Karen drove them all out towards the mountain range, away from Cardiff but they passed nothing that could be reasonably be called a hovel, even on the way back towards the town centre. Jenny sat in the front seat of the car, enjoying the sensation of effortless speed, as they made their way along what was apparently the A470 back towards Cardiff. Vastra and Jack were discussing the intricacies of his broken vortex manipulator and whether it would be repairable. It was Karen who jerked their journey to an abrupt halt as they passed through a village.

"Taff's Well." Karen shifted around in her seat to talk to Jack after she'd pulled up at the side of the road. "D'you think that would count as a hovel? The building itself isn't all that after all. And under Cardiff there's a cave system. Perfect place to hide a dragon."

Jenny was impressed not only at Karen's casual acceptance of the existence of dragons, but also her logical thinking when it came to where to find them.

"Worth a try." Jack shrugged.

"Used to try and go down those caves as a dare." Karen shook her head as she parked the car.

When Jenny saw the building she well agreed it could be called a hovel, if a slightly done up one. Having walked straight up to it, they stood outside the door silently.

"Should we try the door?" Karen whispered.

Jenny shook her head, took a breath, and stepped up. She knocked three times and clicked her fingers. Nothing happened and she let go her breath. Vastra opened the door and they squeezed inside. It was darker than Jenny had expected. And cooler.

"Um…" Karen said, unnerved. "I don't think…" There was a large splash. The sound echoed. Jack fumbled with something and a beam of light shone round an enormous cavern, dominated by a hot spring the size of a small lake. Jenny noted that it would have to be that big, because bathing in it were half a dozen dragons. Their slit pupils narrowed when the torch beam hit them.

"Um…" One heaved itself out of the pool, water cascading off its purple scales and started clumsily towards them, its talons leaving deep imprints in the earth.

"Um!" Karen glanced at the other three, saw they weren't moving and ran anyway.

"Karen!" Jack shouted, following her. But all they came up against was a very solid cave wall. "Oh no."

Jenny was still trying to unfreeze her mind. Giant hawks had been bad enough. Why did everything in Below have to be so big and terrifying? How did anyone survive down here?

"You." The dragon pointed a scaly claw at her.

"Yes?" she answered, proud that her voice was only slightly higher than it would be normally.

"Are you a knight?" it's claw moved to point at her sword.

"No! No. Definitely not." She unbuckled it and stepped away from it. It was hardly going to be much use against a dragon anyway. Vastra followed suit, a little more slowly.

"Then, are you a princess?"

"She's not dressed like a princess." Another dragon, deep gold in colour, had swum over to the edge of the pool. "She's dressed like a knight. I say eat her."

"No, she's not. Knights wear armour. And you know knights give you indigestion." The first dragon snapped. It turned back to Jenny, breathing hot smoky air over her. "You have sought out dragons. Why?"

"We only wanted to find one particular dragon." Vastra corrected them.

A susurration travelled around the cave.

"Which one?" the first dragon hissed.

"The red, specifically." This increased the level of background hissing.

"And what do you wish with the red dragon…specifically?"

Jenny shrugged helplessly. "It's gone missing. We want to find it. To take it back."

"Little human." The purple dragon shook its mighty head. "Arrogant little human. As if you could. There is a battle brewing. And the Red Dragon must be free."

Jack stepped forward. "But if it flies about the place fighting, it's going to get killed."

"There's bigger things than lances these days." Karen had crept back up. "And even bigger things than that. At Torchwood. We'll have to report it. It's a matter of security."

"Big enough to kill a dragon?"

Karen and Jack exchanged glances. "I would be willing to bet it could make a dent." Jack said eventually.

This gave the dragons pause. "Well, we don't know where it is, any more than you do." The purple dragon shrugged.

"Hang on. I thought it was tied to Cardiff Below? That it couldn't leave the city?" Jack's face fell.

"Normally it couldn't leave Cardiff Below. As it already has, don't you think assuming it couldn't leave Cardiff is a little…naïve?" a dragon's laughter resulted in small jets of fire coming from its nostrils, Jenny observed, focussing on them intently.

"Do you know why it left? Taliesin mentioned…the white dragon." Jenny was now the object of intent focus, from twelve slit pupils.

"The white dragon is a traitor."

"Usurper!"

"Murderer."

"Invader."

"So why don't you all go fight it, if it's that bad?" Jenny folded her arms.

An older dragon, its scales turning dull grey, swam forward until it was in front of her. It opened its mouth and flames ran along its tongue. Jenny could feel the heat of them scorching her face. She tried not to flinch. "Dragons have honour. An unequal battle brings no pride."

"Besides," the purple dragon chimed in. "We have little power in the Upworld. We have no image there anymore. If we went above, we would be little more than ghosts. The red dragon remains as the symbol of an entire country. It still has power."

"The red dragon must win this time." the purple dragon hit the pool with a clenched claw, spraying everyone with water. "Half the battle is already won after all."

"And it alone remains, out of all of us who once had power…"

Jack, Jenny and Vastra stood in complete bafflement. But Karen crept forward from where she had glued herself to the cave wall.

"Is this to do with the referendum?" she whispered. The attention of the six great dragons turned to her and she darted behind Jenny, who seemed the least afraid. A look of comprehension spread across Jack's face.

"Gwytha!" the dull grey dragon called out, a calculating expression in his eyes. The purple dragon turned to look at him. "We may not know where it is now, but we know its destination. You must take them to the original battleground."

"Why?" Gwytha's head reeled back.

"They wish to return the red dragon to Cardiff Below. Whether it wins or loses, they are right. It must return."

"Why would it need them to do that?"

"They can protect it."

