Jonah and the Last Great Dragon (2 page)

As the Land Rover passed the sign for Credenhill, Jonah craned his neck to watch for the entrance to the SAS barracks. Rhodri was driving, with Bryn beside him, and Claire and Jonah in the back.

Erin had reluctantly decided not to come. She was desperate to see the new dragons but, realising what it had cost her parents to let her fly to Hereford with Jonah on Friday, she thought it wouldn’t be fair to ask them to let her be around so many, possibly cranky, drakes. It was different for Jonah; he was the only human being who could communicate with the creatures. You couldn’t do without him but she had no excuse to go.

Jonah leaned forward. ‘Bryn, tell me again what Saint Michael said. How many dragons have woken up?’

Bryn swivelled round. ‘Eight more, I think.’

‘Wow, that’s all of them! Are they all here at the barracks, too?’

‘I believe so,’ said Bryn. ‘The more the merrier. Saint Michael said that more and more demons have come out of the Underworld now, even though you cleared so many out of Hereford. It looks as if they may have used the passages the dragons made here in the Welsh Marches, and then all swarmed towards London.’

‘Makes sense,’ Rhodri commented. ‘If they want to take over Britain, they need to kick us out of the capital first. And the more successful they are, the more they will spread out.’

‘They seem to have focused on St Paul’s and
Westminster Abbey, but lots of other buildings are threatened as well,’ Bryn told Jonah gloomily. ‘The whole picture’s very serious.’

‘You would have thought,’ Claire said, ‘that the last place a demon would want to go would be a church.’

‘Well, yes, on the face of it,’ Bryn replied. ‘But if they clear us out and take over the churches, they stop human beings from using them. Then we can’t gather in a group and find strength.’

‘And then it’ll be hard to fight them,’ Jonah put in.

Bryn looked grim. ‘That’s about right,’ he said.

Claire was looking pale and worried.

‘I’m really OK now,’ Jonah said quietly to her.

‘I know you are
now
. But Friday night I thought we might lose you.’ Claire’s voice cracked. ‘And now they want you to go to London and do it all over again.’

Bryn turned round. ‘Don’t upset yourself, love. They just want the dragons to clear these Night Creatures out of London, and they need Jonah there to tell them what to do,’ he said in a soothing voice.

‘Oh, that’s all, is it?’ Claire snapped. ‘You would think, after the children almost lost their lives, that they would leave the demons to Saint Michael and the SAS.’

Jonah gripped his aunt’s hand. ‘It’ll be better this time. Ffyrnig and I won’t be all alone. Mike said the soldiers will ride the other dragons, so it’ll be much safer. I expect they’ll have satellite radios, too, won’t they, Rhodri?’

Rhodri glanced at him and then shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not. I don’t know how they’re doing it, Jonah, but these blooming creatures are putting a jinx on all our power sources. First the electricity came on and then it went off again. I don’t think any kind of radio or phones are working, at the moment.’

Jonah felt a chill creeping up his body. ‘Are we cut off?
The UK, I mean.’

Claire looked at him and then turned quickly to Rhodri. ‘Are we?’

There was a silence. Claire looked sharply from Rhodri to Bryn. ‘Will someone please answer me?’

Rhodri’s hands tightened on the wheel. He said reluctantly, ‘The ports are still open, I think, but the airports have had to shut. No ground-to-air control, you see.’

Nobody spoke. Then Claire sighed. ‘Wonderful. So everyone’s relying on Jonah to sort this out.’

There was an uncomfortable silence and they all kept their eyes fixed on the road.

After a moment, Claire said wearily, ‘And what if Jonah can’t make
all
the dragons obey him?’

Jonah began to feel irritated. ‘Claire, Ffyrnig says the dragons will do what I say. I just have to make them understand what to do. If they can’t hear me once we’re in the air, I’ll tell Ffyrnig and he’ll pass it on to them. He says that will be enough.’

Jonah felt much less confident inside than he made himself sound. What if some of the dragons
wouldn’t
accept him as a Dragoneer? Claire was still looking dubious.

‘Look.’ He squared his shoulders and tried to sound confident. ‘The dragons are on our side now. Ffyrnig is one of the largest, most powerful dragons in the whole of Europe. The others won’t want to annoy him.’

