Blue Dragon

on the cheek. He smiled with genuine delight and gave her a hug.
    ‘I’m glad I’ve got a brother,’ she whispered.
    ‘I’m glad I have a sister,’ Martin whispered back. He pulled away to smile at her. ‘He’s on his way, I’d better move. If he sees me here he’ll have my shell for breakfast.’
    He saluted me quickly, shaking his hands in front of his face. ‘Lady Emma. I may come and see you later, if you are not with my father.’ He touched Leo’s hand. ‘You’re everything I’ve heard.’ Leo’s face was a mask of restraint.
    Martin transformed into a turtle, pulled himself clumsily into the water, and then disappeared swiftly underneath.
    ‘He was nice,’ Simone said. ‘I’d like to see him again.’
    ‘So would I,’ Leo said softly.
    John appeared out of the water and flopped onto his stomach on the beach.
    I didn’t know what to say. Martin was obviously a problem for him. Eventually I decided to tackle it head-on.
    ‘Can I trust him?’
    ‘Yes,’ John grunted, then lay dark, silent and unmoving on the beach. Conversation closed.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    J ohn knew what Leo and I were doing when we went for a walk along the edge of the water after dinner. He scowled, and took Simone to the play centre. The computers in the business centre next to the playroom had broadband, so he could check his email while Simone was playing.
    We headed down the stairs to the edge of the water. The shoreline was mostly rocks, but there was a small strip of sand. There was a park bench on the grass facing the water. Leo and I sat companionably together and waited. The sun was setting over the water, with a spectacular tropical flame of colours. It was still very warm, but the breeze had cooled slightly.
    Martin appeared in human form and waded out of the water towards us, his long hair hanging loose over his shoulders. He stopped and concentrated, dried himself, and added a green cotton jacket to the green pants. Leo made room and he sat between us.
    All three of us quietly watched the sea.
    ‘Are you as good as your dad, Martin?’ I said, coming straight to the point.
    ‘Nobody’s as good as the Dark Lord,’ Martin said. ‘I can take up to level fifty with my bare hands, though.Weapons, I can take nearly anything. Energy, the same. I think I’ll be useful to you once he’s gone.’
    Leo shifted slightly. ‘Good.’
    Martin smiled at Leo.
    ‘What did you do?’ I said.
    Martin turned back to the sea and sighed. ‘I did a really stupid thing.’ He didn’t elaborate.
    ‘Seems to run in the family,’ Leo said, his voice a low rumble.
    Martin leaned back and threw his arm over the back of the bench. ‘Really stupid.’ He shook his head. ‘I didn’t tell my father all there was to know about myself, even though I was living in his house. He arranged a marriage for me.’ He smiled sadly. ‘I went along. I pretended to be happy about it. She was a lovely girl,’ he added, full of remorse. ‘Half dragon. It was an excellent match. I was genuinely fond of her. But,’ his voice went very soft, ‘my partner at the time drank too much the night of the wedding. He’d agreed to the marriage; it was a good thing all round. But he lost control and it all came out. He railed against the situation loudly to everyone present.’
    ‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘That’s awful.’
    ‘My father was furious,’ Martin said. ‘He hadn’t known about me, about my partner, about anything. He didn’t care about that, but he was absolutely devastated that I hadn’t told him, and had gone along with a sham marriage purely to please him. I was shamed, he was shamed, she was shamed, both houses were shamed. None of us could hold up our heads in public. We were all a laughing stock.’
    ‘I think you misjudged him, Martin,’ Leo lisped. ‘If you had told him in the first place, none of that would have happened.’
    Martin laughed quietly. ‘That’s what he said. That I didn’t trust him enough to tell him. I suppose…’ Heleaned forward and put his elbows on his knees as he looked out at the sea. ‘I suppose he was right.’
    ‘How long ago was this?’ I said.
    ‘About six hundred years,’ he said.
    ‘And he has hardly spoken a word to you since?’
    Martin shook his head, looking down at his hands. ‘Nope.’
    ‘Well then,’ I said crisply, ‘I think it’s about time you two made up.’
    Both Leo and Martin stared at me.
    ‘How many people remember what happened after such a long