Chapter 13
Harry scanned the sky, he could hear the rush of moving air, and he could felt he vampire with his mind, he stepped back inside to give the vampire room to land on the narrow balcony. Nasiji landed lightly on the balcony, barely stirring the curtains, long hair flying out about her pale face. She bowed swiftly and hurried inside, Harry paused, looking skyward, and then followed her back into the room. Silent enchantments sparked from his fingertips and encircled the house in seconds, none could see or hear anything inside, he didn't want any of Voldemort's agents or any nearby muggles listening.
Nasiji sank gracefully into one of the soft dark red chairs beside the bed, her old-fashioned dark blue robes settling about her, Harry sat down in another chair. Suddenly Arai stiffened, the fingers on one hand digging into the bed as the vampire shuddered, baring his teeth briefly.
"He's been doing that occasionally for an hour, reliving the attack." Harry said, finally allowing his exhaustion to show in his voice and posture as he relaxed back and closed his eyes briefly. Between the day's travel, guarding the students the night before, trying to talk some sense into Draco, and this he was beginning to feel worn down.
Nasiji passed two fingers over Arai's forehead, sending a strong sense of calm and security to Arai's sleeping mind, and he relaxed.
"It was Voldemort's vampires?" She asked finally, turning to Harry.
"Yes," he turned to look out the window as Kylar and Cassandra entered almost simultaneously, followed a few moments later by Vera, Cerele, and Reglar. As Harry conjured up chairs for them he once again got the impression that Kylar and Reglar were related, they looked like brothers, their names even meant the same thing, in different ancient languages, shooting star.
(AN: I got an email about pronouncing names, Reglar is pronounced Ray-lar, the 'g' is silent.)
"How many of them?" Kylar asked immediately, Harry could nearly see the vampire's mind turning to revenge.
"How many did he kill?" Reglar continued,
"And how long until we go after the rest of them?" Harry blinked, at times those two reminded him very strongly of the Weasely twins.
"Okay one question at a time, I don't know how many there were, eleven were killed, and we're not going after them, yet. Yes Arai will recover, he'll be back to normal in a few days, once he can go hunt again and get some fresh blood. Mine, powerful as it is, isn't human enough to heal this. My guess is that Arai was hunting when he got attacked. Voldemort has been watching for you everywhere. But the young vampires didn't act on his orders; he would never have ordered you killed. You're too valuable an ally if he can get you, and he knows killing you will likely mean great losses to his side. Once Arai's awake we can get a better idea of what happened." The others relaxed a little, resigned to waiting until Arai awoke.
"He'll probably be up by tomorrow night, but I think he'll still be too weak, physically and magically, to hunt. It would be helpful if one of you could capture someone and bring them here. Actually never mind, I'll go capture a death eater or two, I'm sure Voldemort will understand. You'll probably be receiving an apology from him sometime soon."
"That'll be the day hell freezes over." Nasiji snorted, "why do you think they attacked him?"
Harry shrugged, thinking hard, but he could find no reason for the attack.
"Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up, but I have no idea why they would. They must have sensed how powerful he is. They must have known they would be killed. I imagine Voldemort isn't to pleased with the others right now." He finally replied, they all paused as Arai shuddered, then relaxed again.
**
Snow white fur rippled over powerful muscles as the wolf bounded across the snow, up a ahead a forbidding dark gray castle loomed against the blue sky.
Inside the castle Voldemort walked out of his study, Wormtail and Mel were in the room beyond, a meeting room/small library, organizing books. Without a word he caught Wormtail's arm and pressed a finger to the dark mark, Mel and Wormtail both stiffened and grimaced in pain.
Outside the castle the white wolf shook its head, eyes flashing, and gave an almost inaudible snarl.
Death eaters apparated in to their usual meeting point outside the Fortress. They were quick to respond, coming form wherever they had been as quickly as possible. They arrived in ones and twos, appearing all over the ground before the castle, widely spread out so as not to hit each other apparating.
The wolf slunk through the low trees, watching them al walk up to the open space just before the Fortress. Finally one man, having apparated farther away than the others, walked past the wolf. In a flash of white the wolf pounced, the man didn't even have time to scream, he fell with a thud, his head hitting a tree root hard. The wolf kicked snow over him and lay down, waiting for the death eaters to leave. They really were dull, most of the average death eaters specializing in stupidity, they would never miss this one, until somewhere in the middle of the meeting. At which point some old sot with the faintest bit of intelligence would ask, "hey, where's whatever that stupid gits' name is?" At which point they'd figure out he was missing. The more intelligent would be sent to find him, find him missing, someone, likely a member of the Inner Circle, would voice the thought that perhaps the old vampires weren't to happy about one of their being attacked. And he would be proclaimed dead.
**
Harry waited patiently in the study just beyond the bedroom, leaning back in a recliner, beside him on a small desk a large white quill was writing furiously on what looked like a page torn from a book.
As patiently calm as he might look Harry was anything but relaxed. Arai should be waking up soon, and, knowing that the vampire wouldn't be in any mood to be reasoned with, he had elected to stay away until Arai had fed on the death eater Harry had brought him and regained some of his sanity.
The quill reached the end of the page and stopped, falling to the desk, the page leaping into Harry's hand he looked it over, everything had to be perfect or this wouldn't work. He glanced at the closed doors and reached out mentally for Nasiji.
Lord Phoenix, what is it?
How long until he wakes?
A half hour at least.
I have some work I have to do, I should be back before then. Harry rose and left the house.