‘Oh, well. I’d better be quiet then.’ Claire gave a small, stiff smile and turned to look out of the window.

They could see Army housing ahead and, on the other side of the road, some large anonymous-looking buildings inside a wire-fenced compound. Rhodri signalled right and turned off the road, stopping at a checkpoint manned by Ministry of Defence police. He wound down his window. A noisy commotion was coming from beyond the buildings
ahead of them. The adults exchanged anxious glances.

‘Sir?’ A policeman bent towards the driver’s window.

Rhodri showed a printed identity pass he had been given at the barracks. ‘My name is Rhodri Parry. Formerly with the Regiment. I have brought Jonah Drake, at Captain Hereford’s request.’

‘Ah, yes, sir.’ The policeman’s eyes quickly scanned everyone in the Land Rover. ‘If you will just pull your vehicle over, I’ll call the Captain.’

The policeman went back into the guard post and they could see him speaking on the telephone. In a few moments, he came to the window again.

‘That’s all in order, sir. Captain Hereford is on his way. He will show you where to park.’

He looked into the back of the vehicle at Jonah and smiled. ‘Good luck today,’ he said.

‘Who’s Captain Hereford?’ Jonah asked Rhodri.

‘Sam. You know, the chap who came out to Cascob with Saint Michael.’

‘Oh, yeah. Great.’ Jonah was pleased. He had liked the three soldiers who had ridden out to meet Ffyrnig.

With the Land Rover’s window open, it was obvious from the noise they were making that the dragons were becoming cantankerous and quarrelsome. Occasional spurts of smoke rose into the air.

‘The beasts aren’t too happy,’ remarked Rhodri.

Sam Hereford came out of the building nearest to the guard-post and walked quickly towards them. He smiled and waved as he came nearer but Jonah thought he looked rather harassed. Rhodri jumped down and shook Sam’s hand.

‘Well, we’ve brought Jonah,’ he said. He looked closely at Sam. ‘Is everything all right? We can hear a lot of noise.’

Sam laughed and shook his head. ‘It’s been quite a morning! Am I glad Jonah’s here! Saint Michael arranged that your Great Dragon would get the others to come along by promising them a good meal when they got here. The big fellow flew in with each of them last night, and got them to land in the field south of the barracks. And that would have been fine, if we had been able to get plenty of meat here in time. But we couldn’t, and we need such a lot.’

‘Of course,’ put in Bryn, ‘you haven’t been able to phone round the butchers, with all the phones off, have you?’

‘Exactly. We’ve had to send chaps out in trucks, trying to bring in enough to feed them all. Meanwhile, the Archangel felt he should be in London and couldn’t hang about for the food to arrive.’ Sam sighed. ‘The beasts are getting fed up with waiting. In fact, a fight broke out a little while ago. Absolutely terrifying. The Regiment doesn’t usually scatter and run for it! Luckily for us, the Great Dragon roared at the other dragons and threw his weight about a bit, and they quietened down. I just hope the meat comes soon.’

‘I should go down to speak to them,’ said Jonah. ‘Sort them out.’

‘Jonah, no,’ said Bryn. ‘Not if they are angry. That’s dangerous.’

‘It won’t be! You don’t understand, Bryn,’ Jonah snapped. He could feel the pressure mounting. It was bad enough to feel that he had to deal with all the dragons, even if he didn’t want to, without Bryn and Claire constantly pointing out to everyone that he was still only a kid. He looked mutinously at his new uncle, feeling scared and grouchy, and not really believing his own words. ‘Saint Michael says I can make
any
dragon obey me, not just Ffyrnig. It will be like it was with him.’

Bryn looked embarrassed. ‘Yes, of course it will,’ he said. ‘Sorry, Jonah.’

Claire had jumped out of the Land Rover and came hurrying round to where they were standing. ‘Jonah, you really don’t know that.’

‘Oh, yeah, you know far more about dragons than Saint Michael the Dragonslayer, of course!’ Jonah spoke witheringly.

Claire’s face reddened. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm. ‘No, but
you
are no angel.’ She gave a small laugh. ‘So you’re not to go while they’re fighting. I absolutely forbid it! Okay?’

