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The man stared at the sword. “Oriental?”
“Chinese.”
“Like you?”
“I’m half.” I kept my tone brisk and businesslike. “Can you fix it, or do you only handle Austrian swords here?”
The man twirled the toothpick with his tongue before offering his hand. “The name’s Vigoren. Finest swordsmith in all of Vienna.”
I would believe that when I saw it.
I gripped Vigoren’s hand for a brisk shake. “Ardis.”
“Never seen a blade like yours before.” He held his palms skyward. “May I?”
I unbuckled Chun Yi from my belt and laid the scabbard in Vigoren’s hands. My finger traveled along the cracks in the sharkskin.
“See the damage, there?”
“I do.” His brow furrowed. “How old is this sword?”
“Old? At least a hundred years. I take good care of it.”
Vigoren slid Chun Yi from its scabbard and tapped the blade with his fingernail so it sang. He stared along the length of the sword, squinting, then inspected the pair of Chinese characters engraved on the blade.
“Is that Chinese writing?” he asked.
“Yes, the name of the sword.” I couldn’t read Chinese, but my mother had told me.
“What does it mean?”
“Chun meanspure,and Yi meansjusticeorrighteousness.”
“I had hoped it described the enchantment.”
I blinked. “Enchantment?”
“This sword must be well over a hundred years old, considering how weak its magic has become. But I should be able to?—”
“It’s not enchanted.”
Vigoren laid Chun Yi on the counter. “Excuse me?”
“It isn’t a magic sword.”
The swordsmith scoffed. “You can’t be serious.”
I crossed my arms. “Chun Yi has been my sword for three years now. Not once have I ever seen an inkling of magic.”
“There’s clearly an enchantment forged in the blade. It’s old, but it’s there.”
Excitement hopped inside me like a cricket. “Can you show me?”
Vigoren unhooked a small lantern from the wall behind him. The glass in the lantern looked cloudy and greenish.
“A will o’ the wisp lantern might show us more of the enchantment.”
He lit the white candle within the lantern. It burned with a pungent sweetness like sagebrush. He held the lantern over Chun Yi. When the scarred old blade flashed in the light, I gasped. Shimmering green glowworms of magic crawled over the sword, creeping over the metal, burrowing into its heart.