**
The cave was huge, nearly a hundred feet high and easily seventy feet wide, walls and ceiling glittered with mica and crystals. Long stalactites made from gleaming crystal, razor sharp, hung form the ceiling. In the center of the cave was a deep pool of water, the water glowed aqua in the dark, making the walls shimmer and sparkle. It was nearly a mile underground, the heart of a complex cave system that periodically flooded. There were two entrances, and nearly nine miles of caves to traverse before one could arrive at the crystal one.
There was only one entrance to this cave, a ragged dark opening ten feet up one wall. Across the cave, and the pool, from the opening as a table, made from a golden wood with silver runes engraved on it. On the table, leaning against a silver stand, was a large painting.
Photographic like in quality and detail the image was on a circle of stone monoliths, in the center was a figure, encased in faintly transparent white flames, arms raised towards a blood red, cloudless, evening sky. Twenty-two dead bodies lay on the ground around the figure. They lay head to feet in a spiral shape; all had runes cut into their cheeks, foreheads, arms, legs, chests, and backs.
The figure stood in a small circle at the center of the grisly spiral, the ground it stood on covered in pale gold sand, imbedded in the sand was a long black rope, twisted into runes. At first glace one would wonder why the person, who was obviously performing a sort of ceremonial dance, didn't kick about the sand and rope. Looking closer however it was clear that the sand and rope had been melted together into one large inch thick circular block.
Upon each of the stones, which were well recognizable as Stonehenge, only it was rebuilt like it was supposed to be, was a painting. Done in blood, of a rose, a claw, and a knife. Silver for the knife was unicorn blood, dark gold for the claw was Mereperson blood, ruby red (even when dried) for the rose was elf blood. All three, rose, claw, and knife, dripped dark red blood, dried human blood.
Up high in the painting, clearly visible against the red sky, were huge black amorphous winged forms. Their bodies blurred with a dark glow that could be flames or something else. Dark dragon-like wings sprouted from their backs, they had no eyes, only two pits of red flame. Their ears were highly pointed and positioned so that they came up over the creature's heads, rather like horns. They had six fingers on each hand, and each finger had a long vicious looking claw that sprouted from the first joint. Their feet were rather raptor like, huge black talons, which they walked on. The rest of their features were hard to make out, for the blurr of darkness surrounding them was only semi transparent.
The Emperor demons hovered above the scene below, all of the clearly flying downwards, toward the dancing, flaming, figure.
The figure, robed in dark gold, green and black, stepped back a bit to look at the painting, rather disturbing it was, though he was eerily drawn to it. Yes one could become obsessed with this painting easily. Pleased he began the dark magics, no reasonable person would leave such a thing unguarded, and Voldemort would have to work to get it.
"Nikam'rumu ata'im, ergutil rahl, wevenril'im, orzash'im, descolak." (A series of nasty spells, if you want further information on them go check out The Language of High K'haril at http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=999424&chapter=2 )
He spoke slowly and clearly, pouring energy into the magics. These were spells no one would ever recognize, except perhaps Voldemort. They were the darkest type of dark magics. Spells invented by the War Mages for guarding things. The War Mages never used them in battle, unless it was absolutely necessary. Using these magics where it was not necessary was severely punished, and the spirits of the Golden Forest would call upon him to explain his usage of them if they thought it unnecessary. However in this circumstance it was necessary, and the death eaters Voldemort would bring with him on the expedition to find the painting would be his best, and most ruthless. Heartless murderers, most with the death penalty or life in Azkaban forcing them to flee to Voldemort for protection. Now all he had to do was to find some suitable guardians for the painting.
Heron left the caves, leaving poison darts imbedded in the walls to shoot at any intruder and places where the floor would cave in when stepped upon. At the entrance he removed a oblong metal container from a pocket. A strange sort of bottle made from silver, pausing at the entrance he moved his staff over the ground, opening up a long trench across the entrance. Much too wide to jump, and far too wide for most wizards to be able to levitate themselves across, and there was no way around it. He unscrewed the cap of the bottle and, with great care so that the thing inside wouldn't get him, dumped it onto the ground.
'It' was a dark green and brown ball of what looked like vines and leave, about the size of a light bulb. When it hit the ground it begin to twist about, thorns appeared, digging into the soil, in seconds it was buried completely. Etmirap was a plant-like organism that lived almost entirely underground, except for the leaves, which changed color to match the soil. It was infact a carnivorous vine with a small bulb at its base and long roots. The vines had color-changing leaves, thorns, and little suckers that were like those on a giant squid, in other words the suckers each had a sharp beak inside. Their thorns injected poison and the suckers, once attached to something, didn't let go until the plant died or they were cut off. The beaks had venomous saliva in them and were razor sharp, usually going for the victims veins while the poison in the thorns paralyzed its prey. It had no eyes but the bulb-like base, which was also thickly furred, had three large oval openings, each with a thin layer of tissue over it to keep the dirt out. And these heard any and all vibrations in the earth around it.
Because of its ability to sense coming earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the War Mages kept one of these plants at the Fortress. A true monster it grew vines fifteen feet long, had thorns the size of a dagger, and suckers as big as a human head. A highly useful, if slightly dangerous, creature to a people that lived at the base of the largest volcano on earth. This one he had just planted had been given a growth potion, in three weeks it would have vines thirty feet long. For the soil here was very rich, and many small animals lived about the cave entrance. As its first food he transfigured a small pile of rocks into centipedes, earthworms, and beetles, and dumped them into the trench. Dark green vines lashed out from the dirt, thorns becoming purplish as paralyzing venom flowed into them.
