“I beg your pardon?” Laurence said.
“Well,” Temeraire said, “I have persuaded—that is, we have all talked it over together, and we think if you will give us some better tools, that there is no reason we might not extract perhaps a ton of trinium every year: Perscitia is of the opinion it would be quite manageable, without doing anything untoward, or making a ruin of things. So, if you like—we will give you the trinium, and you will give us more armor, and perhaps some more silken hangings, and send us some more elephants: we hope you may find it a reasonable exchange.”
“Good Lord,” Laurence said, “I should say so; but—” He hesitated; of course for the Navy’s sake, he ought merely to take it, straightaway; a ton of trinium a year would represent nearly a quarter of the entire Commonwealth’s supply. “But I think I must tell you,” he said, reluctantly, “that such a quantity of trinium will certainly encourage the most hostile intentions on the part of the Bonapartists: they will be far less likely to leave you unmolested. You will require more armor and more weaponry as well—a secondary shield at the least, and you must prepare for regular incursions; not merely attempts at invasion but raids, to seize whatever trinium they might lay their hands on; you may also be sure that they will fund piracy against you as well. You will have to devote considerable effort to meeting their offensives, and to training as well.”
“Pirates? Are you sure?” Temeraire said, his ruff pricking up, before he hastily cleared his throat and said with a tolerable attempt at carelessness, “But that does not matter: we have agreed we think it very poor-spirited of us to refuse to mine the trinium, only because we were afraid, which we aren’t at all; and certainly we must be prepared for them to make attacks in the future, regardless. Even though, naturally, under most circumstances we would prefer by far to devote ourselves entirely to scholarly pursuits, one must be prepared to make sacrifices.”
“That is very handsome of you,” Laurence said, beginning to be amused. “Well, if you are quite certain, I can assure you that Admiral Roland will be delighted to accept, and I am confident there will be no difficulty in making you a fair exchange, nor in equipping you suitably.”
Temeraire rubbed a talon over his forehead, pleased, and then cleared his throat, a peculiar deep rumbling noise. “But I suppose you will be leaving again, straightaway,” he said. “Once your ship has been repaired.”
“That, I am afraid, will be some time,” Laurence said. “The Reliant’s systems have been thoroughly compromised: she will have to be hauled to dry dock and purged. I have been seconded to you as a military advisor for the moment, if you will have me; Admiral Roland thought I might be of some use to you.” He had known, as he sought the assignment, that it was unwise: having allowed himself to be grounded, as it were, he might well not receive another ship. But aside from a sense of duty—he had felt the need they had of such an advisor, even before Temeraire had outlined to him their intentions—he found he could not leave this world without reluctance; there was work to be done here, and in an honorable company.
Temeraire’s ruff flared momentarily. “Oh, yes,” he said, “—that is, I am very glad to hear it, Captain; your assistance has been very useful to the colony; do you suppose,” he added, abandoning his pretense at formality, “that we might take a survey together, of our settlements? I should like at once to take consideration of our defenses.”
“With all my heart,” said Laurence.
This is a deleted sequence from the fourteenth and final Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light. As such, it contains some minor interior spoilers for that book—and it might not make a ton of sense to you if you haven’t read the Wheel of Time.
However, if you have read the Wheel of Time (particularly the final book), I’d suggest that you read this sequence now and go no further in the introduction. The commentary here will be more meaningful to you if you’ve read the sequence first, I believe.
I pitched this series of scenes to Team Jordan with the knowledge that the scenes were on shaky ground from the start. We knew Demandred was in Shara, and we knew some of what he’d been up to. I wanted to show a glimpse of this. However, Robert Jordan—in interviews—had said that the stories were never going to show Shara, at least not in any significant way.