City of Broken Magic

by Mirah Bolender

  “The more magic, but—” She looked at Anselm again, shuddered.

  “I know. It’s hard to look at.”

  No wonder he wanted to keep his distance from it. They stared at the tub for a while. Laura wondered what had been happening when Anselm had changed. Where it had happened, when, whether Clae had been right next to him or farther away.

  A ring broke the silence, so loud it made them jump.

  “Telephone?” squeaked Okane.

  “I thought all the operators evacuated,” said Laura. She walked back into the main room and picked up the earpiece. “Hello?”

  “Laura Kramer?”

  Albright. Laura recognized her voice immediately.

  “Yes?”

  “We’ve been doing some recovery operations for material in the interior, and we found something. We need you two on-site as soon as possible.”

  Back on-site. Back with that nest of infestations. If Clae couldn’t—no. She dropped that thought immediately.

  “Where are you?”

  “Second Quarter, same side as the Sweeper building. We’ve got people waiting at the cable car for you.”

  “We’ll be there as soon as possible.”

  * * *

  It had to be half an hour before they arrived at the meeting place. They ran through the streets but the cable car took forever. Police were waiting by the door to the interior, with two of the nearby buildings fully lit. A multitude of cars hauled supplies away, probably down to the people outside. They’d need supplies. It was cold enough for Laura to appreciate the big dusty coat.

  Albright stood near the edge of the crowd and held up a hand to get their attention.

  “Sorry,” Laura apologized as they reached her. “We got here as soon as we could.”

  “I know. You two doing all right?”

  “Given the circumstances.”

  Albright nodded and led them into the crowd, avoiding a car that bounced past with a load of lanterns and tents.

  “I know you’re both apprentices, so I’m sorry it turned out like this. Ideally we’d have a backup, but Amicae’s policies don’t exactly encourage recruit of Sweepers. There’s no point in having benefits if no one even knows the office exists.”

  “Did you send out that call for help?” asked Laura.

  “We’ve had confirmation from Terrae, but they won’t be here until noon tomorrow at the earliest. We’ve yet to get a response from other cities. We’ve even tried contacting the mobs to get their Sweepers on the job, but we can’t reach them. We suspect they fled the city with the rest of the civilians, like rats off a sinking ship.”

  Albright stopped by a police vehicle. This one was a truck with a covered back, probably used to transport prisoners. Albright turned to them.

  “I don’t know what’s all going on here. Basic amulets and monsters are all I’ve had to deal with, so this has got me stumped. I’m hoping you have some sort of explanation.”

  She gestured at the back of the car, and after some hesitation Laura climbed in. There was a small bench on either wall, but lying there on the floor was Clae. He looked like Anselm, gold crystal and all. He seemed frozen as if halfway through a fall, and his expression was enraged, not terrified. Laura knelt and rested a shaky hand on his arm. The crystal was warm, but it was solid and dead. She recoiled, cradling her hand to her chest. Of course he was dead. She knew that already, didn’t she? But seeing him here like this, expression frozen in crystal, made her insides squirm and her tongue turn to ash.

  She distantly heard Okane explaining to Albright. “This has happened before. He’s turned himself into that to keep from being eaten. It’s magic, but he’s not going to change back. He … he’s gone forever.”

  Clae’s eyes were blank, staring off into empty space. They were nothing like the eyes she’d seen under Gustave’s Moon. Laura shuddered and turned her own gaze to the people outside. Albright rubbed her eyes under her glasses.

  “That’s how it is, then,” she muttered. “I don’t want to put you on the spot, but do you know what we can do to contain this? Something to keep it down until the other Sweepers arrive? Or was he our only defense?”

  Okane shrugged helplessly.

  Albright’s fingers pressed against her eyelids for a full minute. She exhaled slowly, then peered around at the police nearby. They kept on running, shouting orders, as if movement alone could stave off the disaster.

  “So we die, then. Amicae falls.”

  Laura clenched her teeth and turned away. She couldn’t stand to see the resignation in Albright’s posture, the people outside she’d failed. Now was the time to do as Clae had ordered: run away to Vitae or Terrae and hope the Sweepers there would accept them. The rest of the city wouldn’t be so lucky. Amicae was one of the few cities that allowed refugees. Cities like Puer rejected even small groups. An entire city’s worth of people? Even satellite towns would refuse them, if they got that far. Felin weren’t the only monsters of the wilds. Infestations, canir, Rex awaited them outside the walls. Amicae’s people would be decimated even before they set foot on the Terulian Plains. Another Thrax, ridiculed and spoken of as if it belonged to some far-off time that no one could possibly have done anything about. The thought made her feel sick. A lucky few might make it. If the Sweeper guilds would accept Laura and Okane, she could probably smuggle Morgan and Cheryl in with her. They’d be lost, miserable, but at least they’d be alive. She blinked back tears, trying to focus, but the only thing to see here was Clae’s ugly statue. What an awful way to go, she thought, but she was almost jealous; he didn’t have to face any of this anymore. He ended up just like—

  “Kin.”

  “What?” Albright frowned at her.