Putting the silver bottle away Heron took out a small diamond jar filled with a dark blue liquid, he poured the entire thing onto the ground above the spot where the Etmirap had vanished. This would speed the Etmirap's growth greatly. Voldemort and his followers would never have encountered an Etmirap before; they lived only in the Phoenix Mountains. And being rather impervious to most magics they would have a lot of difficulty with it.
**
Arai relaxed back into the soft armchair, having finished his story. The vampires and human were silent for a moment, taking it in. Arai had been out hunting when he had been attacked by a bunch of vampires. These vampires had been newly initiated into Voldemort ranks, and, to celebrate, had gone 'out for a drink'. Which, for vampires, meant purposely seeking out drunk or thoroughly drugged prey. Having drunk from a few such humans each the vampire's senses became affected until they passed into a drunk- like state, only much more intense and certainly never life threatening. And with no hangover, the only bad part was that they couldn't escape this state until the blood was old enough to no longer be so potent. Unless of course they did something outrageously stupid, like attacking one of the oldest and most powerful of the vampires. Not to mention the only one with a real reputation for slaughtering others of his own kind. Throughout his long history Arai had periodically done this whenever he felt that there were too many vampires around, and he didn't feel like leaving the area.
Cassandra was the first to speak, in a rather woeful and resigned tone. "Well I don't know what mental deficiency those fledglings have, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce." The others all turned to stare at her for a moment, before cracking up.
"Well they won't be doing anything like that again in a hurry, and you'll be getting quite a reputation boost from this." Harry said finally, struggling to stop laughing. The actual death count, Arai had told then, was twelve of Voldemort's killed, and another half dozen or so injured, only four had escaped unharmed. "It is fortunate that you are so good at knife fighting, and never go anywhere unarmed, else they could well have done more damage." Arai's three hidden knives, all coated with a War Mage invented poison, which slowed any humans' reflexes, vampire, werewolf or mortal, had certainly saved his life.
"Well I learned from the best," Arai said, inclining his head towards Harry and Nasiji, "you have a few thousand years you learn things." He added, it was the elf, and vampire, motto. "And if you all don't mind, I'm going back to sleep." The others nodded rising they left the room, heading down to the basement where they would rest until evening in the spare coffins and rooms in the extensive underground.
"How will Voldemort take this?" Arai asked as the others left.
"He's.ticked off. right now. The surviving vampires are probably wishing they hadn't survived." Harry said with a grin, Arai showed his fangs.
"Wish I could watch, and the painting Phoenix?"
"In place, you did a terrific job Arai, do you want it back afterwards?" Arai thought about it, a odd glint in his eyes.
"Well it would certainly make a conversation starter, or stopper." He finally said, "if it survives Voldemort's handling."
"I'm sure he'll treat it like it was his favorite rickety great aunt." Harry said.
"And burn it. Yes if it survives this I think I might find some use for it." he trailed off, a mischievous gleam growing in his eyes.
"Uh oh, what do you have planned for it?" Harry finally asked, dreading the answer.
"Oh nothing master nothing at all really." Harry raised an eyebrow at his friend's fiendish grin. The staring match only lasted a few moments before Arai gave in. "Well.public reaction to it being found in some leader's study would be.interesting.maybe the Pope's?" The vampire grinned as Harry's eyebrows both shot up, and he started laughing again.
"Wonderful idea! Considering the, Satanist nature, of the painting, it would cause quite a commotion."
**
The group ate breakfast while talking about their peoples. The elves had very limited experience with humans, and most of that was death eater related. The humans had none at all with elves. Harry had returns just before dawn, offering no explanation to his disappearance, and they didn't ask for any, the agenda of the Keeper of the Ways was not questioned by anyone in the wizarding world.
Hermione and Selna were chattering incessantly about human magics, a conversation the rest of the group was slowly drawn into. Elves could do human magics, but only on a small scale, and they didn't use wands, something the human envied them for.
"If you lose your wand in a duel were screwed, there's not much you can do. Magic less fighting is useless against a wizard with a wand." Ron argued, Draco disagreed strongly.
"Not if you're fast enough to dodge, and quick enough to get away or get your wand back."
"Not really, a good stunning spell."
"If you've got good enough reflexes-"
"Quicker than magic? Get real."
"Yes quicker than magic, and if you can get a hold of the opponents arms they won't be able to point their wand at you." Ron opened his mouth to reply, but, sensing an argument coming, Harry spoke up.
"Or you could just learn a simple wandless spell to call your wand to you at any time no matter where it is." He said, startling them all, except the elves, they had though he was up ahead a ways.
"I think that idea sounds best, besides in a duel you don't have a choice do you? You have to fight or run. You can't just give up if you lose your wand." Jaqway decided, the other elves agreed with him. Harry looked up ahead, sensing the barrier he held up a hand and halted. This part had been worrying him all day, he was not entirely sure if the barrier would let Draco through, even if he did have an elf with him. Harry had spelled Draco's breakfast in an effort to top the problem, but he wasn't sure if it would work.
"Okay, humans, pay attention, elves, go ahead a zone out," Carol snorted and a few musical chuckles came from the surrounding elves, "we've reached the barrier, since this cannot be dismantled and there is no way around you'll have to go through. And the only way through is escorted by an elf. Selna, Hermione, how about you go first?"
Selna and Hermione walked forward, then Selna grabbed Hermione hand and stepped into the barrier, the elf passed through easily. Hermione slowed down, they could see her outline blur and smudge, air rippling around her. The two steps through the barrier took nearly half a minute. Then she started moving again, she was through. They both stood facing the others; there was nothing different about them, the barrier completely invisible. Jalim and Eldin appeared from the trees on the other side, having crossed earlier to make sure the barrier was in stable condition. Occasional power fluctuations caused by death eaters attacking the barrier would often cause power surges that might have stopped anything, even and elf, from passing.
