Jonah and the Last Great Dragon (8 page)

Ffyrnig gently glided across St James Park and over Downing Street, making for Whitehall where there was more room for him to land. Jonah saw two of the SAS troopers who had driven from Credenhill with the Colonel, step forward from beside an armoured car that was parked near the Cenotaph. They spoke to the police officers behind the barrier and the wrought iron gates swung open.

Jonah wondered if the policemen felt nervous of the enormous red dragon towering over them. A couple of them were clutching their weapons pretty tightly as they stared up at his fierce-looking horned head and lazy reptilian eyes, but they all smiled at Jonah, and behaved as if it was quite normal for a boy and a dragon to visit Number Ten. Ffyrnig folded his wings back carefullyover his spine, so that he could squeeze through the gates, and waddled along the road. Jonah emerged from between the great wings, slid down from the dragon’s back and walked up to his head. He heard footsteps behind him and George, one of the two SAS troopers, came up.

‘I am so sorry it all went pear-shaped,’ he said sympathetically, ‘but we’ve heard that they are getting the fire under control. It’ll be all right.’ He nodded towards the door of Number Ten. ‘The Prime Minister is waiting for you.’

‘Oh,’ said Jonah. He leaned towards George, speaking in a low voice so that Ffyrnig would not hear. ‘I don’t think I ought to leave the Great Dragon until he’s settled. He says he doesn’t hurt people but…’

George nodded. ‘That’s sensible. You get him calm and tell him the SAS will stop other people bothering him, and I’ll let the Colonel know you’ll be in, when you’re ready.’

‘Won’t the Prime Minister think I’m a bit rude?’ Jonah asked anxiously.

‘Of course not,’ said George cheerfully. ‘This is a new situation for the Government
and
the Armed Forces, Jonah. If you’re the only person in Britain who can control the dragons, what you want you’ll get, I should think. If you want to stay with the dragon for a while, they will wait for you.’ He clapped Jonah on the back. ‘I’ll go and let Security know what’s happening.’

George went up to the policeman on the door and Jonah leaned against Ffyrnig’s warm neck, feeling miserable again. He could still hear the screams from the burning buildings, see the people bursting out of doors, trying to run from the flames, while the Night Creatures capered and cackled. Ffyrnig turned his head and looked back sympathetically. Jonah patted his leathery hide and fought to swallow the lump in his throat.

‘Whatever Sam and the Colonel say, I know I didn’t think it through,’ he whispered, almost to himself. ‘I suppose I imagined you would be able to make the fire just hit a target, sort of like using a blowtorch.’ Ffyrnig gazed at him and shook his head sadly. Jonah stroked the warm neck. ‘I never realised how far the flames would spread. How are we going to get rid of the Night Creatures now?’

When he looked up he saw that two of the policemen on duty had left the gate and were walking towards them. They kept close to the railings though, as far from Ffyrnig as possible.

‘I feel as if I’m dreaming,’ said the older of the two men, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘In all my years in the force, I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, until last week I
thought dragons and demons were just in stories. We couldn’t believe our ears when they told us you would be coming.’ He took a step towards Ffyrnig and then hesitated. ‘Is it all right if we come a bit closer? Will it upset him?’

‘No,’ Jonah smiled. ‘He won’t mind. Will you?’ he said, turning to the dragon.

Ffyrnig turned to glance at the policemen and rumbled.

‘It’s okay to come closer,’ said Jonah.

The younger policeman looked astonished. ‘Can you really communicate with him?’ he asked incredulously.

Jonah nodded. ‘Yeah, I can understand what he says. Don’t really know how.’

‘Wow! Fancy being able to talk to a dragon. I mean, a real live dragon! I’m just gob-smacked.’ The younger man came up to Jonah and tentatively stroked Ffyrnig’s neck. A big smile spread over his face as he ran his hand over the dragon’s scales. He called to the other policeman who was strolling up and down, looking with fascination at Ffyrnig’s huge claws. ‘He’s so warm, Denis. It’s like stroking a hot rhinoceros.’

