Rescue and Peril
Chapter 23
Thankfully the bleeding seemed to have stopped. She'd been really worried about that because she had begun to feel a bit light-headed. Unfortunately, the pain was still there. She was using every ounce of her concentration to ignore the pain and she was barely succeeding. If the situation hadn't been so dire, she knew she wouldn't have been able to summon the willpower to move even a single a muscle. She almost wished she hadn't, because every step she took wracked her body with pain. She felt like she was about to throw up her guts while someone was trying to disembowel her at the same time. She wished she'd paid more attention in those classes Khan had given about meditation. A proper meditative state could induce the body to release natural painkillers. And she needed them badly.
"You shouldn't be here!" Matt hissed. Her laboured breathing had attracted his attention.
"None of us should," Hermione grunted. "Shut up and keep moving…it hurts less when I walk," she lied.
"How far is it, Happy?" Matt anxiously asked the house-elf.
"We are nearly there, Master Matt," the elf assured them. "It is not far now."
The passage, which had been so narrow that they had only been able to walk single file, widened somewhat to allow two people to walk side by side. A short while later they encountered a gilded door with a heraldic shield on it. There were in luck. It looked like this was a secondary door to the vault. Perhaps the previous lords had used it when they wished to enter the vault inconspicuously.
The shield looked like the Hogwarts crest, although the shape of the field was different. In heraldic terms, the heater-curved shield was quartered, displaying four different images on the field, each being overlapped a little by a surtout, which in the case of the Hogwarts crest was the H. On this shield, it was a black patriarchal cross in a small, golden shield shaped like the actual heraldic shield.
Where the rampant Gryffindor lion would be, facing the Slytherin serpent, stood a black rampart gardant griffin clutching a raised bastard sword in a middle guard with its talons. It stood out sharply against its azure backdrop. Opposite it, against a silver backdrop, an ornate emerald chalice was drawn. Below the chalice, against a sable backdrop, what looked like a gold flower with diamond shaped petals, was drawn. It was vaguely familiar, but Hermione couldn't place it. Next to the flower and below the griffin, a pair of interfretted silver keys were depicted against a sanguine backdrop.
Hermione immediately understood the symbolism of that last quarter. The two closest descendants identified by the Consanguinity charm had access to the vault. Then her eyes fell on the escrol, the ribbon of parchment that bore the motto. But unlike most heraldic shields she'd seen, the motto was not in Latin. She had no idea what language it was. She was sure this alphabet hadn't been covered in Ancient Runes - but then again - these weren't runes. "I've never seen writing like that before."
"These are letters from an alphabet called the Rawgnet. It's Draconian." Aberforth said.
"What does it say?"
"Let's see…" the old wizard peered at the inscription. "Ah quite simple, really. Guardians of the Gate."
Doc examined the door up close and pointed to grooved handle. "I think you have to grab it over here, Matt."
Matt nodded and wrapped his hand around the handle. There was a clicking sound and Matt jerked back his hand.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, concerned.
"Don't worry," Matt said and briefly sucked on the palm of his hand. "The door bit me," he added, showing her the tiny puncture.
Then a series of clicking sounds emanated from the door, and it slowly began swinging backwards, revealed yet another dark, flagstone corridor with a shallow incline.
"Brilliant, it identifies you by blood," Doc said, still looking at the mechanism.
"Shhh!" Matt held up his hand and listened intently. Hermione followed his example, and she too heard the noises made by the intruders in another part of the vault. "Quietly now."
They carefully walked up the corridor until they reached a stone door with a small eyehole in it. Matt looked through it for about a minute.
When he was satisfied he turned to them. "By the sound of it, I reckon they're all far away. We can stay out of sight if we move along the edge of the chamber. Now, how does this door open?"
Just as he asked that question, there was a thumping sound before the door noiselessly slid open. Matt looked at Doc inquisitively.
The half goblin pointed at a stone that protruded out over the rest and shrugged. "It's a gift."
Before going in, Matt gave them the three invisibility cloaks he had taken from the enemy. They weren't in as good a shape as the ones Harry and the Order owned. One of them even had a small hole that could give the wearer way at close range. Doc took that one, arguing that he was the hardest to detect because of his stature, while Aberforth would share one with the house-elf.
"Matt, I think you should wear one of these, instead of us," Hermione began. "You're the biggest."
"Nonsense. I can stay a step ahead of these clowns," Matt said confidently.
"Matt, if you're killed it's all over. Think of the danger!"
"Danger is my middle name."
