Chapter 5
Warm and Cold Receptions
Harry relished the warmth of Ginny's embrace and the feeling of her soft lips on his, completely blocking out the bustle of the maintenance bay. He'd been afraid that he wouldn't be able to be home for Christmas and New Year's, on account of some unexpected trouble with a Nundu in Africa. Fortunately they got unexpected help from a clan of Abatwa—tiny humanoid sprites living in the area—and the Nundu was tracked down more easily than usual.
"You've been away for too long," Ginny said, eyeing him with her smouldering brown eyes after they had—eventually and reluctantly—broken their lip-lock. "I'm just about done here. Want to go home and fall into bed?"
He shook his head as they made their way to a quieter spot. "I got plenty of bunk time on the Cruiser."
"Not the question I asked, husband," Ginny said pointedly.
Harry grinned sheepishly. "I guess I have been away for too long."
"I'm sure Ginny will come up with some ways for you to make up for lost time, Harry," Gudrun's voice teased. Harry turned around and saw the grimy Icelandic witch approaching them.
Ginny gasped. "You're covered in Conductor Potion!"
"We had a little accident while replacing it. I'm glad Nicolai is done with the Umbral Gate. Now he can finally start designing those new Cruisers."
"Which reminds me, we've got visitors for Christmas," Ginny said. "Percy's here in an official capacity to attend the activation of the Umbral Gate tomorrow, and he'll be staying 'till the 27th."
Harry remembered the discovery of the secret chambers in Caer Sidi, four months ago. Within the chamber, they had found legendary weapons and artefacts that had been lost for centuries.
A few very interesting items had been a hammer that caused lightning, named Mjollnir, better known as Thor's Hammer, and its companion girdle Megingjarpar, which granted the strength to wield Mjollnir. Aside from the hammer and girdle there had been some more items from Norse mythology, like Beowulf's swords Naegling and Hrunting, and Aegishjalmarr the Helm of Awe. Equally impressive had been Petasus and the Talaria, the winged cap and sandals mentioned in Greek mythology. However, documents found within the chamber suggested that Matt's ancestors had acquired these items through dishonourable means, so Matt had immediately returned the items in question to the wizarding authorities of their places of origin, making a few friends in high places in the process.
Then there were the items that Matt had kept because they were part of the original family treasure, among them the treasures brought by the Draconians, who were locally called the Tuatha De Danann. Fragarach the Answerer, the sword of Gorias; Gáe Assail the 'Lighting Spear' of Finias; and the Cauldron of Dagda from the city of Murias. The fourth treasure, the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny, had emitted a sound akin to a crowd roaring with joy when Matt sat down on top of it. That meant that he was the true High King of the British and Irish Muggles, which Nicolai had declared 'hardly surprising,' since Matt's bloodlines had far more direct links to the ancient kings of Britain and Ireland than any Muggle bloodline of the modern day. It also confirmed what the wizarding world had suspected for a long time, namely that the stone in Edinburgh Castle was a fake, instead of it just having lost its magic over time. Matt had desperately wanted to keep the Lia Fail's reaction to him under wraps, but Gudrun would have none of that and openly bragged about being a queen.
The most important find, however, had been the remains of the Umbral Gate of Caer Sidi, along with information about the location of another similar gate in the Tibetan Highlands, which used to be the link to the city of Shamballah. As far as Nicolai had been able to tell from the documents found in the secret chamber, the Tibetan Umbral Gate had been closed on the other side to prevent corruption by the unworthy. Over time, the gate in the Earth Realm had fallen into disrepair and was eventually smashed to pieces by marauding Yeti. Between the wreckage of the two gates, Nicolai had had enough material to rebuild one gate, which he did. The new Umbral Gate was placed in a newly-built complex outside Concordia, where traffic through this gate could be easily monitored and defended against, if necessary.
Harry shook his head in disbelief. "They're opening the gate tomorrow already? I assume it's been tested to see if there's anyone on the other side?"
"Hermione, Captain Kovalenko and I went through the gate with Nicolai," Ginny said.
Harry received the news with mixed feelings. He was a bit uneasy about Ginny taking such a risk, even though he knew that she was very much able to handle herself in a scrap. "You should have waited for me to return."
