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.The house's windows were all dark, a sure sign that the entire family was sleeping."Shh, shh," Leaplow tried to shush the patty without realizing that he was the only one making any noise.The pretty lady patted his shoulder and waved good-bye.Leaplow blinked and stumbled to halt, waving after her.But she faded through the gate leading into the City of the Dead and her party faded with her.Leaplow slid down until he was sitting on the cobblestones of the courtyard.He found a lump of granite to pillow his aching head.With an enormous yawn, he began to settle back for a nap."How nice of them to bring me home," was his last thought before he fell asleep.And it wasn't until morning, after his cousin Cadriffle woke him with a pail of cold water, that he noticed the iron gate leading into the City of the Dead was hanging wide open, the lock broken, leaving Dead End House unprotected and vulnerable to excursions from the graveyard side.Sophraea sat beside her bedroom window, watching the night sky change from black to pale gray.For the past five mornings, the family had gone into the courtyard to find the Dead Endgate shattered by the roaming dead.At least now, nobody in the family doubted that real trouble stirred in the graveyard.But, at the same time, none of the Carvers could quite agree on what to do, except to keep quiet about the gate and try to fix the problem themselves.Especially since the broadsheets started publishing the threats of Rampage Stunk against any and all involved in the dead's persistent attempts to invade his mansion.Late the previous day, Uncle Perspicacity did what he had done on the preceding nights.He built up the fire in the forge until the heat reached the temperature he needed.And then, sweating and weary, he worked steadily pounding away the damage to the gate and strengthening the bars with added bands of metal.While he worked, the other uncles stood around and argued with the aunts about what to do next.Some, like Judicious, thought the addition of chains and padlocks would be enough to keep the ghosts from breaking through.Others, like her aunt Catletrho, argued for more drastic steps, like bricking closed the opening.But the majority of the family was not quite ready to give up the entrance to the City of the Dead that was so handy for their work.With their hands wrapped in rags to protect them from the still cooling metal, Leaplow, Bentnor, and Cadriffle had picked up the reforged gate, carried it back, and fastened it in place.Then Uncle Judicious added his locks and chains, checking everything more than once.Sophraea kept watch at the window throughout the night.As had happened on previous nights, she heard the gate shatter.Remembering the exhaustion etching lines on the faces of her family, she decided not to wake anyone.Instead, she'd go down to the courtyard first and see how badly the gate was damaged.If the gate was destroyed, she would not hesitate.She would go into the City of the Dead and see if she could find out how or whythe dead were so persistently marching through Waterdeep to the house of Rampage Stunk.For the past five days, she had argued with Gustin, certain the answers lay beyond the wall and inside the graveyard, answers that could only be found after the dead had left their tombs for their nightly revelry.And for five nights, the wizard had stubbornly refused to venture into the City of the Dead after sunset.But all his spells and investigations during the daylight hours had yielded no answers.With dawn so close, Sophraea decided, venturing into the City of the Dead should be safe enough.And, she thought, this time she would go alone.Her mother would not approve.Her father would shake his head against it.Leaplow would say that she was too small to do anything.Not that Leaplow was any tower of sense or rational action! In fact, if she said anything about her suspicions that the trouble started at the Markarl tomb, the rest of her brothers, sisters-in-law, cousins, uncles, and aunts would add their contradicting opinions, just as they had for the past five days.Sophraea sighed
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