The Charm Runner (Broken Throne Book 1) Read online

  Those strange cameras the officers carried were effective. She’d gotten a glimpse at their screens, which showed the glow of magic surrounding charmed objects in much the same way she saw it. If this new technology was being used everywhere, they’d surely be able to root out most of the city’s illegal magic. Still, she wondered how widespread their use was. While chanters could see the glow of magic around any charmed item with the use of a simple spell, she had discovered there were ways to dampen that glow. She was a skilled chanter and had always loved to experiment. Mom had taught her things handed down within their family that it was possible other chanters didn’t know how to do.

  It was a random thought. Using magic in such a way would hide the charms from Red Legs and other chanters, surely violating every aspect of the Resolutions, especially Resolution 84. Winnie would never engage in using such magic, just as she would never participate in the Sable trade with people like Artur Merrilyn.

  Everyone knew Artur was more than a skilled Mender. He treated the city’s rich and powerful middlings when they used too much Sable magic and harmed themselves. Most charms were harmless and had no effect on the user. But there were other items, acquired long before the Resolutions were passed. They were handed down in the families of the city’s power brokers. It was said that even members of the Assembly in the capitol possessed such items and required menders from time to time.

  Casting and using magic that directly affected a human caused a sort of backlash against the user and caster. For the chanters who cast such spells, Sable Magic caused a rush of energy to surge through the caster, creating a euphoria that Winnie had been taught was quite addictive. Her cousin Joey had a problem with this addiction, though he said he was clean now.

  Winnie thought about this as her hand traced the antique cash register keys. Had she rung up her final sale on this old beast? Shaking her head, Winnie banished the thought. Failure was not an option. Mom needed her to come up with a solution for the shop so they could stay open, and she could keep buying the medicine and medical care required to treat her arthritis.

  Walking into the back, Winnie double-checked the door’s lock, then emerged to find a middle-aged woman standing there with a box held close to her chest. Winnie was startled, so used to the chiming bell that, until a few minutes ago, had always alerted her to a customer’s presence.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’re closed. Resolution 84 won’t allow me to charm any items.”

  “I don’t want to buy anything from you,” the woman said, seeming shocked by the suggestion. “I know that’s against the law. I want something different. I read the Resolution, and it allows for the maintenance and repair of existing magical items and charms. I was wondering if you were able to help me with that?”

  “I don’t know. I would need to check the rules. What did you have in mind?”

  “I have this clock. It’s been in the family for years.” The woman took a fine white china mantle clock from her box and set it on the counter. “It’s supposed to ring with a special chime when my husband is on his way home from the office, and show me his arrival time when I wave my hand over the case.” She passed her hand, palm down over the clock. Its hands twitched and shuddered, but didn’t budge from the current time.

  “I don’t know, Mrs. … ?”

  “I’m Mrs. Adams. I inquired at Mr. Merrilyn’s office. He’s always been so helpful to my family in the past. I’d hoped he would be able to repair it for me, but he suggested I come to you. He seemed to think you might need the work and would have no trouble repairing my clock, making it as good as new.”

  Winnie was shocked that Artur Merrilyn even knew who she was. She guessed a man in his position knew all the magic shop owners in the city, but why send this woman here? Certainly, he could have repaired the charm himself? It made Winnie cautious. Was this woman a Red Leg informant? Would she call Constable Holmes the minute Winnie repaired the clock?

  “If you would wait right here, ma’am. I have to check something in the back. I’ll only be a moment.”

  Winnie went into the back room and looked through the stack of papers scattered across her desk. The letter from the Assembly should be there somewhere. She hadn’t opened it upon delivering, knowing in general what it said. But now she was curious. Was there a loophole in Resolution 84 that would allow her to keep her shop open?

  Winnie found the letter and tore the envelope open.

  The formal cover letter on top informed Winnie that her shop was under interdiction with the passage of Resolution 84. She set that aside and looked at the bottom four pages — a copy of the Resolution itself. She found the relevant passage buried in small print on page three.

  The continued use of magical or charmed items already owned is not prohibited by this edict. Neither is the maintenance and repair of existing charms when said magic fails to operate in the manner for which it was intended. Provision is made by the Assembly to license those who may enact such repairs upon application and a criminal background check.

  That was it. It made sense. Too much of the United Americas infrastructure operated with magical assistance. That was the reason for the Charm Techs like her friend Tristan. People like Tris kept the water flowing and sewers from backing up. There would have to be allowances for some chanters to keep casting spells and using magic to maintain preexisting charms. This was perfect; if Winnie could secure such a license. Maybe she could keep the shop open after all.

  Turning and heading back to the front of the store, Winnie found the woman standing by the counter, tapping her foot and glancing at her watch.

  “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I had to make sure that this was something I could do. Resolution 84 is so new that I didn’t have a chance to read the whole thing, but you’re right, I am allowed to make repairs … provided I have the necessary licenses. Unfortunately, I don’t. If you could come back in a few days? I’ll try and secure them. I can call you when everything is arranged.”