"Okay, Dawn, Jaqway?" The two walked through the barrier, Dawn slowing as he stepped through. In twos the others all passed through without a hitch, Harry simply walked through.
"That was creepy." Ron said as they started off through the forest. Which was significantly old than the one on the other side. Gigantic trees surrounded them. The elves all relaxed a bit, Jaqway and Eldin leaving the group to travel through the trees, keeping watch from above.
"Yeah, it felt like you were moving through transparent glue, unnerving." Carol said, shuddering.
"I thought it was cool, I'd like to try it again, it so weird." Draco said enthusiastically, much to everyone's surprise.
"How is it made?" Hermione of course, always thirsting for knowledge.
"It's a got a complicated history. It was made when the elves finally decided they'd had enough of the human race and wanted their own place. Please don't get insulted, and why they wanted that, well it should be obvious considering the human world today. Any how it was made by the great Elf Lords of old, thousands of years old everyone one of them. The War Mages, elf and other species alike, aided them in the enchantments. The spells were developed by the War Mages in order to separate the Phoenix Mountains from the rest of the world. The spells are linked to the crown of the Forest King, or the King of the Elves. The Crown itself has been lost to us for many thousands of years, no one knows its location anymore, it was hidden so that the spells would remain intact and never be disturbed. When elves die a part of their life's power goes to the Crown, so that even in death were all bound to our people, that power keeps the barrier strong. The dead protecting their living kin." Selna explained as they walked.
"And I'm guessing that Voldemort is after the Crown?" Draco asked, hiding amusement as the others winced, some of them were finally learning to control the reflex, but others, Ron namely, still flinched.
"Yes he is, fortunately we have no more of an idea where it is than he does." Selna explained, looking rather grim. That was the end of that conversation for a while, and Harry was glad his students had been quick enough to sense that it was not exactly a highly discussed topic among the elves.
The Elven Kingdom was a huge piece of land, roughly the size of Russia, containing every imaginable climate from the Antarctica-like far north, to a desert resembling the Sahara, to rainforests like the Amazon, and everything in between. Its atmosphere was, like the Phoenix Mountains, separate from the world as the human knew it, and not a hint of pollution was anywhere to be found. Animals could wander freely back and forth across the barrier, the only creatures that could not cross were humans who might be with animals, or werewolves, or animagi.
They were currently deep in one of the huge forests of the kingdom, the Kingdom of the Elves had never been logged and its different tree species, the most diverse on the planet, were gigantic. Plants in general, and most animals, grew much larger in the Elven lands than anywhere else. They were currently hiking through a forest of deciduous trees that were absolutely gigantic. The elves frequently darted off into the trees, leaping between branches thicker than a dragons tail, and whispering softly to the trees.
Late afternoon found them at the side of a very wide, slow moving river, on the other side the forest continued, and, built amongst the trees, was an elvish fortress.
Made from white marble, green/gold marble, silver, and a smooth black stone found only in the Elf lands it rose nearly four stories high in the trees. Graceful pathways weaving through the trees like ribbons connected individual houses a few stories higher up to the fortress. And ground level the fortress had only one door, a huge stone thing that looked like it hadn't opened in centuries.
It had obviously been built in what was probably the largest clearing the elves could possibly find, for they would never cut down the trees to build such a fortress. The ground around it was kept free of shrubs and small trees, on one side a well built stone stable was attached.
"The outpost Arimal, named for one of the greatest of the Elf Lords of old." Jalim said as he showed them to a dead tree. The tree stood only because of elven magics holding it upright, inside a staircase spiraled to the top, up at the top a bridge made entirely out of woven rope connected it to the true entrance the to the fortress.
"We have to cross that?" Ron said, giving Harry a rather panicked look.
"If you fall pull your wand out and shout a cushioning charm." Harry said simply, Ron gave a nearly inaudible whimper, the rest of us are here, you're not going to die even if you do fall." He looked about, Hermione was deathly pale, and Draco looked to be in a similar state of fear. Jaqway went first, bounding effortlessly across the rope bridge as if there weren't three stories of open space beneath him. Selna followed.
"Dawn?" Harry said, Dawn gave him a horrified look, and then nervously stepped out onto the rope bridge. His eyes widened as he realized just how stable it really was, grasping the ropes on both sides for handles he hurried across.
"Draco, Carol, Ron?" The three crossed one by one, Ron breathing a huge sigh of relief when he'd crossed safely. Harry then came, crossing with the ease and grace that signified long practice and perfected balance, Jalim came last.
"I'll show you to your rooms." Ricalien offered, leading the way down a hallway.
"It's awfully open, what if you get attacked?" Draco asked curiously.
"Then we close it, you see there are slabs of stone that slide up into the ceiling and can be brought down to cover the openings in the event of an attack." Ricalien explained, nodding to two elf warrior as the passed, giving the human curious looks.
"Is there a place to bathe here?" Carol asked hopefully.
"Yes of course, the river is quite nice-" Ricalien and Harry traded smirks at their groans, "or if you prefer hot water there are two large bathhouses underground." They arrived at the guest wing, door opened on either side of the hallway.
Okay two to a room, don't spend to much time unpacking, we're leaving tomorrow, dinner is in an hour and a half." Harry told them, he watched until he was sure they were settled in, "I'm going to go talk to the Outpost Commander, some of the elves will come and get you at dinner time." He received a few calls of agreement and left, now if he could just remember where the Commander's office was.
Really sorry it's been so long, but it's a long chapter!
