Chapter 10
by Carycomic
Owain Ap Bedwyr Crabbe (once known as "Spider" to his mates in the Fifty-third Infantry Division) had been serving with the British army in the Middle Eastern Theater of World War One, when he learned of his parents' deaths. Officially, they had died when their motor car stalled on a railroad crossing just as a troop train was approaching it! In reality, however, they had been captured by aurors while fighting for Grindelwald as members of his First Pureblood Alliance. And, after being tried and convicted by the Wizengamot, they were subsequently sentenced. . .
. . .to being sent Beyond the Veil.
Naturally, he vowed revenge. But, as he had been born a squib, he had not inherited any of their magic prowess. So, Spider did the next best thing. He sought out someone who could grant him such power. In this case? A Setite of the Abd-al-Sobek bloodline!
He did not gain that power right away, of course. It took him fourteen years of magical study with- -and a ghouling by- -the Giovanni Clan of Venice before he was deemed trustworthy enough to be introduced to those particular Setites. With the one who finally and fully 'Embraced' him thereby revealing that the Great Fire of London had actually been started by a vampirized dragon!
Taking inspiration from this, the rogue Welshman attacked the seaside resort of Ilfracombe, Devonshire, in 1932.
Fortunately, for the sake of all the muggles in attendance at that beach, a wizarding family called the Tokes were present to drive Crabbe off. Following which, they cast memory-obliviating spells on every muggle witness they could get hold of. As for Crabbe, himself? He flew northeastward, towards the Baltic Sea, in order to find some place he could hide while he mended his wounds. He found such a place in a forest clearing near Lake Lagoda. And he was still convalescing there when he was seemingly betrayed, by a group of Jormungandrian Setites from Sweden, to Goratrix of Clan Tremere!
He had been the first and foremost line of defense, for the latter's chantry, ever since. Fortunately, for John Baring Summers, his guide had thought of a way around that problem, too.
"Heliotropic jasper," said Agent Gareth, holding up two small jeweled medallions. "Charms, similar to these, allowed Armenian wizarding folk to escape the Turkish attempts at genocide after the First World War."
To illustrate his point, Gareth placed the first medallion around his neck... and promptly became invisible.
"Care to try yours on for size?"
Following which, the second medallion 'floated' to within arm's reach of John. Whereupon the erstwhile Gray Shadow grabbed it up without any further hesitation. The moment he did so, of course, it initially seemed like Gareth had rematerialized! But John knew just the opposite was true when he saw that his guide was still wearing the first medallion. Ergo, John had simply become invisible on the same "wavelength" as Gareth!
"Now, can we head for the moat?" demanded the former.
The latter grinned and nodded.
They ran towards the moat, as quickly-but-quietly as possible. For, while the invisibility auras cast by the jasper medallions might extend to the clothes on their backs and anything else they were carrying, it did not make them correspondingly inaudible to the Welsh Green dracolich, or anyone else nearby, who might be listening for intruders. That, in turn, is why they were unavoidably nervous for the relatively short time it took for the rubber raft to inflate itself. For, to their ears, the hissing of the helium cartridges seemed absolutely thunderous!
The second that process was through, however, they hurriedly lowered the raft into the water. Following which, they gently climbed into it. It was only after John was fully aboard that Gareth revealed a third surprise. A pair of two-piece folding spade bayonets!
"Good for disposing of terminated sentries," he quipped. "...paddling rubber life rafts; and even decapitating the occasional vampire!"
"You seem to have thought of everything," John countered.
Gareth shrugged. "One does one's best."
John merely grinned, as he began paddling on the right. Matching his strokes to those of Gareth as the latter paddled on the left. When they reached the grate, Gareth asked if it would be possible for John to magically anchor the raft in place while he burned through the metallic portions of the grate built into the castle wall. Yet, much to the other man's surprise, John just grinned and replied. "No need."
Whereupon, the slightly younger man withdrew his wand and chanted. "Eallub muc alucitarc aus itcaf tnus abreh munolluf!"
This, in turn, resulted into the grate becoming nothing more than a curtain of soap bubbles! Every single one of which floated away, up into the air.
Gareth looked at him, duly impressed.
"Am I mistaken? Or was that backward-spoken Latin?"
John shamelessly grinned. "One of Da Vinci's lesser known accomplishments."
Following that slight bit of banter, they paddled their raft into the entrance of the tunnel from which the moat seemed to be getting at least half its water. Upon getting about fifty feet from the entrance, John turned around and waved his wand a second time.
"Ogami-tnerappa-meditot-ilucaiter-setatimmus."
This resulted in an image of the grate materializing where the real one had just been! Following which, he and Gareth resumed their paddling. Neither of them knew just how long they did so. But, in the end, the raft emerged in a spacious underground chamber with a stone stairway leading up to a locked metallic door. And, parallel to the bottom of that stairway, were one or two steps leading down toward the edge of the water. Clearly indicating some kind of mooring quay!
So, that was where they disembarked from the raft. Lifting it upward and out, immediately afterward, so they could flip it upside-down upon the relatively dryer surface of the landing.
"OK!" John now whispered. "Where do we go from here?"
"We are in Schloss Krevcheski," replied Gareth. "A castle built for, and named after, Count Krevcheski. A Teutonic Knight of the Livonian Order whose persecution of pagan Lithuanians, loyal to Clan Tzimice, led to him becoming the progenitor of the revenant family that used to bear his name. At the head of those stone steps is the old torture chamber where he used to attempt forcible conversions of those pagans. And, within that torture chamber... is a secret passage leading to the upstairs bedroom where the Count used to sleep! Goratrix abides there, now."
"Then, I ask again," John quipped. "What are we waiting here for?"
They made their way up to the iron door as stealthily as possible. A couple of firm-but-gentle tugs were enough to confirm it was locked. But now it was John's turn to further impress Gareth!
"Hold this over the keyhole, please."
Whereupon a magnifying glass was placed in Gareth's right hand. John then withdrew his wand and chanted (in forward Latin): "Transformatio-rubrum-corundum."
This immediately changed the lens of the magnifying glass into genuine ruby crystal! "Lumo."
This, of course, resulted in John's wand developing an incandescent glow at its very tip. But, with one major difference. Putting that light near the ruby lens immediately produced a pencil-thin laser beam. One that burned through the key hole's locking mechanisms like a hot knife slicing through butter! And, when that process had been completed, John changed the lens back to ordinary glass before putting both it and his wand away. All while gesturing to Gareth, with his left hand, to push open the iron door.
There was some minor squeaking, by the hinges, on the first push. So, John took out his wand, once more, and used it to create microscopic vacuums around each of the hinges.
"Sound waves can't travel through a vacuum," he explained, as Gareth pushed the door open much wider. "But, that's unimportant, now. Where's the entrance to the secret passage?"
They had tip-toed halfway across the floor of the old torture chamber by the time John asked that question. Unfortunately, it was not Gareth who answered that question.
"You won't be needing it, gentlemen. Ea revelare!"
Before either John or Gareth could do anything to prevent it, their jasper medallions flew up and off their necks. Landing in the hands of the very being they had come to see!
"Willkommen im Schloss Krevcheski, mein herren! I am Goratrix Ex-Tremere. Currently, much better known as... The Third Finger of the True Black Hand."
tbc
BACKWARD-LATIN GLOSSARY
"Bullae cum craticula sua facti sunt herba fullonum" ("Grate change to soap bubbles").
"Imago apparent totidem retiaculi summitates" ("Image of grate appear").