Wyvern's Trim and other stories Read Online Free Page A

so?”
    She didn’t look
up as he answered, “She makes dragons.”
    Callisto gasped
and looked up from his arm. She had heard of the dragons made out
of clockwork. They acted mostly like birds or pets but they were
self-aware and that was something no one else had come close to
achieving.
    She really did
need to have a closer look at his arm. She went back to fiddling
with the light device and asked, “How long have you had
it?”
    He gave a small
shrug. “Two weeks.”
    So the shininess
was more an indication of newness rather than his dedication to up
keep.
    She would have
to keep that in mind. “Ah, so very new. Anything you have noticed
that you want fixed.”
    He wrinkled his
nose a little as he answered, “It catches on things. Like
clothes.”
    She smiled to
herself. “I gathered that. The skin will help with
that.”
    He flexed his
fingers to demonstrate the next thing. “Also it is sometimes hard
to control how much pressure I use.”
    She patted his
hand and got up to finish with the machine.
    Callisto asked,
“Have you had much trouble with that?”
    Faisal’s voice
when he spoke was mixed with amusement. “A little.”
    She glanced up
at him to ask for clarification but the thought disappeared out of
her head. Faisal had taken off his shirt. He was folding it and
laying it over a tall stool tucked in by the worktable. He had more
scars on his body than she had ever seen on any body.
    She coughed to
cover her lapse into stupefied silence and when he looked up she
motioned him to put his shirt on a table and retake his
seat.
    She indicated
the machine she had been working on and said, “This will help me
figure out the dimensions of your arm. It needs to be very
accurate. Once I have fabricated the skin I can’t make any
adjustments to it.”
    She flicked on
the machine and lights flashed then a series of beams spread out to
cover him and moved down slowly. She made some adjustments but it
seemed they were going to get a clean image.
    She had him move
around so they could make a three dimensional model of his arm. The
light machine whirred as it worked to make a marquet for her to
work with.
    She moved over
to Faisal and looked at the join to his skin. It had left a red
mark where the clockwork joined his arm. She unclipped the braces
and slid the arm off.
    He had obviously
been without the arm for a significant time as it was well healed.
Like most of the scars on his body.
    There were
little wires coming out of the brace that was attached to his arm.
She thought this was how the limb knew what to do. There were
crystals in the joints that relayed the information from the wires
to where it was needed. If she put the skin into the same network
he might even have some residual sensation.
    His friend’s
wife might be able to do more but she didn’t know the matrices well
enough to make it do anything more. She replaced the arm and he
flexed his fingers.
    She sighed. “It
is a truly beautiful creation. You are blessed to have
it.”
    He said gruffly,
“Give me your hands.”
    She offered him
her hands. After all she had been directing him. He took her hands
and turned them over. He growled and let them go. She wasn’t sure
what bothered him.
    Callisto
motioned with a casual wave at the light machine and said, “It will
take me awhile to make up the sleeve skin. I will send up to the
castle when it is ready.”
    He didn’t move.
His eyes studied her. It made her remember that he was a dragon and
not human. She shivered and turned to hide her reaction once again.
He did that to her easily it seemed. She really wasn’t used to
having a dragon around.
    When he still
didn’t leave she said, “You don’t have to stick around.”
    He surprised her
by asking, “Have you ever slept with a dragon before?”
    She blushed and
said, “I’m sorry I’m not that kind of girl.”
    He growled. “Of
course you are not but I still need your answer.”
    She hesitated
before she answered, “No. of course not.