Denis grinned, and winked at Jonah. ‘’Course, he’d know. There are always a few rhinos wandering past Number Ten,’ he said.

Jonah grinned and the young policeman began to laugh. ‘Well, you know what I mean,’ he said. He stepped back from Ffyrnig, looking up and down the dragon’s huge length. ‘He’ll cost a bit to feed,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘What does he eat, by the way?’

‘I’ll ask him what he likes best,’ Jonah said and repeated the question to the Great Dragon. Ffyrnig swung his lowered head right round and stared lazily at the policeman through half-opened lids. The constable shot backwards, nearly knocking Denis over. ‘He wouldn’t, would he?’ he stammered.

‘Ffyrnig!’ Jonah shouted, cuffing the dragon’s side. Ffyrnig opened his mouth in a reptilian smile, and Jonah turned to reassure the two men. ‘He’s just having a joke. Honestly,’ he added, as the policemen looked dubious, ‘he doesn’t eat people. Never has, apparently. He likes things like cattle and pigs. What we eat, really. Of course,’ he added, ‘he
could
eat humans. Some dragons do, he says. But Ffyrnig doesn’t see humans as prey.’

‘Quite choosy, then,’ said Denis. ‘Bit of a gourmet, is he?’

Jonah translated.

Ffyrnig rumbled.

There were faces at the upper windows of Number Ten peering down at the vast creature lying in the road. A police car drove through the gates and Jonah asked Ffyrnig to make room for it. The dragon obligingly moved over to the side of the road opposite the Prime Minister’s residence, and the car edged slowly along the length of Ffyrnig’s body and tail. It stopped when it was level with his shoulder and Jonah could see its two passengers.

‘The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,’ Denis whispered, nodding at a man in uniform, ‘and the Minister for Defence.’

The two policemen moved away deferentially, as the men climbed out of the car. As the driver pulled slowly forward to park the vehicle, the newcomers came over to Jonah, eyeing Ffyrnig a little nervously.

‘He’s enormous, isn’t he?’ said the Minister, looking up and down the dragon’s vast length. ‘Amazing! And he has been fast asleep in Wales for all these years?’

‘Under the Radnor Forest, yes.’ Jonah turned to tell Ffyrnig what the Minister had said.

Ffyrnig rumbled and peered at the two men, who took a couple of steps back.

‘It’s all right. He’s only talking,’ said Jonah. ‘He says he was hibernating, really. He wasn’t completely asleep all the time but he never left his cavern.’

The Commissioner smiled at Jonah. ‘What astounds me is that you can chat with him, young man. And control him! I can’t imagine what it must be like to find out, quite
suddenly, that you have this incredible gift.’

‘Yes, but it was useless, wasn’t it?’ Jonah said miserably. ‘We just made everything worse.’

The Commissioner patted Jonah’s shoulder. ‘It wasn’t your fault at all,’ he said. ‘You couldn’t have known how powerful nine dragons’ breath would be. We were all just hoping, just hoping.’

‘Clutching at straws,’ put in the Minister. ‘Nobody knows what to do, Jonah. We really know nothing about these hellish Night Creatures, except from ancient stories.’

‘You have been very brave,’ added the Commissioner, ‘so cheer up! At least, you tried! Now come and talk to the Prime Minister.’

Jonah gave a faint smile. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’ll come in, in just a moment. Is it all right if I make sure Ffyrnig’s OK first?’

Other cars were coming slowly through the gates and inching past the dragon. Some soldiers were getting out, among them the SAS Colonel and another officer. They looked over at Jonah and he saw the Commissioner say something to them, and then the SAS officers nodded at him and raised their hands to say hello. Jonah felt a lump come into his throat. He had mucked up and yet everyone was being so kind to him. He wished Erin were here. If he had been able to talk it through with her, she would probably have reminded him of the huge flames that Ffyrnig had generated that night at Cascob. Erin was always so quick-witted.
Not like me
, he thought.