"From what?" Gwytha snorted derisively, looking over the four bipeds in front of it.

"From themselves. They threaten worse than lances, ways to 'dent' a dragon. If they are there to ensure its return, it will not be killed by whatever forces they have dreamed up."

Jack and Karen looked mildly insulted.

"We entrust the safety of the red dragon to you." The silver dragon brought itself upright. "Gwytha and Macsen will take you."

Gwytha looked resigned. Another dragon, a deep dark green, clearly Macsen, looked affronted. But they were both silent.

"Um. Can't we just drive there? Please?" Karen looked very unnerved and had started backing away. "I mean, in the legend…I mean I know where it is. We can look it up."

"We can't get there by driving. Can we." Jenny interrupted her. It wasn't a question. Gwytha grinned unpleasantly in confirmation. Jenny stared at the cave ceiling, wondering why their cases always ended up like this. This wasn't detecting, solving crimes, and helping people. This was getting involved in mythological warfare. What she wouldn't give for some simple human based crimes…

The gold dragon sniggered. "Smart little human. Who are you, smart little human?"

"Jenny. Jenny Flint."

All the dragons made sounds of approval at her name. "Tell me, Jenny Flint, how would you like to serve a dragon? I would take you on, as an apprentice rider." The smile of the gold dragon didn't inspire confidence. 'We would be little more than ghosts' they'd said. She would be bound to this beneath world, as her brother was. Was this what her brother had done? Made a pact, for the excitement, for the thrill? The temptation of adventure? But Jenny already had adventure in her life. She glanced at the main source of it. "I already got a dragon thanks."

"What?" Vastra looked most affronted.

"What? You're a lizard ain't you? It's basically the same." Jenny hissed.

"Oh, thank you!"

The dragons all stared pointedly at Vastra. All they could see was another human. With a huff, she removed Jack's device. Six necks all reeled backwards.

"A Silurian!"

"Awake!"

The necks convened for a muttered discussion. Vastra's irritation at Jenny was overtaken by shock that they recognised her species.

Gwytha approached her. "We will take you to Dynas Emrys. Once the battle is done, it is within our power, small as it is, to return you to the place where your kind sleep beneath the earth, where you could join them once more."

Jenny felt as if her heart had dropped through the floor. She didn't move in the silence that followed the dragon's statement.

"Thank you for the offer." Vastra replied eventually, bowing her head.

"Well then. Let us be off. You two, ride with Macsen. I will take the Silurian and Jenny Flint."

"Vastra." Jenny blurted out. "Her name's Vastra. And that's Jack. And that's Karen."

"Climb aboard then, Jenny Flint and Vastrraa." Gwytha crouched down. Vastra retrieved her sword and quickly scaled its leg, hauling herself up to sit between two ridge spikes on its back. Jenny took her time buckling on her sword, climbing slowly up after her, still feeling the shock of Gwytha's offer. But it was selfish to ask Vastra to stay, when she could be with her own kind. Not her sisters, Jenny knew, but at least other Silurians. Where she would not have to wear a mask. Where she would not have to be alone among apes. She tried to shake it from her mind, to concentrate on what they had to do. What was about to happen.

Jenny saw out the corner of her eye that Jack and Karen had climbed up Macsen, looking very nervous. Gwytha confirmed Macsen's readiness with a brief look and then bounded up a tunnel into another far vaster cavern, launching herself into the air when she reached the tunnel's lip. The wind whistled past, eye-stinging speed having been attained from a few wing flaps. If Jenny thought the car had provided effortless speed, it was nothing compared to a dragon. She hung onto the spike in front of her, squinting at the back of Vastra's bowed head, so lost in her own thoughts that it took her a while to realise they couldn't possibly be flying through a cave system. She looked down and saw small wavy lines of light in constant motion. She looked left and right to find small glows glimmering in the distance, causing the reflections on the water. The cold was getting to her and she wondered how Vastra was surviving, when Gwytha's chest expanded and glorious heat spread through its scales and into her legs, easily rising through her body. The tiny glows were getting larger and turning into streaks as their speed increased. But the warmth remained.

Jenny felt the same sense of timelessness she'd experienced walking the One path, and therefore could not have said how long it was before the glows suddenly surrounded them, encasing them in a soft white light. In one heart stopping moment, they burst through the opaque wall it had created and into icy clouds that instantly drenched Jenny and Vastra to the bone. Gwytha slowed and glided to a halt, tumbling them onto the rocky ground. As they led there, recovering, Gwytha breathed a long continuous stream of hot air, warming them once more and causing their clothes to steam and dry.

"Protect the red dragon." It said, stopping after their clothes began to crisp. "It is the last among us. Keep it safe, from whatever you would do to it." The dragon seemed to fade, even as they stared at it. It took one last deep breath. "It has been good to fly above again." It smiled wistfully as it disappeared completely.

Vastra was the first on her feet. She turned and tugged Jenny upright, her eyes glittering in raw and unadulterated joy. Jenny had never seen such an expression on her face before. It was mildly terrifying and yet infectious. She gave an attempt at a smile in return.

"That was fun." Vastra grinned, showing all her teeth.

Jenny nodded and looked around, finding Jack and Karen sat a little way from them. "So, we just wait here for the Red Dragon then do we?"

An: In 1979 proposals for a Welsh Assembly were turned down in a referendum. In September of 1997 another referendum was held and a slim majority voted for a Welsh Assembly. The Government of Wales Bill passed and in July 1998, royal assent was given to the Government of Wales Act 1998 and the Welsh Assembly was formed. (There have been further acts involving further devolvement of powers and organisation of how it works.)

Also, careful what you wish for Jenny Flint…