"What about Gudrun?" Hermione said finally. She hadn't wanted to resort to emotional blackmail, but she had to get Matt to accept her cloak instead.
"She's Icelandic. She doesn't have a middle name," Matt answered laconically, deftly defusing her attempt.
Hermione looked at him incredulously and opening and closing her mouth. How could he joke at a time like this?
"Unbelievable! You shut her up!" Doc grinned.
Matt gave Hermione an apologetic smile and slipped into the treasure chamber. Doc and Aberforth followed, and Hermione went last. She saw an empty chandelier bolted to the wall and guessed its function. She twisted it, causing the wall to close again. Then she began to follow Matt, who was moving along swiftly, staying low and hiding behind objects large enough to conceal his bulk.
He seemed to have spotted something and darted towards it. It looked like an antechamber, and Hermione slowly paced herself as she moved in that direction, not wanting to bump into Doc or Aberforth. She made it with no mishaps and saw that Doc and Aberforth had already arrived, their heads floating in mid-air, or so it seemed.
Doc's head was orbiting a golden golem, trying to find a way to activate it. Matt wasn't so careful. He simply knocked on its head. Strangely enough its eyes flashed to life. "Welcome back, Master—" It stopped and looked Matt over. "I'm afraid I don't know you. How long have I been dormant?"
"Keep your voice down. I'm Matthew Kelly. My mother was an Archidiaconus. Things haven't gone so well for my family in the last fifty years. I'm the last of the line…well…me and Draco Malfoy."
"A Malfoy!" The golem's tone was ominous. "How can a Malfoy have claim?"
"All my closer relatives were wiped out by a powerful dark wizard. Listen, I don't have time to tell you everything that's happened. I'll get to the crux of the matter. Malfoy is here right now, trying to empty the vault. The only things stopping him are the curses that protect the treasure. It will only be a matter of time before he breaks those. The only thing in our favour is that he can't use magic either. In order to put us at a disatvantage, he activated a magical device that interferes with spell casting."
"Really? How—"
"You've been in here for over a hundred years, or so I've been told," Matt said quickly. "Magic has come a long way since then. However, concerning the device, it also prevents Malfoy from breaking the curses that protect the treasure. He won't dare work on the treasure before he's disposed of us."
"The situation is dire indeed," Logos acknowledged. "The intruders have to be driven off. You should awaken Anzu, Master Matthew."
"Anzu?" Matt frowned.
"The Griffin Guardian of Caer Sidi. Come, I will show you."
The golem began to move, but his joints creaked so loudly they could wake the dead.
"Stop!" Matt hissed. "You'll give us away. I'll carry you, but you have to tell me where to go," he said, as he scooped up the golem.
Logos directed them behind a bunch of statues and pointed out a groove in the wall, which contained a handle. Matt pulled it and opened another stone door that hid a corridor much like the one they had used to enter the vault. It led them to another chamber with a ceiling as high as that of the rest of the vault. It was set apart from the vault by a huge bronze door that Malfoy evidently hadn't tried to open yet.
Then the golem pointed at a sword that was stuck in a rock, like Excalibur from the legend. The ornate hand-guard was covered with beautiful jewels. The part of the blade that still stuck out of the rock was covered with runes.
"Sathregna." Aberforth said quietly, afraid to be overheard by the people on the other side of the bronze door. "Draconian runes. They were created for scratched or incised inscriptions."
"Only the first heir of the Archidiaconus can draw the sword," Logos said after Matt put him down. "Remove it, Master."
Matt stepped up to the stone and gripped the handle with two hands. Hermione could see the runes begin to glow with a green light when Matt gripped the sword, and slowly but surely it began sliding out. Then, with a final tug, Matt freed the sword from the stone. Hermione fought the urge to spontaneously bow as Matt held the blazing sword aloft triumphantly.
"Now go to the edge of the circle and push the sword all the way into the column stump."
The column Logos was referring to looked like it came from some ancient Greek ruin, sliced off neatly at about four feet. Looking closer, Hermione saw a narrow hole in the axis of the column. There was flanked by a few shallower depressions designed to accommodate part of the hand guard.
Matt pushed the sword all the way down until he heard a loud click under the large circle in the floor. It was so loud that they all jumped at the sound. And they hadn't been the only ones who heard it. On the other side of the great bronze door, everything had gone quiet suddenly.
Logos motioned Matt to twist the sword one quarter clockwise, and Matt quickly complied. That was when the racket really began. It sounded like they were standing inside a huge clock, with several giant cogs turning as they struggled to pry the circle on the floor apart.
