To be cowardly in this, to refuse to see it through, seemed more unmanly to Laurence than beginning it.

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Mallorie said enviously as she peered at the heavy copper-and-opal collar around Eames’ neck. “It suits you so beautifully.”

Eames puffed out his chest under her admiration. “He has exquisite taste, does he not?” he said proudly, turning to and fro so that the sunlight might catch the opals and set them ablaze like small bursting fires. He knew very well how impressive the effect was against his crimson hide. “He had it made particularly for me; he took one of my scales to the jeweler to make certain the colours were correct.”

The Spanish Armada is about to descend upon England, and her greatest hope is a captainless dragon hatchling.

"I will pray for your safe return," Laurence said, and offered him instead a glass of port, and supper.

Temeraire having a swim in the Coral Sea, beside the Great Barrier Reef. Laurence is just along for the ride.

In which Arkady manages to be a great nuisance, despite never appearing in the story, and Tharkay is thoroughly unsettled.

"To this end we are sending to you, with much sadnesse for the loss of her fair presence, our handmaiden Lady Anne Ashley, whom we desire you should set to the Longwinge egg which even now hardens at the Covert."

"Can I have a cow now?" says Iskierka, "And a golden necklace like Celeritas'?" "And the throne of England, and the moon on a silver chain?" "Is the throne covered in jewels?" she asks, giving it serious thought, and he laughs again...