Jonah erupted. ‘You can’t say that! You can’t tell me what to do! You’re not my mother!’

Claire’s eyes widened in shock, and then she was fuming. ‘Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t be so rude! If your father were here—’

‘Well, he’s not, is he? That’s the point. That’s the whole bloody point! Can’t you see that?’ Jonah was raging. All his fear of letting everyone down came pouring out. ‘If he
was
here, it would probably be him going to the dragons instead of me. But he’s
not
here, so I have to go. I’m the only one who can.’ He glared at her and added scornfully,
‘Unless you’d rather go yourself!’

There was a stunned silence.

‘No,’ Jonah said viciously, ‘I thought not.’

Claire looked as if he had slapped her and the three men stared at him in amazement. He saw Captain Hereford look away in embarrassment. Feeling wretched and mutinous, he turned sharply on his heel and walked towards the hubbub. He plunged his hands in his pockets, so that nobody could see them shaking. His cheeks burned with anger and shame, and his heart felt as if it would swell into his throat with misery. He hated himself, loathed the way he had spoken to Claire.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the Parrys gazed after him and then Sam spoke quietly.

‘Mrs Parry, I really do need Jonah to come and talk to the dragons.’ He gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘I can’t tell you how much I hate to admit this, but the Regiment has no idea how to control them. I am not underestimating the danger of letting him go near them but – well – he is the only person who has any chance of managing them and getting us all to London.’

Claire nodded unhappily. ‘Then I suppose I mustn’t oppose it. Do you mind if we come down there with you?’

‘Of course not.’ Sam took out his mobile phone and asked for an armoured car to bring the adults safely down to the ground where the dragons were. Then he strode off to catch up with Jonah and they walked quickly down the broad tarmac drive through the barracks, while Claire, Bryn and Rhodri waited for the vehicle in an embarrassed silence. Jonah was walking with his eyes on the ground and his insides burning with misery. Suddenly, his steps faltered. He stopped walking and stared at the road. Then he turned to Sam.

‘Captain Hereford?’

Sam raised an eyebrow, which made Jonah give an awkward little grin.

‘Sam, then. Do you mind if I just go back and have a quick word with my aunt?’ He felt uncomfortable as he added, ‘I can’t really leave things like this. If anything
did
happen—Er … I’ll only be a moment.’

The captain smiled at him. ‘That’s a good idea,’ he said quietly. ‘You’ll be able to concentrate on what you’re doing a lot better afterwards.’

Jonah shot him a grateful glance and hurried back to Claire.

‘I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for what I said,’ he blurted out, but before he could say any more, he was enveloped in a great hug.

‘I’m sorry, too. It was thoughtless of me to add to all the pressure on you. I should have realised how awful it is.’ She smoothed back his fair hair and smiled shakily. ‘Are we OK again?’

‘Yeah. And, Claire—?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’m not, like, choosing to do this. It’s just—’

‘It’s just that there’s nobody else,’ she finished for him, looking into his eyes. ‘I know. I honestly do.’

He smiled at her, immediately feeling a great weight of wretchedness lifting.

‘I’ll be careful,’ he promised.

He felt as if a choking lump had miraculously left his insides and ran back to the captain with a huge smile.

‘I’m all set now, Sam.’

Dragon smoke was hanging over the camp as they walked down the road between two rows of large buildings with pale green roofs. Jonah was looking around but couldn’t see any SAS troops moving around the grounds. ‘Aren’t any of the soldiers on duty today?’ he asked. ‘I thought I might see them training. Well, I hoped I would.’

Sam chuckled at his disappointed face. ‘They are all taking a break. Everyone is waiting for
you
, son,’ he said. ‘They want to see how you are going to make these dragons docile.’ He threw back his head and laughed. ‘I can’t wait to see their faces! The troops, I mean, not the dragons.’

‘Oh, help! They’re not really going to watch me, are they?’

Sam turned and scanned his face keenly. ‘Are you OK about this, Jonah? You don’t have to do it, if you are scared.’

Jonah stopped walking and looked up at him. ‘I do, though, don’t I?’ he said simply. ‘There isn’t anyone else. Well, they haven’t found anybody else who can talk to them yet. Even Saint Michael had to promise them food to get them here. So, I just
have
to go to them.’

