A moment later, the gravedigger confirmed her deduction. "I can feel your body heat with my tentacles," he said. "If you stay still, 1 should be able to come to you."
"Urgh," said Sophraea, trying not to think about Feeler's waving tentacles honing in upon her warm-blooded body.
"Just let me try this before anyone else grabs me," Gustin pleaded but he didn't pull away when Sophraea hugged him even harder.
"Do what you must," she said, "and I'll hang onto you. No matter what happens, we can all get out of here together."
She felt more than heard the big sigh that shook Gustin's chest. Once again, he muttered and waved his arms in complicated gestures. A pale lavender glow illuminated the very tips of his fingers and the end of his nose. A few more pink sparks shot off the top of his head.
In the light that Gustin cast from his own magic, Sophraea could see the dark outlines of Feeler and Fish barely a few steps away from her. Fish, who could see better in the low light than any of them, waved at her. Catching Feeler's hand, Fish started toward Gustin and her. With some relief, Sophraea grabbed Fish's scaly fingers in her own hand, squeezing them tightly. Even if Gustin's spell failed, they could still form a human chain and grope their way out of the tunnels if they had to.
But the light swelling outward from the wizard's hands and head nwuMmflll I juiiuu warmed and darkened into a crimson aura, continuing to grow in strength. As the circle of illumination spread, the tunnel walls began to glow again and the flame in Feeler's lantern sprang to life.
A few moments later, the tunnels had been fully restored to the normal poorly lit conditions found in the sewers of Waterdeep.
"It worked!" Sophraea cried and gaveGustin one more one-armed hug around the waist before quickly releasing him and stepping away. Her cheeks were flushed and she felt a little warm, a condition that she decided was due to the excitement of being able to see again.
Gustin suffered no such shyness. He stuffed his wand and book back into his tunic, grabbed Sophraea, and pulled her into a strong embrace, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. He only let go upon hearing a hollow cough from Feeler.
"Sometimes, even I think I'm a genius," Gustin exclaimed with a grin as the light in the tunnels grew ever brighter. "But, just in case this goes out again, let's leave now."
As she turned to lead them back to Dead End House, Sophraea tripped over the brocade shoe lying discarded upon the ground. She scooped it up and showed it to Gustin.
"What should we do with this?" she asked.
The wizard scratched his bearded chin and frowned. "I'm still certain that it is the key to reversing this curse," he said. "Maybe we need to destroy it. Burning? Burying? Immersion in running water?"
"Which one?" Sophraea asked.
Gustin gave one of his rippling shrugs. "It's hard to know," he admitted, "without the original spellbook." "And that's with Lord Adarbrent." "We think," the wizard pointed out. She answered with a shrug of her own.
"So what do we do with this?" Sophraea asked, contemplating the tarnished shoe in her hand.
"Take it with us," Gustin decided, plucking it out of her hold and once again wedging it under his belt.
A movement at the entrance of a tunnel caught her eye. Something large and distinctly bony was emerging from one of the tunnels that led farther under the City of the Dead.
"Gustin," Sophraea exclaimed, "the curse is still working!"
"We can't be sure," he said.
"1 am certain," replied Sophraea, seeing two more corpses line up behind the bony skeleton in velvet robes. The dead made their stately way through the tunnel toward them, marching stiffly, staring straight ahead. "Gustin, I think we should go now!"
The dead, unlike the ones encountered at dawn, seemed to be advancing with a steadier tread. One bore a rusted antique sword and made the occasional slow slashing motion with it. Another held aloft a tattered but obviously antique banner bearing the insignia of a long dead religion. Once again, the most noble of Waterdeep's corpses were on the march toward Dead End House. And this time, they were taking the lower route to the basement door.
Gustin finally spotted the increasing army of dead accumulating in the tunnels. He grabbed at Sophraea and began pulling her away from the corpses on parade.
Feeler gave a shout. Fish dropped back a step or two. More corpses appeared at other entrances to the tunnel. Many of these dead wore rusted armor and rotted leather, and carried shields or spears.
"They're taking portals now," exclaimed Feeler. "These must be from the heroes' graves."
"You mean all the dead are heading toward Waterdeep?" Sophraea was appalled. The ancient nobility roused out of the tombs within the walls of the City of the Dead were a fair number. What if all the corpses from the outlying graveyards started tele-porting through tunnels and into the City ofthe Dead above them!
Eventually the sheer numbers would overwhelm any defenses set into the walls or gates.
Gustin groaned. "I didn't end the curse! I think I strengthened it."
"Come on," Sophraea said to Gustin. "We have to get home and warn everyone."
It took her less than a moment to get her bearings. The tug of each monument in the City of the Dead felt stronger than ever before.
Sophraea pointed to a narrow feeder tunnel that they had passed once before. She ran to it and peered through the entrance. "I don't see any moving skeletons or other revenants. I think it would be safer to go this way to Dead End House."
"I don't think we can avoid this," Gustin muttered. The tunnels behind them echoed with the steady tramp of marching feet. Feeler and Fish dropped back, keeping a wary watch over their shoulders. So far, none of the dead had reacted to them. Instead, the corpses seemed to be hurrying to a predetermined destination.
With her sight of the City of the Dead above them filling her vision, Sophraea could barely see the tunnel walls around them. She could feel a tug in her breastbone pulling her toward her family home and the gate above, the only exit the dead could use to escape the graveyard.
"Perhaps we're going the wrong direction," said Gustin, when Sophraea led them through the corkscrew turns of the narrow tunnel. "This isn't like the way that we used the last time."
"No, this is the right way," said Sophraea, acutely aware of the dead filling the tunnels behind them and the graveyard above them. Like the tide moving water in Waterdeep's harbor, Gustin's amplification of the curse was drawing them nearer and nearer.
"I still think we are going to have problems when we get there," said Gustin, his shoulders twitching as if he too could feel the growing numbers of the dead walking above them as well as behind them.
Sophr. it. i was right about the tunnel leading back to Dead End House. It joined the main tunnel just a short way before the basement door.
Gustin was right about their problems increasing.
An army of the dead stood facing the door, weapons raised as if poised to attack.
TWENTY-ONE
Bow upon row of skeleton soldiers stood at attention in front of the basement door of Dead End House. The skeletons faced the door as though waiting for it to open.
"How do we get past them?" said Sophraea. She stared, appalled, at the rows of shining spines revealed by holes in their decrepit armor. Every skeleton was outfitted in a motley collection of rusting plate and rotting leather. Each carried a pitted sword or a bent spear.
"They look pretty brittle," whispered Gustin in her ear. "Maybe we could bowl them over."
"With what?" she snapped back a little louder than she meant to. The noise didn't seem to matter to the skeletons. No heads turned under dented helmets to seek them out. Instead the entire bony squadron looked uncomfortably like they were waiting for someone to come along and command them. Perhaps an angry hero returning from the far fields, she thought.