he considered his duty for the sake of being liked.
A murmur of, ‘Very good,’ and ‘Right you are,’ came in response; he was able to ignore the raised eyebrows and exchanged glances. ‘Carry on, then,’ he said with a final nod, and turned away with no small reluctance to join Rankin.
All his pleasure in the expedition was gone; it was distasteful in the extreme to stand by while Rankin snapped at Levitas and ordered him to hunch down uncomfortably for them to board. Laurence climbed up as quickly as he could, and did his best to sit where his weight would give Levitas the least difficulty.
The flight was quick, at least; Levitas was very swift, and the ground rolled away at a tremendous pace. He was glad to find the speed of their passage made conversation nearly impossible, and he was able to give brief answers to the few remarks Rankin ventured to shout. They landed less than two hours after they had left, at the great walled covert which spread out beneath the watchful looming eye of Edinburgh Castle.
‘Stay here quietly; I do not want to hear that you have been pestering the crew when I return,’ Rankin said sharply to Levitas, after dismounting; he threw the reins of his harness around a post, as if Levitas was a horse to be tethered. ‘You can eat when we return to Loch Laggan.’
‘I do not want to bother them, and I can wait to eat, but I am a little thirsty,’ Levitas said in a small voice. ‘I tried to fly as fast as I could,’ he added.
‘It was very fast indeed, Levitas, and I am grateful to you. Of course you must have something to drink,’ Laurence said; this was as much as he could bear. ‘You there,’ he called to the ground crewmen lounging around the edges of the clearing; none of them had stirred when Levitas had landed. ‘Bring a trough of clean water at once, and see to