  “Kin!” Laura repeated, louder. The gears in her mind were turning, clicking into place and moving faster, faster. Just like Anselm. Just like another strain of powerful magic. “We can make kin and dump it down the middle of the city, like a giant Pit!”

  “We don’t have near the amount for that.” Okane frowned.

  “No, listen.” She scrambled back to hang out of the truck. She held the door with a white-knuckled grip and she almost shook, but met his gaze and held it. “Okane, we have four strains now. I know this is bad, it’s horrible, but with that combo, couldn’t we take out a monster with a single Egg?”

  “I suppose, but it would take forever to make enough kin,” said Okane, slow and dubious.

  “What if we used a bunch of amulets to do the work instead of the machine?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We put the strains in water, activate them, and get a ton of amulets in the water too, to mix and burn it quickly. It could give us a huge amount of kin in a short time, wouldn’t it?”

  “But there’s water to think about, too.”

  “How would we get it all down there? Bucket by bucket won’t do any good,” Albright interrupted. Her voice was dubious but she was straightening, defeat sliding off her shoulders, and Laura’s confidence grew at the sight.

  “Amicae has a sprinkler system. They installed it in case something inside caught fire.”

  “Since when do we have that?”

  “Since the city was built. My neighbor asked me to look over an essay he wrote on it last semester.” She hadn’t understood all of Charlie’s technical gibberish, but she knew it existed and at this point that was all that mattered. “It was part of a unit in one of his classes: an example of bad design because it poured water but couldn’t do it the right way or something. I don’t know how it works, but he does.”

  “You think that’ll work on an infestation?” Albright asked skeptically.

  “When you dump kin down a Pit, it moves.” Laura tried to mime the motion with her arms and failed. “It’s alive, and it seeks out monsters. If we can get it down there, it’ll do the job.”

  “And this person can figure out the sprinklers? This could work?”

  “There’s a chance.”

  “Then we’ll try it.
” Albright’s brow furrowed in new determination. “We’ll get the amulets and we’ll get the man. Describe him. We’ll have officers bring him up.”

  Laura described Charlie as best she could. Inside, she was beginning to get a grip. She could control this situation. This would work.

  25

  A LIGHT IN THE DARK

  “Who is Charlie, again?”

  Laura and Okane leaned against the truck with Clae in it, waiting while the police tracked down Charlie. Laura blinked as the question sank in.

  “He’s one of my neighbors. Remember that time we had to get up at four in the morning to go to the barracks?”

  It took a moment before recognition dawned, and suddenly Okane was uncomfortable again; his feet shuffled and his shoulders hunched. “Oh! That person. I remember him. I didn’t think he was a friend. --- didn’t react well.”

  “He really isn’t.”

  “Then why did --- help with his classes?”

  “We used to be friends.” She rubbed the cuff of the coat between her thumb and forefinger, fidgeting and hoping to gain some confidence from the material. “Back when we were Cheryl’s age we were almost inseparable. But when people grow up, things change. People grow apart, and that’s what we did. What I did, anyway. I don’t think he notices much beyond his robots and his own ego. I don’t understand robots or machines, and that’s all he talks about. It’s a real bore having conversations with him. They’re not really conversations, more like he’s just talking at you to make himself feel smart. That’s how I got stuck knowing about the class.”

  “Oh.”

  “I try to avoid him most of the time now. At first it was just because I didn’t like talking to him, but after that time, and the things he said about Morgan?” She shifted into a deeper sulk. “My whole view shifted. He’s not that boy I knew anymore, and he’s not the ignorant neighbor either. Morgan keeps trying to push us together, but that just makes it worse. And it hurts because she thinks so highly of him.” She looked over at him. “How can you say something like that about someone who’s cared about you your whole life? How can you break that trust so easily?”

  Okane shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t have much experience in it.” He paused a moment, then said, “--- didn’t have to suggest him. --- could’ve mentioned that it was the class, not specifically him. Surely they’d have retrieved anyone.”

  “Charlie is my source. If we want this to run smoothly, then we have to make sure there’s no communication breakdown. He’s our best bet. Don’t worry, I can deal with him. I promise I can be professional.”

  “But if he makes --- uncomfortable, I don’t want --- to have to deal with him.”

  “It’s okay.” She smiled, but it did little to ease his worry.

  A police car rattled back onto the scene, bumping across the cobblestones of their Second Quarter meeting place and coming to a stop just out of the way. A familiar young man with an irregular haircut clambered out.

  “That’s him,” Laura muttered, straightening up. A wash of doubt swept over her mind. The memory of their last exchange resurfaced, mingled with a different memory, of an empty classroom, a teacher with severe eyes. You’re not worth—She turned quickly to face Okane. “Do you believe in me?”

  He blinked at her in surprise, but his face settled into determination. “Of course.”

  I am worth being here, she told herself as she faced forward again. I am capable. I can handle this. If Clae believed it, and if Okane believes it, surely I can, too.

  Baxter led Charlie over to them, and Albright approached from one of the buildings.

  “I’m sorry, but the officer earlier wasn’t very clear. Why am I here?” asked Charlie, looking warily around at the proceedings. He had trouble meeting Laura’s eye.