Not for the first time, he wished Erin were there. She always made him feel braver.

Sam squeezed his shoulder and nodded. ‘Well done,’ he said.

The road ran between open areas of what seemed to be sports fields towards some large buildings. Jonah was longing to know what they were used for but, in the books he had read, the SAS never discussed their training. He
decided he had better not ask too many questions.

As they drew nearer the open land beyond the barracks, they could hardly hear each other because of the noise the dragons were making. Jonah felt tense with apprehension. Sam laughed and nodded towards the buildings. There were soldiers crowding into all the windows and doorways, and only a few gathered outside on the tarmac.

‘Your audience is rather reluctant to come outside,’ he said. ‘Bit unusual for these chaps to be nervous!’

As the soldiers noticed them coming down the drive, Jonah saw them nudging each other and someone called out, ‘Here he is. Here’s our Dragoneer.’ A cheer went up. Jonah felt the corners of his mouth starting to twitch into a grin and looked down at the ground quickly, trying not to look too pleased. It would be way gross to look like a show-off in front of the SAS; these soldiers were legendary. As he and Sam passed the buildings, the soldiers called out, and he turned to smile and wave self-consciously at them. Sam had a great grin on his face.

‘We are really looking forward to watching you with the dragons,’ he said. ‘But don’t forget, Jonah. If there’s any trouble, the men won’t hesitate to come and get you out.’

They walked towards the last pair of buildings. The noise became deafening and then Jonah saw the drakes. Ffyrnig was in the centre of the airfield, constantly turning his head to watch all the other dragons. He looked furious, which was worrying. Jonah was surprised to see how different the dragons were from each other. A couple of them were very much smaller than Ffyrnig. Other monsters had no legs and looked like great, winged snakes and another, which had bat wings like Ffyrnig but just two legs, was grass-green and looked decidedly bad-tempered. It was hissing at a legless serpent, which suddenly reared up and spat a cloud of watery fumes in its eyes. The green
dragon roared in fury and swung its massive neck round, smashing it across the serpent’s back. The two dragons leaped into the air, each trying to sink its fangs into the neck of the other. As the serpent swooped down to avoid the green dragon, its tail raked the roof of one of the buildings and then swept over the drive, just skimming over the heads of the few soldiers who were standing there. They threw themselves flat on the ground.

Sam gasped and, without thinking, Jonah began to run. He sprinted on to the field and stared up at the battle going on overhead.

‘Stop that!’ he bellowed. ‘Come down here. Now!’

The two beasts paused for a second but then the serpent suddenly lunged and locked its teeth into the green dragon’s tail. Screaming and roaring, they brawled above the roofs of Credenhill. Jonah looked round wildly for Ffyrnig and, as he did so, he noticed that the remaining dragons were edging up to inspect him.

‘I’m – I’m glad you are all here,’ he said in a rush. ‘I am Jonah Drake. I am the Dragoneer Saint Michael told you about. I just need to talk to Ffyrnig.’

He felt intensely uncomfortable as six horned heads peered down at him speculatively. His legs felt wobbly, and he had to summon every ounce of courage to walk between the dragons to where Ffyrnig was standing. The smoke from their nostrils made him want to cough. He was praying that they were too much in awe of the Great Dragon to sink their teeth into him. None of them spoke but he knew from the way they were looking at each other that they were highly amused to set eyes upon the only known, living Dragoneer. Had
Y Ddraig Goch
, the great Red Dragon of Wales, really agreed to do what this little lad commanded?

‘I couldn’t get those two who are fighting to take any
notice of me,’ he said, as Ffyrnig ambled up.

‘I don’t think they could hear you, Jonah. They were making too much noise.’

‘We had better go after them, then,’ Jonah said, gazing up at the two squealing specks that were rolling around high in the sky.

Ffyrnig lowered his wing for Jonah to scramble up onto his back. The other dragons were gazing at them with great interest. Jonah looked down at them, took a deep breath and shouted as loudly as he could, ‘They are bringing meat for you. Until it arrives, just wait here quietly, will you?’ The drakes squinted up at him. He had a sudden thought and shouted,
‘And do not touch any of the men you can see
. All we need,’ he added to Ffyrnig, ‘is for any of this lot to fancy snacking on a soldier.’

