Page 30 of Geoffrey the Very Strange
Aspic couldn't lift the hammer over his shoulder, but he used it like a pall-mall mallet to smack straying zombie shells back to the center of the mob. With carefully aimed lightning strikes, Geoffrey followed suit. It was exhausting and didn't damage shells or stones in any way—not something they could keep up forever, not even when Grandma caught up to them and added her own blasts of dirt to redirect escapees.
Happily, they didn't have to. Ryu returned at a run with a large object on his shoulder. When he reached them, he dropped it with a clang.
"Iron box. From the brick oven." He startled and offered an awkward wave. "Uh, hello, Grandma Tutti."
"It's all right, Ryu. You've a right to be upset." Grandma twitched her fingers to push a mussel back with a dirt mound. "Hold the door open for us. Aspic, dear, take the right side. I'll take the left. Geoffrey, drive them into the box from the center."
Between the three of them, they gathered the zombie herd into a tight mass, edging them toward the box. Ryu held the door and kicked any of the ones who tried to escape around the sides back into the slowly moving herd. Sundrop tried to help, too, diving at the shells to distract them before retreating to the safety of Aspic's hair. Geoffrey's head swam from the constant stream of magic flowing out of him, but he persisted, driving them back, back, until they were all inside the box.
Ryu slammed the door and set the pin in place as the angered shells and rocks hurled themselves against the door and sides.
Second observation: iron is not efficacious for disenchantment of shell zombies.
"I'm not sure that will hold." Aspic cast a dubious eye on the closure pin as the door jerked with each blow.
"It won't for long. Not by itself." Ryu let out an irritated grunt and ended up wrapping the box in the chains used for hauling large quarry stones. Then he hurried to the cottage and gathered tiny Mari in his arms. "It's all right, brave girl. You're all right."
She clung to him, wide-eyed. "Shells aren't 'sposed to eatme, Papa."
"I know. Bad shells." He bounced her in his arms, probably as much to comfort himself as her. "She needed the outhouse. We came outside, and those things came at us."
"What now?" Aspic asked softly as they all watched the box rock back and forth.
I don't know, I don't know, the frantic litany played in Geoffrey's head.
"We'll go see Frida and her kids," Grandma said before anyone could actually panic. "Between five witches, we'll think of something."
"All right." Ryu nodded. "I'll watch the box, but I want an explanation of this ridiculous mess after."
"Yessir." Geoffrey ducked his head. "I'm sorry."
"You will be if I don't like what you tell me."
Grandmatsked. "Ryu."
She herded them away, and they hurried back to the main road toward the bakery at the other end of town, where Geoffrey's Aunt Frida and her family lived above the shop. Grandma's idea was a good one, though Geoffrey had doubts that witches more attuned to life magics would have a solution for a necromantic problem.
They'd just passed the elvish seamstress's shop when Grandma stopped abruptly. "What in the world?"
Geoffrey followed her shocked gaze and slowed to a stop as well. While he didn't come into town often, he could have sworn the seamstress was right beside the dwarf-owned jewelers.Directlybeside. Sharing a wall. Now there was a shop in between, an absurdly narrow one just big enough for a brassbound wooden door that half the beings in town wouldn't fit through and a sign hanging above. The glittering silver letters spelled out Marden's Magic Emporium.
"I don't… Was that always there?"
"No." Aspic whispered. "No, it wouldn't have been." He took Geoffrey by the arms. "Listen. This may be the only chance we have.Thatis Marden's Magic Emporium."
"Yes. I see the sign."
Aspic waited, then made an impatient sound when Geoffrey didn't say anything else. "Marden's. I've seen this place before, and it's well-known out on the hero circuit. This shop appears wherever it pleases. It could vanish at any moment."
"I… see?" Geoffrey didn't see at all.
"It appears when someone's in dire need. Usually someone with an important task to accomplish—but not always—and it supplies whatever thing is needed.Geoffrey." Aspic gave him a little shake. "We are in dire need."
"You're saying we should go in."
"It appeared for a reason." Grandma gave him a nudge toward the door. "Go on. Quickly now, before it decides you dawdled too long."
Don't look a gift magic shop in the mouth, I guess.