"Get that door open!" Hermione heard Malfoy shout. "Blast it open if you have to!"
"Hide," Matt said urgently. "Don't wait for them to open the door."
"What about you?" Hermione asked.
"Don't argue…and don't worry. I'll be fine. What next, Logos?" he asked, turning to the golem.
A small panel in the golem's chest swung open and revealed an uneven chunk of stone about the size of a fist. Hermione knew what it was.
"Dragonite!" Aberforth whispered.
The golem plucked the stone out of its chest and presented it to Matt. "You must spill some of your blood on the stone. Anzu needs a blood pact with its pilot in order to function."
Pilot? What on earth would Anzu be, in order to require a pilot? She looked back at the circle just in time to see a large construct rising out of the circular hole in the ground. It looked like a huge, roughly twenty-six feet tall suit of armour. It was jet black, adorned with a huge red gemstone on the left chest section, and two emerald ones, each on one shoulder. Its hands had four clawed, not quite birdlike digits, since the fourth functioned like an opposable thumb. The boots had toes that resembled a lion's. The helmet was sculpted like an eagle's head. With a start, Hermione realised that this was the black griffin on the heraldic shield.
The bronze door suddenly groaned and shook under the pressure exerted on it from the other side. They were trying to pry them apart!
She turned back to Matt, who drew the sword from the column again. He looked at her pointedly, reminding her to hide. Aberforth nodded in the direction of the secret passage and threw the remainder of the invisibility cloak over himself and Happy. Doc followed suit and Hermione had no choice but to leave. All she could do was hope that Matt would be done in time.
Aberforth's old hand appeared and waved. She hurried to the secret door, doing her best not to wince as every step jolted her womb and caused intense pain to radiate out into the rest of her body. The door slid closed after she stepped inside, but Doc jammed a loose piece of rubble between the door and the wall to prevent it from closing completely, giving them the opportunity to look at Matt from the relative safety of the secret passage.
She looked on as Matt used the sword to cut into his palm. He turned his hand palm down and let the blood dribble onto the Dragonite. Hermione thought she saw the stone gleam briefly, as if it had acknowledged the presence of the blood. Then, following Logos' instructions, Matt climbed onto the giant armour and held the bloodied Dragonite in front of the red gemstone. It glowed brightly, and the front facet seemed to turn into a jelly-like translucent substance. Matt's hand easily slid into the gem and came back out without the Dragonite. Now the emerald gems began to glow as well.
The bronze door shuddered again, and to Hermione's horror it began to slide open. The dark general became visible in the aperture. He seemed to be prying it open with his magic, allowing the enemy to slip into the room. One of the wizards shot a crossbow dart at Matt, but he was already on the move and the dart shot harmlessly passed him.
He picked up his swords and charged the wizard that had shot at him, closer slightly faster than normally humanly possible and zigzagging as he approached, to make himself a more difficult target.
The wizard panicked and loosed another inaccurate shot before the bastard sword slid across his belly, dropping him to his knees and leaving him to clutch the wound as if he were trying to keep his guts from slipping out.
Matt never even gave his a second glance and gored his second opponent half a heartbeat later. He hoisted the twitching body on his sword and twisted it between himself and a third opponent, who unloaded a crossbow dart into his dying comrade.
The wizard gurgled as his body began to expand before it exploded, revealing the alarming fact that the crossbow bolts were tipped with all sorts of nasty substances. Hermione shuddered with dread, but Matt never missed a beat. The third wizard, who had been wiping the blood and gore out of his eyes, lost the hand that had been wiping his face along with his head. The furious Ranger warrior then spun around and attacked the dark general.
But the vicious slash was parried by the dark wizard's own grotesque bastard sword with the motif of a skull. Its blade was covered in runes that were glowing bright red, and Hermione swore there was a crackle of energy as the swords connected.
Matt might have been taller, but the dark general proved to be much stronger when he shoved Matt backwards. Then, many more wizards followed the dark general in. Those with bows trained them on Matt and it didn't look like they were about to miss.
Malfoy then swaggered into the room, wearing his usual sickening smirk. "Matthew Kelly…we finally meet. Such an ordinary Mudblood name for a pureblooded wizard, don't you think? Completely unworthy of being the name for the lord of Caer Sidi. Draco Malfoy, on the other hand… now there's a name for a true castle lord."
"You'll never be the lord of this castle," Matt spat. "Unless, of course, you have to guts to fight me for it. Wizard to wizard Malfoy, with any weapon! What do you say?"
"I'm not as stupid as I look, Kelly." Draco grinned.