Ffyrnig bellowed and the other dragons moved away to give him room to manoeuvre. He swung round towards the southern part of the airfield and Jonah saw crowds of soldiers pressed up against the windows or outside on the drive. Then he spotted his aunt with Bryn and Rhodri. Even from a distance, he could see how anxious they were. He winced.
What a fool he would look if, after all he had said
,
the green dragon and the serpent ignored him
.

Ffyrnig began to pound towards the boundary and then he thrust out his wings and soared into the air, streaking after the tumbling dots that were now far out over the fields of south Herefordshire. He was flying with all his might, putting every ounce of his energy into gaining height and speed. Jonah’s hair blew into his eyes and in spite of the hot August morning, the rush of air began to make him feel cold. He crouched close to the firedrake’s warm scales and clung on tightly as Ffyrnig hurtled through the air, veering sharply left as the battling dragons whirled around to make towards the barracks again. They
were shrieking with rage and didn’t seem aware that Ffyrnig was overtaking them. Jonah pulled on his wing. The Great Dragon looked over his shoulder.

‘Can we separate them?’ Jonah called.

Ffyrnig took advantage of the fact that the green dragon seemed to be oblivious to everything but its intention of gripping the other serpent by the neck, and increased his own speed until he was flying just above them. Then he bore down upon them, forcing his great bulk between them, and edged the green dragon away from the serpent. Jonah clung desperately to the bony edges of Ffyrnig’s wings as the two dragons banged into each other, whirling over the fields and houses down below. The green dragon roared at Ffyrnig and struggled to get away from him, but however quickly it dived or veered around, Ffyrnig was beside it, relentlessly pushing it back towards the barracks.

‘Get off me,’ it roared, trying to twist away. ‘Stop interfering! It’s not your fight.’

‘You are ordered back to Credenhill,’ bellowed Ffyrnig.

‘By whom?’ the other snarled.

‘By the Dragoneer!’

‘What Dragoneer?’ The green dragon rolled to give Ffyrnig a sideways sneer.

‘The one on my back,’ bellowed the Great Dragon.

The green dragon slowed its flight to stare up at Jonah. Then it chuckled derisively. ‘That? That
child
really is your Dragoneer? And you seriously think I’m going to obey it? What do you take me for?’

It belched out a cloud of smoke and flames, stinging Jonah’s eyes and making him choke. Coughing horribly, Jonah let go of Ffyrnig’s wing with one hand, to put it up to his mouth. In the next moment, as Ffyrnig drove his weight against the green dragon, Jonah felt himself slipping sideways. He grabbed wildly for Ffyrnig’s shoulder but his
hand clawed the air. The other dragon’s neck pressed up against his leg until he thought his bones might crack. Then it looked sideways, rolled and lashed out with its foot. Its talons raked across Jonah’s side and for a moment one of its claws caught in his T-shirt. Jonah yelled with alarm and scrabbled to grasp Ffyrnig’s wing but it had all happened too fast. He felt himself sliding from Ffyrnig’s back and then he was plummeting down. A high scream was forced out of his lungs. The ground rushed up towards him with terrifying speed and then, suddenly, it stopped. He thudded into something, gasped for breath, felt something huge and warm and leathery coil round his waist and gently, though upside down, was taken slowly down to earth.

Jonah lay on the warm, soft, leathery stuff with his eyes shut. All the air seemed to have been knocked out of his body. Above him, Ffyrnig and the green dragon tore the air with ear-splitting roars. Tentatively, Jonah stretched. He moved his arms and legs. Everything seemed to work. Cautiously, he opened his eyes. A horned head on a long, snakelike neck was gazing at him expectantly. The serpent looked pleased as Jonah sat up and began to clamber free of its coils.

‘Ah, you weren’t knocked out,’ it said. ‘I don’t think you have broken any bones, Master. Luckily, that green idiot only caught his claws in your shirt. A nasty scratch but no real damage done. By the way, I am the Wyrm of Deerhurst and I’m very pleased to have been of service.’