Wyvern's Trim and other stories (4 page)

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. But I don’t see how any of
this is your business.”

His eyes had
that intense look that made her shiver as he said, “I wish to make
it my business.”

She frowned.
“What do you mean by that?”

He picked up one
of her hands and turned it over in his hand. “Dragons, we collect
things. This includes people. I wish to add you to my
collection.”

Anger rushed
through her so fast she was red with fury in an instant. “Well, you
can forget that mister. I am not part of someone’s collection. I am
more than a thing. I can’t believe you thought that was a
reasonable thing to ask someone.”

He raised an
eyebrow. “You did agree to it.”

She threw up her
arms in frustration. “What? Are you nuts? You must be crazy. I
haven’t heard something so ridiculous in my life. Well, you can
just leave right now.”

His voice was
rough as he snapped. “No.”

She wasn’t
amused and she growled. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”

His eyes
narrowed and she wondered if he was about to use violence against
her. She doubted that the security measures she had put in place to
see to her father would have any effect on a dragon.

They might look
human but they weren’t. As their conversation proved. He stood up
and she quickly raised her arms to protect her head. But the blow
never came.

When she looked
up Faisal was looking at her with a dark look but it wasn’t one of
anger.

He reached out
and touched her arm with his real hand and said, “Someone has hit
you before.” It wasn’t a question.

He cocked his
head to the side like an animal might if it was investigating
something. “Is he still an issue?”

Callisto
shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

He growled. “It
does.” His voice softened as he added, “I can protect
you.”

She shook her
head and paced away from him. This argument was frustrating her. “I
don’t need someone to protect me.”

All anger was
out of his voice as he said, “Well then I have wealth.”

She turned to
stare at him. “Are you crazy? I don’t want your money?”

He cocked a
single eyebrow. “Then what exactly can I offer you to convince you
to join my collection?”

She threw her
arms up in the air in frustration at the circular argument. She
realised that the conversation hadn’t been circular at all. He had
been leading to one thing all along.

She pointed a
finger at him in accusation. “This was a negotiation. Well then let
me be very clear. I will never be part of anyone’s collection, just
to look pretty and to be shown off to others as if I don’t have a
brain in my head. That is not what I want from life.”

He frowned. “I
don’t think you understand what it means to be in a dragon’s
collection.”

She let out a
long breath. “I don’t need to understand. I don’t want to be
anybody’s possession.”

He was still
frowning as he asked, “What about when you marry?”

That surprised
her.

Callisto gaped
for a moment and sighed, “Okay, laws around marriage make it seem
like a woman is owned by her husband. But I am not like the noble
women who are bought or bartered. I will only consider marrying a
man if it was for love. No exchange and no ownership except that we
would own each other.”

Faisal looked at
her thoughtfully. “So you would only be in my collection if I was
in your collection as well. That is acceptable.”

She wrinkled her
forehead. He had jumped completely outside of her logic that she
wasn’t even sure what he was talking about.

And she said as
much to him, “I don’t know what you are talking about. You seem
like you are speaking a language from another world.”

His voice was
distracted as he said, “I can do that but I don’t think that is
what you mean. Do you have a maker’s mark that you put on your
work?”

She was
surprised by the sudden change in conversation.

She nodded.
“Yeah of course I do.”

His voice now
determined. “Show me.”

She huffed. If
it got him off the whole idea of marriage and sleeping with her
then she would show him. She had a press and a brand. Depending on
what material she was working with.

She waved to
them and said, “There. Now, if we are finished this ridiculous
conversation I have some work to do.”

He nodded to
her. “Yes. This is acceptable. Must your mark always be
visible?”

She shook her
head. “I usually put it somewhere only I can see.”

He fingered the
long handles of the branding irons. “I see. I will think on
this.”

Callisto wasn’t
sure what he was to think on but she took the excuse to escape and
went to the light machine to finish off the three dimensional
mapping of his arm. She thought she had enough of the spider silk
to make a sleeve for the arm. There were a lot of calculations she
would have to work out first before she could start
anything.

She was brought
out of her thoughts to a rank smell. She spun around and gasped
when she saw that the dragon hadn’t left like she had
thought.

Faisal was
gritting his teeth in pain. He had his pants down a little as he
had pressed the brand to his hip in the front. The smell was
because the brand had been heated and it was burning the hair and
skin.

She swore and
dropped her notes as she rushed to him. She caught the brand and
yanked it out of his hand. Careful not to let the heated part near
any more skin.

She yelled at
him, “Are you crazy?”

He looked at her
with pained eyes. “You have asked that several times and I can tell
you that I am not crazy.”

