The Saint of Dragons
It’s not every day you wake up and find you’re a dragonhunter but in this exciting debut novel that’s exactly what happens to Simon St. George…Simon St. George meets his long lost father after supposing him dead, only to be informed that he is a descendant of St George the Dragon Slayer and it is his duty to inherit this role himself. For there are dragons in today's society and the world should be rid of their evil once and for all! Trouble is, they are disguised as humans in positions of power….Exciting fantasy adventure with generous lashings of snarky humour.
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the Saint
of Dragons
JASON HIGHTMAN
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2004
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB
Copyright © Jason Hightman 2004
Jason Hightman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
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Source ISBN: 9780007159079
EBook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007383429 Version: 2014-10-07
For my mother and father
Table of Contents
CHAPTER TWO - The Original Dragonhunter
CHAPTER THREE - The School in the Lighthouse
CHAPTER FOUR - St George, the Elder
CHAPTER FIVE - A Brief History of Dragons
CHAPTER SIX - The Family Business
CHAPTER SEVEN - A Manhattan Dragon
CHAPTER EIGHT - The Woman who Fell in Love with a Dragon
CHAPTER NINE - The Battle with the White Dragon
CHAPTER TEN - Something to Chill your Bones
CHAPTER ELEVEN - A Hidden Evil
CHAPTER TWELVE - A Ship Made for One
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - The Mystery of the Medallion
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Sunny with a Chance of Hurricanes
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - A Serpent’s House
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Things that Go Splash in the Dark
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - We Need a Weapon
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - The Dragon of Paris
CHAPTER NINETEEN - Icy Ventures
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - A Crash Course in Predators
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Graveyard of Dragons
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - The Russian Dragon
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - The Fury of Fire
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - Elements of Destruction
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - Two Against the World
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - The Lair of the Peking Beast
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - The Black Dragon
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - A Chinese Dragon’s Sailing Ship
CHAPTER THIRTY - Separate Journeys
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - Friendship with a Dragon
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Unwelcome Guests
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - Heroes in Need of Heroes
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - The Honour of Dragons
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - The Queen of Serpents
You’ve been taught to believe they are dead. Figments of an ancient imagination. But one lonely schoolboy at the Lighthouse School for Boys, who has never known his family and who has never known adventure, is about to have a rude awakening.
Dragons are real.
And they have … evolved.
They exist in the world today and are every bit as evil as they ever were. It is only their appearance that has changed. Their eight-foot bodies now resemble men much more than before. With their reptilian faces hidden in a cloak and hood, you wouldn’t look twice at one crossing the street hunched over, perhaps pretending to be a homeless man pushing a grocery cart before him. But make no mistake: these Dragonmen are highly dangerous.
They still have scales for skin, slithery tongues, lizard tails, sharpened faces – and they are secretly responsible for most of the worst fires you hear about, using their wicked magic for no reason, burning buildings just for sport.
They live hidden away, in luxurious apartments in New York, London or Paris, underground in Beijing or beneath the sands of Egypt, in boats anchored in Venice or Tokyo, or in homes built inside water caves in Africa or South America. They back organised crime, military dictatorships and cruel multinational companies, or they act as lone killers, secluded and hermit-like in mountains or deserts. Their exact number is not known. No two of them are alike. But they are powerful. And it will take all the strength the human world can muster to end their reign.
It is a time of opportunity for them. All the magicians are dead, and people no longer believe in magic. Spirits are low. To make matters worse, the dragons have the ability to cloud people’s minds so that they don’t see them in their true form.
You might see a little old lady or an expensively dressed businessman, but the person standing next to you could be, in reality, a monstrous beast. At certain times, people can see through this magic. For a moment you might glimpse the flash of serpent eyes behind the steam of a coffee cup in a local café – but it’s like a mirage. The next moment, it’s gone. Their trickery is rampant.