"Unfortunately not," Matt said grimly. "But you are every bit as cowardly."
"Be that as it may, I'll own everything by birthright when you're dead. What was briefly yours is now mine. We don't have time to make it painful. Just kill him!"
"No, I'll deal with him myself," the dark general said. "I have waited a long time for a worthy opponent. I was bred to fight such an opponent…the circle is finally complete. Your cowardice will not deprive me of this opportunity, Malfoy."
Malfoy's cheeks turned pink. "Do what you will. Just make it quick." He turned on his heel, but whispered a few instructions to some of the wizards, probably to kill Matt in case the dark general couldn't do the job, or to shoot them both.
Hermione balled her fists. She had to do something. If she could only get to the fallen wizard's crossbow, maybe she could turn it all around. "We have to help him…"
"All we can do now is survive and try to take as many of them as possible down with us," Doc said. "We can't help—"
A loud creaking of joints drowned out Doc's words. Hermione shifted her gaze to the source of the sword and saw that Anzu had come to life. It reached behind its back with a clawed hand and drew a sword out of a sheath on its back. It held the sword in a middle guard and the blade seemed to slide out of part of the hand guard, thus growing even longer. It lurched forward as pushed Matt out of the way as gently as it could, before falling on their foes with a vengeance.
The dark general somersaulted over its enormous sword, but the other wizards, who had been lined up behind him, were all cut down in a single swipe. Some arrows shot through the door from the other side but bounced harmlessly off its thick armour plating, not even denting it.
The dark general counterattacked with a superhuman jump, slashing at the chest of the griffin-giant, but even the evil sword didn't even scratch it. He briefly stared at the sword before he retreated out of the chamber with another superhuman leap. Anzu pursued, and pandemonium broke out in the treasure vault beyond the bronze doors. The sounds of battle briefly echoed into the secret passageway. Hermione could no longer restrain herself and pulled the lever that opened the door. She hurried towards Matt, who was staring at the battle in amazement.
Malfoy practically dove through the portal while the dark general calmly stepped through after giving Matt a last lingering look. Hermione got the unsettling feeling that he'd been able to see her despite the invisibility cloak.
A tiger tackled the wizard who had intended to follow the dark general before he got the chance to go through. Three blurring silvery disks then struck the portal at various points, destroying it. She couldn't believe her eyes when a dozen grey-uniformed Rangers poured into the vault, lead by a grim-faced Commander Ironheart. She sank to her knees and began to sob with relief. They were saved!
*
"Amateurs!" Brody said smugly as he finished binding the third and last patrolman. "This is too easy."
"Easy for you to say, Braveheart," Ron smiled. "We had them outnumbered."
Mercifully, the wait for the next patrol hadn't been forty-eight hours. Harry's fingers brushed the hilt of Wolfe's sword once more for luck. Hopefully the mission would go more smoothly than things with Ginny. He'd given Captain Faust his assurance that he'd keep his thoughts on the mission. But this proved harder and harder by the minute.
He'd overheard the talk between Ron and Hermione a few days ago when Hermione had communicated with them. Ginny wasn't wearing his ring any longer. At the time he'd thought that things couldn't get any worse. However, he had to amend his thinking, taking into account that he was Harry Potter and that the powers that be simply didn't want him to be happy, punishing him more viciously than others would be for the same transgressions.
"Stay focussed!" Riyadi said, much to Harry's embarrassment. The Indonesian wizard had caught him daydreaming, and it wasn't the first time. He'd let his attention wander far too often over the last few days.
While they'd been waiting for the patrol to emerge, Ron had suggested that it would be an even better idea to subdue the patrol early on and use the remaining time to extract any possible secrets from the prisoners in the hope that it would yield some useful information.
"All right!" Ron talked into his broadcaster. "Hwang, are you getting the homing signals from the Portkeys? Good! I'm on my way."
"Leaving already? Things were just getting interesting." Blackmoon smiled.
"I'll be guiding you like pawns on a chessboard…if I can stay awake that is." Ron yawned.
"Not to worry, Mr Weasley. I know a brew that will stave off fatigue for a few more hours." He turned to the Combat Rangers. "All right, men…and woman… Be careful! You've each been given a flask of tears so generously donated by the phoenixes over the last few weeks."
Harry's unease decreased a bit as Faust reminded them of that. He hoped they wouldn't need the tears at all, but at least there was less of a risk of the events in Georgia repeating themselves.
