Jonah and the Last Great Dragon Read Free Page A

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 buildingsahead 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.

Chapter 4
THE PRESSURE MOUNTS
    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