Page 47 of Geoffrey the Very Strange
Talondon's was open when he arrived. The signboard out front read, After Zombie Cleanup Sale. He had to wonder if Heliotrope had told Mr. Talondon what she was writing. Inside, Clover manned the counter while Heliotrope restocked the basket of garden gloves.
At the bell's jingle, Mr. Talondon came out of his office, glowering, arms crossed over his chest. "What time do you call this, boy?"
Aspic tried his best to stammer out an apology. He managed a squeak.
"Oh, don't bully, Dire." Clover said without looking up from counting the cash box. "Wejustopened, and you only walked through the door just now."
Mr. Talondon harrumphed, but he winked—actuallywinkedat Aspic—before vanishing into his office again.
"I guess I'm not fired yet, then." Aspic got the broom from the corner and began his morning sweep.
"His sense of humor needs work, sweetie. Don't worry about it," Heliotrope called from across the store.
"Where's Ayla?"
"Probably won't be in." Clover answered. "She flew off to make sure the pixie delegation arrives safely when they come to fetch Cormac."
Small town news. "I'm glad they're coming. He didn't look good at all."
"I heard he lost fingers," Heliotrope said with gossipy authority.
"Iheard they took his vocal cords," Clover countered.
"Um. Well." Aspic stopped to scratch his horn. "He did have all his fingers, as far as I could tell. And while he's not uttered a sound, he didn't have any chunks of histhroatmissing."
He could've sworn Heliotrope muttered,shame. Out loud, she said, "I can't say a lot of people are sad about him going home to Mama."
Aspic sighed. "I'd imagine not. Still feel bad that it happened."
"His own hubris brought it on." Clover reached his arms over his head and cracked his massive back so it echoed through the shop. "Timms told him to stay inside, but since he considers Timms beneath him, he didn't listen."
"I'm not saying I mind him going home." Aspic began sweeping again. "But I do hope he gets better."
"And maybe learns something." Heliotrope gave him a hip bump as she went by. "But I doubt it."
The workday went by quietly, with the occasional neighboring shopkeepers and townsfolk stopping in to trade stories of the zombie night, but there was little actual custom. Merseton was recovering in its own, strange way. Soon it would be just stories to tell in The White Stag over pints.
Aspic would definitely take the stories, no matter how they grew or tilted, over the actual adventure any day.
Geoffrey stoodin the storage room of his cave, thinking. He wore his feather-scrap coat still. The wards were excellent, and one couldn't be too careful. But the hat he'd taken outside, opened the leaf armature, and let the sebel beetles go. They'd been in his service long enough and deserved normal beetle lives. Underneath the coat he wore a shirt, trousers, and boots. No more black necromancer's robes. Perhaps it would ease people's nerves to see it.
"Let's take what's left in the shell containers, Cecil, and the chest with the funds from my parents. Oh, and the box with the best bones."
"This one, boss?"
"No, not the ones with the burned ends. The clean ones."
"Got it." Cecil examined the container with its carvings of acorns and squirrels. "You're not giving the box away, are you? I like the box."
"You can keep the box, then. We're just trying to replace some of what was lost." Geoffrey was about to leave the cave, Cecil trailing with the jars and boxes supported on shadow, when he stopped, snapped his fingers, and hurried back inside.
Cecil twisted his shadowy neck to follow his passage. "What'd you forget?"
"Here." Geoffrey returned with a large, flowered parasol that had been forgotten by a client sometime in the past few years. Sometimes people had come to the cave to ask Geoffrey to speak to the dead. Not his favorite thing to do, since most spirits wanted to be left alone, but it had paid the bills. He opened the parasol and held it over Cecil. "It's far too sunny today."
"Aww. Thanks, boss." Cecil blew him a kiss. "You really do care."
"World's most insolent minion," Geoffrey muttered, but he smiled when he said it.