"We would have, but one of the scrolls Nicolai found in the chamber at Caer Sidi predicted a favourable reception for those who would first appear through the gate, after it was reopened."
"How so?" Harry asked.
"Long ago, the younger brother of one of Shamballah's rulers came to our realm to keep an eye on things from this side of the gate. Then the line of kings died out, and shortly before the gate was closed they sent through a written prophecy about a descendant of that younger brother who would reopen the gate after fifteen centuries. The descendant would have been reared in his evil house, but would also have rejected the evil, in the same way the first ruler of Shamballah had. The first thing the reception committee did when we came through the gate was to ask us who had opened the gate on our side. Then they put Nicolai through all sorts of tests to establish his identity—Hermione said it reminded her of the tests for the Dalai Lama."
"So he's the ruler of Shamballah?"
Ginny grinned from ear to ear. "Nicolai is a king, just like Matt. Unlike Matt, though, it's more than just pedigree. Nicolai has a kingdom."
"Bloody hell, a lot has happened in my absence."
"That ought to teach you not to leave for four whole weeks."
"Why didn't anybody let us know?"
"Faust didn't want you distracted," Gudrun said, while she ineffectually tried to wipe some of the potion off her tunic. That was when Harry noticed her new rank insignia.
"You're a lieutenant?"
Gudrun beamed. "Yeah. Captain Yee relinquished her command, though she'll still be working for a few more years to train the newcomers—we've got three new kids lined up to join us this summer. Yousef's captain now, and Tarana didn't want the lieutenant spot, so I got it."
Harry grinned. "Just as well. Oliseh isn't bossy enough."
Gudrun shrugged. "I can't help it. I like bossing people around. What can I say? I was born to be a queen!"
"You certainly don't look like one now, Your Majesty." Ginny quipped as she ran her finger across Gudrun's cheek and wiped off some potion.
"Whoa, wait, hold on!" Harry sputtered. "Nicolai is the ruling monarch of an ancient lost magical civilisation like Atlantis, and you two are acting like nothing happened?"
"He's not the ruling monarch yet. He still needs to be crowned," Gudrun pointed out.
"I take it he won't become a Ranger anymore, with so much responsibility," Harry ventured. "Unless it's okay for monarchs to be at the front lines?"
"Nicolai says he won't assume control over the kingdom immediately, since the ruling council seems to have been doing well enough without him. He's planning to name a regent to keep an eye on things in his stead, until he's ready himself."
"Why wouldn't he be ready? He's a genius."
"He's not perfect, though. It took him a while to work out that he was in no position to use his newly acquired parenting personality on Mary, remember?" Ginny said.
Harry nodded. He'd seen Nicolai treat Mary like the rebellious teenager she was, and he'd also realised that, being Mary's lover, Nicolai couldn't treat her in that manner. He would have pointed it out to Nicolai, but he'd been convinced that the young man would work it out for himself. "Ah, so who's going to be regent?"
"We don't know, but my Galleons are on Ironheart. He's been a tad bored ever since retiring, and such an assignment would be right up his alley."
Gudrun chuckled. "Yeah, a whole new world to explore and exotic female beings to seduce … if he can give Aria the slip."
"And Mary?" Harry asked. "I bet she's itching to go too."
"We haven't told her yet." Gudrun shook her head. "She's really been behaving like a prima donna since she found out about Matt and the Stone of Destiny. She'd have turned really insufferable if we'd told her about this."
"Gee, now who does that remind me off?" Ginny said sarcastically.
Gudrun's cheeks turned pink. "Point taken, though you have to admit I'm not nearly as bad as she is."
"Could be her hormones," Ginny suggested.
"That's probably got something to do with it," Gudrun conceded. "Mine wreaked havoc on my behaviour too. Anyway, she's not going anywhere until she finishes her education." She paused to check her watch. "You still have another fifteen minutes to go, but I guess I can let you off early to spend some quality time with your husband."
"You're most gracious, Your Majesty." Ginny bowed with flourish.
"Enough of that already."
"As you wish, Your Magnificence."
"Ginny, I'm warning you!"
X
"Daddy!" Richard squealed, and trudged through the seven inches of snow as quickly as his short legs allowed him to. Snow was uncommon in the temperate climate of Concordia, and really quite rare in such quantities. Harry met his son halfway, and a warm feeling spread through Ginny as Harry plucked their son off the ground and twirled him around.