Harry scanned the sky, he could hear the rush of moving air, and he could felt he vampire with his mind, he stepped back inside to give the vampire room to land on the narrow balcony. Nasiji landed lightly on the balcony, barely stirring the curtains, long hair flying out about her pale face. She bowed swiftly and hurried inside, Harry paused, looking skyward, and then followed her back into the room. Silent enchantments sparked from his fingertips and encircled the house in seconds, none could see or hear anything inside, he didn't want any of Voldemort's agents or any nearby muggles listening.
Nasiji sank gracefully into one of the soft dark red chairs beside the bed, her old-fashioned dark blue robes settling about her, Harry sat down in another chair. Suddenly Arai stiffened, the fingers on one hand digging into the bed as the vampire shuddered, baring his teeth briefly.
"He's been doing that occasionally for an hour, reliving the attack." Harry said, finally allowing his exhaustion to show in his voice and posture as he relaxed back and closed his eyes briefly. Between the day's travel, guarding the students the night before, trying to talk some sense into Draco, and this he was beginning to feel worn down.
Nasiji passed two fingers over Arai's forehead, sending a strong sense of calm and security to Arai's sleeping mind, and he relaxed.
"It was Voldemort's vampires?" She asked finally, turning to Harry.
"Yes," he turned to look out the window as Kylar and Cassandra entered almost simultaneously, followed a few moments later by Vera, Cerele, and Reglar. As Harry conjured up chairs for them he once again got the impression that Kylar and Reglar were related, they looked like brothers, their names even meant the same thing, in different ancient languages, shooting star.
(AN: I got an email about pronouncing names, Reglar is pronounced Ray-lar, the 'g' is silent.)
"How many of them?" Kylar asked immediately, Harry could nearly see the vampire's mind turning to revenge.
"How many did he kill?" Reglar continued,
"And how long until we go after the rest of them?" Harry blinked, at times those two reminded him very strongly of the Weasely twins.
"Okay one question at a time, I don't know how many there were, eleven were killed, and we're not going after them, yet. Yes Arai will recover, he'll be back to normal in a few days, once he can go hunt again and get some fresh blood. Mine, powerful as it is, isn't human enough to heal this. My guess is that Arai was hunting when he got attacked. Voldemort has been watching for you everywhere. But the young vampires didn't act on his orders; he would never have ordered you killed. You're too valuable an ally if he can get you, and he knows killing you will likely mean great losses to his side. Once Arai's awake we can get a better idea of what happened." The others relaxed a little, resigned to waiting until Arai awoke.
"He'll probably be up by tomorrow night, but I think he'll still be too weak, physically and magically, to hunt. It would be helpful if one of you could capture someone and bring them here. Actually never mind, I'll go capture a death eater or two, I'm sure Voldemort will understand. You'll probably be receiving an apology from him sometime soon."
"That'll be the day hell freezes over." Nasiji snorted, "why do you think they attacked him?"
Harry shrugged, thinking hard, but he could find no reason for the attack.
"Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up, but I have no idea why they would. They must have sensed how powerful he is. They must have known they would be killed. I imagine Voldemort isn't to pleased with the others right now." He finally replied, they all paused as Arai shuddered, then relaxed again.
**
Snow white fur rippled over powerful muscles as the wolf bounded across the snow, up a ahead a forbidding dark gray castle loomed against the blue sky.
Inside the castle Voldemort walked out of his study, Wormtail and Mel were in the room beyond, a meeting room/small library, organizing books. Without a word he caught Wormtail's arm and pressed a finger to the dark mark, Mel and Wormtail both stiffened and grimaced in pain.
Outside the castle the white wolf shook its head, eyes flashing, and gave an almost inaudible snarl.
Death eaters apparated in to their usual meeting point outside the Fortress. They were quick to respond, coming form wherever they had been as quickly as possible. They arrived in ones and twos, appearing all over the ground before the castle, widely spread out so as not to hit each other apparating.
The wolf slunk through the low trees, watching them al walk up to the open space just before the Fortress. Finally one man, having apparated farther away than the others, walked past the wolf. In a flash of white the wolf pounced, the man didn't even have time to scream, he fell with a thud, his head hitting a tree root hard. The wolf kicked snow over him and lay down, waiting for the death eaters to leave. They really were dull, most of the average death eaters specializing in stupidity, they would never miss this one, until somewhere in the middle of the meeting. At which point some old sot with the faintest bit of intelligence would ask, "hey, where's whatever that stupid gits' name is?" At which point they'd figure out he was missing. The more intelligent would be sent to find him, find him missing, someone, likely a member of the Inner Circle, would voice the thought that perhaps the old vampires weren't to happy about one of their being attacked. And he would be proclaimed dead.
**
Harry waited patiently in the study just beyond the bedroom, leaning back in a recliner, beside him on a small desk a large white quill was writing furiously on what looked like a page torn from a book.
As patiently calm as he might look Harry was anything but relaxed. Arai should be waking up soon, and, knowing that the vampire wouldn't be in any mood to be reasoned with, he had elected to stay away until Arai had fed on the death eater Harry had brought him and regained some of his sanity.
The quill reached the end of the page and stopped, falling to the desk, the page leaping into Harry's hand he looked it over, everything had to be perfect or this wouldn't work. He glanced at the closed doors and reached out mentally for Nasiji.
Lord Phoenix, what is it?
How long until he wakes?
A half hour at least.
I have some work I have to do, I should be back before then. Harry rose and left the house.
