"I could use a wizard," answered Sophraea with a rather nasty smile.
SIX
Gustin Bone absolutely refused to go into the City of the Dead at night.
"I am not suicidal," he told Sophraea, "and, even in the hinterlands, the tales of the strange haunts occupying Waterdeep's largest graveyard are well-known."
"Nonsense. It's not like that anymore," Sophraea said, with more confidence than she felt. After all, something strange was stirring in the graveyard and, even though she was a Carver, she'd rather not be stumbling around the tombs in the dark. "But we can go in daylight if you prefer."
Not wishing to explain her mild blackmail of the wizard to her family, Sophraea arranged to meet Gustin two days later at the Coffinmarch gate, the largest and most public of all the gates into the City of the Dead. She arrived well before he ambled into view. Nobody paid any attention to the short girl impatiently tapping her toe against the cobblestone.
Sophraea fidgeted in place, fussing with the linen cloth covering the contents of her shopping basket. As always, they were out of something needed at Dead End House. That day, it was dried fruit for a sweet loaf that Reye wanted to bake. Sophraea had stopped at the fruit seller's shop, certain that the old lady's careful measuring and weighing of the contents would make her late..
Instead, she was on time and the wizard was missing.
Gustin strolled casually up the street, waving a cheerful greeting at her.
"You're here bright and eager and early to go ghost hunting," he said.
"Shh!" said Sophraea. "I don't want to give my business to the entire street. And, besides, I don't know that it was a ghost."
"Oh it has to be a ghost," replied Gustin, walking beside her to the gate. "Everyone visits the City of the Dead to see the ghosts, hunt for treasure in the tombs, and marvel at the monuments."
"Hunt for treasure! Where did you get such an odd idea?"
"It isn't true?" Gustin reached into his tunic and withdrew a small battered book. "I'm sure it says something in here about treasure in tombs…"
"Anyone caught looting in the graveyard would be severely punished by the City Watch,'" Sophraea said firmly.
"But if they weren't caught?"
Alarmed by this line of questions, Sophraea' stopped in the middle of the walk, ignoring the'exclamation of a fat dwarf who nearly trod on her heels. The dwarf sidestepped into the gutter and splashed past them. Sophraea shook her head severely at Gustin. "Don't even think about stealing from a tomb. There are other guardians besides the Watch!"
Gustin shrugged and then grinned at her. "I never liked stealing. It too often proves less rewarding than you'd think. Every time you take something, odds are that you'll end up cursed, pursued, or just plain unlucky."
"I thought you were a wizard, not a thief," said Sophraea, wondering if she should go strolling through the City of the Dead with this outrageous young man.
"Absolutely, I'm a wizard. But magic is not the most lucrative of careers, at least not for me. I like to eat every day, several times a day if I can," said the tall and very thin Gustin Bone.
"So you tell lies about stone statues?"
"I give people an entertaining story and if they choose to give me coin in return, I'm happy to have it. Nobody is hurt by the exchange and I can pay for my meals.'*
A true child of Waterdeep, Sophraea couldn't argue too much with Gustin's desire for gold in his purse. Fortunes rose and fell all around them, as certain as the waves in the harbor, and many in Waterdeep did not hesitate to do real harm to others in their pursuit of wealth. In comparison, Gustin Bone's threat to the citizens' purses was rather mild.
The usual winter drizzle limited the number of people wanting to explore the pathways inside the City of the Dead. Even the members of the Watch on guard had retreated as far under the wall's overhang as they could and still remain at their posts. All of them were well-wrapped in their cloaks against the cold.
"There are better places to take your girl," said the tallest one with a wink at Gustin.
"Drier," mumbled the shorter fellow trying to huddle deeper into his cloak. ¦¦
"I wouldn't give much for a man who took me walking in such a gloomy place," added the woman, who looked at Sophraea with sympathy.
With an indignant sputter, Sophraea started to explain that she wasn't out walking with the wizard, at least not in the romantic sense of the word. Gustin just tucked her arm through his, smiled sweetly at all three Watch members, and said, "Well, I thought about a stroll through the Sea Ward, but you know the ladies. Some of them find monuments quite moving."
"I never said any such…" But Gustin dragged her quickly away from the Watch.
"Do you want them trailing after us?"
"No, of course not."
"Then smile at them all and come along."
After a turn in the path hid them from the Watch, Sophraea reclaimed her hand. Tucking it firmly through the handle of her shopping basket, she said, "We need to go north. I saw the light first there. Somewhere near the old noble tombs.'' "Old nobles?"
"The families who were buried inside the walls. Only the oldest nobility kept their monuments on the grounds. The rest were moved long ago, and anyone who dies now, unless they belong to one of the old noble families, is buried in the newer sites."
"I thought there was only one graveyard, in Waterdeep."
"Within the walls, yes. But we use the portals to go to the others like Coinscoffin or the Hall of Heroes. A lot of the richer, older families have small markers, a statue or a plaque, for their private portals to their own gravesites."
"I'm sorry," said Gustin, "but did you say portals?"
"Certainly."
"Real portals, little pools of magic that move you from one place to another?"
"Of course, how else would they manage it?"
"It really is a city of wonders," whistled Gustin. "The guidebook didn't lie."
"Don't they have portals to move bodies wherever you come from?" Like most who were born in Waterdeep, Sophraea had never thought much about how others lived outside the city. Although, if she did think about it, she would be forced to express a certain conviction that they didn't live half as well organized as those fortunate enough to dwell in Waterdeep.
"I've heard talk, everybody has heard stories about portals, of course, but people don't just use them for… well… for everyday business."
Sophraea pondered this for less than a moment. "But what would you use them for?"
"Descending into demon realms, visiting the gods in their palaces, that sort of thing. Not carting coffins to their final resting place."
"Why would you want to go to a demon realm?" She couldn't see the sense in that. Demons were supposed to be unfriendly creatures with unpleasant habits.
"I didn't say that I did."
"Well, the City of the Dead's portals go to very specific places," said Sophraea resolutely. "It's all down in the family's ledger. I can show you if you want."
They rounded another monument, one carved with a frieze of flowers with tightly furled petals. Sophraea paused to trace the stone petals with one hand. "That's one of Fidelity's carvings," she said to Gustin. "He was my great-grandfather. A flower still in bud meant a youth had died, one fully in bloom indicated a mature person."
"And for the really elderly, did he do a bare twig?"
Sophraea giggled and shook her head. "No, a sprig of evergreen, usually, or one of the herbs that grant long life."
"And do all the carvings have a message?"
"Most do. But the meanings change with the generations. That's why we keep the ledger, so we remember why a family asked for a particular decoration and who carved it. And you should avoid tombs like that." She pointed out a grave marker that was set flush into the ground. Above it, a cage of iron was mounted, with the bars sinking into the earth.