"Good Lord, Richie, you've grown," Harry said as he looked as his son. "Unless war breaks out, I'll never accept four-week missions again," he added, turning to Ginny. Then he ran his hand through Richie's unruly black hair, knocking the boy's earmuffs askew. "He needs a haircut."
Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Why? You can't possibly be ashamed of his hair. He's inherited it from you, after all."
"Honestly, Ginny, he's beginning to look like a hedgehog."
"I don't know … he looks just like you when I first met you," Ginny said, looking at them fondly.
"Dunno… he's got my hair and eyes, but his face is all Weasley. He reminds me of Bill, actually," Harry said, and Ginny had to agree with him. Richie did take after Bill.
"Sometimes he makes a face that's all you, though."
"Well, the real deal's back now, so there's no reason to let our son grow scruffy to satisfy your nostalgia and—" Harry paused, sensing their niece Rosie's clumsy attempt at sneaking up on him. With uncanny quickness he dodged the small snowball. "Hah, you're too sl—" The rest of Harry's sentence was cut short by a direct hit to his left ear.
Ginny laughed heartily at her husband's discomfort.
"Don't laugh. It's a nasty feeling," Harry grumbled as he furiously prodded his finger into his ear.
"Good one, Robert," a pink-faced strawberry blonde girl, Percy's eldest, praised, identifying the assailant. Ginny saw the boy smirking triumphantly with his arms crossed—a pose his father often adopted—while Grace stroked his shoulder admiringly, much to six-year-old Rachel Kelly's chagrin. She clearly didn't want the older girl, who had intruded on her territory and taken over as leader of the girls, becoming too familiar with her Robert. Ginny immediately knew whom the snowball Rachel was gathering was intended for.
Harry's eyes shone with youthful enthusiasm, and dumped Richard in Ginny's arms before he turned to Robert. "You do realise that this means war!" He looked at the Kellys' roof and wiggled his finger. A magical tremor ran through the roof, causing a bit of snow to slide off it.
Robert dove forward and broke his fall with a light roll, escaping the snow. After turning six he'd expressed his desire to learn martial arts, so Heidi had enrolled him in the Olsens' dojo, where he soon became the best in his age group, even besting children two years older than he. Grace, however, was caught flatfooted and was almost instantly turned into a living snowman, much to Rachel's glee.
"I'm going inside, Harry," Ginny called.
Harry didn't answer. He was busy erecting a snow fort with some wand-less magic, while Peter Faust joined Robert behind an existing fortress. Shaking her head, Ginny headed to the Wolfes' Den, where she found Hannah chatting animatedly with Heidi and Jasmine.
The children were spread out over the rug-covered floor. Scarlett, Percy and Hannah's youngest, was dressing up some rather popular Muggle dolls with Holly, Buttercup, and the Faust sisters. Gudrun's mum had bought the dolls for her own granddaughters, and Matt paid an expert wizard toy maker to prod some life into the dolls. As far away from the girls as possible, Henry Wolfe, Michael Faust and Nathan Kelly were huddled around their gobstones, while Xander Kelly watched them play. Heidi saw her coming and quickly conjured a chair.
Ginny put Richard down and took off his cloak, scarf and earmuffs, before she allowed him to scamper over to the gobstones game. Then she sat down and accepted a mug of hot chocolate from Heidi.
"How are you settling in at Ron and Hermione's?" she asked Hannah, after taking a sip from her chocolate. Ron and Hermione had decided to use the Christmas holidays to visit the family and introduce their youngest child, Christine, to the land of her forefathers. Knowing that Percy had to be in Concordia for the official opening of the Umbral Gate, they had offered their home for Percy and his family to stay in.
"It's a bit odd, waking up and seeing brooms, carpets and flying chariots cruising outside. Even though we've been here before—"
Heidi nodded. "One never really gets used to it, I know."
"Shamballah was a bit like this," Ginny said.
"Yes," Jasmine said, turning towards her. "What was Shamballah like?"
"The city was huge, though it isn't as large as the largest Muggle cities. It had a lot of tall buildings, and the tallest one was about thirty-five hundred feet tall. The city wasn't filled with buildings, though. There were large open spaces filled with plant-life, as if there were a conscious effort to include nature. I guess you'll have to see it for yourself."
