home.
She ducked around the high flowering bush that marked the Carver's gate. The moss-covered steps were still there. But now rather than an iron gate at the top, the steps led to a smooth stone wall, perfectly matching the rest of the high barrier separating Sophraea and Gustin from the courtyard of Dead End House.
'Where's the gate?' they said together.
'Another illusion?' added Gustin.
Sophraea ran up the stairs and felt along the wall. 'No, it is real.' The mortar under her fingers felt slightly sticky. 'When they found the gate broken this morning, they must have decided to wall it up.'
A frustrated baying sounded behind them. Stunk's bully boys and pet wolf must have discovered their prey had escaped the maze.
Sophraea ran agitated hands across the stones blocking the Dead End gate. The work was perfect, of course, only the best as usual from her family. And it perfectly blocked their safe exit from the City of the Dead! Her family had trapped her within the graveyard.
NINETEEN
Where now?' said Gustin. 'Coffinmarch. That's the closest public gate.' Frustrated, Sophraea almost pounded against the stones confronting her. The mortar was still tacky. If she screamed, her family might hear. The men could easily tear this block down again with their pickaxes and hammers.
But, and Sophraea stilled at the thought, that would open the gate again for the walking corpses and other noble haunts. Better to keep them out ofWaterdeep. She still knew the City ofthe Dead better than any of Stunk's bullies. With luck, they could elude their. pursuers.
Once through the Coffinmarch gate and deep in their own neighborhood, there were always friends who would shelter them or send word to her family.
Her mind made up, Sophraea started down the steps, only to halt at a second howl.
'I think that was closer,' said Gustin.
Sophraea nodded. 'What spells do you have left?' she asked the wizard.
'The one that lets me run very fast. I can stretch it to cover both of us,' he said. 'But it doesn't last long.'
'Let's get closer to the Coffinmarch gate,' Sophraea replied.
'How much time do you think we have left?' Gustin asked, looking up at the gray clouds above them.
From the paler shades of gray toward the west, Sophraea judged it was still late afternoon. 'The gates should be open for awhile longer.'
'If we can get them to chase us past the City Watch at the gate, we'll be moving too fast for the Watch to catch and they'll run…' Gustin mused.
'Right into a fight,' enthused Sophraea. 'Or the Watchful Order. They should be arriving soon. But what about the wards on the gates? Will that interfere with your spell?'
'Let's hope not,' said the wizard, setting out with long strides to follow Sophraea as she led them away from the Dead End House's blocked gate.
As they passed round a small round tomb carved from a pale violet. stone and inlaid with silver, a door creaked open. Two shadowy figures stepped out.
Gustin raised his arm, ready to fight, but. dropped his hand as he recognized the two men halted in the doorway of the tomb. One had a head full of tentacles. The other's amphibious face was scaled and his mouth open and closed with surprise, revealing a double row of teeth. The two gravediggers seemed as startled as Gustin was, but gave out no yell of greeting to echo his own.
Sophraea let out a glad cry upon recognizing her friends, 'Feeler! Fish!'
The two gravediggers had started to turn back into the tomb but stopped at her shout.
'Who are you?' said Feeler, his tentacles waving in agitation around his long pale face.
'Sophraea,' the puzzled girl replied.
'You're still mostly moon elf,' Gustin said. With a snap of his fingers, the illusion melted away from the pair.
Feeler and Fish blinked together at the sudden transformation.
'Sophraea, we've been looking for you!' said Feeler, hurrying to her. 'Your mother was afraid you'd try to come back to Dead End House from the graveyard side.'
'We did, but the gate's blocked.'
'Yes, the family decided to brick it closed this morning after they saw the damage there,' said Feeler. 'Then, about halfway through the work, a thorn popped his head over the wall and said he'd seen you in the City of the Dead.'
Gustin scanned the darkening sky. A distant howl made him start and remind Sophraea, 'We should get moving.'
'We need to get out of here,' said Sophraea to Feeler. 'Stunk's men are following us.'
'Stunk! Some messenger came from him earlier, demanding that your father give up the family ledger. Astute sent him right back to Stunk with some hard words, but the fellow made all sorts of threats.'
Feeler continued, 'Then Leaplow caught some of his men trying to climb over the graveyard wall and a pack of your brothers and cousins went after them.'
'We saw Leaplow, he's safe enough in the Thief s Knot,' Sophraea told them.
The shouts and sounds of armored men echoed behind them.
Feeler turned back to the open tomb door. 'We'd do better underground. We can lose them in the tunnels.'
'Go through a tomb?' Gustin asked.
'With the gate closed, I think we should.'
Sophraea and Gustin followed Feeler. The round tomb's floor was mostly circular staircase, leading down under the earth. A few glowing lights provided a dim illumination.
'Who is buried here?' whispered Gustin.
'It feels empty,' said Sophraea.
Above them, Fish pulled the door firmly shut with a clang and then ratded down the stairs behind him, his shovels and other tools clicking in their shoulder straps.
'Nobody's in here. Belongs to a family buried outside,' said Feeler. He took the lead down the stairs. 'There's a portal at the bottom and a door into the long tunnels running toward the wall.'
'Maybe we could take the portal,' said Sophraea as they reached the tiny room at the bottom of the stairs. A polished dais of amber marked the magical exit.
Feeler shook his head. Fish nodded in agreement.
'Why not?' asked the confused Sophraea.
'Only one way out and one way back. There's a wolf with them, right?'
'Yes, big gray thing,' said Gustin.
'Lycanthrope,' said Feeler with conviction.
'A werewolf?' Sophraea suddenly thought she knew who it was.
'That doorjack, the one with the all-body beard,' said Gustin echoing her thoughts.
'Stunk's been employing some strange ones,' said the man with tentacles and no irony. 'There's been talk in some of the taverns where we go:'
Fish nodded and grinned to reveal his double row of sharp pointy teeth.
'We had a couple of offers,' Feeler added. 'High pay too. But we told them we were loyal to the Carvers.'
Fish pulled up the heavy wooden door on the other side of the little room. Just outside it, one of the gravediggers lanterns swung from an iron hook. Fish fetched it down and lighted it with his tinder.
'If we go this way, we may lose them,' Feeler said, gesturing them through the door.
'Or lead them back to Dead End House,' Sophraea protested. 'I know the basement door is guarded, but will
