This, of course, results in a merry chase: Laurence, who did not perish aboard Goliath, is mustered by Tharkay, now commissioned in the Aerial Corps, to bring Temeraire back under harness, and he arrives at Pen y Fan perhaps half a day after the dragons move out.

Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross commands the defense of London, though Wellesley dismisses the effort as a lost cause, now that Horatio Nelson and his twenty ships have been sent to Copenhagen.

Regardless, the effort is made, augmented by tactics created by Temeraire and Perscitia, a violence-abhorring but very clever dragon who (amongst other things) has been entrusted to operate the militia's artillery.

Finally, Laurence and Tharkay must handle a distraction when Iskierka, impatient with the retreat, hares off into the arms of the French and becomes captured; the two sneak into London to exfiltrate her and Granby.

After regrouping at the Aerial Corps training grounds at Loch Laggan, Scotland, Wellesley and the British high command try to decide on their strategy, including the question of how best to safeguard King George III, who is not well.

Roland announces that she and Adm. Collingwood have jointly repulsed another landing at Folkestone and sealed the English Channel against further incursion, stranding Napoleon on the British Isle.

The mission is instrumental in accustoming the citizens of Britain to the presence of dragons, who are now defending them against the depredations of French foraging parties; despite the larger size of these resistance fighters, the British countryside becomes as protective of them as any other.

Fortunately, Wellesley has judged the time ripe for battle and misconstrues Laurence's reply as an attempt to pass responsibility back up the chain of command.

He has almost seized the day when the fog finally lifts, allowing Admiral Nelson and his considerable fleet, secretly returned from Copenhagen and waiting now in the Channel, to attack the onrushing French with full broadsides whilst the artillery pins them in place.

His character is depicted as stern and pragmatic, finding it practical to accept dragons and a female admiral but also to violate conventions of war to fight the French.