'What?' Gustin almost tripped to a halt.
'Keep moving.' Sophraea prodded him. 'I don't want to explain here.'
The guards swung open the gilded iron gates. Gustin and Sophraea slipped through them. Rain began to pour down, but the pair hurried away from Stunk's mansion, never glancing back until they reached the corner of the street.
Then Gustin risked one look over his shoulder. Oblivious to the rain. Rampage Stunk had joined the cluster of guards at his gate. The fat man just stood there, watching them leave. Another guard came running up to the group, obviously bursting with news.
Gustin pulled Sophraea around the corner of the street, shielding both of them from the stony blank stare of Rampage Stunk.
With some urgency, Gustin asked her, 'What is the fastest way back to Dead End House?'
SEVENTEEN
fl utting through the City of the Dead was probably the quickest U route to Dead End House, Sophraea reasoned, as she led Gustin back to the Mhalsyymber gate.
She briefly considered going west to the High Road and taking that as far as Andamaar, but that meant twisting back through the little streets to Dead End House. Somehow, she didn't feel as safe on the open streets. That strange emptiness in the North Ward, the eerie silence that felt more like midnight than the late afternoon, still persisted.
For the first time in her life, Sophraea missed the usual clamorous crowds, the hustle and bustle of normal life in Waterdeep. She'd never complain again about Waterdeep's crowded streets, she decided, or about having to slow her steps because of some group dawdling in front of her or having to sidestep some knot of gallants posturing to their peers.
Right now, she had an itch between her shoulder blades; like something was tracking them. Only, whenever she risked a peek around the edge of her hood, she saw nothing but wet pavement and the black shadows that marked the entrances to the littler alleys. And she'd almost missed a turn already, nearly taking the Golden Serpent instead of Mhalsyymber's Way.
With some relief, she pulled Gustin through the public gate into the City of the Dead, acknowledging with a brief nod the Watch standing there. The two older men barely glanced at her. They were huddled together, whispering and staring into the graveyard.
'They are locking all the gates early tonight,' one of the guards said.
'We will exit at Coffinmarch,' she said. The Watch still did not know about the Dead End gate.
'Hurry,' said young man. 'The Watchful Order will be here soon.'
'New wards?' guessed Gustin, speaking for the first time.
The young man shook his head. 'They never tell us anything. Just lock up and lock up tight. But they are expecting trouble, everyone is expecting trouble with the dead tonight.'
Sophraea nodded, 'We will hurry.'
Then they were past the Watch and down the paths that she knew so well.
Inside the City of the Dead's walls, she didn't have to think about which turn or what direction. She just knew the right route.
But it was quiet in the graveyard too, that waiting stillness that she'd felt so strongly earlier that morning.
'Are you sure it is safe?' Gustin asked as if the wizard could read her nervous thoughts.
'Of course, it's still daylight,' she answered with far more conviction than she felt. The rain had stopped but the heavy clouds overhead made it as dim as twilight. Every silent tomb that they passed, she looked at twice to make sure that the doors were shut and nothing stirred in the darkness within.
'It's just that you are glowing again,' Gustin said.
'What?'
'Not a lot, just a little,' he assured. He put one hand on her shoulder, making her stop, and tipped up her head so he could stare into her eyes. Sophraea blinked at seeing his own bright green eyes so close.
'No, it's gone now. It's like the tiniest of blue flames, right in the center of your eyes,' he said. 'Are you sure that you don't have a blue mark anywhere on you?'
Sophraea remembered her birthmark; everyone in the family had one, at least in her generation and her father's generation according to Myemaw. She started to tell Gustin and then thought better of it, given where her mark was located. It wasn't as if she could show him!
'Come on,' she said. 'We need to get home.'
The pebbles in the path were slick under her feet and she slowed her pace slightly. Something rustled in the bushes to their left. Sophraea looked hopefully for the twitch of a topiary dragon's tail, but there was no sign of the bushy beast or the friendly Briarsting.
To distract herself, Sophraea began to question Gustin on what to do next to quiet the noble dead ofWaterdeep.
'Replace the shoe where we found it in the underground tunnels,' said Gustin. 'I'm certain that it anchors whatever ritual curse was used.'
'So if we just put it back, then the dead won't walk?'
Gustin gave one of his long rippling shrugs that started at his shoulders and ran all the way down to his hands turning palm up. 'It might not be that simple,' he said. 'There may be a countercharm or other spell that's needed. I wish I could see the spellbook that he used.'
'Perhaps we should go to Lord Adarbrent today and ask him for the book,' Sophraea mused.
'You think just knocking on his door and asking politely will get him to end this feud with Stunk?'
Sophraea pushed her hood back so she could see the wizard clearly. 'Actually,' she said slowly, 'he might. If nothing else, Lord Adarbrent is a man of honor. I doubt he meant to involve our family quite so deeply in this war with Stunk. He's always been a good patron and a friend to my father.'
'Do you really think a nobleman would care that much about what happens to a tradesman's family? I've seen aristocrats before,' Gustin replied, 'and none of the breed have ever struck me as having much regard for the lower orders.'
'But Lord Adarbrent doesn't see us like that. He doesn't see anyone like that,' she continued, remembering the old man with his tentative offer of sweets to a lost child and, later, his long stories told over the family ledger. 'He sees us all as a part of Waterdeep. We keep this city's traditions alive.'
At Gustin's slight smile at her choice of words, Sophraea shook her head. 'No, this place, the City of the Dead, is important to Lord Adarbrent and so we're important because we keep it as it has always been kept. We built the first wall around it, we carve the tombs, and, he knows, as long as we are here, the City will have someone caring for it who loves it as much as he does.'
'You talk as if he's fallen in love with a graveyard,' said Gustin.
'No, he's in love with Waterdeep. He always has been,' said Sophraea with revelation. 'Waterdeep is Lord Adarbrents one great passion. And, for Waterdeep's sake, I think I can get him to give up that spellbook. Maybe we shouldn't be going to Dead End House now. Maybe we should go to Lord Adarbrent immediately.'
As she turned to go toward one of the public gates, a flash of gray fur caught her eye. Unsure of what she'd seen, Sophraea slowed down, turning in place. Now she could clearly see a giant gray paw sliding out from behind a black marble urn. A tip of furry ear was visible through the urn's curved handles and a twitch of the bushy tail could be seen near the base.
She clutched the basket's handle with both hands and took a deep breath. It couldn't have been a wolf. There weten't any wolves in the City of the Dead. Ghosts, ghouls, haunts, walking corpses, undead, and restless dead, all those dangers she had been warned about since she was a small child. Those were ordinary threats, like thieves in the marketplace. If you were careful and wise, and avoided certain parts of the graveyard after dark, you could spend your whole life traipsing back and forth quite safely through the City of the Dead. Her family did it every day.