Still, the people gathered inside Number Ten tonight might be able to think of some other way that they could get rid of the demons. He drew in a deep breath and tried to stop feeling sorry for himself.

He went up to the dragon’s head. ‘Do you need a drink?’ he asked.

Ffyrnig swayed his head from side to side. ‘No thanks. I should let my body fluids cool down a bit before I drink anything, or there will be huge clouds of steam.’

‘Well,’ said Jonah, with a half-hearted little laugh, ‘we nearly burned Westminster down. I don’t think anyone will worry too much about a bit of fog in Downing Street.’

Ffyrnig chuckled. ‘Now, if I were an icedrake, I could give you a fog worth the name. You wouldn’t be able to see to the end of my tail.’

‘An icedrake? What’s that?’ Jonah had never heard of an
ice
dragon.

Ffyrnig turned slowly and looked at Jonah through half-closed lids. ‘Oh, great Dragoneer,’ he said silkily, ‘your boundless knowledge of the draconic species is a joy and an example to lesser men.’ He grinned as Jonah thumped his leg.

‘Oi!’ Jonah chuckled. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be a bit polite to me?’

Ffyrnig opened his mouth in a spike-toothed grin. ‘Just my little joke,’ he rumbled. ‘Have you truly never heard of the icedrakes? Or frost dragons, as some drakes call them?’

‘No,’ said Jonah. ‘I’ve read about sea serpents and basilisks and the Great Worms and things, but an icedrake – no.’

‘I suppose it’s hardly surprising,’ said Ffyrnig. ‘When I went under the Forest, I had not heard news of the icedrakes for years. Before the fire dragons and serpents withdrew to the secret places of the world, it seemed that a lot of bad feeling grew between the icedrakes and us. There were a lot of us, you know, the fire-breathers, and I suppose the younger ones didn’t find it easy to mark out territories for themselves. Anyway, I heard that a few of the more quarrelsome dragons—‘

‘The hot-tempered ones, of course,’ murmured Jonah.

Ffyrnig slid an amused glance at him, but continued, ‘The more quarrelsome young dragons began to fight for control over the harsh northern lands which, up to that time, everyone took for granted were icedrake territory.’

‘What happened?’

‘The icedrakes are a bit smaller than we are and, they say,’ Ffyrnig lowered his lids in amusement, ‘less aggressive. I heard that the icedrakes withdrew completely into the lands of ice and snow, when the young firedrakes fought their way northwards.’

Jonah was fascinated. ‘What happened to them?’

Ffyrnig shook his head. ‘The firedrakes? Became even more aggressive and bad-tempered, I should think. It must be hard to find enough food to give them decent hibernation periods. What could they eat up there? Whales, sharks and codfish! Yuk!’

Jonah laughed. ‘What about Arctic wolves? And there are reindeer and elk in the northern forests, aren’t there? I should think they would manage.’ He looked at Ffyrnig eagerly. ‘But what about the icedrakes? What do they live on?’

The dragon shut his horny eyelids in distaste. ‘Fish and seals, like I said, I suppose. That kind of oily, smelly food. Quite disgusting! Still, I suppose it doesn’t have much taste by the time they swallow it. They freeze their food before they eat it; it disagrees with them otherwise, apparently.’

Jonah had been leaning against Ffyrnig’s warm neck, listening quietly, but suddenly he shot upright and stared at him, as the implication of the dragon’s words entered his mind. ‘Ffyrnig, did you say they
freeze
their food?’

The dragon nodded. Jonah swallowed hard.

‘How?’ he asked tensely.

‘They breathe a stream of ice crystals over their prey. Just as my kind breathe fire, they breathe ice. Why?’

Jonah’s face was alight with excitement. ‘Ffyrnig,’ he stammered, ‘we know that human weapons can’t get rid of the Night Creatures. Saint Michael said that the dragons might be able to, because your fire is more powerful than anything we have.’