**
The cave was huge, nearly a hundred feet high and easily seventy feet wide, walls and ceiling glittered with mica and crystals. Long stalactites made from gleaming crystal, razor sharp, hung form the ceiling. In the center of the cave was a deep pool of water, the water glowed aqua in the dark, making the walls shimmer and sparkle. It was nearly a mile underground, the heart of a complex cave system that periodically flooded. There were two entrances, and nearly nine miles of caves to traverse before one could arrive at the crystal one.
There was only one entrance to this cave, a ragged dark opening ten feet up one wall. Across the cave, and the pool, from the opening as a table, made from a golden wood with silver runes engraved on it. On the table, leaning against a silver stand, was a large painting.
Photographic like in quality and detail the image was on a circle of stone monoliths, in the center was a figure, encased in faintly transparent white flames, arms raised towards a blood red, cloudless, evening sky. Twenty-two dead bodies lay on the ground around the figure. They lay head to feet in a spiral shape; all had runes cut into their cheeks, foreheads, arms, legs, chests, and backs.
The figure stood in a small circle at the center of the grisly spiral, the ground it stood on covered in pale gold sand, imbedded in the sand was a long black rope, twisted into runes. At first glace one would wonder why the person, who was obviously performing a sort of ceremonial dance, didn't kick about the sand and rope. Looking closer however it was clear that the sand and rope had been melted together into one large inch thick circular block.
Upon each of the stones, which were well recognizable as Stonehenge, only it was rebuilt like it was supposed to be, was a painting. Done in blood, of a rose, a claw, and a knife. Silver for the knife was unicorn blood, dark gold for the claw was Mereperson blood, ruby red (even when dried) for the rose was elf blood. All three, rose, claw, and knife, dripped dark red blood, dried human blood.
Up high in the painting, clearly visible against the red sky, were huge black amorphous winged forms. Their bodies blurred with a dark glow that could be flames or something else. Dark dragon-like wings sprouted from their backs, they had no eyes, only two pits of red flame. Their ears were highly pointed and positioned so that they came up over the creature's heads, rather like horns. They had six fingers on each hand, and each finger had a long vicious looking claw that sprouted from the first joint. Their feet were rather raptor like, huge black talons, which they walked on. The rest of their features were hard to make out, for the blurr of darkness surrounding them was only semi transparent.
The Emperor demons hovered above the scene below, all of the clearly flying downwards, toward the dancing, flaming, figure.
The figure, robed in dark gold, green and black, stepped back a bit to look at the painting, rather disturbing it was, though he was eerily drawn to it. Yes one could become obsessed with this painting easily. Pleased he began the dark magics, no reasonable person would leave such a thing unguarded, and Voldemort would have to work to get it.
"Nikam'rumu ata'im, ergutil rahl, wevenril'im, orzash'im, descolak." (A series of nasty spells, if you want further information on them go check out The Language of High K'haril at http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=999424&chapter=2 )
He spoke slowly and clearly, pouring energy into the magics. These were spells no one would ever recognize, except perhaps Voldemort. They were the darkest type of dark magics. Spells invented by the War Mages for guarding things. The War Mages never used them in battle, unless it was absolutely necessary. Using these magics where it was not necessary was severely punished, and the spirits of the Golden Forest would call upon him to explain his usage of them if they thought it unnecessary. However in this circumstance it was necessary, and the death eaters Voldemort would bring with him on the expedition to find the painting would be his best, and most ruthless. Heartless murderers, most with the death penalty or life in Azkaban forcing them to flee to Voldemort for protection. Now all he had to do was to find some suitable guardians for the painting.
Heron left the caves, leaving poison darts imbedded in the walls to shoot at any intruder and places where the floor would cave in when stepped upon. At the entrance he removed a oblong metal container from a pocket. A strange sort of bottle made from silver, pausing at the entrance he moved his staff over the ground, opening up a long trench across the entrance. Much too wide to jump, and far too wide for most wizards to be able to levitate themselves across, and there was no way around it. He unscrewed the cap of the bottle and, with great care so that the thing inside wouldn't get him, dumped it onto the ground.
'It' was a dark green and brown ball of what looked like vines and leave, about the size of a light bulb. When it hit the ground it begin to twist about, thorns appeared, digging into the soil, in seconds it was buried completely. Etmirap was a plant-like organism that lived almost entirely underground, except for the leaves, which changed color to match the soil. It was infact a carnivorous vine with a small bulb at its base and long roots. The vines had color-changing leaves, thorns, and little suckers that were like those on a giant squid, in other words the suckers each had a sharp beak inside. Their thorns injected poison and the suckers, once attached to something, didn't let go until the plant died or they were cut off. The beaks had venomous saliva in them and were razor sharp, usually going for the victims veins while the poison in the thorns paralyzed its prey. It had no eyes but the bulb-like base, which was also thickly furred, had three large oval openings, each with a thin layer of tissue over it to keep the dirt out. And these heard any and all vibrations in the earth around it.
Because of its ability to sense coming earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the War Mages kept one of these plants at the Fortress. A true monster it grew vines fifteen feet long, had thorns the size of a dagger, and suckers as big as a human head. A highly useful, if slightly dangerous, creature to a people that lived at the base of the largest volcano on earth. This one he had just planted had been given a growth potion, in three weeks it would have vines thirty feet long. For the soil here was very rich, and many small animals lived about the cave entrance. As its first food he transfigured a small pile of rocks into centipedes, earthworms, and beetles, and dumped them into the trench. Dark green vines lashed out from the dirt, thorns becoming purplish as paralyzing venom flowed into them.