"As you move through the fortress, the telemetry from your goggles and your paths will help us create a map that'll allow us to guide you out of there in case you can't leave by Portkey," Faust continued. "However, we have to assume that there might be a something that's blocking teleportation of any kind since Yamato might be involved. If so, hopefully the beacon will be able to pierce the veil enough for you to get out anyway. You also have fifty relay beads you can stick to the walls. As you've seen in the demonstration, they'll relay the signal of your goggles in case it's jammed. They're each good for about fifty metres, giving you each a range of—"
"We can do that math, Captain," Brody said impatiently. "And yes, we remember that we only have to start using them individually after we separate from the rest of the group."
Harry frowned. He wanted to have the mission over and done with as fast as any of them, but the Scotsman was getting downright careless in his impatience.
"Don't be hasty," Faust admonished. "Weasley, let's go."
Ron and Captain Faust disappeared, leaving Harry and the others behind. An odd feeling came over him as he donned a mask, and he felt like a burglar all of the sudden. He was still a bit uneasy about the clandestine nature of this raid. Sure, the princess had been set up by corrupt elements within the empire, but the fact that he might have to hurt wizards and witches who were only doing their jobs…wizards like these patrolmen.
When she'd been interrogating the guards with Veritaserum, Yuriko found out that the youngest guard was extremely unhappy with Princess Matsu's situation. While Veritaserum put its subjects in a trance-like state that compelled them to tell what they believed to be the truth, it did nothing to suppress their feelings and emotions. Yuriko told them she'd picked up on that and asked him about his feelings on the matter. Apparently the young Unicorn called Shinji privately disagreed with the decree that the emperors or empresses had to be able to resist the Imperius Curse while so few people were able to. He also doubted that pure imperial blood and resistance to the curse went hand in hand. The young wizard professed to be able to throw off the curse reasonably quickly, as opposed to the majority of his clan-mates, most of which were very closely related to the imperial house and had purer blood. His own mother, on the other hand, turned out to be a Muggle-born witch who had been adopted into the lesser Hippogriff Clan, making him a half-blood among many purebloods. This reasoning had caused him to rethink many of the issues that other Japanese wizards took for granted. Yuriko had also voiced her suspicion that the young guard might have a crush on the pretty princess.
Now she was looking Shinji's bound form thoughtfully. "Lieutenant Riyadi."
"What is it?" the Indonesian wizard asked.
"I believe Nakamoto Shinji would not be opposed to the princess's rescue. I believe he would help us rescue her."
The guard's help would certainly make the first part of their mission a whole lot easier. Caution was important, but they had to balance it with the need to reach the station where the patrols were supposed to report in after their sweeps, and subdue the people manning it. According to one of the patrolmen, who had done a few shifts at that station, reports could be delayed up to half an hour if there wasn't anything out of the ordinary to report. That gave the Rangers a thirty-minute window to find the princess before the security staff would begin to get suspicious. Not an easy task, since the patrolmen had been relatively low in the chain of command and none of them had ever been into the part of the fortress where the princess was being held. So the part of the fortress that had to be searched within that time was a big unknown factor.
Harry still wasn't sure whether the young guard would help them, though. Remembering Wolfe's words of caution, Harry had spent the time he hadn't been thinking about Ginny to further familiarise himself with the intricacies of Japanese society. "Are you sure he'll do it? I mean, if he were to join us there would be no going back. The perceived dishonour his clan and family will suffer is considerable. In your case it isn't so bad because your clan is a minor clan which has always been perceived as rebellious anyway…no offence. But it's different for him…he's a Unicorn."
"He had nothing to lose anymore." Yuriko shrugged. "Failure to prevent our entry into the fortress will harm his reputation beyond repair already. All he has left is his own true personal honour, something he can save be helping us. When I questioned him, I found that he and I think the same way. He will help us, even if he is a Unicorn. I also have some very persuasive reasons ready, should he not be immediately swayed." She looked at Lieutenant Riyadi, awaiting his decision.
"Captain?" Riyadi called into his broadcaster, deferring to higher authority.
"I heard," Faust's voice sounded in all their ear-pieces. "Might as well give it a try. But do it while he's affected by Veritaserum. I don't want to risk having him turn on us later."
Yuriko looked uneasy about that. "We could do that. But if he consents to help us and we administer the antidote, he will be offended when the serum-trance ends. Veritaserum does nothing to erase memory. He will believe that we doubted his honour."
"So we Obliviate him and repeat the process if his response is favourable," Faust said matter-of-factly. "He won't remember that we doubted his honour."
"But I will remember," Yuriko said gloomily.