  “Do you remember talking about Amicae’s sprinkler system?” said Laura, crossing her arms.

  “I guess, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “Trust me, it’s relevant. How does the system work?”

  Charlie looked at Baxter, who motioned for him to answer. “Well, it pumps water from the canals up to a central point in the First Quarter, and from there it goes down. Of course, this is the worst of all possible designs. It won’t put out a fire, but it’ll flood the mines. It only works if you want a big waterfall.”

  A big waterfall. For a moment Laura could only blink at him. A snort escaped her, and she doubled over laughing. There was uneasy silence from the others. Okane gave her a light pat on the back and mumbled, “Are --- sure ---’re all right?”

  She forced herself back up and beamed at his nonplussed expression. “Amicae’s a Pit! It wasn’t an insult, Clae was being literal! The city was built to be a Pit! This is going to work!”

  “Work for what? What’s going on?” Charlie sounded terribly confused.

  “We can kill the infestation with it,” Laura explained. “We’ll just pump the magic down.”

  Charlie looked skeptical, and Albright admitted, “This is the only plausible idea we have. Do you know how the system works, how to get it going?”

  “I think I do. If I can get to the central part of the system, I can follow it back and figure it out,” said Charlie. “But are you sure that you want to—”

  “We’re positive,” said Laura.

  “Is there anything you’d need? Equipment, manpower, anything?” asked Albright.

  Charlie shrugged helplessly. “I won’t really know until I see it.”

  “Then we’ll get you there right away. You said the sprinkler system was central?”

  “Probably right in the middle.”

  “You two Sweepers come with me. Baxter, take this kid up to the First Quarter and find that sprinkler. Vardy, go down to the evacuation site and fetch the Amuletory staff. We need them and their amulets on hand for this,” ordered Albright.

  “Yes, ma’am,” cried Baxter, snapping to attention.

  While the police began to move, Charlie took a step toward Laura. Immediately Okane moved closer, angled enough between them that Charlie stopped short. Laura gave a terse smile.

  “Don’t you need to follow that officer?”

  “I’m sorry,” said Charlie. “I know last time we talked, there was a misunderstanding. I mentioned your aunt, and you thought I was saying something different from what I really meant. You got really upset over it, but you had the wrong idea.”

  “It was what you thought.”

  His brow furrowed, and his hands fisted. “It wasn’t what I thought. You took it out of context and ran with it. I understand you’re protective over family, but you can’t lash out at other people for things they didn’t—”

  “Are you really trying to get me to apologize to you, when you’re the one who was insulting in the first place?”

  His head jerked back in surprise. “I was not—”

  Laura held up a hand. “You have every right to say what you think. But at the same time, I have the right to walk away. I have bigger things to worry about than what you think of me. I don’t know what Morgan may have said to you, but I am in no way interested in marriage, especially to you. Stop trying to enforce a hold you don’t have.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “I’m my own person. Emphasis on the person. Please respect it, and keep your nose out of my family’s business. You’ve lost that right. Even when you’re ‘sorry,’ your whole demeanor is trying to force me to accept that I’m wrong, and I’m not. This isn’t an apology. It’s not even a good pretend-apology. I’ve been reading my boss’s tells for a year. Yours are embarrassingly easy to read. Okane, don’t we have somewhere to be?”

  She turned away completely and focused on Okane’s nose as Baxter herded a flabbergasted Charlie back toward the waiting police car. Okane watched them go.

  “Are --- okay?”

  “Of course I am. Thank you, though.” She couldn’t exactly word why, but she was grateful. “Just—Thanks.”

  Albright had clim
bed into the covered truck and gestured for the two to get in the back. “We’re going to pick up the supplies needed from your shop. Make sure that cargo doesn’t rattle around too much.”

  “Cargo”? The word felt wrong, but Laura kept her mouth firmly shut as they clambered in and the engine started. Laura sat on the bench, and Okane sat across from her. As the truck got going and turned sharply, Clae scraped across the floor. Laura and Okane both dove, throwing out hands to keep him in place. Laura glanced out the back to check if anyone saw this, but the door was high enough that people couldn’t see the floor.

  They arrived at the shop in little time and jumped out to get their supplies. Loading Gin was probably a lot more discreet normally, but with no one around they paraded it out to the car. Laura and Okane moved the actual Gin with relative ease. Albright carried Anselm out with a look of sorrow and disgust. After some shuffling to fit them all in the back, Laura wasn’t able to lower her feet to the floor for fear of stepping on one.

  Albright drove them to the First Quarter. The streetlights there caught the statues and décor strangely, turning them into ghostly shapes that made the hair on the back of Laura’s neck stand on end. A sculpture of Queen Terual XXIII loomed particularly dark, her severe features thrown into sharp contrast. They drove around, seemingly aimlessly, until Albright located the very middle.

  The center of the First Quarter was a square with a tall fountain in the middle. Water cascaded for three levels before hitting a wide basin; the pool rose in the center of a sprawling five-pointed star made of glittering white tile, surrounded by a patterned circle. Raised pieces of metal filled in the spaces between star points, overlapping the shapes and completely at odds with the design.