‘Y-es,’ said the dragon slowly. ‘Too powerful, it seems.’

Jonah was hopping with excitement now. ‘But what about the icedrakes? Would their breath be cold enough to destroy the demons? Crack the bodies they’re using? The Night Creatures are heat lovers, aren’t they? Hell creatures! Surely they couldn’t tolerate ice? Ffyrnig, what do you think?’

‘I think,’ rumbled the dragon, ‘that
if
the icedrakes still exist, and
if
they are awake, and
if
they can be persuaded – and persuaded by a firedrake, one of their enemies, mind – to fly to England, then, yes, I believe the frozen breath of the icedrakes may be the answer to your problem.’

As Jonah went towards the shallow steps of 10 Downing Street, the policeman on duty knocked at the door. In the hall, a man stepped forward.

‘Good evening,’ he said.

‘Oh, yes, er – good evening,’ Jonah replied. ‘I think the Prime Minister wants to see me.’

‘He does, indeed.’ The doorman smiled. ‘Mr Brookes will take you upstairs.’ He went over to a desk telephone while Jonah looked around the elegant entrance hall with its chequerboard-patterned floor. He was beginning to feel exhausted after everything that had happened. A youngish man in a navy blue suit came quickly through an arched doorway and crossed the expanse of black and white marble.

‘Hello, Jonah,’ he said, shaking his hand. ‘The Prime Minister is looking forward to meeting you. I’m Roger Brookes, one of his advisers. Come on, I’ll take you up. You have had quite a day, I believe.’

‘Yes. I suddenly feel really tired.’

‘They are serving a buffet supper for you. I expect you will feel a bit better after something to eat.’ Mr Brookes led the way through to a curving staircase hung with portraits of Britain’s Prime Ministers. Jonah stared up at them as he hurried after the civil servant. It seemed so weird: he had often seen these famous stairs on television, and now he was actually walking up them. He was actually inside one of the most famous houses in the world! If he told his school friends where he had been, they would never
believe him.

Mr Brookes led Jonah along a corridor towards an open door. He could hear a hubbub of voices and then, just before they reached the door, a familiar voice said clearly, ‘But I was not informed that he is only twelve years old. I cannot, and I will not, give permission for this child to try again. How do you think the nation will react if he is killed?’

Mr Brookes hesitated, looking a bit embarrassed. Jonah nodded toward the door and whispered, ‘Is that…?’

Mr Brookes whispered back, ‘The PM? Yes.’ Then, smiling encouragingly, he put his hand on Jonah’s shoulder and propelled him forward. There were quite a few men and women in the room. Most of them were staring out of the windows at Ffyrnig but a couple were standing with the Prime Minister, who turned and smiled broadly as Jonah and Mr Brookes walked in. Jonah could see the Colonel and another Army officer standing with the Commissioner, and noticed the Minister of Defence and another man whose face was very familiar. He knew he had seen the man on television, though he couldn’t think who it was.

The Prime Minister immediately came over to shake Jonah’s hand.

‘Well, Jonah, it’s good to meet you. We are all very proud of what you did.’

Jonah flushed with embarrassment.

‘You and the soldiers put yourself into great danger to try and help the people of London,’ said the Prime Minister gravely. ‘No one else seems to be able to do anything at the moment. We are all sorry it didn’t work, but you absolutely did your best.’ He put his arm round Jonah’s shoulders and introduced him to the Minister of Defence and the familiar-looking man, who turned out to be the Home Secretary.
Then he turned Jonah to face everybody.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jonah Drake, schoolboy and – er – Dragoneer. And, as far as I know, he is the only Dragoneer in the world!’

Everyone clapped. Jonah’s face was burning

‘Now’ —the Prime Minister beckoned to Roger Brookes—‘I think our Dragoneer could do with something to eat. Let’s all have supper and then we can talk.’

