Wyvern's Trim and other stories Read Free Page A

her
fingers over the brand and looked up at him. “I said I wanted to
marry someone I love.”
    He snorted. “Of
course you love me.”
    Laughter bubbled
out of her and she had to turn away in case he was offended. She
knew he would be able to tell she was laughing by the shuddering of
her shoulders.
    He asked, his
voice hollow, “Did I get it wrong?”
    She shook her
head. He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her slowly.
“You have put up with me for six years. I’ve only ever kept an
assistant for less than a year. I knew you had to love me to stick
around.”
    Patience huffed
frustrated by his unusual astuteness. “Then why were you trying to
marry me off?”
    Andre shrugged.
“I thought you wanted a human. I am a dragon.”
    She slowly shook
her head. Didn’t he get it? She looked up into his eyes. “But
didn’t you want someone better? Someone who was more… I don’t know,
worthy of being bonded to a dragon. You guys only pick the best for
your collections after all.”
    His eyes sparked
as he answered, “I know.”
    He just looked
at her and she realized after a moment she was expecting him to
spout something romantic. She also realized she was a fool. Romance
was alien to him. He would never shower her with shallow romantic
drivel and she wouldn’t want to wish it any other way.
    She stepped back
from him and said, “I want a raise. And I want more holidays. There
is no way I’m going to be your assistant every day for the rest of
my life without at least a decent holiday.”
    Andre’s face
warmed with a smile. “Of course.”

Out, On a Limb
    La Brede was a
small town that had boomed into a small city in a short lifetime.
Almost all of the buildings were new and the streets wide to allow
for the steam motors to roll through the streets. Maybe it was this
nod to technology which had enticed Callisto to this particular
city from all the ones she could have chosen.
    At the moment
she was in the oldest part of the whole city and the streets were
narrow. The castle had been the seat of the La Brede family for
generations. There were even scorch marks on one of the towers from
a distant dragon attack to prove they had earned their place as
humanities’ protectors.
    Dragons hadn’t
attacked humans in over eight hundred years but no one could forget
that at one time humans hadn’t been at the top of the food
chain.
    Callisto was
nervous as she followed the solider to the main audience hall at
the La Brede castle. She was lugging her work case with
her.
    The soldier when
he had greeted her at the servant’s gate had glanced at the large
bag but he hadn’t offered to carry it or to check it. She didn’t
have much of a good opinion about the soldier but that wasn’t
entirely this man’s fault.
    Her father had
been a soldier and he had been a ripe bastard. The best thing
Callisto had ever done was to take her mother to her uncle when she
was twelve. As she realised her father was never going to change.
Her mother’s uncle had looked after them and when her father had
tried to take them back he had beaten the crap out of him. She
still remembered that day with glee and fear, seeing her father
beaten to a bloody mess by her great uncle.
    Her father was
still alive and out there but her mother was safe in another
province and Callisto had a few surprises for her father if he ever
tried to find either of them.
    Her mother’s
uncle had passed on last year. A sudden illness Callisto had
thought until they had read his will. Apparently he had been living
on borrowed time. She had been grateful that he had spent that time
with her teaching her his trade.
    He didn’t have
any children so all his knowledge had gone to her though his things
had been sold to pay off the last of his debts his long illness had
incurred.
    Callisto had
been surprised by the summons to the castle. The Baron of La Brede
was an interesting man, but not one who had ever called on her
skills before.
    His father had
been a lawyer