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By all rights, it ought to have been a pleasant spring morning utterly without incident. Temeraire had put the two men down by a loch on the outskirts of the estate, and they strolled along its shores while he himself enjoyed a bathe in the deeps further out. This was one of the lochs without a lake serpent in it: he did not mind conversing a little with his aquatic cousins, but they were rarely intelligent enough to be good company.
A cry of alarm from the shore drew his attention. He hurriedly waded over, just in time to find Tharkay reaching desperately into a fast-closing crack in the hillside, and Laurence’s voice from within shouting, “Unhand me, sir, damn you-” before it closed fully and cut him off, Tharkay forced to snatch his hand back from being crushed.
Temeraire briefly considered unleashing his Divine Wind at the hillside. Perhaps not: falling rock would surely crush Laurence, even if it would reveal him and his mysterious abductors to Temeraire. Thinking to try a more precise method, he scratched and tapped with one razor-sharp talon at the craggy face, but it seemed like the weak point that had allowed Laurence’s capture was now well and truly sealed up.
He turned his attention to Tharkay. “Where is Laurence? Who took him?”
Tharkay looked grim. “The Fair Folk. Well on his way to their realms, I should think.”
Temeraire had always thought they were just stories, but quickly adjusted his opinions. “Whatever do they mean by taking Laurence?”
He shrugged. “Merely to serve their own amusement, I believe. It hasn’t happened in these parts for generations now, so I thought they must have left…” He trailed off, looking thoughtful, then said before Temeraire could ask, “However, I have had dealings with them before, and know the way to their lands. Here is what we must do…”
Tharkay’s instructions took Temeraire on an odd, winding flight: turning sharp corners over certain trees and stones, adjusting his height to ride a particular wind a few moments and then dropping out of its path entirely, ducking to avoid the light cast by gaps in the clouds. Tharkay rode upon his back with the loudhailer in order to assist Temeraire with the odd confirmation, but after a while Temeraire found himself doing it more or less by instinct.
The landscape beneath him changed. The hills and glens flattened out into lush green plains dotted with the occasional odd, lonely tree. It had been an indifferently cloudy day in Scotland, the sun occasionally showing through, but here the sky was uniformly grey, and Temeraire could feel the thunder longing to be called forth by his own.
In the distance, just visible to his keen eyesight, a shining castle stood upon a river island. He knew to a certainty that they would find Laurence there.
Temeraire’s wings made short work of the distance, and soon alighted in front of the castle. He began to stride towards the massive doors, but Tharkay bade him wait. “Temeraire. I know you are angry, but you must remember we are in their world. Pay great heed to the precision of your phrasings, and take care not to offend them, or Laurence may be lost to us forever.”
“You cannot mean to tell me I may not give them a piece of my mind and simply take Laurence back.”
“I do indeed. They do not obey the laws of mortals, but instead their own codes, which permit them to take any human without sufficient protections. We must prove that our claim is the greater.”
“You shall both start wearing these protections as soon as we get back. I am already of a mind to never let either of you leave the manor again, once we are home.”
“As you say, Temeraire.” He did not seem inclined to give any further instruction, so Temeraire continued forward once more, the huge doors sufficient to admit him.
The great hall was crowded with strange-looking people: he noticed feathers, horns, extra limbs and a great many other strange features, all in unearthly colours. At the end of the hall was a dais with a throne and a cushioned plinth, and on the plinth was Laurence, sleeping.
A slender being stood before the throne, with its hand on Laurence’s forehead. It was small and spindly, with great dark eyes and skin covered with a myriad of black leaves on long twigs, which trembled delicately in the wind made by Temeraire’s approach. It looked up and addressed him fearlessly. “I am the Queen of these halls. What brings you here, Celestial One?”
In Temeraire’s opinion that was not how a queen ought to dress, all over leaves and nary a jewel in sight, but he recalled Tharkay’s instructions and said only, “We have come to fetch my captain.” He pointed his muzzle at the sleeping Laurence, and refrained from asking what they’d done to him.
“Ah, a lovely human, indeed. We have watched him these many months. Good, and strong, and honourable. I find myself in need of a knight, and so I have taken him. What proof can you offer of your claim?”
Temeraire bridled. “Proof? He raised me from an egg, I know no other proof to offer you! He is mine, I tell you!” Tharkay hushed him, and with effort, Temeraire calmed himself.
“You ought to be more careful with what is yours, then, Celestial,” the Queen replied placidly.
Tharkay murmured low, for Temeraire’s sensitive hearing alone to pick up, “There will be a way to free him. These folk love their games and tests.” Temeraire took heart at this. He set Tharkay down so that Tharkay might address the Queen himself, with his greater understanding of this world.
Tharkay did not speak: perhaps he felt he ought not to, until spoken to. Temeraire said, forcing politeness, “Pray tell us what proofs you require to release him, madam.”
