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

punched up through the air, until his outspread wings could relax on the cushioning wind. The other dragons streamed into their flying order and the nineset off towards Westminster Bridge. Jonah looked around with relief and laughed to see all the troopers giving the thumbs-up sign. Mordiford was on one side of Ffyrnig and Deerhurst, riderless, was on the other side of the Great Dragon, so that Jonah could tell him directly what to do. The Brinsop Wyrm, with Henry riding him, had taken Deerhurst’s place at the rear.
    Jonah began to relax. The SAS troopers and the dragons were turning into a wonderful team, he thought. Somehow they seemed to understand each other’s intentions. Look how quickly Newland and Bromfield had reacted, when their riders stood up and began letting down their harnesses to try to reach Ollie. The dragons were amazing!
    Sam had suggested that when they reached the Houses of Parliament they should take a good look to see whether the demons had already infested them. Peering down from the dragons’ backs, the soldiers scanned the buildings and courtyards with field glasses.
    ‘This is weird,’ Jonah said to Ffyrnig. ‘There’s nobody here. I can’t see any demons, let alone Members of Parliament.’
    Mordiford drew closer. ‘Shall we take a look?’ Sam shouted. ‘Or do the dragons need to eat straightaway?’
    Ffyrnig was sure the dragons could all go a bit longer without a meal, so the two gargouilles quickly leaped down to the roofs and scoured the pinnacles and arches. Jonah watched Llandeilo and Bromfield as they hopped around, searching for anything that moved. But there was nothing. The Members of Parliament seemed to have gone. The courtyards were empty; the roof areas clear even of pigeons. They could see that nothing moved in Parliament Square and there was nobody at the barriers placed at the entrance to Westminster Bridge, unless you counted a number of fire engines parked along the road. It wasimpossible to see if there were firemen manning them. Jonah couldn’t understand what had happened.
    The SAS troopers exchanged puzzled looks. Surely, if the demons had not been seen here yet, there would have been people at the barrier and looking out of windows? And if the Night Creatures
had
appeared, what had happened to them? Had the angels won the battle, then? Had the demons been driven away already?
    Jack and Toby, on the roof of the House of Lords, waved to the riders swirling above them and signalled that the patrol should fly on. They scrambled onto their gargouilles and, as the dragons moved into flying order again, higher in the air, the squadron of drakes turned towards Hyde Park. As they flew over Westminster Abbey, everyone became aware of a curious buzzing noise. The troopers exchanged inquiring looks but Jonah knew at once what the noise was. He had heard it before, in Hereford.

Chapter 14
LONDON BURNING
    Jonah turned in his webbing cage, put up his visor and cupped his hands to his mouth. ‘Night Creatures!’ he shouted.
    He saw that the men were all gazing down with horrified expressions. Jonah looked down too, to see what they were staring at. The roofs and grounds of Westminster Abbey were heaving with bodies. Demons danced and cavorted, chasing each other out into the road or up the drainpipes. Jonah caught a glimpse of a strange, grey lion sniffing the grass by the railings and guessed that the demons had made good use of the abbey’s carvings. He thought he could hear screams coming from inside the building but couldn’t be sure, because the sound of the dragons’ wings and the rushing air were loud in his ears.
    Beyond the Abbey, in Victoria Street and all the side roads, was a horde of Night Creatures, spreading out through Westminster and Victoria. Jonah had never imagined anything as terrible as the actual scene below them. As far as the eye could see, the demons hopped and skittered on the roofs, and ran about wildly in the streets, searching happily for