Blue Dragon

will fix it for us,’ John said. ‘We’ll make it look like Brian had a heart attack on the way here, and the co-pilot flew the plane. The Dragon will provide a tame demon to take the place of the co-pilot.’
    I tried to remember if Brian had been physically injured. I couldn’t.
    ‘Did he have family?’ I said softly.
    ‘Yes,’ John said.
    We were all silent for a while.
    ‘They thought they had control of me,’ I said eventually.
    ‘The important thing is that they didn’t,’ John said. ‘Is that the first time they’ve tried?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘As far as I can remember anyway.’
    ‘Then they probably weren’t expecting it to work,’ John said. ‘But they made an attempt anyway.’
    ‘What did they do to me?’ I whispered fiercely. ‘Did they turn me into a snake?’
    ‘If they did, then they made a huge mistake, didn’t they,’ John said placidly.
    ‘They sure did,’ Leo said with satisfaction. ‘You healed me. The Snake healed me. The ulcers are gone.’
    ‘Uh, Leo…’ I began.
    He understood. ‘You couldn’t heal all of it, could you?’
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, my voice thick. ‘More than anything else in the world, I wanted to do that for you. But your neck was broken and you had lost a lot of blood. I did what I could.’
    ‘You couldn’t make him better from the bad disease?’ Simone said, her voice small. ‘He’s still going to die?’
    I couldn’t face them. I got up and went into the galley. Leo followed me. I stood facing away from him.
    ‘Next time, don’t bother,’ he said softly.
    I nodded without looking at him.
    He turned and went out.
    Two hours later we approached the coast of Borneo.
    ‘Look out the window,’ John said.
    ‘I can’t see anything. His front foot is in the way.’ The window was blocked by the Dragon’s huge claws.
    ‘Wait,’ John said. The claws disappeared. ‘He needs to be invisible to bring the plane in anyway.’
    Simone and I rushed to the window to see out. A few tiny islands were dotted through the brilliant aquamarine sea. We approached the land; the shore and the city of Kota Kinabalu came into view. The city wasn’t too impressive: there were only a couple of buildings more than ten storeys high; most of the structures were low-rise and shop houses. But the water was a stunning sparkling aqua and the sky was brilliantly clear.
    ‘The resort is below us,’ John said. ‘On the waterfront.’
    Simone saw it. ‘There it is, Emma. It’s huge!’
    She was right. The complex was enormous and embraced the edge of the water. It had bright green grass and a marina with white mooring posts. Two swimming pools glittered below us. A golf course flanked the resort on the landward side.
    ‘The golf course is really big too,’ I said. John chuckled. ‘You play?’
    He shook his head, still smiling. ‘Tried for a while, but I gave up. Can’t see the point.’
    ‘What, you’re no good at it? I find that hard to believe.’
    He grinned. ‘Apparently my style or technique or whatever is hopeless, but that’s beside the point, because I just hit the ball into the hole.’
    ‘You’re joking,’ I said. ‘A hole in one? Every time?’
    He shrugged.
    ‘You could make a fortune on the pro golf circuit,’ I said, turning back to the window.
    ‘They’d pay me to stay away, I think,’ he said.
    The bottom fell out of my stomach and I grabbed the arm of the chair. Simone squeaked. We plummeted towards the ground; I could feel it.
    Leo jerked awake from where he’d been sleeping in his chair. ‘What the hell?’
    John went rigid and his eyes unfocused.
    The plane stopped falling.
    Sorry, the Dragon said into my ear. That’s the way I usually land. I’ll take it slowly for you.
    ‘Is he okay with air traffic control?’ I said.
    ‘Yes,’ John said. ‘They think he’s the pilot.’
    ‘Well then, he’d better land like one,’ I said.
    All taken care of, my Lady, the Dragon said. No need to put your seatbelts on, you are perfectly safe with me. We will be on the ground in about ten minutes.
    ‘Thank the Heavens,’ John said softly.
    So sorry about the damage to the outside of the plane, my Lord, the Dragon said. My claws are awfully sharp.
    ‘I don’t think he is,’ I said.
    John just shrugged.
    The airport wasn’t a big cosmopolitan complex, it was just a large two-storey square block. We went down the stairs out of the plane and towards the terminal.
    The Dragon met us and we proceeded together