Chapter 8.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

(JUNE 10, 1967)

John Baring Summers answered the door on the second knock. Sure enough, it was Jan Kalmas.

"Only twenty-four hours? I'm impressed!"

"Thank you. Here is map."

Whereupon he unfurled a scroll that levitated in a vertical position. This was followed by the drawing of a red circle using his magic wand around a certain portion of the Dainava Forest roughly equidistant between the villages of Zervynos and Perloja.

"This is the closest you will be able to apparate without detection. A railroad depot that could best be described as a poor man's version of Platform 9.75 in London. It sits on a spur line used by the Durmstrang Express. And the chantry used by Goratrix is ten kilometers northward by one kilometer westward. I have arranged it so you traverse the first ten by hand car."

"Hand car?!" echoed John, in half-serious disbelief.

Kalmas smiled and shrugged. "Is better than walking, ne?* In any event, you will be met at ten-click mark by local guide. Password is 'Jokubas'. Counter-sign is 'Obligaciji'."

John instinctively translated the words in his head.

" 'James' and 'Bond'?" he exclaimed once more.

And, once again, Kalmas smilingly shrugged. "What can I say? He is big Sean Connery fan! In any event, he is also only man available at such short notice who knows this area like back-of-his-hand. Including location of all protective wards! All I need to tell him is when you plan to meet with him."

John looked at his watch. "How's two o'clock in the morning sound?"

Kalmas synchronized his watch with that of his American friend. "Done!"

"Then, you'd best be on your way. Could I have my portkey back, please?"

Kalmas handed it over, as requested. Whereupon John touched him with it. Teleporting the half-Veela Lithuanian back to his office.

Eight hours later, at midnight straight up, the American wizard apparated to that small railroad depot in the seeming middle of nowhere. There, as promised, he found the hand car. Whereupon he took out his wand and muttered the following incantation: "Treguna macoides tragorum sadis dee."

Seconds later, the see-saw-like handlebar of the vehicle began pumping up and down all by itself. Propelling the hand car forward, while Summers sat meditating, in a yoga lotus position, on the back end of it. And, at 1:55 A.M. local time, his watch turned into a miniature cuckoo clock! With the roof of the clock opening up like the twin hatches of a missile silo. Thereby allowing the cuckoo to launch skyward, on a lengthy coil spring, and whisper in his right ear. "Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"

The time-delay spell he had put on his watch having done its work, John opened his eyes and changed the watch back to normal. Five minutes afterward, he muttered one word.

"Finis!"

The hand car halted in its tracks. Almost immediately, this was followed by a somewhat sibilant whisper.

"Jokubas!"

John wasted no time replying. "Obligaciji!"

Whereupon a slender bespectacled man, dressed in green-and-black camouflage clothing, just like John, stepped out of the trees to John's right.

"You are Ponas Vasara?"

John nodded. "Taip!"

"You may call me... Gareth."

"As in, Sir Gawain's youngest brother?"

This brought a wry smile to the other man's face. "Just so. Follow me, please."

At that point both men disappeared into the forest.

RUINS OF KALA PRADESH,

NORTHEASTERN INDIA

(JUNE 15, 1955)

No sooner had Tiaowen Kou's visitors left than he heard the tell-tale sound of someone literally popping in via apparation. Whereupon he swiftly spun about!

Only to find the business end of an eighth century Frankish broadsword pointed at his throat.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry," said Cassandra the Immortal. "So, you'll forgive me if I get right to... the point."

For the third time, within the past half hour, the striped were-hyena laughed like one of his spotted African brethren.

"Well punned, my dear! How may I be of assistance?"

"I'm looking for Roland Kantos. However, he's obviously no longer here. So, tell me where he went, and I'll leave. Without taking your head in the process!"

The were-hyena's ensuing grin was positively, and quite literally, feral.

"I know who you are, Cassandra Crescent Moon. And so do my loyal taotie!"

His left paw pointed to the silently gathering multitude of Black Spiral Dancers.

"Do you honestly think you can take my head, and then apparate away, before they are upon you? I sincerely doubt it. And even a warrior of the highest quality must eventually succumb to an enemy of vastly superior quantity!"

Cassandra's answering smile was just as feral. "What say we test that theory?"

It was at this point that someone else yelled. "Open fire!"

