Free Jonah and the Last Great Dragon by M.E. Holley Page A

can’t understand it. Mike said the Night Creatures were all over St Paul’s.’
    ‘Maybe those wolf things arrived and drove them off?’
    Jonah considered this. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ he replied slowly. ‘The wolves and the Creatures are all demons. They’re on the same side. I don’t like it, Sam. I feel as if something’s gone very wrong,’ he added, chewing his lip.
    Sam told him not to worry. ‘If we go down the river as far as the Houses of Parliament, we can fly right over the Abbey –
and
Westminster Cathedral – on our way to the park,’ he said. ‘We’ll be able to get a clearer picture of justwhat’s happening and where the Night Creatures are.’
    Jonah was still frowning. ‘But where
are
the angels?’
    Sam squeezed his shoulder. ‘If the demons are spreading through London, they will have enough to do. I expect Saint Michael realised the dragons could cope with the sea serpent and just left us to get on with it.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Jonah sighed, ‘I s’pose that’s it.’
    He kept telling himself that some of the most resourceful soldiers in the world were working with him and the dragons, but he still could not help feeling on edge. He knew the dragons’ firepower could wipe out the majority of the Night Creatures but how would they deal with the ones that got away to hide? In Hereford, lots of the creatures had fled into little lanes and alleys, places where the dragons could not follow them. It had needed the angels to hunt them down. It would be much harder to hunt out the toxic little horrors in a huge city like London. He felt a worm of anxiety gnawing away in his stomach as the troopers mounted their drakes. He might be making a bad decision in going to Hyde Park first. Perhaps they should seriously start looking for the angels before they decided when the dragons should be fed.
    ‘Maybe,’ he began tentatively, ‘we should do a bit of – oh, what d’you call it – rec – rec – something?’
    ‘Reconnaisance?’
    ‘Yeah. Reconnaisance. Do we pass over Westminster on our way to Hyde Park?’
    ‘We do, yes.’
    Well, as we take the dragons to the park, couldn’t we fly low over the Abbey and look around a bit to see if we can locate Saint Michael? The angels might be up against more demons than we thought.’
    Sam bit his lip in thought. ‘It’s your call, Jonah. This is your show. But, personally, I should feel inclined to givethe dragons a bit of a rest before they start the next phase. They have had a long flight to London and a pretty energetic fight with the serpent, and the next battle we get into could go on for hours.’
    Jonah blew a long breath. ‘Let’s go straight to Hyde Park then.’
    It was not easy taking off from the path beside the Thames. It had been difficult for the larger dragons to find enough room to spread their wings properly in such a narrow space. They had to take it in turns to pound along the pavement like gigantic geese before floundering into the air, and the bigger dragons had been visibly relieved when their huge wing beats had lifted them up and out over the water.
    Ffyrnig was last to go and Jonah’s heart was in his mouth, wondering whether he would have space to lift off. When they had flown along the Thames, Jonah had noticed that small trees were planted in parts of the walkway near the Tate Modern art gallery. If Ffyrnig didn’t manage to take off before he reached Tate Modern, he would run out of space. He would have to turn round and try going in the other direction and, given Ffyrnig’s huge bulk, manoeuvring himself round wouldn’t be easy, Jonah thought, as he hung on grimly. As the Great Dragon thundered along the pavement, the other dragons swooped above him, screaming encouragement.
    ‘Come on, Ffyrnig. You can do it!’
    ‘Give it a bit of firepower, Red!’
    ‘Get on with it, Wales. Can’t fly about here all day.’ That was Mordiford.
    With a massive effort, the Great Dragon pushed himself off the ground and