Wyvern's Trim and other stories

by Nix Whittaker

  He sat down and offered his arm. “A friend’s wife made it for me. She has made others like it that are sentient.”

  She twisted it slightly to have a better look. “Sentient? How 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. 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.

  She now put layers of the spider silk and the resin. It would be seamless when it was finished. The Baron was watching her as she worked and she directed Faisal to help her.

  The Baron asked, “What is that stuff made out of?”

  She didn’t look up from her work as she answered, “It is partly made from a resin from the rubber tree. That makes it flexible and makes everything else cohesive. This is the first layer. I will do a cross hatch of the fibres and the
n the middle layer will be made of woven fibres with a layer of this rubber resin to keep it all together.

  “It is strong enough to take a knife blade though it does leave a mark on the rubber but with a little heat it heals itself.”

  The Baron raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you are talking about but it sounds amazing.”