"What about the people? Did they look like us?" Hannah asked.
"Some did, but they were a minority. I think most species capable of interbreeding have done so to some extent," Ginny said, remembering all the exotic-looking people.
"Funny, though, I didn't read anything about Shamballah in Pecos Bill's book."
"From what I understand, Pecos Bill spend most of his time on the opposite side of the Mirror Realm. It's a big place."
"Charlie and I talked about moving there for a few years," Jasmine said. "The Magi-zoological Institute really wants to continue mapping out the Mirror Realm's fauna, and with the possibility for continuous travel now established, they're looking for volunteers."
Ginny frowned. "What about Charlie Jr? Even if we've now got a working gate, it won't be easy to reach you in the Mirror Realm."
"We're going to ask him when he's back for Christmas. If he'd rather have us closer by, we won't go. If he says it's okay, Molly could be his temporary guardian while we're away."
"Wow, that would be quite an adventure," Hannah said enviously. "But where would you live? Do you really think it would be safe there? I read in Pecos Bill's book that the Mirror Realm is a pretty wild land."
"Apparently not Shamballah and it's fiefs. Anyway, my cousin Nicolai managed to forge some connections that would greatly help Charlie on his way with regards to his research, and our lodgings," Jasmine said, though she looked a bit sceptical.
Ginny smirked. Jasmine wasn't privy to the knowledge of Nicolai's Royal status in Shamballah, though she probably would have found out easily enough if she'd employed her Mind Reading gift. If she only knew…
"What are you smiling about?" Hannah asked.
"Work-related business. Nothing I can talk about here."
"Then we won't ask," Heidi said resolutely. "So, did you come to take Richie and Holly home? Should I began singing the 'So Long, Farewell' song?"
Ginny smiled. Whenever it was time to go, and Ginny separated Holly from the toys, her dear daughter began to wail and throw tantrums as if she'd never be allowed to return. The song Heidi always sang went a long way towards calming her down.
"Not right now. Harry wanted to see the kids right away, but we'll be going home to spend some quality grownup time with each other."
"Really?" Hannah leered and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yes, really. We're married, you know! There's no need to be so juvenile about it."
"If you want Harry to have some energy left for you, you'd better rescue him from the children," Jasmine said, regarding the snowball fight outside.
"No, I'll let him play for a while. Experience has taught me that his playful mood won't go away for hours!"
"Hey, don't flaunt your good fortune in front of the less fortunate," Heidi grumbled, and the temperature in Ginny's intestines dropped momentarily. Then she noticed the twinkle in Heidi's eyes, which told her that Heidi wasn't as bothered by the absence of a love life as she used to be.
Ginny reached over and took Heidi's hand. "Thank you for making it possible."
Heidi shrugged, then fondly gazed at the children playing in the room. "There are days when I'd rather be by myself, but they're few and far between. I really love my children." She sighed. "It would be nice to have some of my own someday."
"If you want to meet a man, you'll have to go out there," Jasmine said impatiently.
"She shouldn't settle for just any man, though," Hannah said cautiously. She turned to Heidi. "Maybe you ought to consider a matchmaker—a good one, of course. I know it seems old-fashioned, but I've heard nothing but good stories about the legitimate matchmakers."
Heidi shook her head. "My mother and father were match made. They got along well enough, but there was no love there. After my dad's embarrassing mistake with the quarter-giantess—that's the way his family sees it—they didn't take any chances. And it's not like they haven't tried to marry me off ever since I came of age. Ugh, they wanted to marry me off to my fifth cousin, never minding that the blödes arschloch tried to fondle me at a Gravenstein family reunion when he was sixteen and I was ten. They wouldn't believe me when I told them. Or perhaps they believed me, but they put their greed before my wellbeing."
"That's horrible!"
"I was their ticket back into the Gravenstein ancestral castle, and they were too keen on getting back into it to care about my feelings." Heidi shuddered. "They didn't even care how awkward it would be for me to marry someone with the same surname."
"They wanted you to marry another Gravenstein?"