Roger opened the door, so that some trolleys of cold meats and salad, sandwiches and cakes could be wheeled in. A woman entered the room, cheerily greeting people, as she came to join the Prime Minister.

‘This is my wife, Jonah,’ the Prime Minister said, and the lady smiled and took a plate from the trolley.

‘Tell me if there is anything you don’t like,’ she said, and started to fill the plate with sausage rolls and sandwiches. Everything looked delicious. Jonah realised he was ravenous and was soon tucking
in
. He would have to ask about food for Ffyrnig, as soon as he had finished his own supper.

When everyone had finished and the staff were clearing away, the Prime Minister clapped his hands to gain everyone’s attention. ‘I’m not going to introduce you all to Jonah individually, as there are so many of us. Why we are here is to find out if Jonah and the men of the Special Air Service can suggest any other way in which we can use the dragons effectively.’ The Prime Minister gazed around encouragingly. ‘Look, just because the first attempt was unsuccessful, it does not mean that we can’t try again. For instance, Colonel Cooper has suggested that the dragons may be able to breathe out a reduced amount of heat to drive the Night Creatures along to open spaces, where it would be safer for the dragons to burn them up. We need to talk these ideas through.’

‘Sir,’ Jonah broke in urgently. ‘I think there is another way…’

‘Yes? Well, I’d like to hear it. But may I introduce you to the Home Secretary first?’ the Prime Minister, beckoning to the minister, who crossed the room, smiling. ‘Then you can tell both of us together.’

‘We are all amazed, and just fascinated, by what we have heard about you,’ the Home Secretary said in his kindly Scottish accent. ‘We have been looking down at – Ffyrnig, is it? I can’t believe my eyes.’

Everyone laughed and agreed, and the Defence Minister, who was looking out of the window at Ffyrnig, shook his head in wonderment.

The Home Secretary continued, ‘I am dying to know – and I think everybody else is, too – if you have always known that your family had a special relationship with dragons? And when did you find out that there were still some alive?’

Everyone was gazing at him expectantly, so Jonah cleared his throat and told them everything. He talked about first noticing the smoking fissure, then about meeting Mike and finding out that he was really the Archangel Michael. He explained how he and Erin first saw the wolves and told them everything that had happened until the dragons flew to London. When he had finished he drew a deep breath, and looked up at the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.

‘I wish it had worked,’ he said. ‘But, sir…’ He hesitated and the Prime Minister nodded encouragingly. ‘There seems to be another possibility. There might be a different way to destroy the Night Creatures.’

He bit his lip as he noticed the murmurs and dubious looks exchanged among the group of Ministers. It was going to be hard to convince the MPs to try what might
seem to be yet another bizarre scheme.

He rushed on before anyone could interrupt him.

‘Just before I came upstairs Ffyrnig – the Great Dragon – mentioned something that hadn’t occurred to him before.’ Jonah looked eagerly at the sombre faces around him. ‘He says there are dragons called icedrakes or frost dragons. I’d never even heard of them. Ffyrnig says they may still be hibernating in the Arctic. If we can find them and get them to come, they might be able to
freeze
the Night Creatures. They breathe ice, you see, not fire, and it’s at very, very low temperatures indeed, and – and the Night Creatures are built to cope with hellfire, not extreme cold, so Ffyrnig thinks – well, he’s sure – the icedrakes could destroy the outer bodies the demons are using up here and force them back into the Underworld.’

He stammered to a close. There was an immediate buzz of conversation and the Home Secretary’s voice cut in above the others: ‘That’s a lot of
ifs
, Jonah.’ He looked around at the other members of the Cabinet. ‘We have to have more evidence if we are to think about mounting an operation.’ He turned to Jonah, who coloured up under the Minister’s brooding gaze. ‘Do you think,’ he said slowly, ‘that the dragon could provide more information for us to consider?’

Just then, there was a tremendous bellow from the street and everyone jumped in alarm. There were one or two yells from outside and the sound of running feet.

