“We cannot keep flying about in this manner,” Laurence said, when they had made the fourth frantic pass back to Kutuzov’s headquarters, trying for some clarification in orders which had already seemed inapplicable. “Temeraire, see if you can find Grig, and persuade him and the rest of those Russian light-weights to go-between for us.”
What the officers of those dragons should think, of his summarily appropriating their beasts, Laurence cared little; he had already privately resolved that if their conditions were not ameliorated, he should ask Temeraire to offer the poor creatures safe passage back to China, with the jalan, on the conclusion of the hostilities. “And if the officers at headquarters do not care to listen to them,” he added, “I dare say they will be persuaded, at the next moment when they wish to send us orders.”
Grig was easy to find: he had been trailing them, and he and several of his companions were by no means unwilling to help once Temeraire had assured them of sharing the dinner of the Chinese dragons that night; they soon worked out for themselves an effective rotation whereby each dragon went in turn to the high command. To the credit of Kutuzov’s staff, whatever dismay they might have felt at seeing their old order overturned, they did not allow it to deter them: Grig returned from his flight carrying a Russian officer with him, a young man of noble family from Kutuzov’s staff, who had with real courage tied himself onto the smaller dragon’s harness-rings with nothing but his belt, the better to convey the orders.
As the withdrawal advanced, the jalan were pressed into service to carry away the guns and thereby speed the pace of the retreat. The Cossacks carried out a whirling and ferocious defense in their rear; but the heavier French dragons massed for a sortie now and again, and in such occasions, Temeraire would quickly call out and send back a few niru to engage and drive them away.
But Laurence was well aware of the dangerous falseness of their position: if the French surged forth from their defenses, and flung all their strength upon the Russian ground troops, success might well be theirs: a quick shattering blow could give them the complete mastery in artillery which should make them impervious even to the continuing disadvantage in the air.
He half-waited for Bonaparte to act, to move; waited at every moment for the French to come pouring forward over their fences; but the moment did not come, and then the ground had opened wide between the armies, and at last the guns fell silent.
The army was yet moving, all that night. Laurence came to ground with Temeraire in Mozhaisk. “Remain here,” he said quietly, laying a hand on Temeraire’s muzzle. Temeraire had been aloft, flying and maneuvering vigorously, without a halt for seven hours; they had come fifty miles. Temeraire did not answer aloud, but let his eyelids sink shut; Forthing slid down from his back and said, “I’ll see about his dinner, sir; will we encamp here?”
“Assume a short halt only, for the moment,” Laurence said. “Roland,” he added, beckoning to her; her command of Chinese, having unwillingly suffered Temeraire’s tutelage in that language for several years, was by far superior to Forthing’s. “Have a word with the supply-officers, and see what they can tell you about our circumstances.”
Tharkay fell in with him, as they walked towards the headquarters established in a large farmhouse, some half-a-mile distant; the night was still hot, and the air thick with dust. All around, Laurence heard soldiers coughing, heavily, and long lines stood at all the wells, of men desperately thirsty from dust and gunpowder in their mouths. But the lines were patient, well-ordered; the ranks had not disintegrated, though the circumstances might have been discouraging enough to depress the spirits and morale of any army.
“I can only wonder,” Laurence said, “why Bonaparte did not come forth. Even if he were ever to have another chance at smashing their army, he could scarcely hope to find himself at better relative strength. Can he be seriously ill, perhaps?”
“As pleasant a possibility as that might be to contemplate,” Tharkay said, “I hope you will forgive me for discouraging it. A man who has seen three hundred enemy dragons appear without warning does not need to be on his death-bed to discover a little caution, even if he is a Napoleon.”