Chapter 21
A trip to the AMC
Adam felt the ground pull away as he spun upwards into the air; an involuntary scream of utter panic escaped his mouth as he watched the world spin below him. Then they were flying through clouds that were whistling past at speed and just as Adam started to enjoy the feeling until they dropped at an even greater speed. They could see the ground coming towards them way too fast. Adam readied himself for another terror-riddled scream as they touched down on the ground, Adam still crouched tilted to the left hitting the ground on his side, groaning.
"Wow, what a rush," Tony exclaimed.
Adam sat on the dusty road, squinting upwards into the dazzling and hot sun. "You going to tell me you've never done that before?"
"Never." He replied helping a shaky Adam to his feet, helping the brush off the red dust that clung to his trousers and jacket.
"Bloody hell it's hot, where the hell are we?" Tony went to speak but Adam continued. "I will never do that again in my life, understand." Tony nodded, realising that Adam was grey and shaken. "That and that bloody fire thing."
They looked around looking at the few shaped trees and clumps of tall grass that dotted the dry dusty landscape, completely alien to the green and pleasant welsh countryside they had just left. In the distance through the heat haze, Adam pointed to a herd of animals, which looked like Giraffes, but obviously were not.
"Before you ask," Tony said, pre-empting Adam's questions. "I do not know what the hell they are or where we are."
Adam took his light jacket off, slipped the gun back into his holster, which was now on display. Then both of their phones beeped urgently. Tony looked blankly at the plastic tablet. Adam held his phone up him to see, it displayed the same message, 'Location Unknown'.
"Tony, are we actually on Earth?"
"Yes." He said with certainty. "I think so". He added a little unsure.
"These give you your location anywhere on the planet, no exceptions." He shook he head. "They use satellites and it can't find a single satellite signal. What the fuck is going on?" This was the first time he had heard the worry in Adam's voice.
"Don't get angry at me," Tony said holding his hands up, palms forward.
"I'm not angry yet; I working up through worry, heading into panic, anger will come later."
"You rely on technology far too much." Adam's mouth dropped open in surprise. "In the same way, we rely on our magic too much."
Adam stared at him, raised his hand and pointed a finger at him. "Yes. Still doesn't tell us where we hell we are though, does it?"
"No." Adams' head tilted to one side and his eyes grew wider. "We might be in an extension."
"You told me the doll's house wasn't an extension and I can see a mountain range over there." He pointed off into the distance, and through the haze, there were mountains, huge mountains, snow-topped mountains. Tony pointed in the opposite direction and in the distance, they could see smoke rising upwards, taken across the sky by the light wind that did nothing to reduce the temperature.
"The doll's house was a port key which has brought us here." He paused for a moment as Adam caught up. "I'm going to take a guess and say that is a village of some sort."
Adam looked at the smoke and gave him another quizzical look. "Lead on."
Tony ignored the attempt at humour and set off at a brisk pace along the dusty track. Adam grinned at him and followed.
Tony's brown jacket was over his shoulder, sweat marks covered his normally neat T-shirt and his pace has slowed considerably. He came to a stumbling halt again as he slipped on a rut in the pathway, twisting his ankle.
"Tony, why can't you apparate to this village?"
He looked at Adam, a deep frown across his brow. "I can't apparate here, something is stopping me." He snapped. Adam pointed along the path, showing they should go on.
"I need a break; we've been walking for hours." He complained.
"We've been walking for twenty minutes," Adam replied exasperated.
"We've walked miles."
"We've walked a mile."
"Don't you get tired?"
"No, I'm bloody fit, now move." He said angrily, pushing Tony in the back. He staggered on, unhappy, hot and sweaty, something he was not at all used too.
The sun seemed to grow hotter, the strange beast that flew overhead, seemed to grow stranger every time he saw one. He grabbed Tony's arm and pointed at a huge dark outline slowly flapping its way across the sky.
"Dragon, no idea of the type." He replied, holding his wand up to his mouth, a jet of water flowed from the end into his mouth. He pointed it at Adam when he saw him watching open-mouthed. "I don't have a cup." Adam held out his hands forming a cup as Tony filled it with cool water, which he used to wash his face and neck first, and then drink.
"How much further do you think the village is?" Tony asked shielding his eyes with his hands, squinting off into the distance.
"Not far now." Said a well-educated British accented voice, both span around at the voice that had come from behind them. They stood opened mouth at a very tall skinny black man standing before them. He was wearing a bright red sheet over one shoulder, which came down to his bare knees. His feet were bare and hard, his head bald and shiny. In his hand was a long narrow spear, a bow and arrows and a small brown animal skinned shield with a design painted onto it in white.
Adam was the first to recover. "Good afternoon." This produced a huge smile and a hand held out.
As they shook hands, the man spoke. "My name is Talib." As he shook hands, the necklace around his neck clinked, making Adam look down and the row of huge long white wickedly curved teeth, for a moment Adam was about to ask what animal they came from, then he remembered what he had seen flying overhead, and decided he didn't need to know.
"Do you know who we are?" He replied after a moment.
"Of course, we saw you arrive, crouched, weapons ready, why this was, I do not know. That's a very strange way to arrive if I might say so." His voice was cultured sounding like he and been to Oxford or Cambridge.
"We were expecting to be attacked," Tony said defensively, getting over his initial shock.
"Who could possible attack you here?" Talib asked.
"We don't know where here is."
"All will become clear after your trial." Talib smiled at them both.
"Trial?" They both shouted together. Talib looked surprised.
"You have broken so many laws, there has to be a trial." His voice sounded surprised.
"How could we possibly know we've broken any laws?" Tony asked, annoyed at the turn of events.
"Tony, Adam said quietly, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."
"What the hell does that mean?" Exclaimed Tony loudly.
"Spoken like a true law enforcer." Tony's head was swinging back between the two of them.
"Can you explain the laws we have supposedly broken?" Adam asked quietly.
"First, you entered our realm, by an unknown method, second, you are a muggle and inside our realm without permission, third, you have a firearm inside our realm and last, you are an Auror." He finished looking at Tony. "All four are against our laws."
"We don't know where here is and we came here by port key that someone set up," Tony said in defence.
"That remains to be seen."
"Why is being an Auror or a muggle against your rules?" Adam asked, as Tony walked away, angrily kicking at some stones, which did nothing except cover himself in a cloud of red dust.
"An Auror or a muggle can only enter the Extensions at the bequest of our priestess and having the correct paperwork at hand, which you obviously do not have," Talib replied.
"You were right Tony," Adam said. "Well Talib, I suppose you should take us to your priestess."
"We are already there." He pulled the short narrow spear from inside the hide shield, which turned out to be very pointed and made of metal, the handle, thicker and made of polished wood. He pointed the wooden end of the spear at the side of the road and an old worn wooden door rose from the dusty ground.
"I take it that's a wand of some sort?" Adam asked as he gestured towards the spear.
"Yes." He pushed at the end of the spear which released something inside and a wand slid from it. Talib pushed his wand back inside until it clicked. "General life in the Extensions can be a little rough on wands and there is little chance of buying a new one, so this is protection." He waved the spear for a moment before he reached over and pulled the door open.
Adam looked inside at the small dusty room, and then he looked around the back of the door and found a closed door on that side. He walked back and looked inside again, seeing another door inside, similar to the first, only this one had six pieces of smoothed driftwood on each side on the door, each with a different gold symbol etched on them. Talib stepped inside and pressed the top left wooden sign, which moved under the pressure of his hand, the door clicked. Talib looked at them both, smiled and opened that door.
"Welcome to the AMC, gentlemen."