plopped down upon the bed. The mattress was very firm, probably stuffed with horsehair, Sophraea guessed.
'A light in the graveyard?' said Volponia, hitching herself higher on her satin-covered feather pillows. 'What was it?'
'I don't know,' said Sophraea, 'but it moved around the City of the Dead, from far to the north along the paths to our gate.'
'Well, I can't see the City from my windows. Just a bit of the wall and watchtower. A dark night, last night, and a stormy one. I barely slept with all the rattle of the wind and rain. I'm sure I would have noticed any light if it had moved around the house.'
'The rain woke me too. That's why I saw the light. It was definitely inside the City and never passed the gate.'
'Perhaps it was the Watch upon patrol.'
'No,' Sophraea could be just as firm as Volponia. 'I've seen the Watch chasing thieves through there before. Lots of torches and shouting, lots of lights. This was just one light, and it seemed to move around on its own.'
Volponia frowned. 'A haunt?'
'It didn't look like a spirit,' replied Sophraea with the sophistication of a seventeen-year-old who had grown up in Waterdeep. 'At least not the sort of ghost that you usually see. It was brighter, or moved differently. The things you see on the streets, the mists, they tend to float around. This looked like it went where it intended to go.'
'Magic, perhaps?' Volponia speculated with a frown. 'But it would take an unusually brave wizard to be casting spells in the City after dark. There are things buried there who don't like disturbances. And I can't see the Blackstaff being all that kind to anyone who meddled with magic inside the graveyard. Perhaps you should tell your father. He can always get a word to the right ear.'
'Perhaps,' agreed Sophraea, 'if I knew what to tell him. It was just one light, and rather small. But there were these handprints on our gate today. Leaplow thought it was rust at first…'
'But?' asked the shrewd Volponia.
'I thought they were handprints, dark red-brown handprints, from somebody reaching from the City's side.'
'The color of old blood?' Volponia spoke with the relish of a former pirate captain. 'Just the sort of trick that ghosts like to play. Or those who mean you to think the dead are making trouble. You should talk to your father; Astute's no fool.'
'He's busy. Stunk came today.'
'A troublesome man, from all that your grandmother has told me,' said Volponia. Although the old lady never left her bed as far as the family knew, she liked to hear the news and Myemaw was her major source of information.
'I don't like him,' admitted Sophraea.
'If you really want to know what that light was, you should ask a wizard,' Volponia stated.
'I don't know any,' Sophraea replied. Then she thought of Gustin Bone, but she wasn't sure what he was. Did making all the laundry jump on the line make him a wizard? Maybe he was just an adventurer with some type of magic ring or conjuring piece. Such things were not unknown in Waterdeep.
'There's that old woman down on Coffinmarch, but everyone says she is crazy mad witch,' Sophraea added, because she did know where Egetha kept her shop and she had no idea at all where Gustin Bone had come from or where he went.
'That's just your brothers' opinion of Egetha and that's just because she caught them sneaking around her back windows, trying to watch her conjure. But Egetha never did much more than sell beauty charms to old maids and protections for young men with mischief on their minds.'
'Really, I didn't know that.'
'Exactly how old are you? I keep losing track with your generation.' 'Seventeen.'
'That's still too young for me to be discussing most of Egetha's stock with you. Go ask your mother if you're curious.' Volponia fidgeted in her bed, obviously dismissing the topic to the disappointment of Sophraea's curiosity. But her next words caught the girl's wandering attention.
'The quality of magic may have sadly deteriorated from the days of my youth, as have a great many other things,' said Volponia, 'but there must still be a place where you can find a decent wizard for hire in Waterdeep.'
'I'm sure I don't know where, Auntie,' said Sophraea, 'and I'm certain that I wouldn't know how to pay one if I did find him.'
'When I was still captaining my own ships, you went to Sevenlamps Cut if you wanted a wizard, especially the cheap kind whom nobody would miss if they drowned or were eaten by sea serpents.' Volponia sniffed. 'If you asked around, you could find someone to hire out on the streets.'
'Well, wizards cost money and I don't have that much.'
'Promise to pay with a kiss.' Volponia actually smirked. 'Used to work for me when I was your age.'
'I'm not going to kiss some smelly old wizard, you wicked thing!'
'That's the problem with your generation. No imagination.' The old lady rooted with one hand under the covers of her bed and pulled out a tarnished brass box, decorated with strips of faded green ribbons. She shook it and listened with a frown to the tinkle of the contents. Twisting one end of the box open, she emptied a single silver ring onto her covers. Handing it to Sophraea, she said, 'There's probably half a wish still left in that ring and that might interest the right type of wizard.'
'I don't know. A wizard might be more trouble than he's worth,' Sophraea answered, still thinking about the twinkle in Gustin Bone's bright green eyes.
Fidgeting with Volponia's gift, she slid it on her middle finger. A plain ring, a little tarnished, with no fancy marks or flashing gems, it looked like one of those trinkets that the foolish bought in the cheaper parts of the Dock Ward. It was hard to believe that it contained any magic at all.
'Maybe I shouldn't worry about the City of the Dead,' she said to Volponia. 'After all, Leaplow is probably right, the dead don't bother Carvers.'
'Especially if Leaplow restrains himself from punching them in the face,' chuckled her ancient relative. The tale of Leaplow's misdeeds last spring had risen quickly to the old woman's chamber.
'But if someone is stirring up trouble, shouldn't I find out who?' Sophraea continued to twist the ring on her finger, but she kept looking out of the closest window, wondering if the light would reappear in the City of the Dead that night.
'Well, if you do make up your mind any day soon,' Volponia said with a shrewd glance at Sophraea's wrinkled and rather worried forehead, 'do let me know. It will give me something to fret over. I have so very few distractions at my age. It may be some time before Leaplow creates another scandal.'
Sophraea smiled and slid from the bed. 'I'll let you know if I decide to investigate, I promise. Do you want me to bring you anything?'
'No need,' said Volponia, reaching for her crystal bell. 'I'll ring up whatever I want later. And your grandmother will be along once her supper is done for a little chatter.'
'Don't tell too many good stories without me,' said Sophraea on her way out the door.
Volponia called her back. 'Weren't you going to talk to Lord Adarbrent? About that letter of recommendation?'
Sophraea sighed. 'He hasn't been back in almost a full month.'
'He will be. He's just as obsessed with his final rest as that Rampage Stunk. So you're going to do it? You're going to take that job with the dressmaker?'
'It's an apprenticeship,' said Sophraea for the umpteenth time. 'And she won't take just anyone. You have to show that you have a noble sponsor.'
'Sounds like a snob,' Volponia had expressed this opinion many times too.
'She's considered the very best in the Castle Ward. And what am I to do? Stay here and sew shrouds?'
'Your aunts Catletrho and Tanbornen seem to enjoy it. As do a couple of their sons.'
'Not me. I want to work with fine materials.' 'Some of the nobility like silk shrouds as much as silk shirts or sheets.'
'I want to see my creations on the living!'