Heidi nodded. "He's the eldest son of the eldest son of the castle's current master. They're the original German Gravensteins," she continued to explain. "My great-grandfather is the first Austrian-born Gravenstein. My great-great-grandfather was the youngest out of five sons sired by the contemporary lord of the castle, and the elder sons were married off to German pureblood wives. There were no pureblood wives left for my great-great-grandfather in any of the neighbouring states, so they looked for a wife in Austria. My great-great grandfather moved to Austria, which is how the Austrian branch came to be."
"Your husband-to-be was Karl von Gravenstein, eh?" Jasmine said grimly.
"Have you met him?" Heidi asked.
"Unfortunately!" Jasmine snorted. "Anastasiou sent me to snoop on your German kin once. I posed as Paula Rheinhart's niece. Karl tried to grope me as well, and I hexed his privates off for his insolence. I was thirteen— you know, I think he groped us both in the same year. I'm about two and a half years older than you are, so the times match."
Hannah gasped. "You hexed off his John Thomas?"
"His cojones too. I left him looking like a Ken doll." Jasmine nodded to an undressed male doll that was pacing about impatiently, waiting to get dressed.
Heidi, Ginny and Hannah giggled.
Jasmine shook her head. "They're not pleasant people. Lots like the Malfoys, actually. Manic about pure blood and all that, and not squeamish about using Dark spells and artefacts."
"I know. Thankfully my grandaunt Isane reminded my grandfather and the others who wanted me to marry Karl, of our German cousins' sympathy for Voldemort in the first war. In the end, they decided that associating with our German kin too closely wouldn't do their image any good in Austria, so they abandoned their plan."
Ginny nodded and took another sip of her chocolate. She certainly understood Heidi's aversion to matchmaking. It inevitably meant family interference.
"No, her Austrian relatives weren't Voldemort supporters, Hannah," Jasmine spoke up. She turned to Heidi. "Hannah was wondering about that, but she didn't have the nerve to bring it up."
Ginny frowned, but she knew that Jasmine wouldn't have touched on the subject without a good reason. Hannah looked mortified and began to stammer an apology.
Heidi smiled and raised her hand to forestall the apology. "That all right, Hannah. I myself was wondering whether any of you would ask that question."
Which was why Jasmine got it out in the open! Ginny caught Jasmine's eye, and her eldest sister-in-law smiled a bit bashfully, probably doubting the wisdom of her action despite the fact that she had known that Heidi had been okay with it.
"It's simple, really," Heidi explained. "My father was the only pureblood in his generation of Gravensteins, and I am the only one in mine. Grand Uncle Titus married a Muggle-born witch and Grand Uncle Gustav a halfblooded one with a Muggle parent. So my father's Gravenstein cousins aren't purebloods and their children aren't either, according to the minimal pureblood standard. Our German kin, however, did manage to remain purebloods, though Grand Aunt Isane tells me marriages between second cousins became the norm rather than the exception because of that."
"Makes for a pretty shallow gene pool," Jasmine said derisively. "I suppose that's why so many of them have the same chins and noses."
Heidi grinned. "So it wasn't just my imagination! Anyway, since my closer relatives aren't pureblood, they didn't have any reason to support Voldemort—stop flinching, Hannah, he's been dead for ten years and he's not coming back."
"Sorry … I'm not as brave as you three," Hannah said softly.
Ginny laughed. "I wouldn't be so sure. It takes a lot of guts to marry into the Weasley family."
"Thanks, Ginny," Hannah said gratefully.
"Aunt Jasmine," a complaining voice wailed. "The boys are bothering our dolls!"
Ginny looked in the children's direction and saw that the boys had abandoned their gobstones game in favour of pestering the girls. Michael Faust was trying to force a struggling Ken into an evening gown, while Nathan Kelly was doing his best to decapitate Malibu Barbie. Henry was timidly trying to persuade them to stop. Richie and Xander had grabbed the opportunity to play with the older boys' gobstones.
"Nathan, Michael," Jasmine said sharply. "Should I tell your mothers that you've been behaving badly?"
"We want to play too," Michael protested.
"Then you should play nicely, and not try to break the dolls."
"Yes, Aunt Jasmine," Nathan and Michael droned simultaneously, before they dropped the dolls and headed towards the door.
"Hold it, you can't go outside without your coat!" Jasmine flicked her wand a few times, and a pair of cloaks, scarves and hats soared off their pegs to wrap themselves around the boys. "Right, now you're ready."
