The Clockwork Fairy Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page B

at him from
the bottom of the box.
    Ms. Anderson looked at the tools, then at Dale, and said, “Think
I’ll have to make a box like that for my tools, someday. Though I might start
with a tackle box. Let me show you what I mean.”
    Dale trailed behind his teacher, his gut sinking and
churning, his cheeks flaming hot. Though she hadn’t said anything, he knew that
she knew. And he couldn’t go through with it. When he got back to his workbench,
he pulled out the set of screwdrivers and wrenches and put them away. He felt Ms.
Anderson’s eyes on him the whole time, even though she was working with Tabri’s plant holder. Now how was Dale going to fix the
machinery he had at home? The tools he had weren’t adequate. It wasn’t fair.
    As Dale left, carrying his now completely empty box, Ms.
Anderson pressed a small set of jeweler’s screwdrivers into his hand. She
shrugged when he looked up at her. “Found an extra set. You know, you can
always find good used tools on eBay or something.”
    Dale nodded, only barely remembering to say, “Thanks.” But
first he needed the money to buy them, money his mom wouldn’t give him. There
weren’t any jobs he could get, either. He placed the lone set of tools in his
toolbox. They looked as forlorn as he felt.
    ***
    Adele looked in the mirror. She’d thrown off her mourning
frocks, much to the dismay of her maid, Clarissa, and had dressed that morning
as a warrior instead. The red cloak set off her pale skin. Adele painted her
lips the same red color, then growled into the mirror, pleased with how sharp
her pointed teeth looked. She used dark kohl around her golden eyes to make
them seem bigger, and then painted stripes and protective symbols on her
cheeks, across her bare chest.
    Today, Kostya would die. Adele
would kill him with her own hands, in revenge for Thaddeus’ death. She growled
again in the mirror. The white oak dressing table and four-poster bed behind
her looked incongruous, too civilized. Adele stretched her wings, this time
more easily. Cornelius had done maintenance on them the night before. The faint
odor of oil still hung in the air. The wing membrane bore ragged ends that
showed her old injury. They’d never fully healed. Gears and bone made up the
top ridge, allowing Adele to open and close her wings. Most of the metacarpals
were still bone, but two were made from gold.
    Before Adele finished applying her war paint, Cornelius and
two other members of the court, Gideon and Imogene, filed into the room. They
must have bribed Clarissa. She’d have to find out what they’d paid and double
it to ensure her privacy from now on.
    “You’re not talking me out of going,” Adele warned them.
    “Going? No. Leading?” Cornelius asked, and then shook his
gray head.
    “ Kostya must die,” Adele said,
keeping her voice low and mean.
    “Yes, he must, and by your hand, too,” Cornelius replied.
    “But?” Adele couldn’t keep herself from asking.
    “The dwarf has no honor,” Gideon said, sniffing. “There will
be traps. Explosions.”
    “Some of the warriors may die. You cannot,” Cornelius
continued.
    “Who will lead us if you’re gone?” Imogene asked, sounding
whiny to Adele.
    “Whoever rises to the top,” Adele retorted. She and Thaddeus
had never been able to have children, a common problem when fairies from
different castes mated. “The rule will pass to whichever royal is strong enough
to take it, same as it has always been,” she continued. “As the court and the
priests have decreed.”
    Adele watched Imogene and Gideon exchange a look in the
mirror. She didn’t know what those two were plotting, but she was going to have
to be careful. One of them might decide it was no longer her time to rule.
Thaddeus had been her connection to royalty, and now he was dead. Some of the
court thought that Adele, being from the warrior caste, wasn’t capable of
leading them on her own. She would show them wrong. Not only would she make
them stronger,