A Sip of Magic

Chapter 2, part ii: Artemis

Trundling along, down through the narrow streets of Riverside, you couldn't miss Olly's lovely little eyesore of a shop if you wanted to.

Occupying the ground floor of a gently leaning row house, the windows were kept cleaner than you'd expect for the urchins pressing their noses to the glass all hours of the day. In lieu of the usual sign, my brother had rigged a dinghy from the outside of his flat overhead, a painted sail flying from her little mast proclaiming Trevellian's Treasures.

Dismounting from the coach, I came upon the sight of a rag doll playing peekaboo through the window with a giggling little lass. The lamps in the shop had been cut off for the day, dimming the interior just enough that you couldn't make out the silhouette of my brother playing puppeteer within—unless you knew to look for him, at any rate.

The button-eyed dolly began to dance this way and that along a boulevard lined with brilliantly-coloured dollhouses before she was joined by a wooden sailor who was two heads shorter than she.

I wasn't in such a rush that I'd ruin a child's fun, and so I hung back as the charming charade played out in a graceful waltz as my brother showed off a bit of magic of his own. Several minutes later, it ended with a bow from the dancers before the lights of the dollhouses faded, leaving the little girl clapping with glee.

As she turned to go, I noticed the door to the shop crack open to let the little ragdoll walk out under her own power before falling limp on the stoop. With a shake of my head, I sighed and cleaned my glasses as my idiot brother gave away yet another of his creations for nothing.

Steeling myself, I headed into the shop to have the same discussion I'd had a hundred times already. My eyes adjusted to the gloom within the crowded shop as Olly hummed cheerfully to himself behind the till.

I leaned an elbow on the counter, nearly knocking over a lovely, if precarious, flamingo in the process. "Knocked off early today, then?"

Olly gave me a sheepish smile as he counted aloud his meager profits for the day. "Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six—I saw Miss Crabtree heading down the way earlier—twenty-five, twenty-six..."

I tossed five more scoths into the pile for him. "And you're short of rent again, aren't you?"

"I've got near enough to pay last month's!"

With a grimace, I tossed my whole coin purse into the till. "That ought to take care of Ol' Crabclaws then, but it raises another problem."

Oleander scooped the lot of it into his cash box and locked it away as he frowned up at me. "There's a problem?"

Before I could respond, his face lit up with recognition. "Don't tell me, Artemis—you were setting that aside for a date?"

There are times I don't know if my brother's thick or just acting the maggot.

"No," I snapped a bit more harshly than he deserved, "If you're short of rent, then that means we're both short of Da's present this year."

He stood, mouth agape. "What d'you mean 'short,' Artemis?"

"Four-thousand and seventy scoths, give or take," I responded with another shake of my head.

Olly gave out a low whistle. "But it's never more than fifteen-hundred, is it?"

"That's just the problem, Olly. It's gone up. Seems like there's been a shortage."

A hand moved to his mouth. "I had no idea it was as bad as all that." His eyes flicked around the shop conspiratorially, their lavender shifting to deep violet in the low light. "And when's Da due in port, again?"