"I know what you mean, Yuriko," the Ranger captain sighed. "But I have a responsibility towards my people. How do I know that he wouldn't lie if it gave him a chance to foil this rescue attempt and repair the damage to his family's honour? I know you wouldn't do such a thing, and I know you believe that he wouldn't either. But can you be absolutely sure? Like Harry said, he's a Unicorn, not a Ninetails. I know you'd stake your life on your belief in him. But are you ready to stake ours on it as well?"
Yuriko lowered her eyes. "You are right, Captain," she conceded. "I have no right to place your lives in needless peril. The princess's rescue is the first priority."
That said, they revived the young guard and reinforced the trance with another droplet of Veritaserum. Talking rapidly in her native language Yuriko began asking the guard all kinds of questions, though Harry couldn't begin to guess what they were. At some point however, the guard frowned and shook his head. Yuriko looked disappointed because of that reaction.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"He says he understands our reasons, but that he cannot help us. The princess's fate, whatever it might be, will salvage the imperial family's honour. He cannot deprive them of that opportunity."
"Ask him if he knows about the curse on the imperial family," Ron's tired voice sounded through their ear-pieces suddenly.
"Everybody knows about the curse." Yuriko frowned.
"Indulge me, all right?" Ron asked impatiently, and Yuriko complied with a puzzled look, asking the guard about it. He replied affirmatively.
"Like I said, he knows, Yuriko translated.
"Now ask him if he knows how the curse was sealed."
Yuriko seemed to catch on, and began rattling away at the young guard again. Harry had no idea what Ron had in mind. Then Yuriko's face lit up. "I explained to him about the sacrifice of the maho witch to seal the curse. I told him I believe there are more sinister forces at work, and that this treachery was set up to lead to Matsu-hime's execution, which might serve as a sacrifice to seal yet another curse. He said that if what I say is true, he would be more than happy to help us, since it would be for the grace of the imperial family and would protect their honour. But he wants to know how he can be sure that we are not here to kill the princess."
"He'll just have to take our word for it," Brody grumbled.
"You want to ask a samurai wizard to take the words of a bunch of strangers wearing ninja masks?" Ron's sarcastic question sounded from the Cruiser. "Good luck!"
"I might be able to convince him," Harry said quietly. "At least, I hope so."
"Obliviate him and start over again," Faust said, and they repeated the whole process after administering the antidote and reviving the guard. It went much quicker this time, partly, Harry guessed, because Yuriko had worked out how to deliver the message more convincingly the second time around. But the guard still looked uneasy, and Yuriko glanced at Harry, giving him his cue.
Harry walked up to the wizard and removed his mask.
"Potter, what are you doing?" Riyadi asked nervously.
The guard gasped as his eyes flitted over Harry's forehead.
"Do you speak English?" Harry asked, not wanting to assume that all Japanese wizards spoke English, even though most of the ones he'd met had been able to do so.
"A little," was the halting reply.
"You want to be certain that we aren't here to hurt Matsu-hime, correct?" Harry said, trying to keep his sentence as simple as possible.
The young wizard nodded.
Harry replied by drawing the Phoenix Clan's enchanted sword. "Do you know what this is?"
A look of awe spread over the young wizard's face. "The sword of an imperial guard. The sword lets you touch it. I know you are not here to kill Sayuki-sama. Please, let me help…"
Harry smiled. The guard had immediately realised what Harry was trying to make clear.
"Let him help," Faust consented. "Cut him loose."
Minutes later, Lieutenant Osman pulled his goggles over his head and jumped straight into the shaft. Harry knew he was among the more powerful Rangers, and he could slow himself down with a wand-less levitation charm at the last moment. Then Wortelgraaf, the team's Curse Breaker, followed. Then Brody climbed in, followed by Yuriko, Blackmoon, Shinji, Riyadi and Harry. Wilson, the other Curse Breaker, went last and sealed the entrance properly behind him.
After Harry dropped into the corridor below, he took in the details. They were standing in a dead end corridor with masonry walls. He was used to passages that had been hewn out of solid rock and the rather civilised sight surprised him. Brody and Blackmoon had already cleared the next corridor, and after ensuring that they still had contact with Ron and Captain Faust in the Cruiser, Lieutenant Riyadi gave the go ahead signal.
Shinji quickly lead them to the security station, and the two witches who manned the station never knew what hit them. That had been the easy part. There was a heavy door that led into the fortress proper, but Shinji said he didn't know how things looked beyond it.
"Oh, damn it!" Wilson cursed. He was peering at the door through his goggles. "This is a trick door."