Putting the silver bottle away Heron took out a small diamond jar filled with a dark blue liquid, he poured the entire thing onto the ground above the spot where the Etmirap had vanished. This would speed the Etmirap's growth greatly. Voldemort and his followers would never have encountered an Etmirap before; they lived only in the Phoenix Mountains. And being rather impervious to most magics they would have a lot of difficulty with it.
**
Arai relaxed back into the soft armchair, having finished his story. The vampires and human were silent for a moment, taking it in. Arai had been out hunting when he had been attacked by a bunch of vampires. These vampires had been newly initiated into Voldemort ranks, and, to celebrate, had gone 'out for a drink'. Which, for vampires, meant purposely seeking out drunk or thoroughly drugged prey. Having drunk from a few such humans each the vampire's senses became affected until they passed into a drunk- like state, only much more intense and certainly never life threatening. And with no hangover, the only bad part was that they couldn't escape this state until the blood was old enough to no longer be so potent. Unless of course they did something outrageously stupid, like attacking one of the oldest and most powerful of the vampires. Not to mention the only one with a real reputation for slaughtering others of his own kind. Throughout his long history Arai had periodically done this whenever he felt that there were too many vampires around, and he didn't feel like leaving the area.
Cassandra was the first to speak, in a rather woeful and resigned tone. "Well I don't know what mental deficiency those fledglings have, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce." The others all turned to stare at her for a moment, before cracking up.
"Well they won't be doing anything like that again in a hurry, and you'll be getting quite a reputation boost from this." Harry said finally, struggling to stop laughing. The actual death count, Arai had told then, was twelve of Voldemort's killed, and another half dozen or so injured, only four had escaped unharmed. "It is fortunate that you are so good at knife fighting, and never go anywhere unarmed, else they could well have done more damage." Arai's three hidden knives, all coated with a War Mage invented poison, which slowed any humans' reflexes, vampire, werewolf or mortal, had certainly saved his life.
"Well I learned from the best," Arai said, inclining his head towards Harry and Nasiji, "you have a few thousand years you learn things." He added, it was the elf, and vampire, motto. "And if you all don't mind, I'm going back to sleep." The others nodded rising they left the room, heading down to the basement where they would rest until evening in the spare coffins and rooms in the extensive underground.
"How will Voldemort take this?" Arai asked as the others left.
"He's.ticked off. right now. The surviving vampires are probably wishing they hadn't survived." Harry said with a grin, Arai showed his fangs.
"Wish I could watch, and the painting Phoenix?"
"In place, you did a terrific job Arai, do you want it back afterwards?" Arai thought about it, a odd glint in his eyes.
"Well it would certainly make a conversation starter, or stopper." He finally said, "if it survives Voldemort's handling."
"I'm sure he'll treat it like it was his favorite rickety great aunt." Harry said.
"And burn it. Yes if it survives this I think I might find some use for it." he trailed off, a mischievous gleam growing in his eyes.
"Uh oh, what do you have planned for it?" Harry finally asked, dreading the answer.
"Oh nothing master nothing at all really." Harry raised an eyebrow at his friend's fiendish grin. The staring match only lasted a few moments before Arai gave in. "Well.public reaction to it being found in some leader's study would be.interesting.maybe the Pope's?" The vampire grinned as Harry's eyebrows both shot up, and he started laughing again.
"Wonderful idea! Considering the, Satanist nature, of the painting, it would cause quite a commotion."
**
The group ate breakfast while talking about their peoples. The elves had very limited experience with humans, and most of that was death eater related. The humans had none at all with elves. Harry had returns just before dawn, offering no explanation to his disappearance, and they didn't ask for any, the agenda of the Keeper of the Ways was not questioned by anyone in the wizarding world.
Hermione and Selna were chattering incessantly about human magics, a conversation the rest of the group was slowly drawn into. Elves could do human magics, but only on a small scale, and they didn't use wands, something the human envied them for.
"If you lose your wand in a duel were screwed, there's not much you can do. Magic less fighting is useless against a wizard with a wand." Ron argued, Draco disagreed strongly.
"Not if you're fast enough to dodge, and quick enough to get away or get your wand back."
"Not really, a good stunning spell."
"If you've got good enough reflexes-"
"Quicker than magic? Get real."
"Yes quicker than magic, and if you can get a hold of the opponents arms they won't be able to point their wand at you." Ron opened his mouth to reply, but, sensing an argument coming, Harry spoke up.
"Or you could just learn a simple wandless spell to call your wand to you at any time no matter where it is." He said, startling them all, except the elves, they had though he was up ahead a ways.
"I think that idea sounds best, besides in a duel you don't have a choice do you? You have to fight or run. You can't just give up if you lose your wand." Jaqway decided, the other elves agreed with him. Harry looked up ahead, sensing the barrier he held up a hand and halted. This part had been worrying him all day, he was not entirely sure if the barrier would let Draco through, even if he did have an elf with him. Harry had spelled Draco's breakfast in an effort to top the problem, but he wasn't sure if it would work.
"Okay, humans, pay attention, elves, go ahead a zone out," Carol snorted and a few musical chuckles came from the surrounding elves, "we've reached the barrier, since this cannot be dismantled and there is no way around you'll have to go through. And the only way through is escorted by an elf. Selna, Hermione, how about you go first?"
Selna and Hermione walked forward, then Selna grabbed Hermione hand and stepped into the barrier, the elf passed through easily. Hermione slowed down, they could see her outline blur and smudge, air rippling around her. The two steps through the barrier took nearly half a minute. Then she started moving again, she was through. They both stood facing the others; there was nothing different about them, the barrier completely invisible. Jalim and Eldin appeared from the trees on the other side, having crossed earlier to make sure the barrier was in stable condition. Occasional power fluctuations caused by death eaters attacking the barrier would often cause power surges that might have stopped anything, even and elf, from passing.