She looked down
at the brand. His mechanical hand was still holding the cloth
aside. The brand itself was fiercely red. She caught his other hand
and yanked him further into her workshop to the area where she made
her home.

She couldn’t
make him sit on a chair as that would fold the brand and it would
be a painful endeavour.

She guided him
to her bed and said sharply, “Lie there, you idiot, while I get a
salve.”

She muttered to
herself about crazy dragons while she got out the salve she used
herself whenever she burned herself. A common occurrence when you
worked with super-heated metals.

When she
returned he had wedged his pants down a little but not so much that
he revealed all. She shook her head and pulled over the chair from
the kitchen table.

Her living space
was all one room. She needed the rest for her workshop so she was
kind of wedged into the corner of the large barn. He tucked his
hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

She shook her
head and said, “Crazy dragon.”

He shocked her
by giving a slight smile and said, “Not so crazy you are about to
put your hands on me.”

She snorted. She
gingerly touched the salve to the brand. She could still feel the
residual heat.

Callisto asked,
“Does it hurt?”

Faisal teeth
were gritted. “Yes, but a good hurt.”

She frowned and
glanced up at his face. He was watching her and when she frowned at
him he nodded his head to indicate lower on his torso.

She blushed and
muttered. “You really are crazy.”

She finished
putting on the salve and went to get a bandage. It would pain him
for a while but most of the nerves had been destroyed by the brand
it would only be the outer edges that would hurt. She put the
bandage on carefully and he wedged his pants down a little more so
she could wrap it around his hips.

“
I’m
surprised you didn’t take your pants off completely.” She muttered
as she put things away.

He lay back
again and said, “I am yours now and I did not think you would want
me to.”

She turned to
frown at him. “Is that what this was all about? You think branding
yourself with my makers mark makes you my possession?”

He watched her
with eyes that were a bright gold. “To dragons it does and that is
the only law you need. So yes I am now yours.”

She shook her
head as she said, “But I don’t want you.”

His rumbled as
he said, “Yes, you do.”

She finished
with her ministrations. “You are ridiculous. Pull up your pants and
put on your shirt so you can go back to the castle.”

As he did as she
asked he said, “I will stay here.”

She stood up and
shook her head again. “No, you won’t.”

He looked around
and said, “All that you own is here in this building so I will
stay.”

She sighed.
“Fine but you are not sleeping in my bed.”

She hoped if she
made it as difficult as possible that he would remember he was a
dragon and go back to where he belonged.

Callisto was
sweating as she pushed the sluggish resin around in a bucket. She
wiped her forehead with the back of her hand being careful not to
put any resin in her hair.

She spun when a
voice said from the doorway. “So this is where you have been
hiding.”

Faisal came out
of the shadows where he had been lurking and said to the Baron,
“I’m not hiding. You knew where I was.”

She had learned
that dragons were usually very literal. She rolled her eyes and
went back to stirring the resin. She couldn’t stop or it would
start setting and she would have to start all over
again.

She had been
prepping this the whole morning and she was mid task. But that
didn’t stop her from listening to their conversation.

The Baron said
as he looked around curiously, “When you didn’t answer my summons I
thought there might be something wrong.”

Faisal’s voice
was deep and warm. “No. I have been here.”

He must have
shown him the brand on his hip as the Baron hissed. “Why the hell
did you do that?”

“
I
was not able to brand her.” She rolled her eyes at that. Like she
would have let him come close to her with a brand.

The Baron asked,
“Have you tried more skin?”

The dragon said
succinctly, “No.”

The Baron
sounded curious as he added, “It might work or you could always try
it in your other form. The first apparently happened that
way.”

Faisal seemed as
curious himself as he said, “Not a bad idea as I have not heard of
the other working. But this works for now.”

The Baron
chuckled. “I bet she freaked when you did it.”

She snorted and
said, “I’m right here you know.”

The two of them
came closer and looked at the bucket she was mixing.

The Baron
glanced at the dragon and asked, “Is there a reason she is doing
that on her own?”

Faisal shrugged.
“She says she doesn’t want me to mess it up.”

The Baron
actually chuckled. “I think she will be good for you. At least she
doesn’t pity you.”

Faisal nodded
sharply as he agreed with the Baron. “That was the deciding factor.
You thought this a possibility when you invited her to the
castle.”

The Baron
shrugged. “I heard of our cousin getting himself a clever tinker
and I thought you might like to meet our own.” The Baron asked her.
“What is that stuff?”

She answered
distractedly, “This is what I’m going to make his new skin with.
Here stir this.”

The last was
aimed at Faisal. He had been helping her around the place but there
were stages that were delicate or needed skill. She had set up the
model of his arm and she had greased it.