  “Mr. Merrilyn suggested that might be a problem, so I went by my husband’s office in the ministry building downtown. On Artos’s recommendation, he had his assistant draw up this document. He suggested I offer it in trade for your services repairing the clock.”

  The woman removed a large manilla envelope from her purse and handed it to Winnie. Inside was an official letter from the Bureau of Weights, Measures, and Magic. She read it out loud, astonished.

  “The owner of the magic shop known as ‘Charmed,’ Guinevere Durham, is hereby licensed by the City of Baltimore to repair magical items of a household nature under the provisions in Assembly Resolution 84 paragraph eleven … ” Winnie looked up at the woman. “Is this real?”

  “Do you think I would forge an official letter from the city? My husband heads the Bureau. I have no need to forge anything. Now, can you fix my clock or not?”

  “I can fix it, ma’am. I’ll make sure it’s better than new.”

  “And you’ll accept the license as payment?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Winnie looked at the clock and murmured the spell that would allow her to see the magical flows that charmed it. The clock was ancient — flows were knotted in a manner that hadn’t been used for many years.

  “I’ll need to keep the clock for a few days. Could you come back, say, Thursday? I should have it ready then.”

  “That will be acceptable.” Mrs. Adams pulled a pocket planner from her purse and flipped pages until she arrived at the one she was looking for. “Yes, Thursday is perfect. I’ll come by in the afternoon around two.”

  “I’ll have it all ready. Thank you, Mrs. Adams. You won’t be sorry.”

  “Don’t thank me, dear. Thank Mr. Merrilyn. He recommended you.” The woman looked around at the empty shop and waved her hand at the shelves. “Judging from the condition of this place, you owe him quite a lot. Good day.”

  “Good day, ma’am.”

  Winnie watched the woman leave, then stared down at her newly-printed lice
nse. Her emotions suddenly swelled, causing Winnie to collapse on a nearby stool. Tears welled in her eyes. She needed this lifeline, no matter who it came from. It was a way to stay in business despite the new Resolution. She’d have to make some changes to the shop’s layout, and Winnie supposed she’d have to start advertising her repair services.

  She stood and walked over to the wall behind the counter where her old magic and charm merchant’s license sat in its plain black frame. She took it down, removed the backing, and pulled the old, obsolete license from the glass. Then she replaced it with the new magic and charm repair license. She rehung the frame, wondering what Constable Holmes would say about her rapid business turn around. He wanted to shut all of the magic shops down. If the Constable had his way, he’d lock up every chanter man, woman, and child in the city.

  Surely, this would infuriate the Red Leg leader. He’d seemed so certain when he left that this magical shop was shuttered for good. Realizing the effect this would have on Victor Holmes cheered Winnie up enough to grant her a smile, though his reaction to the news was also cause for concern.

  Still, she had a license to legally operate. She would go home and hammer out a business plan using the new services she could provide, and have it ready to turn in when the Constable returned.

  Winnie took the clock, placed it back in Mrs. Adam’s box, and took it home to work on it there. She had to let her mother know that their prayers had been answered.

  CHAPTER 6

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  “But Mom, this is exactly the opportunity we’ve been looking for. We can’t survive if we don’t keep the shop open. This is a way to do that.”

  Elaine Durham leaned forward in her chair and pointed a gnarled, arthritic finger at Winnie. “Don’t ‘but Mom’ me. You take that clock back and return it to the woman, along with that accursed license. We will not be beholden to anyone, especially not Artos Merrilyn.”

  Winnie shook her head. Why was her mother acting this way? She thought she’d be happy — this was a lucky break and there was no other obvious option.

  “Look, Mom, I don’t see as you have any say. You signed the store over to me on my eighteenth birthday. I can do as I like with the shop. I know you have reservations about Mr. Merrilyn. But this isn’t like any of that. I read the Resolution. It allows for magical repair services. I can do this. You always said I had a way with the flows, and that I could see them unlike anyone else. This is a chance for me to define my path, to hone my craft without breaking the law. This was just a kindness from him. Maybe Artos Merrilyn isn’t the monster you think he is.”

  “You don’t know what that man is capable of, Winnie. He’s involved in terrible things, and with people I don’t want you hanging around. If he gets his hooks into you over this license, he won’t let go.”

  Winnie crossed the room and sat next to her mother. She took Elaine’s crippled hands in hers and looked her mom in the eyes. “No one has their ‘hooks’ in me, Mom. A woman asked him for a favor and he referred her to a local business. If anyone owes him a favor, it’s her, not me.”

  Elaine shook her head again, then said nothing more. What was she so upset about? She hadn’t even met Mr. Merrilyn before. He hadn’t contacted her prior Mrs. Adams’s visit asking for a favor in return. He probably wouldn’t even remember sending the woman to Charmed for the repair. It was harmless little act of kindness, nothing more.

  They sat in their small apartment’s living room for a while in silence, holding hands.

