Silverblind (Ironskin) by Tina Connolly Read Free Book Online Page A

feathers and shed skins, that you don’t mind getting for him. And then, you can use this to work your way up, until what matters again is your brain and your skill, what Jane always promised would be true.
    “But never mind the list for right now, really,” Malcolm said as she started for the door. “Keep it for next month. I’ve told everyone there’s a two-week moratorium on everything on that list. What I really want are wyvern eggs.”
    Her heart sank. “ Live eggs?”
    “Yes, yes. Focus on wyvern eggs and don’t bring me any damn other thing. The Queen’s Lab is trying to corner the market on them—can’t have that. We got just as much right to their benefits as anyone else.”
    Her attention sharpened. At least maybe she could find out what they were for. “Yes, those properties are interesting, aren’t they?” she said, trying to draw him out. “I was just in the Queen’s Lab the other day watching one hatch.”
    He took an eager step closer, and she tried not to back up. “In the Queen’s Lab? I hear they have a machine for extracting the goo. Tell me, ya think it keeps it any fresher than scooping it out with a copper spoon?”
    “I don’t know,” she admitted. She kept her stance wide and casual. “Does it really go bad that fast?”
    “I’m told it stops working after a few minutes,” he said. “I haven’t tried one myself—get more money out of selling them before they hatch, obviously. But I sold one on to this blacksmith, and he’s got one of the blue devils captured, and he said it only works on them within the first few minutes. Then it’s no good; might as well be a chicken egg for all the good it does.”
    Dorie went cold from her head to her toes. Blue devils—that was fey, of course. Her voice croaked as she said, “What do you mean— works ?”
    “Well, kills them, of course. That’s what this run on them is all about. Pure poison to fey.” Malcolm took a long draw on his cigarette and said, “Well, look, Dorian. You bring me wyvern eggs and I’ll pay you well, you understand? Don’t worry if you have to take down the adults to get it. Eggs are what’s important.” He pointed at the number on the sheet. “Take that and double it.”
    Dorie shook with fear and rage as she trailed him to the door. Her fingers jerked out—a table ten feet away wobbled, its contents shaking. She managed to still it before he noticed. She twisted her fingers together to stop herself from destroying his library in a tornado of splintering rage. That would not help make the rent. “And nothing else?” she said tightly. “No hartbird feathers right now? Cast-off hydra skins?” Anything but live wyvern eggs.
    “Bah,” Malcolm said. A trail of smoke drifted behind him as he showed her out. “Got all the damn feathers I need. Come back soon and show me what you’re made of.” He pointed a finger at her. “You, me, whiskey, girls. I think highly of my boys who work for me. We have a grand old time.”
    “Glad to hear it,” said Dorie. It was not quite a spit.
    He smiled as she went numbly down the steps, fingers interlaced. “Just remember, Dorian. Wyvern eggs or nothing.”

 
    Chapter 4
    STALKING THE WYVERN
     
    In a small town out east I found the first sign of a connection between wyverns and fey. Here, it was well known that a wyvern egg, cracked by the light of the full moon and buried in your yard, would stop the fey from coming past your gate. (That the sheer difficulty of procuring wyvern eggs made this superstition impossible to test was considered rather beside the point.) But two towns to the north I found the corroboration in an attic, in an ancient set of decaying notebooks from the town’s former wisewoman: 1 swallowe of the juice of the wyvern egg will kill the fey inside you, it said. But the remedie must be applied within 5 minutes of cracking the egg .
    —Thomas Grimsby, “Wyverns: The Fey Antidote?” Collected Fey Tales
    *   *   *
    There was a