"What do you mean?"
"It's a door, but it isn't. There's nothing behind it, but it has a teleportation spell on it. It transports you when you touch it. And we have no idea where we'll end up when we do."
Yuriko looked at Shinji and asked him a question.
He answered by shaking his head.
"What did you ask him?" Riyadi inquired.
"I asked him if he ever saw anyone use this door. He did not."
"I don't the see problem," Brody sighed.
"Doors like these could be trapped. There might be more than one destination. You could be sent off to a very unpleasant place if you don't have the proper clearance…it's usually in the form of a key."
"This place was supposed to be a secret," Brody said impatiently. "There's no reason for the door to be trapped."
"Be quiet, Brody," Faust interrupted sternly. "These people aren't careless. The fact that Mr Nakamoto never saw anyone use it makes it even more obvious that it isn't meant to be used by unauthorised personnel. Wilson, is there any way around it?"
"I could probably work out whether or not there is a trap of some sort. But it'll take longer than twenty-eight minutes. Our best bet is to search the people at the security station. One of them must have more clearance than the others…and the key. It'll take about two minutes for me get the accurate signature from this door. Then I'll know what to look for in the key."
"I wish Doc were here," Wortelgraaf said.
"Yeah, he seems to have a knack for finding keys, doesn't he?" Wilson grinned as he fiddled some knobs on a triangular-shaped device with a mirrored screen.
A minute and a half later, Harry saw a few glowing words appear on the screen, accompanied by a yellowish hue.
"This should be it," Wilson said. "Whatever the key is, it ought to radiate this aura. The detector should identify it. I'll sweep the security officers. It shouldn't take long."
Harry was thankful that it didn't. About three minutes later Wilson returned, clasping a large silver coin about an inch in diameter.
"All right, everyone hold hands. I'll touch the handle…"
"I am not holding any man's hand!" Brody protested.
"Man, you're really annoying today…" Riyadi said. "You don't have to be holding anyone's hand. Just grab a wrist, or something."
"You are aware that we might lose contact with you, depending on how far you are transported," Faust mentioned.
"I don't think the fortress is too far away," Ron began. "This set-up strikes me as a way to prevent unauthorised personnel, or possibly a spy, from entering the fortress. There's a chance we'll still be in communication's range. And even if we won't be, there is a way to keep our communication going. The security station has some magical means of communicating with the fortress proper, right? Hwang here is telling me that another design parameter of those relay beads is to double as a communications surveillance device. It can be thrown into a fireplace or stuck onto the back of a mirror to spy on all communications. If you find out how it works and activate it, one of these beads should form an instant relay."
"Not a bad idea," Wilson said. "But if we activate their means of communication they'll be expecting a report. And isn't the link supposed to be open at both sides for this to work?"
"Oh, I didn't think of that," Ron replied after a brief silence.
"On with the original plan, then," Wilson said. "Prepare to subdue anyone who might be at the other end, before they can sound the alarm."
They formed a chain and Wilson touched the door. The sensation behind the navel was much like the one Harry felt with Portkey travel, and he guessed this door had to be some sort of variant for a Portkey. But the ride was much smoother, and instead of smacking onto the floor at their destination, it almost seemed like another room appeared around them while they stood perfectly still.
Harry had still been busy getting his bearings while Lieutenant's Riyadi and Osman reacted with unusual Wolfe-like quickness and simultaneously shot tranquilliser darts into a startled witch who had been crossing the dimly lit room, making it obvious why they held their rank...they were good! Riyadi rushed over and caught her before she hit the ground. He dragged her into a corner.
"Nice shooting," Brody whispered.
Osman didn't look pleased, though, and Harry knew why. There was a good chance that the witch would be missed at her post sooner than any of them would have liked. "Damn, we don't know if she'll be missed or how long it'll be before someone else decides to walk in here."
"We'll have to take her with us. We can't risk anyone finding her." Riyadi nodded, and flashed Brody a wicked grin. "Guess who has the honour?"
"Look at her…she must weight nearly fourteen stone," Brody complained.
Harry smiled. He thought fourteen stone was a bit too heavy an estimate. However, like most Japanese women, she wasn't very tall, but she was nearly as plump as Mrs Weasley used to be before Mr Weasley was killed. That connection wiped the smile off his face immediately.
"You shouldn't have neglected your fitness." Riyadi shrugged. "Consider it supplemental exercise."
"All right, but I'll dump her in the first secure place I find."
"People…" Faust's exited voice rang, "We're still here. You're less than fifty metres away from your previous position. Weasley was right."
