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

others. Jack was gesturing away from St Paul’s to buildings on the other side of the river. Following the line of Jack’s pointing finger, Ffyrnig began to drop towards the city and then, with a startled gasp, wheeled away and soared upwards again. The rest of the squadron followed close behind.
    ‘Hey! Whoa! What are you doing?’ Jonah shrieked.
    ‘Look! Look at the pavement beside the river. Can’t you see what’s down there?
    ‘No, what is it?’
    ‘We need to think. We have to plan our attack.’ Ffyrnig sounded agitated.
    ‘Ffyrnig, what
is
it?’ Jonah was staring down at something that looked like a big greyish-blue hall-carpet stretched along the Embankment. Other buildings of the City of London were coming into focus far below, as the dragons lost height again. What was that big blue thing? He screwed up his eyes to squint through his visor. The blue stuff might be tarpaulin, he supposed, but it looked too soft and somehow
inflated
. A bit like a long bouncy castle. He simply could not work out what it was.
    Ffyrnig was wheeling round, while the other eight dragons followed him closely, forming an enormous circle as they flew. They rumbled and called to Ffyrnig, and the soldiers tensed as the dragons kept glancing at each other, looking anxious.
    ‘I can’t hear what you are all saying because of the wind,Ffyrnig. What’s the
matter?’
Jonah was getting irritated.
    ‘There’s a problem. That – that thing down there. We think it might be a child of Jormungandr.’
    ‘What? I don’t understand,’ Jonah began as Mordiford caught up and flew alongside. ‘What’s – what you said –
Yormy Gander?’
    ‘Jorm-un-gandr,”
called Mordiford. ‘Huge sea serpent. Dangerous. Have to get rid of it fast.’
    Jonah coughed as Mordiford’s smoky breath blew under his visor. He thumped Ffyrnig’s back. ‘What do you think we ought to do? Can we burn it out?’
    The Great Dragon looked over his shoulder at the rest of the drakes wheeling in the sky. ‘Fire won’t be enough with a child of Jormungandr. The hatchling will have thick skin, lots of blubber. We must seek to wound it mortally.’
    ‘Rip the blighter to death,’ Mordiford added with relish. ‘Won’t be easy, though. He and his kind are very nasty customers. I expect he could swallow one of the gargouilles whole.’
    Jonah felt his hands beginning to tremble. He had imagined the nine dragons swooping down, pouring fire on to the Night Creatures and sending them scurrying back to the Underworld. He had expected something like Hereford all over again, only better, with the SAS troopers and the other eight dragons there to sweep the evil creatures away. It had never crossed his mind that they might have to fight any other sort of beast. He leaned down to stare below Ffyrnig’s wing and blinked to clear his eyes. He started to make out the immense shape of the serpent stretching along the Embankment by the Millennium footbridge.
    Sam came up alongside. ‘What on earth is that thing in front of the Globe?’ he shouted.
    ‘The globe?’
    ‘The Globe Theatre. Shakespeare. You know?’
    ‘Oh, yeah.’ Jonah nodded vigorously. He had only seen the famous theatre in photographs. He cupped his hands round his mouth and shouted, ‘The dragons say it’s a sea serpent.’
    ‘But it’s
huge!’
    From the captain’s tone, the Great Dragon guessed what Sam and Jonah were talking about. ‘Jonah, tell him we think it is one of the hatchlings of the Midgard Serpent. The Captain may know about him. Must have been disturbed, when the Night Creatures began to swarm up to the surface.’
    ‘Thanks.’ Jonah cupped his hands around his mouth again. ‘Sam? Sam! Can you hear me? They think it’s the young of something called the Midgard Serpent.’
    ‘Oh, no! I remember those legends.’ From Sam’s appalled expression, Jonah could see that he had just delivered some really bad news. He shook his head and shrugged to show he did not