Emily Roland

Emily Roland with Capt. William Laurence, by Shyangell

## Biography

Emily Roland is one of the young girls being trained for Longwing service. She is 10 years old when William Laurence first meets her in 1805 and he initially mistakes her for a boy. She has sandy blonde hair which she cut in a bowl fashion, similar to the boys. She also wears boy's clothes. Emily tells Laurence she has been in the corps for three years. She is eager and helpful and demonstrates an ability to take initiative, which makes him chose her as one of his runners.

Emily's mother is the experienced captain Jane Roland, who has flown with Excidium for years. Emily is to be Excidium's next captain when Jane dies or retires. And though Jane loves Emily very much, she fears handing Excidium over based solely on inheritance and not merit (a veiled reference to Jeremy Rankin). Laurence assuages these fears and assured Jane that Emily is a very promising cadet.

Jane does not reveal the identity of Emily's father to Laurence, saying instead that she had not seen him in ten years and that she doubts he knows Emily's name. Instead, Emily has been raised by Jane and Excidium - Jane has Emily "in harness since before she could walk" - until she was seven, when she joins the Aerial Corps more formally as a cadet.

'-' detonates no information is given about the character in this book

'**†**' detonates character is deceased

### 1805

from *His Majesty's Dragon*

Emily is very eager to assist Laurence with the care of Temeraire and is always the first to volunteer her service, along with her friends Morgan and Dyers to help with his washing at the lake and later drying him off.

She is eager and helpful and demonstrates an ability to take initiative, which makes him chose her as one of his runners.

### 1805 - 1806

from *Throne of Jade*

With the rest of Temeraire's crew, Emily journeys to China and to Africa. As captain, Laurence was responsible for her education and that of the other cadets during these voyages, ensuring that they learned grammar, reading skills, arithmetic, trigonometry and so on. The children also picked up some spoken Chinese along the way, and Temeraire taught them to write Chinese characters so that they could act as his copyists. When Emily moved on from trigonometry to calculus, Temeraire took over on this area of her education as well, as Laurence did not care for it. However, Emily herself preferred fencing.

Besides schoolwork, Emily was exposed to the same hardships and dangers as the other crew members. In China, she and Peter Dyer accompanied Laurence, Temeraire and ten adult crew members to Peking on the advice of George Staunton. During the attack by a *hunhun* gang on the Peking residence assigned to the British party, a gang member attacked the party's doctor, Keynes. Dyer knocked the man down by throwing a large vase at him, and Emily slit his throat with Keynes's tenaculum. (After which they both threw up.)

### 1806

from *Black Powder War*

During the journey from China to Istanbul, Temeraire inadvertently causes an avalanche while using the Divine Wind to warn off Arkady's feral band. While most of the crew has to be dug out by others, Emily manages to dig her own head out and call for help while at the same time hanging on to Dyer. Afterwards, she went bathing with the rest of the crew in the hot springs in Arkady's cave - much to Laurence's embarrassment.

### 1807

from *Empire of Ivory*

When Laurence's father, Lord Allendale, happens to meet Emily at the soiree organized by Temeraire and William Wilberforce in early 1807, he misinterprets Laurence's interest in her education. Since Emily is a girl, Lord Allendale doesn't realize she is a cadet in Laurence's crew and instead concludes that she is Laurence's "by-blow" - i.e., his own illegitimate granddaughter. He passes this information on to his wife, who sends Emily a necklace of garnets set in gold.

In Africa, Emily and Dyer are among the British party captured and taken to Mosi-oa-Tunya.

After Temeraire and the rest of Lily's formation returns from Africa in late 1807, Emily and Peter Dyer are promoted to ensigns. However, when Laurence is convicted of treason Emily is reassigned to Animosia under Sanderson. Emily resents the fact that Sanderson is put in command over her mother, who is more qualified, and Emily herself is assigned to "fifth lookout." (Even heavyweight dragons usually had only four lookouts, for the four compass quadrants. To be "fifth lookout" was something like being the fifth wheel on a carriage.)

### 1807 - 1808

from *Victory of Eagles*

Emily is one of the few members of Temeraire's crew who returns after Laurence - technically still under a death sentence - and Temeraire rejoin the Aerial Corps during Napoleon's occupation of Britain. She doesn't have to worry that it would hurt her career, as her future with Excidium is already assured.

While on their retreat to Scotland, several dragons stop overnight at Wollaton Hall to rest and let the Dragon's eat the dear from the forest. While there, Emily has a chance to thank Lady Allendale for the garnet necklace, while conversing Lady Allendale carefully inspects Emily's face (probably for any resembles to her son) which Emily's mother, Jane notes. Emily herself doesn't seen to realize what the attention of Lord and Lady Allendale means.

After Napoleon's army is expelled from Britain at the Battle of Shoeburyness in March 1808, Emily is sent along with Laurence and Temeraire to Australia by her mother. Jane Roland expects that the coming months will see her involved in a lot of political messiness and she wants to keep Emily out of it.

## Trivia

* According to Laurence, Emily's chin looks similar to that of his aunt Stourland, and a certain air of determination with that feature.

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