Silverblind (Ironskin) Read Online Free PDF Page A

red sausages. May I?” She swooped down on Jack’s gin and took a hefty swallow. She took her ponytail down and fluffed her hair till her heavy bangs fell in a curtain over one eye, causing her to go from laundry girl to glamour girl in a blink. “Much better,” Stella said, and yawned. “The hospital laundry will be the death of me.”
    “The hospital laundry plus calculus tutoring plus your maths degree will be the death of you,” said Jack.
    “Plus modeling for you,” said Stella. She had a thin cardigan draped loosely on her shoulders for modesty in the streets—now she shrugged it off to reveal a white sleeveless button-down and coral choker. “Even though you don’t pay me.” She pulled out a lipstick that matched her choker and slicked it on.
    “Yes, but I let you sleep on the job,” said Jack. “I bet those teenagers you tutor can’t say the same.”
    “You’d be surprised,” said Stella. “I think I can factor in my sleep now.” She yawned again and smiled at Dorie. “How were the interviews?”
    “Ugh,” said Dorie, and ran through the story one more time, this time with many more drunken asides from Jack. “At least the boy at the Queen’s Lab came right out and told me that I wasn’t going to get the job because I was female. The first two kept stringing me along while they tried to talk me into bed.”
    “And then—this,” said Jack. “Well. Metaphorically.” She held up the cartoon for Stella, who laughed appreciatively.
    “So the Queen’s Lab boy flat out told you they wouldn’t hire a woman for daaangerous field work,” mused Stella, lingering sarcastically on the word. “Everything else was perfect.”
    “As far as I know,” said Dorie.
    “So all you have to do is be a boy,” Jack said. She was quite happily drunk now.
    Stella clapped her hands, flipping her heavy bangs out of her face. “Yes, a boy, a boy! I did it for a lark at a fancy dress party once. Everyone was supposed to come as someone famous, you know, and I didn’t want to be the twentieth Queen Maud. So I wrapped my chest in cloth and tied back my hair and came as her very tiny pirate. It was oodles of fun. I bet we could do you no problem and you’d make a fine figure.”
    Dorie laughed and waved this off. “And then what, I go back to the Queen’s Lab and pretend I didn’t sic a wyvern on him?”
    Stella pondered. “No, you’d have to go somewhere else, I suppose. Unless your lab director happens to be nearsighted I don’t think you could quite pull that off.”
    “Ditto hot tea man and spider collar man,” said Jack.
    “Unless you could change your face,” said Stella.
    Across the table Jack raised an amused eyebrow at Dorie. A sharp shudder ran from Dorie’s heels to her head. She could change her face. Jack had seen her do it. Dorie hadn’t done it in years—not since she was a child and playing some practical jokes that went too far. She had determined when she was fifteen that she would put away that fey side of her for good. No more pranks, no more mischief. No more dancing lights or moving objects or shape-shifting.
    Of course, she hadn’t managed to keep that vow today.
    “Nose putty,” said Stella thoughtfully.
    “A chin wart,” said Jack.
    “Glasses,” said Stella.
    “Is there anyone else you haven’t pissed off?” said Jack.
    “There is one person,” Dorie said slowly. “It’s not really a real position. And everyone knows not to go over there if you’re a girl, because he’s a perv. So I didn’t talk to him or anything.”
    “Who is it?”
    “Wild animal fancier named Malcolm Stilby,” Dorie said. “Pays piecemeal for anything you’ll bring him. The boys were always doing it to fill in the gaps during school. Bar tab too high? Find Malcolm a winged squirrel.”
    “What does he do with them?”
    “Sells them to collectors, mostly,” said Dorie. “But these aren’t pets—they aren’t used to being in captivity. They sicken and die even if he gives