“He may return to your lands only if he is awakened by true love’s kiss. You may try thrice; if there are none in your world who he loves enough to bind him to it, he is ours to claim.”
Tharkay looked up at Temeraire, apprehensive. “Temeraire- I hope this does not come as too much of a shock, but I do believe I might be able to wake him. I could wish for us to have told you in happier circumstances, but needs must. I hope you do not mind, I know how much you worry over him-”
‘Why, of course not, Tharkay!’ Temeraire said. ‘Laurence has always spoken most highly of you, and you are quite a part of my crew. And I know the two of you have been partaking in mating rituals, even though you can’t give each other an egg. No matter, it is enough that you make him happy.’
Tharkay sighed resignedly. ‘Well, I see there is no purpose to dissembling any more, in that regard. But you must not tell anyone else about the- mating rituals.’
Temeraire snorted. “Why, I did not speak of it until spoken to, even with you. I am discreet, unlike some.”
“Quite,” Tharkay replied wryly. He leaned over and gently kissed Laurence on the lips, as humans seemed to enjoy doing. Temeraire supposed it might be nice enough, if you had softer mouths than dragons did.
Laurence inhaled gently, and Temeraire lit up with hope, before he settled back into that unearthly stillness. Tharkay looked deeply upset for the briefest moment, before his face smoothed back into impassivity. ‘Perhaps you ought to try?’ he said blandly.
‘I?’ Temeraire couldn’t see how a dragon could be a human’s true love, even if they be his captain.
‘Have you not been his dearest companion all these years?’ Tharkay enquired, somehow contriving to look even more inscrutable than ever before.
Temeraire supposed he had, though he wasn’t sure how he was to kiss Laurence without biting him. He settled for bringing his head very near Laurence and gently breathing over him.
Laurence stirred slightly once more, but he still did not awaken.
‘Well, you cannot say we have not given you a fair chance,’ said the Queen. Her black eyes gleamed, and the tiny dark leaves on her body trembled. ‘He is ours.’
‘You promised us three attempts,’ Temeraire snapped. ‘We have had only two.’
‘And what do you propose to do with the third? You may summon a third creature if you wish, but if you leave these halls, you will forfeit him forever. From your accounts, it ought to have been one or the other of you in any case. Perhaps you ought to accept that we can make him happier than you ever did.’
Her voice was lovely, almost harmonising with itself, the melody of it belying the sharpness of her words. Temeraire’s ruff sagged. He had brought Laurence a great deal of trouble, it was true; lost him his fortune, put him through many strifes. Perhaps Laurence would be happy playing knight-errant to these strange beings.
But then he pictured Laurence smiling up at him, his eyes bright with exhilaration after a flight. Laurence stroking his head and assuring a small Temeraire that he preferred him to any ship in the Navy. Laurence with Tharkay on the balcony after dinner, the warmth and contentment in the corners of his eyes as Tharkay regaled them both with old folktales from his mother’s homeland.
How could Temeraire ever bear to give Laurence up, even if it was selfish to feel so? How would Tharkay carry on, deprived of one of the few men who had ever troubled to understand him? Had it not turned out well in the end, with Laurence happy and safe at last?
Temeraire shook off the glamour of the Queen’s voice. ‘Wait.’ He looked down at Tharkay. ‘Together?’
Tharkay nodded, hope dawning in his eyes. ‘Together.’
‘I did not say you could try together,’ the Queen objected.
Tharkay smirked. ‘You did not say we could not, ma’am.’ Without further ado, he leaned over Laurence’s body once more, and kissed him firmly as Temeraire breathed warm air over the two of them.
Laurence stirred, his eyelashes fluttering. Tharkay reached over and gently smoothed his hair, and Laurence woke and smiled sleepily up at him. ‘Tenzing? My love, I had the oddest dream-’ He looked around confusedly. ‘What is this place?’
‘I am afraid you have been stolen by the fairies, my dear,’ Tharkay said, poker-faced.
‘But do not fear, we have come to bring you back!’ Temeraire exclaimed joyfully. He would have spread his wings and cut capers if the hall wasn’t so crowded; he did not care a fig for the fairies, but he did not wish to blow away the two men with the force of his relief. He put out a foreleg, and Tharkay carefully helped Laurence up and into the basket of his claw.
The Queen trembled yet again, this time with rage, but Temeraire cared not a whit. His captain was quite literally in his grasp, and he had won the battle with as neat a maneuver as the most decorated general could wish for. Laurence was awake, and the Queen was bound by her own rules to let him go free.
Temeraire closed his claws around the men and looked down at the Queen from his full height. “Farewell, milady. I wish you better hunting henceforth, but you will stay away from me and mine.” He felt his words take hold, settling into the edges of the Court: it seemed the command of a victorious Celestial held no little weight in this realm. And if Temeraire had a very broad definition of what was his, starting with the British Isles and all of China - well, that was all to the better.