The London Pride (17 page)
Authors: Charlie Fletcher
Tags: #Children's Books, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy & Magic, #Children's eBooks, #Science Fiction; Fantasy & Scary Stories
‘Quite right,’ said Ariel. ‘Never trust a taint. But that’s not why he’s sorry. He’s sorry because when he took your mother to Bast he saw something. Something that frightened him more than Guy or the cheetahs or anything we could do to him. He saw Bast had imprisoned the Temple Bar dragon in a dome of its own fire.’
Tragedy gasped.
‘Them silver dragons like him. See, to them the Temple Bar Dragon’s special, like your mum or your dad is to you.’
The dragon rasped some more.
‘He says Bast is truly, terrifyingly mighty to be able to do this. He says she has an army of animal statues that no one can fight.’
Will stared into the dragon’s eyes again, trying to find the core intelligence, trying to make a connection.
‘If you help us, I will give you your shield back,’ he said.
The dragon croaked.
‘He says, do you mean you’ll exchange your mother for the shield?’ said Ariel.
‘No,’ said Will. ‘I mean, yes, of course I’d like to, but I don’t think that’d solve the bigger problem. And I think that’s what we’ve got to do.’
Tragedy looked uncomfortable.
‘But you ‘eard the scaly bugger here. Bast’s got an army! What have we got?’
Will looked at Jo. She nodded and came to stand next to him.
‘We’ve got us,’ she said, pointing at Tragedy, and Ariel, and the mountainous gorilla, and the two cheetahs sitting calmly next to Filax. ‘We’re the Resistance.’
‘A guerrilla force,’ said Will, looking at Guy. ‘No offence.’
Guy grunted, his face as unreadable as ever.
‘Bast might have a big army of slaves, but size isn’t everything. Nor’s fighting. You know what slaves are really bad at?’
There was silence.
‘Crosswords?’ said Tragedy.
‘Shut up,’ said Ariel. ‘She’s being serious.’
‘Thinking,’ said Will. ‘Thinking for themselves. Slaves are good at obeying but bad at thinking. So we’re not going to beat them by fighting. We’re going to outthink them.’
He tossed the third scarab up in the air and caught it. Then he put his arm round Jo’s shoulder and squeezed it as they looked at their motley resistance force.
‘And I’ve got a really wild idea for what we do next …’
For Joe and Alfie Ions, heroes in training
Text copyright © 2015 Charlie Fletcher
Illustrations copyright © 2015 Nick Tankard
First published in Great Britain in 2015
by Hodder Children’s Books
This ebook edition published in 2015
The rights of Charlie Fletcher and Nick Tankard to be identified as the Author and Illustrator of the Work have respectively been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any means with prior permission in writing from the publishers or in the case of reprographic production in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency and may not be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
E-pub conversion by PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
ISBN 978 1 444 91736 9
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