14. A Curious Shop For A Curious Investigation

25/5/G19 11:24

In most ways, Castlegate was no different to any of the other inner-city roads across Glaze. Rows of time-beaten buildings loomed large over a cramped central street, casting long shadows over the questionable characters that lined it. Garamonde paid little attention to these people as he walked down the road though, shattered glass and pebbles crunching under the weight of his great boots.

His interest was instead focused on the one thing that marked Castlegate out as special; a small, squat shop that sat squarely in the middle of one row of buildings. Painted in brilliant white, it had a delicately engraved doorway, above which sat a sign with red lettering which read ‘Curiosa’. The pathway to the door was made up of finely polished marble, sourced no doubt from a far away land to the east or perhaps found buried deep underground at some secret excavation site. Jewel didn’t need to tell Garamonde what the building was; he already knew that it belonged to David.

“Everyone in Haldersvelt absolutely loves David!” Jewel beamed, nudging Garamonde lightly on the shoulder as they walked. “He is just so friendly and so helpful, and he knows so much about everything! I remember hurting my leg when I was only little, he gave me a special stick so that I could still walk around whilst it healed up – think he said it was a ‘crotch’ or something like that. He’s always been like that, and with all the cool stuff he has access to he can help out anyone. The world would be a better place with more people like him.”

“Amazing that I’ve never heard of him, sounds like a well-connected guy,” Garamonde said, genuinely impressed.

“Oh yeah, as I say, absolutely everyone here knows him. Dad used to say that he pays locals off to keep his business a secret, he’s always been paranoid that the Source or the Select or even the Adina themselves will find out about his collection and kill him for it. Who would really hurt such a dear old man though?”

“Some of the stuff he has must be worth a small fortune, you’d be amazed who’d kill for that,” Garamonde said, furiously scribbling notes into a small pad of paper. “Let’s see if he’s in, eh?”

Walking up to the door, Garamonde raised his massive fist to give it a knock, but from close up he could see that it was already slightly ajar. He looked at Jewel and raised his eyebrows, before she barged past him and swung the door open with a creek.

“Hello, anyone home? David?” Jewel called out cautiously, before turning to Garamonde with a shrug. “Must be out.”

“Should we take a quick look around, then?” Garamonde asked, but it was a redundant question as he was already searching through the contents of a nearby shelf, his eyes lit up like a child. “This guy has so much…stuff!”

The store was far larger than it looked from outside. Its massive, dimly lit central room had a wild array of shelves and cases strewn across it, all completely covered in obscure items and a thin layer of dust. History books, toys, tools, anything and everything was there; relics from across the ages, some useful and others seemingly pointless.

Never mind a small fortune, this is incredible! This guy must be the richest man in Glaze and he probably doesn’t even know it!

“Ooo wow! Hey Jewel, check this out, some sort of petrified fruit by the looks of it...oh and look at this, think this might be a…OUCH!”

Garamonde cried out in pain, his left hand moving quickly to cover his ear while the other punched the desk in front of him.

“What’s wrong?!” Jewel gasped, shocked and concerned.

“Something just hit me! Is my ear okay? It’s not bleeding is it?”

“No it looks fine to me, maybe you just...” Something bounced off a nearby vase with a ping, followed by another that narrowly missed Jewel’s head.

Ping!ping!PING!ping!PING!PING!PING!ping!ping!ping!PING!

Suddenly they were being bombarded by what seemed like millions of tiny enemies, each one viciously nipping at any piece of uncovered skin that they could find. “What the hell is this?!” Garamonde cried out, desperately looking for cover. He dived behind a nearby bookcase, beckoning for Jewel to follow him. “We have to get out of here or we’re done for! Let’s make a run for the door on three, okay?”

“Okay, okay!” Jewel said, catching her breath, “Oh poor David, he mustn’t have stood a chance against all this!”

“Jewel? Is that you…?”, a fragile voice enquired from a darkened corner of the room.

“…David?”

“Jewel! It is you! Oh my dear, what a relief!”

Jewel jumped out from her cover and bounded across the room, diving into the arms of a frail old man, hugging him tightly. “Oh David, I’m so glad that you are okay!” Garamonde, dazed and more than a little sore, stumbled to his feet.

“David, this is Mr Garamonde, a friend of mine! He’s a detective, we came here to talk to you ‘cause we though you might be able to help with our investigation!”

Our investigation?!

“Oh I see!” David said, breaking into a hearty laugh. “And here I am thinking you were trying to rob me! Dreadfully sorry Mr Garamonde, are you okay?”

No thanks to you, you old coot! You nearly had my eye out!

“…I’m alright, thank you. Sorry we just wandered in, didn’t mean to scare you. What in the world were you hitting us with? Hurt like hell!”

David chuckled again, a satisfied look plastered across his wrinkled face. “Just a little contraption I picked up some years back, a handy thing it is! It’s a mechanical device known as a B.B King, shoots out these little plastic beads, see?” he said, revealing a pouch with thousands of miniscule white balls inside. “Made a few handy modifications of my own to it, doesn’t do much lasting damage but it’s pretty good for scaring off any bloody looters! The pellets get everywhere though…”

“Ingenious,” Garamonde said, examining the device closely. “As Jewel

said though, we’re here on business...”

“Of course, of course. What can I do to help you, friend?”

“Well, it’s about Relham Cook…”

“Ah Relham, what has that young man done this time eh?”

“…gotten himself killed.”

“Ah…I’ll get us something to drink, shall I?...”

This frozen world lies in ruin, betrayed by all who grace her.

Glaze awaits, to be ours once more…

Written by Tom Davies and Alec Davis, 2011.

© The River Versus: The World At Large.