Jonah and the Last Great Dragon by M.E. Holley Read Free Book Online

a minute while Captain Hereford gets another coverall.’
    Sam strode off to the barracks and Jonah turned to the expectant soldiers. ‘We’ll mount now, while we wait for the captain,’ he called and, grinning with pleasure, the soldiers ran towards their mounts.

Chapter 9
THE SILENCE OF ST PAUL’S
    Three hours later, the dragons were flying steadily in V-formation above the grey gleam of the River Thames, as it curved through the London suburbs. People in the streets far below them might have thought they were seeing a flock of strange-looking geese flying towards the city.
    Mordiford was flying just behind Ffyrnig’s left shoulder with the blue-green Stinchcombe Drake, ridden by Isaac, on Ffyrnig’s other side. Sam pulled out his whistle and blew it to catch Jonah’s attention. He pointed at the streets below, miming how empty they looked. Jonah leaned forward to stare past Ffyrnig’s shoulder, as the Great Dragon’s wings majestically beat the air. There were a few cars and tiny figures in the streets but he could not see any buses.
Maybe people already know that the Night Creatures are attacking London
. He guessed the city was already shutting down under the demons’ onslaught.
    ‘How much further?’ he wondered. He wriggled uncomfortably, feeling stiff from sitting still for so long, even though he, like all the other riders, had a foam-filled pad to sit on inside the webbing cage. He had been impressed with the resourceful way that the soldiers had equipped the dragons for the journey. Now he knew what the books meant by “good field-craft”. He kept licking his lips, which had dried out in the rushing air stream, but at least the helmet he had been given at the barracks had a visor. Otherwise, he knew the wind would have made his eyes water and he would have screwed them up all the way.
    He noticed Sam scanning the city and then he beckonedto signal that he wanted to come closer. Jonah called to Mordiford to come as near to Ffyrnig as he could.
    Sam shouted, ‘Look down there. See that green space. I think that’s Battersea Park. Yeah, yeah, it is! OK, Jonah, look for a road bridge over the Thames with a big railway bridge beside it. That will be Blackfriars Bridge and you’ll see a footbridge just beyond it. That’s Millennium Bridge and that’s where we turn left to St Paul’s.’
    Jonah thumped Ffyrnig’s back to get his attention. ‘Sam says we’re nearly there.’ He relayed Sam’s instructions.
    Ffyrnig stared down at the acres of buildings below them. ‘This is unbelievable,’ he said. ‘Last time I flew over London, you could pass over it in just a few minutes. You human beings are busy little creatures, aren’t you? It’s like an ants’ nest down there.’
    Mordiford grunted. ‘What do these men eat? They have built all over the meadows where their cows and sheep ought to be. Daft, I call it.’
    ‘Look, Ffyrnig!’ Jonah was tense with excitement. ‘There’s the footbridge. So St Paul’s is a bit ahead on our left.’ He raised his visor to shout to Sam. ‘What do you want us to do?’
    Sam was peering down at the river far below them. ‘Go just low enough so that we can see what’s down there. Get everyone to hover for a bit.’
    Jonah looked at Sam in alarm. ‘They can’t! Not really. Ffyrnig says they are too big to glide on the air. They can’t do what buzzards and things do. They need to keep moving.’
    ‘Ah, I should have thought of that. Stupid of me. OK, get them to circle St Paul’s then, just low enough so that we can see what’s down there.’
    Jonah scrambled to his knees in the webbing cage, so that he could see all the dragon-riders and waved hishands above his head to get their attention.
    ‘We’re going to go a bit lower,’ he yelled, using his hands to mime
“a little bit lower”
. ‘Then we’ll fly round the cathedral in a circle.’ He drew a circle in the air and mimed scrutinising the cathedral. ‘Then the captain’ —pointing at