"Okay, Dawn, Jaqway?" The two walked through the barrier, Dawn slowing as he stepped through. In twos the others all passed through without a hitch, Harry simply walked through.
"That was creepy." Ron said as they started off through the forest. Which was significantly old than the one on the other side. Gigantic trees surrounded them. The elves all relaxed a bit, Jaqway and Eldin leaving the group to travel through the trees, keeping watch from above.
"Yeah, it felt like you were moving through transparent glue, unnerving." Carol said, shuddering.
"I thought it was cool, I'd like to try it again, it so weird." Draco said enthusiastically, much to everyone's surprise.
"How is it made?" Hermione of course, always thirsting for knowledge.
"It's a got a complicated history. It was made when the elves finally decided they'd had enough of the human race and wanted their own place. Please don't get insulted, and why they wanted that, well it should be obvious considering the human world today. Any how it was made by the great Elf Lords of old, thousands of years old everyone one of them. The War Mages, elf and other species alike, aided them in the enchantments. The spells were developed by the War Mages in order to separate the Phoenix Mountains from the rest of the world. The spells are linked to the crown of the Forest King, or the King of the Elves. The Crown itself has been lost to us for many thousands of years, no one knows its location anymore, it was hidden so that the spells would remain intact and never be disturbed. When elves die a part of their life's power goes to the Crown, so that even in death were all bound to our people, that power keeps the barrier strong. The dead protecting their living kin." Selna explained as they walked.
"And I'm guessing that Voldemort is after the Crown?" Draco asked, hiding amusement as the others winced, some of them were finally learning to control the reflex, but others, Ron namely, still flinched.
"Yes he is, fortunately we have no more of an idea where it is than he does." Selna explained, looking rather grim. That was the end of that conversation for a while, and Harry was glad his students had been quick enough to sense that it was not exactly a highly discussed topic among the elves.
The Elven Kingdom was a huge piece of land, roughly the size of Russia, containing every imaginable climate from the Antarctica-like far north, to a desert resembling the Sahara, to rainforests like the Amazon, and everything in between. Its atmosphere was, like the Phoenix Mountains, separate from the world as the human knew it, and not a hint of pollution was anywhere to be found. Animals could wander freely back and forth across the barrier, the only creatures that could not cross were humans who might be with animals, or werewolves, or animagi.
They were currently deep in one of the huge forests of the kingdom, the Kingdom of the Elves had never been logged and its different tree species, the most diverse on the planet, were gigantic. Plants in general, and most animals, grew much larger in the Elven lands than anywhere else. They were currently hiking through a forest of deciduous trees that were absolutely gigantic. The elves frequently darted off into the trees, leaping between branches thicker than a dragons tail, and whispering softly to the trees.
Late afternoon found them at the side of a very wide, slow moving river, on the other side the forest continued, and, built amongst the trees, was an elvish fortress.
Made from white marble, green/gold marble, silver, and a smooth black stone found only in the Elf lands it rose nearly four stories high in the trees. Graceful pathways weaving through the trees like ribbons connected individual houses a few stories higher up to the fortress. And ground level the fortress had only one door, a huge stone thing that looked like it hadn't opened in centuries.
It had obviously been built in what was probably the largest clearing the elves could possibly find, for they would never cut down the trees to build such a fortress. The ground around it was kept free of shrubs and small trees, on one side a well built stone stable was attached.
"The outpost Arimal, named for one of the greatest of the Elf Lords of old." Jalim said as he showed them to a dead tree. The tree stood only because of elven magics holding it upright, inside a staircase spiraled to the top, up at the top a bridge made entirely out of woven rope connected it to the true entrance the to the fortress.
"We have to cross that?" Ron said, giving Harry a rather panicked look.
"If you fall pull your wand out and shout a cushioning charm." Harry said simply, Ron gave a nearly inaudible whimper, the rest of us are here, you're not going to die even if you do fall." He looked about, Hermione was deathly pale, and Draco looked to be in a similar state of fear. Jaqway went first, bounding effortlessly across the rope bridge as if there weren't three stories of open space beneath him. Selna followed.
"Dawn?" Harry said, Dawn gave him a horrified look, and then nervously stepped out onto the rope bridge. His eyes widened as he realized just how stable it really was, grasping the ropes on both sides for handles he hurried across.
"Draco, Carol, Ron?" The three crossed one by one, Ron breathing a huge sigh of relief when he'd crossed safely. Harry then came, crossing with the ease and grace that signified long practice and perfected balance, Jalim came last.
"I'll show you to your rooms." Ricalien offered, leading the way down a hallway.
"It's awfully open, what if you get attacked?" Draco asked curiously.
"Then we close it, you see there are slabs of stone that slide up into the ceiling and can be brought down to cover the openings in the event of an attack." Ricalien explained, nodding to two elf warrior as the passed, giving the human curious looks.
"Is there a place to bathe here?" Carol asked hopefully.
"Yes of course, the river is quite nice-" Ricalien and Harry traded smirks at their groans, "or if you prefer hot water there are two large bathhouses underground." They arrived at the guest wing, door opened on either side of the hallway.
Okay two to a room, don't spend to much time unpacking, we're leaving tomorrow, dinner is in an hour and a half." Harry told them, he watched until he was sure they were settled in, "I'm going to go talk to the Outpost Commander, some of the elves will come and get you at dinner time." He received a few calls of agreement and left, now if he could just remember where the Commander's office was.
Really sorry it's been so long, but it's a long chapter!