Ginny whistled. "Impressive charm work."
"Runs in the family," a male voice sounded from the doorway. Ron was leaning against the doorjamb nonchalantly, with Harry one step behind him, looking like several emotions were fighting for supremacy within. Ron glanced around the room. "So you've turned the place into a day care centre, eh?"
"Honestly, Ron," Ginny began. "What are you—you've seen this place before—why are you even here? Did something happen in England?" she asked, feeling a slight panic coming on.
"That's not Ron," Jasmine said brusquely. "I don't think you came back to celebrate Christmas with us, did you, brother?"
X
Harry impatiently eyed the disguised Wolfe as they hovered above the eastern part of the forest, where it met the hills. Try as he might, he couldn't read Wolfe's mind. It was locked up tightly.
Not too far beneath them, a trio of very tall redwood trees swayed in the—thankfully—very gentle breeze, for a stiff wind would have made the cold much more unpleasant. Wolfe had suggested that they take a pair of brooms and go flying. To any observer it would seem like a couple of friends having picked out a crisp cold day to go for a ride. To the east he saw crowds of people using the snow-covered hills for sledding, including the Citadel's hill. His enhanced eyesight enabled him to see Aberforth escort some kids off the slopes.
"Yamato is coming," Wolfe said abruptly. "He'll try to cross through the gate tomorrow."
Years of training had taught Harry to curb his emotional responses to bad news, and his thoughts remained clinical. There was something else he needed to know first. "Does Ron know that you're impersonating him?"
Wolfe shook his head. "I broke into The Burrow and plucked his hair off a comb. Don't worry, I didn't have to break the wards to get in," he added, upon seeing Harry's disapproving frown. "Apparently I'm not blacklisted there yet."
"The girls are redheads too. How did you know which strands were Ron's?"
"It was easy. I can smell the difference between male and female hair."
"How did you get into Concordia?"
"The illegal way."
"Let me guess—with a different face? The Thieves' Fellowship has the means of detecting Polyjuiced people," Harry pointed out. "Or can you become invisible without a cloak, too?"
"No, but you should be able to."
Harry blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
"It's part of the powers bestowed upon us by Novoridu's Talismans." Wolfe sighed. "You haven't been practising, have you? Had you done so, you would have discovered it by now. You can already render yourself intangible, right?"
"And how would you know what powers I have?"
"I already told you, the plans are in our minds. When I discovered that power, I searched for it. I didn't find it inside of me, so we can conclude that you must have it."
"What if you're imagining things?"
"Come on, Harry, you know better than to ask that question."
Wolfe's superior attitude was beginning to annoy Harry, even though he was right, which annoyed Harry even more. "Well, did you discover any other spiffy new powers?"
"I can duplicate myself thirty-one times now, and I can sustain a single duplicate for eight whole days. I have upped my number of Animagus forms to sixty-seven. As far my new powers are concerned, I've learned to grow as big as a large giant, and as small as a pixie. I've also uncovered Meta-morph magic, though I'm obviously not proficient yet, or else I wouldn't have had to use Polyjuice Potion."
"Bloody hell, I'm beginning to think I was short-changed when the powers were divided."
Wolfe shook his head. "I'm sure that we each got half—and can we go back to the original subject?"
Harry knew better than to ask Wolfe if he was certain about Yamato's impending visit. "How did you find out that Yamato will try to cross the gate tomorrow? There's going to be a lot of security. It would be more prudent for him to wait."
"He doesn't have that much time anymore, and there isn't any place for him to run to. I assume you know that—since leaving the Order—I've been doing my best to convince the underworld that working with Yamato will earn them my immediate animosity, which is very bad for their health."
Harry failed to suppress a small shiver as he remembered Medea Aconit's fate. "Go on."
"The day before yesterday, a former supplier of his turned him away to avoid risking my … displeasure."
Harry smiled wryly. That was the understatement of the century. "He must have heard about your visit to that Dark wizard tavern, Hellekuil, in the Netherlands."
"How can you be sure that it was me?" Wolfe asked with a stony expression on his face.
"Only you could have caused that much devastation without drawing a wand."
"I could have been a vampire."
"The vampires who are old and powerful enough to pull off something like that all had an alibi. Besides, they wouldn't have walked away from the blood-flow buffet your swordplay caused. I wonder, though, why you didn't kill any of them. Why did you only cut off limbs, specifically, an arm and leg off each one?"
