Disclaimer: Temeraire and all characters were Created by Naomi Novik. I'm just a fan, imitating.

This story is set in the beginning of Victory of Eagles; SPOILERS

Chapter 7

In which the Battle Presses on in an Alarming Manner.

Granby didn't cry out as the angry iron ball went through his shoulder and into the chest of the Frenchman holding him. The Frenchman was gasping and sputtering behind him, the man's terrible struggling continued for what seemed a horribly long time.

Granby closed his eyes in relief as the crush of the Frenchman's weight was pulled from him. Strong arms encircled him around his chest and pulled him roughly into a standing position. Granby looked to see it was Curran and then turned to look at Harker's position. Tharkay was standing there holding a young French officer at bay with an evil curved knife.

"Are you hurt?" Curran said.

Granby didn't turn away from Tharkay to answer, "I'm well—I… The ball… I was—I…"

"We're not taking prisoners," Curran said and Tharkay's look darkened. But he complied by stepping aside and tugging the man so that he fell overboard. Tharkay nodded to Granby and then put the blade between his teeth and leapt across to join Demane on Arkady.

"Fellow's crazy," Curran said. And Granby went limp in his arms.

Excidium pulled alongside Iskierka, the others in his formation stayed together nearby, almost enclosing Iskierka. Jane called over to Granby.

"Is he hurt?" She said.

"Yes," Curran said, "He took—"

"I'm fine," Granby said, straightening. He was very pale and trembling slightly.

"Can you cover Animosia's position in Lily's formation? Admiral Sanderson has been struck."

"Do you hear that Iskierka?" Granby said. Excidium's formation turned as one toward the blockade and the concentration of the French heavyweights, only to be turned aside by another group of lightweight dragons. "You need to cover Animosia's spot in Lily's formation.

"You're not hurt Granby?" Iskierka said turning her head to glance at him.

"Lily needs us, love," Granby said, avoiding an answer.

Curran gathered the long leather strap and hooked the carabiner to Iskierka's harness before leaping back onto Molnar.

"Keep the ferals on the French lightweights," Granby said to him as he left.

Animosia moved immediately to return to the covert before Iskierka was near enough to take her place. Iskierka moved in quickly beside Maximus under Granby's careful direction. Granby strained in his harness, he was sweating profusely from the pain of his wound, and the stress of keeping Iskierka in line with the others.

Berkley was looking curiously at him from Maximus's back, "Granby are you well?"

But Granby didn't have time to answer before the lot of them were harried again by the seemingly endless mass of French lightweights.

"I can't use my fire while I'm in this silly formation," Iskierka whined as they turned as one to make another pass. She hadn't had time to train adequately for formation flying and she had not the same discipline for it that others did. She was constantly speeding up and slowing—her wingbeats out of time with the others.

"Steady girl, we need to protect Lily," Granby said mechanically as they circled yet again trying to break through the small French dragons.

"Excidium, do you see that?" Jane said, but Excidium too seemed very confused by it. She shot at Tharkay when he popped up beside her on a little red dragon and he gave her a very reproachful look.

"Evening Admiral," he said and she noted the roughness in his voice from shouting.

"Don't be angry Mister Tharkay, you came out of nowhere, and I didn't hit you so you have nothing to complain about!"

"It's a hook or a harpoon of some kind," He said pointing to the hovering Parnassian, "They've got them stuck in the hull and are trying to pull the ship."

"Oh my," Jane said, "What are we to do about that?" She was mostly thinking out loud but she was startled when Tharkay answered her.

"I think we should stop shooting at each other," he said. Jane glared at him and he urged the little red dragon forward and away into a crowd of French dragons, scattering them.

Jane urged Excidium forward only to have him caught up by three blue dragons. He shot a jet of acid that knocked one immediately away only to have the gap filled by another. Jane ducked instinctively as a volley of fire rang out from her riflemen behind her. Then the entire crew was shaken as Excidium reared to raise his head above the swarm of attackers. He turned his head quickly letting his acid splash in an arc over them. It wasn't enough to deter them completely but Excidium used their moment of hesitation to push past them and regroup with his formation.

