Jonah and the Last Great Dragon Read Free

him.’
    ‘That’s a brilliant idea,’ said Rhodri. ‘I can’t see the Regiment turning it down. Shall I go and see what I can arrange?’
    Mike pushed back his chair. ‘Shall I come with you after Jonah and I have talked to Ffyrnig? Can I cadge a lift to Hereford on your bike?’ He winked at Jonah.
    Erin stared at the Archangel. ‘Cadge a lift? You’ve got
wings
when you want them, Mike!’
    A big grin spread across Mike’s face. ‘But how often do I get to ride on a motorbike?’ he said.

Chapter 3
THE ROAD TO CREDENHILL
    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 andWestminster 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