Harry was relieved. At least some things were going right. He gave took a closer look at the tranquillised woman…she looked awfully familiar…
"I suggest you ask your new captive if she knows where the princess is. It'll save time," Ron's voice added.
"Right away," Riyadi said. "Wilson, the antidote to the tranquilliser, and Veritaserum, please."
"Hold on, that's the lady with the ugly daughter!" Harry said, as he finally recognised her without the layer of white make-up on her face. Yuriko, she was at the banquet too."
Yuriko stepped closer and recognised the woman immediately. "Okomura-sama, of the Thunderbird Clan," she smiled. "Shobo-sama said she had an ugly daughter?"
Harry grinned. "Dumb too!"
"Then she must have inherited her brain from her father's side of the family. This woman is incredibly intelligent, even if she pretends to be dumb. I've always suspected that there was more to her than immediately evident."
Wilson had finished administering the Veritaserum and the antidote to the tranquilliser, and the woman was now in a trance-like state.
"Yuriko, if you will…" Riyadi asked.
"You can ask her yourself, if you want to. She is proficient in English," Yuriko suggested.
Riyadi shrugged. "Where is Sayuki Matsu-hime, and how do we get there safely?"
The woman began to talk and gave them some directions.
"We got it," Faust said. "While you're at it, ask her the best way of that place and where you can stow her with the least chance of her being found too soon."
It turned out to be the same way they came, and minutes later they were on the move again. The woman had been tranquillised and put inside a utility closet in a nearby corridor.
They followed the instructions came upon a corridor that was shaped like a pipe, like the woman had said. A blue line was drawn, beginning on the floor at their side and curving along the wall to end at the ceiling on the other side.
"What the hell…" Blackmoon muttered.
"Gravity inversion…brilliant!" Wortelgraaf said. "It must be a security measure. They have the prisoners standing on their heads, so to speak."
"Huh?" Blackmoon frowned.
"If someone managed to break out of a cell, his natural instinct would be to flee upwards, since that's the logical thing to do in a dungeon. But in this case that would take him—"
"Deeper into the dungeon," Brody finished. "These people are thorough."
They moved on, careful to remain near the line. Harry didn't even notice the gravity change. The only thing that gave away the complicated gravity spell was that the Rangers in front of him seemed to stick to the wall at impossible angles.
Their incursion went on undisturbed for about seventeen to eighteen more minutes. On their way to the princess's cell they passed reinforced doors that obviously lead to lower-security cellblocks. Harry concluded that the princess's cell was deeper in the dungeon, and the bland decoration changed, becoming slightly more pleasant with some statuettes every now and then, as they climbed more stairways. Harry realised that it served the sinister purpose of fooling escapees into thinking they were nearing freedom.
Like the woman had said, they reached a stone door with the markings of the five great clans on it. There was supposed to be a room with columns beyond the door, and at the far end of that room another door that lead to the princess's cell.
They pushed the door open, and it revealed the room the woman had described. It was about time too, Harry thought, because they were running out of time.
"Stop!" Wortelgraaf said suddenly, barring the way into the chamber. "Something is wrong…it's been bothering me, but I can't place my finger on it."
"You too, eh?" Wilson nodded.
"Why would a room in a dungeon have support pillars if everything has been hewn out of rock? They're superfluous." Wortelgraaf remarked.
"Ares' Hall of Daggers," Wilson said.
"Exactly." Wortelgraaf nodded.
"What's the matter?" Faust asked anxiously.
Harry was confused too. The Curse Breakers weren't making any sense.
"I think Mrs Okomura was immune to Veritaserum," Wilson said slowly. "This room has all the marks of a trap."
"Are you sure?" Faust asked.
"Positive, Captain," Wortelgraaf confirmed.
"Isn't it possible that she believed what she was telling us?" Osman asked.
Suddenly loud, alarm-like ringing filled Harry's ears.
"We can now also assume she was lying about the infrequently used utility room!" Wilson screamed over the ringing.
***
Author's Note: Woohooo, the Order of the Phoenix is finally out. Hopefully the Harry-Hermione shippers will all acknowledge the error of their ways now. I did encounter one who still clamped to her silly belief, using a completely idiotic segment from the book as 'evidence'. I'm not going to say what it is, in case some of you (however unlikely) haven't read the book yet.
I won't be answering reviews this time, but next time I'll answer any reviews from this chapter and the next. Thanks for all your support and I hope you'll continue enjoying this story anyway. Reviews are my only payment, so I really appreciate them. (Yes, including ones with criticism)