French ships began to move in where their heavyweights were harrying the ships in the British blockade. Their guns firing an endless volley against the British dragon formations. Iskierka dropped out of formation and went for the nearest one before Granby had time to protest.

"Iskierka!" He shouted, "You must get back into formation!"

"It's a French ship," she said and paused to let out a jet of flame, "I could—"

"Get back in formation Iskierka," Granby repeated, "Or so help me I'll turn you out."

Iskierka backwinged a moment and turned to rejoin Lily's formation without another word. Granby had never seemed so furious.

But her moment of recklessness had cost them dearly, as Immortalis and Nitidus—not realizing that she had gone, were cut off from the formation and a Pecheur-Raye was coming up alongside Lily's right flank, his boarding party already prepared to jump across to Lily's back.

Iskierka lunged for the middleweight, her determination brought on somewhat by guilt, and clamped her jaws onto his whipping tail. The dragon screamed and bellowed out a number of curses in French, his jerk of shock and pain sent a number of his boarding party that had unhooked themselves to leap across to Lily fell instead into the churning waters below.

It was small consolation to see the blue and white stripes dripping with red at the French dragon's retreat. Nitidus was injured severely and had to be taken aboard Maximus and Immortalis barely had enough in him to return to the shore. Thus, Lily's formation, broken and fatigued returned to the covert.

Excidium's formation too was driven to land by the bombardment of French cannon. Jane looked around in shock to see most of the dragons gathered there. She counted the number of injured and had a difficult time hiding her emotion. Jane sighed, there wasn't time. She found Granby and his crew and sent Iskierka to an area outside of Tunbridge Wells where the alluvial plain formed a sort of natural covert away from the town itself. Several of the dragons still able to fly, but too injured to fight also went with her.

The French guns continued to fire as the day faded into the early dark of winter while small teams of Yellow Reapers mixed with ferals cycled in and out to try to break the French defense. But it was of no use as the now constant barrage from the French cannon held them at bay. She thought it was pepper but with the blackness of smoke to contrast it Jane could see it glowing and burning—no doubt some new weapon conjured by Lien.

The Navy at least had done their part for most of the day but even they were struggling now against the onslaught. None of them in the Corps could move in close enough to discover the French tactic against the blockade below.

Granby sat staring blank and pale faced into the fire. He'd bled through his shirt and waistcoat but after the surgeon had patched him up he hadn't bothered to change yet. His coat, unmarred but for the small round bullet hole, had been draped over his shoulders.

Iskierka was resting finally after worrying over him for most of the afternoon. As the cold gray light of the winter fled more and more of the other dragons gathered near them. The dragon surgeons were kept busy with the countless small injuries associated with the claws of smaller dragons and rifle shot.

Demane joined him in the ring around the fire leading a young Ensign about his age. It took Granby a second look to realize it was Emily Roland. The two of them were near enough for him to hear them speaking to each other in low tones a pastiche of Chinese and what he guessed was Demane's own African language. It was a secret language that kids were wont to make up to keep their secrets and he couldn't help but listen curiously to them.

Finally Emily stood and approached him with a determined expression and asked if she could sit beside him. Granby obliged but only for the sake of his own curiosity.

"Well girl," he said, "You've grown. I almost didn't recognize you."

Emily shrugged and offered a terse smile. Then she set her large eyes, shining and dark in the firelight, on him looking very forlorn and Granby swallowed.

"Granby," she said, using a more familiar tone even though they were no longer of the same crew, "Are we to be taken by the French?"

Granby stared at her unsure of what to say, "It could happen." He was very quiet when he spoke and almost unable to hide the tremor in his voice.

"You know," Emily said, "If we had Temeraire—"

"Don't, Roland," he said and shook his head, "It won't do any good to wonder about it."