The next thing anyone knew, there was a massive explosion of white phosphorus amidst the Black Spiral Dancers. Followed by several dozen leaping upward in painful death throes as some kind of machine gun riddled them with silver bullets! Yet, the inevitable four or five seconds of initial surprise quickly faded away. Resulting in Tiaowen Kou springing forward; his jaws already seeking to clamp themselves around Cassandra's throat! And yet the Immortal wizardess was just as quick to defend herself. Lowering the blade of her scramasax so that the rogue Ajaba impaled himself upon it at the same time she threw herself flat on her back.

That maneuver allowed her to raise her legs together, straight up in the air, and thereby catapult the stripe were-hyena over her. As a result, he landed flat on his back which, in turn, caused the sword to lodge itself in the ground. Effectively pinning Tiaowen Kou in place like a butterfly in a collection! Naturally, he howled in pain for the first second or two. Which he immediately followed up with frantic-yet-fruitless efforts to pull the sword out of his chest. Thereby allowing Cassandra...

. . .to assume her Krinos form.

"Rowr-rowr!"

"Ar-r-r-r-r-gh!"

His death scream changed to a nauseating gurgle as she tore out his throat. Only when she was sure that he was dead did she resume her human form just prior to withdrawing her sword. Upon re-sheathing it, beneath her brown cloak, she turned to see who her rescuers were. And, for someone who thought herself jaded after nearly two millennia of Immortality, she was nevertheless dumbfounded to see three men, dressed like Tibetan Sherpas, standing before her on floating Persian rugs.

"Greetings, Madam," said the spokesman, armed with a World War II-surplus M1A1 bazooka. "As you're a good witch, I'm tempted to say we represent the Lollipop Guild! But, in fact, we belong to a secret society called the King's Men. You may call me Agent Galahad... and these are my colleagues. Agent Gareth; the world's most lethally proficient user of the Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R. none)."

Agent Gareth shamelessly groaned.

"And Agent Melion, who kept my bazooka... uniquely well-loaded."

Cassandra looked down at the magic wand in the third man's right hand. Her nostrils then did a little twitching at the surprising familiarity of its owner's scent.

"Lupus? Lupus Black?!"

The third man removed his light brown scarf and smiled. "Hello, Cassie."

HOGSMEADE, SCOTLAND (APR. 29, 1945)

Aldebaran Black had been born and raised in New York City.** An American squib collaterally descended from the House of Black. Most people just called him by his surname as only his friends got to call him 'Al'. Unfortunately, he had lost even those few friends, along with his private eye's license, seven years earlier, when he publicly exposed the fact that a vehemently anti-British cadre of Irish-American cops had been selling confiscated Tommy guns to the members of a German-American bund!

Consequently, he permanently emigrated to his wife's birthplace; Devonshire, England. An auror of House Shaea (nee Polly Phyllis Lupin), she was not only half-Lovegood on her mother's side of the family. But, also, a Silver Fang Kinswoman of theurge auspice, partially descended from the venerable-yet-nearly-extinct Austere Howler sept!

"He's in the Austrian Alps," he now told Professor Dumbledore of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "A castle called Schloss Nurmengard. You'd better bring some back-up. Because, in addition to being guarded inside the castle by the sour cream of his crop, Grindelwald's also got Black Spiral Dancers acting as watchdogs on the outside."

"Which is why he's got us," replied Cassandra, pointing at herself... and Polly.

Naturally, this led to some brief-but-intense arguing between husband and wife. That is; till their ten-year-old covered his ears and started yelling for them to stop it! Upon which the Immortal wizardess took young Lupus outside to talk to him, separately. The extent of what she said she never revealed. Only what she had ultimately said in conclusion.

"I'll bring her home to you safe and sound. I promise."

Alas! Despite her best efforts, that proved one of the few promises she had ever made that she was unable to keep.

tbc

Lithuanian Glossary

*Ne = "No."

Ponas Vasara: literally, "Mr. Summer."

Taip = "Yes."

** 'Black' was the monosyllabic eponym for a two-fisted private investigator who appeared in two pulp fiction stories authored by Paul Cain between 1932 and 1934. I gave him the first name of 'Aldebaran' as that means 'The Follower' in Arabic. Which, when you think about it, is kind of apt for a private eye!

Austere Howler(s): Silver Fang Garou said to be partially descended from White Howler Kinfolk who married into the tribe in an effort to protect themselves from the Black Spiral Dancers. Which might go a long way toward explaining some of the Lovegood family's more noteworthy... eccentricities.