  Her mother felt responsible for Winnie’s lack of a real childhood. She’d been forced at a young age to help out more and more around the shop as Elaine’s hands quickly withered and her knuckles finally betrayed her. Eventually, she’d had to stop working altogether. Winnie had learned to cast increasingly complicated charms under her mother’s verbal directions. She’d dropped out of high school to keep the shop open full-time. It hadn’t bothered Winnie at the time, though she knew it bothered her mother plenty.

  Her friends were all working now, anyway. Winnie had a head start, and was proud of all she’d accomplished in the past few years. At sixteen, she’d been the youngest licensed chanter in the city, passing all the certification exams and tests from the officials downtown. She suspected they added a few tests that weren’t even on the books, but Winnie aced them all. In the end, they gave her the license to operate Charmed in her mother’s place and sent her on her way.

  Now she’d discovered a new use for her talents, and Mom wanted to shut her down for fear of a man Winnie had never even met. It didn’t make sense. While every chanter knew that Artos Merrilyn was involved in darker magics in some way, she couldn’t see how this situation brought her any closer to him than before. She would repair magical clocks and hand mixers, hammers and leashes; harmless tools owned by everyone but the most ardent temperance followers. All those middling housewives and home handymen would need someone to maintain their magic items, and Winnie could be that resource, at least for some of them.

  “Mom,” Winnie said, breaking the silence between them. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course I trust you, dear.”

  “Then trust me to handle this. We need income, and I can do this. The shop has to stay open, and this is the way it can.”

  “But you made so much money that last few days. It added up to six months of our regular income. We have some time to look for something else, anything else but this.” Elaine gave her daughter’s hands a squeeze. “It’s your new benefactor I don’t trust, Winnie. That man has a reason for everything. He is a waiting spider, striking at the slightest tremor in his web. He has a reason for recommending you to Mrs. Adams. And when that reason is revealed, you may not be so happy to have accepted this opportunity.”

  “He’s not my benefactor. I’ll not be tricked into doing anything nefarious. You know how I feel about the Sable trade... I don’t forget what you told me about how Grandfather came home after the war and was never the same again. Look at what it has done to Joey. He says he’s off the Sable vice now, but he’s not a normal, carefree teenager. Abusing Sable magic has scarred him. I see that. I’ll never participate in something that leads to people being hurt like that — I promise.”

  Elaine sighed and waived a hand in the air. “You’ve always been so pig-headed, Winnie. I’ve never been able to change your mind once it’s made up. No matter what Artos might have planned, he’ll not be able to make you do anything that you don’t want to do. I’m just asking that you be careful and watch your back. There are bigger things to manage than opening the shop under a new license. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the middle of something you can’t get out of, okay?”

  Winnie nodded and leaned in to give her mother a hug. She would never admit that she had some reservations about the new plan for Charmed, though it wasn’t Merrilyn she was concerned with. Her worries rested with Constable Holmes.

  Breaking the embrace, Winnie leaned back and looked at her mom, still smiling. “Let me show you something I’ve been working on while I was looking at the clock’s broken charm. It was something to do with the way the old charm flows were tied in this that I had never seen before. It gave me an idea and I think I figured out a way to invert the flows, making them harder to see. I did it as I wove them. You know I’m always worried about others copying my work. This could be a way to protect me from copycats.”

  Elaine peered at the clock face and the magical charm placed there. “I can barely see any charm there unless I know where to look. To the average chanter casting a view magic charm, they would see nothing at all. How did you get this idea?”

  “The Red Legs in the shop today showed up with special cameras and view screens. They used them to identify every magical item in the shop so they could catalog them and carry them back to their vehicle. There wasn’t much left, but I could see what they saw on the screen. It looked a lot like what we see when casting a viewing charm to watch the weaves as we cast them.”

 
; “So when you invert the weave as you cast it, and can’t see what you’re doing, aren’t you afraid that you might ruin something?”

  “That’s the beauty, Mom.” Winnie felt herself growing excited. She loved sharing discoveries with her mother. “It’s like I’m holding the key. Anyone who knows the inversion pattern can see the flows while casting a viewing charm. But if you don’t know the pattern, you see a thing. At least, that’s the theory. It’s not perfected. There’s still a sort of shimmering that I can’t seem to remove.”

  “I see what you’re referring to, Winnie.” Elaine tilted her head, peering through her bifocals and looking closer at the clock. “It’s sort of like the wavering over pavement on a hot summer’s day. It’s very faint. If I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t know the item was charmed.”

  “Pretty cool, right? Now if I repair something, I’m the only one who can fix it if it breaks again. I’ll be the only one who can see the flows that need fixing.”

  “I’ve never heard of anything like it, Winnie. This is very creative. You’re such a smart young lady.” She paused. “It’s a shame you couldn’t stay in school. I should have found a way to keep you in class. Maybe you would have won a scholarship to one of the universities that still has a magical studies major.”

  “Stop worrying about that, Mom. It’s old news. You said never to fret the past, because it can’t be changed. So take your own advice. Besides, those programs are all focused on the bigger public works projects. No one cares about the theory of magic anymore, especially not with the passage of Resolution 84.” Winnie stood and looked to the kitchen. “Want something special for dinner? I thought I could make us dinner before I meet Cait and Tris.”