Jonah ran to an open window and craned out. Ffyrnig was swinging his head from side to side. Then he glared up at Jonah. The SAS troopers and the police had pulled back to the Whitehall gates and were crouching against the railings, clutching their weapons tightly. Jonah could see that the dragon’s roars had really unnerved them.

‘Ffyrnig,’ he shouted. ‘Are you ready for something to
drink and eat now?’

‘I certainly am!’ returned the dragon. ‘You have been a long time in there.’

Jonah leaned further out. ‘What do you want?’

‘Apart from these tasty-looking chaps in blue? Well…’

‘Ffyrnig!’ called Jonah warningly.

‘Well, I’m starving!’ The dragon was peevish. ‘And my throat is parched after all that flame-throwing. Can’t you get me some water?’

‘Hang on,’ called Jonah, drawing his head back from the window. He turned to the Prime Minister, who was listening incredulously to Jonah’s strange chirps and hisses. ‘Please, he needs to drink fairly urgently. Rather a large amount. And then,’ he went on apologetically, ‘I really need to find him some meat. He’s very hungry.’

The Prime Minister nodded. ‘Of course he is! Oh, dear, we should have seen to him before we had our own supper. What were we all thinking of? But I’m sure there’ll be plenty of meat in the freezer here.’

The Home Secretary frowned. ‘But it will be frozen, won’t it? Will he eat it like that, Jonah?’

Someone chuckled behind Jonah’s head. The Defence Minister was beaming broadly. ‘I imagine thawing it out won’t be much of a problem for a
dragon
, gentlemen.’

Jonah was just about to agree that Ffyrnig coped perfectly well with frozen food when the Prime Minister’s wife, who had come across to listen, rolled her eyes.

‘Honestly, all of you! Just look at the size of the creature. A couple of pork chops and a pound of mince will hardly satisfy
his
appetite.’ She turned to Jonah. ‘What do you think he’ll need? One or two pigs, a whole bullock?’

Jonah thought. ‘He hasn’t had a huge amount since he woke up, really. Apparently, it takes a few days for dragons’ appetites to kick in, after they come out of hibernation.
I guess by now he could probably eat at least a large bullock or a few sheep or pigs.’

The Prime Minister’s wife nodded. ‘Right,’ she said briskly. ‘And what about all the dragons in Hyde Park? Won’t they need feeding, too?’

Jonah shook his head. ‘No, thank you. The Army brought them meat. It’s just Ffyrnig. He missed that meal to come here with me.’

The Prime Minister’s wife nodded. ‘Well, don’t worry. We’ll soon have him fed and watered.’ She turned to the Home Secretary. ‘The Treasury will pay, I suppose?’

The Home Secretary looked surprised but nodded. ‘Er, yes, surely.’

‘Well, there’s a Sainsbury’s supermarket with 24-hour opening in Cromwell Road. I’ll go and ‘phone the manager, and see if he can send a couple of carcasses round here, and it might be a good idea to send some more over to the park. I expect we can get the Army to escort the delivery van. Failing that, I’ll try the other supermarkets. Someone will have some meat hanging.’ She started to walk away but turned back to Jonah. ‘What about drink? Just water?’

Jonah nodded. ‘Yes, please, but he needs gallons.’

The three men looked a bit perplexed and the Prime Minister’s wife shook her head at them.

‘Darling,’ she said to the Prime Minister. ‘Just tell someone to pop down to the garden and get the hose hooked up. Jonah,’ she said, ‘will you need a trough or something similar that we can rig up, or will the dragon be able to drink straight from the hose?’

Jonah smiled gratefully. The Prime Minister’s wife was brilliant at solving problems, he thought. She would make a good PM herself!

‘I should think we could just pour it into his mouth.’

‘Can one of our staff give him water, or will it be safer for you to do it?’

‘I think it’s better if I go and help, now Ffyrnig has frightened everybody.’

Thankfully, Jonah turned to leave the room.