"I don't mean 'if maybe'," Emily said, "I mean we should find him and bring him here, then we could get Temeraire to fight. Since we are in the very midst of battle, they won't turn him away."

"You don't understand, you're too young…" Granby said dismissively, and he refused to look at her—not wanting to meet the disappointment in her young face. "We would do better to forget about Laurence and Temeraire all together."

Jane dismissed a weary looking Berkley and he walked away to rouse Maximus. They had to try something new. Molnar and Winge landed heavily in the clearing, startling her and she watched as the random mix of ground crew personnel rushed the two dragons to help take down weary captains and crew and the makeshift harnesses the feral dragons wore.

Jane watched them for several minutes before Frette grabbed her arm and pointed mutely at the cliff's edge. Jane looked up to see a lone Pascal's Blue hovering erratically above their position. She looked around frantically for Captain Warren and saw him sitting against the foreleg of a sleeping Nitidus. He caught her stare and held it before looking up at the French Pascal's Blue in surprise. Warren was on his feet and running toward Jane when the small dragon landed.

Jane saw then the lone Captain struggling with Tharkay; finally they had someone to question. She started immediately toward the captured dragon, Warren was beside her and Frette also as they ran toward the prisoner. They were hardly in shouting distance when the dragon bucked and then threw himself backward off of the cliff and over the churning black waters of the Channel below; and Tharkay—who no one understood on the best of days—cut the thin strips of leather holding him and the young captain secure to the dragon's harness, and the two of them fell into the water below.

"Oh," Jane said. While the others that were with her looked very confused. The lone French dragon screamed in loathing and sorrow for the captain she'd lost. She didn't cry for long before three of the feral dragons rushed her in mid-air and brutally attacked her. Everyone on the cliff top watched in horror at the savage attack. They weren't watching the fourth feral dragon, small and red, that dove into the water to look for Tharkay.

The panic subsided after a few minutes when Jane ordered Maximus with the rest of Lily's formation to go in again. There would be time later for distraction. She had Excidium take her up to she could view the battle with her glass. The French Navy was moving in now that the larger ships were held by the French heavyweights.

Maximus drove in with Messoria, and the Yellow Reapers from Animosia's formation. They were once again brought up short by a cloud of small French dragons. Jane followed Maximus and his formation over the blockade, she only now realized just how many dragons the French had sent against them. Their formations had brought down at least a dozen maybe two or three dozen, but it was nothing in the face of what seemed to be several hundred dragons.

Maximus and the others in his formation returned bloody and disheartened. Jane found Berkley comforting Maximus while his surgeon worked on the long gashes he'd returned with. Berkley left Maximus's side reluctantly to approach her.

"They're coming across," he said, "Soldiers filling anything that floats and each an escort of dragons and artillery to stop us on the beach."

Berkley didn't wait for her to reply and returned to his dragon's side.

Granby stood and watched as his ground crew harnessed Iskierka, he felt that familiar panic in his gut, for the news had not been good. Few of the dragons present at Tunbridge wells were fit enough for the flight north to London and the possibility of a fight once they got there. The rest of them were headed further west toward Portsmouth Covert, were at least facilities were available there to handle the care of injured dragons. Iskierka had her eye on him and watched him with great concern and at one point lowered her head toward him.

"Granby, are you well?" She said.

"I am darling," he said, "You mustn't occupy yourself in worry."

"Did you eat well? You look pale—not that it in any way makes you less handsome –and I promise that at my earliest convenience I will have a new coat made for you, warmer than what you are wearing now."

"Oh Iskierka," Granby said, "I don't think there will be time to worry over new coats. I do quite well as it is with the five coats I have."

"Two of them at least should be thrown away as they are not fine and I must have you always be fine," she said.

"Are you ready, love?" He said, and she reared up and dropped back to the ground.

"All lies well," she said and grabbed up her captain and set him on her back. He barely had time to latch on before she launched herself into the air.

A/N: Updated 7-7-12. This one had the most changes. Mostly to line up a little better with what I wanted to do in later chapters.