Laurence must now join them duty demands it, though his heart is broken. The life of an aviator is not a desirable one reviled by fashionable society, they live hard, lonely lives bound to duty and they frequently die young. The person chosen to first harness the beast must be an aviator, for the dragon will accept no other captain. Hatchling dragons must be put in a harness immediately otherwise the dragon-young become hard to control - fit only for the breeding colonies.

A sinewy new-born emerges from the fragmented shell, ignores his harness-bearer, approaches Laurence and changes his life. Having spent months on a slow journey from Asia, the egg hatches. On board Laurence finds a dragon egg - a great prize as England is in sore need. His career is born from a love for the sea and he takes his duty very seriously Months before the battle of Trafalgar, on patrol in the Atlantic, The Reliant takes a small French frigate, storm-damaged and possessing a fierce crew unwilling to surrender as easily as they should. Captain Laurence is a satisfied man with a respectable commission aboard the ship Reliant. Raining fire and acid upon their enemies, they engage in a swift, violent combat with flying tooth and claw. Squadrons of aviators swarm the skies - a deadly shield for the cumbersome canon-firing vessels. As Napoleon's tenacious infantry rampages across Europe and his armada lies in wait for Nelson's smaller fleet, the war does not rage on land and water alone.

The graduate novik