"So they can devote the rest of their lives to contemplating the ultimate cost of their decision to turn evil."
"An arm and a leg?"
Wolfe smirked. "Just giving them a leg up into the realities of life … arm them with the necessary perspective."
Harry couldn't believe that Wolfe was just laughing off his brutality like that. "You've never been funny, Wolfe, and now isn't the time to start."
"Whatever you say, kid." Wolfe's smirk evaporated into a grave expression. "While you might not see the humour in it, you will understand its effectiveness."
Harry shrugged. "So it intimidated one wizard into turning him away."
"Zhang wasn't the first one to turn Yamato away."
That name rang a bell. A wizard black-marketer by the same name had been found dead the previous day. Harry didn't know the specifics yet, but it had been pretty ugly. "The Shanghai smuggler?"
"My guess is that Yamato got desperate after having been turned down by others. He probably thought that Zhang's death would frighten the others into re-establishing co-operation, and it probably would have, save for one variable."
"Which was?"
"Master Lei taught me that, when trapped between two fires, people tend to try and defy or put out the less threatening one in order to escape." Wolfe's predatory grin made Harry's skin crawl. "They're more afraid of me. Early this morning, local Indian time, Yamato went back to the people who had previously turned him away, but it seems his previous allies and suppliers have marked him for death. He'd have walked into a trap if he hadn't been so paranoid."
"What happened?"
"Yamato has created several golems that look exactly like him. He can control them from afar when they impersonate him. One of the golems was destroyed. I already suspected him of having some kind of decoy, since at times certain activities seemed to suggest that he was in two places at once."
"Our operatives heard nothing about a decoy."
"The Order's informants are too low in the criminal hierarchy for the news to have filtered down to them in a single day, and seeing that it happened less than twelve hours ago—"
"They don't know about this yet," Harry finished. "Which makes me wonder how you found out so quickly."
"The Dark Trolls leave me messages in designated places. Yamato thinks they obey him, but they still consider me their master."
"What?" Harry exclaimed. "Then why didn't you order them to kill Yamato?"
"Gee, could you have been a little louder?" Wolfe said sarcastically.
"All right," Harry whispered. "It's a valid question, though. Don't tell me you didn't do it because you want to kill Yamato personally."
"That is part of the reason, but not the main one. Like I said, he has decoys, and I knew of them before I allowed the Dark Trolls to infiltrate. Yamato is no fool, and I know he wouldn't trust the trolls in his presence."
"They only got to see the decoys?"
"In their messages they told me that they only saw him for a few hours every day, after which he retired to a heavily shielded room. Sort of sounds like a doll going back into a closet to recharge, doesn't it?"
Harry nodded in agreement. It certainly sounded like that. However, it also sounded like Yamato was too weak to attempt a storming of the Umbral Gate. "I don't mean to sound cocky, but from the way you describe things I gather that he'll never be able to get past the Order, even if he does make it into Nomad Island. How was he planning to do that, by the way?"
"Through memories of my time with the parasitic personality, I know that he still has a reasonable amount of resources tucked away. He can easily create a breach in Nomad Island's anti-teleportation wards, like the Order and the Thieves Fellowship do, and he can launch a reasonably effective diversionary assault that will tie up any defenders long enough for him to make a dash at the gate."
"If the attack is less intense than the one at Laketown, it can easily be stopped before he gets the chance to reach the gate, especially if you help too."
"With either of us present, his attempt would be doomed." Wolfe nodded. "He doesn't know that I'm here—and I'm certain that he doesn't have any spies here who can alert him to the fact that Ron Weasley was in two places at once—so that leaves only you to lure away from Nomad Island. It'll happen shortly before the start of the opening ceremony."
"But now that you've warned me, I won't go."
Wolfe heaved an annoyed sigh. "Have you forgotten everything I ever taught you? He'll pick targets which deprive you of that choice."
The bottom dropped out of Harry's stomach and cold sweat broke out of his pores despite the cold. Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys were in danger. "I have to leave for England immediately!"
"Calm down. He needs you away when he makes his move here, remember? If he launches his diversionary attack in England too early, you'll defeat his forces and be back before he gets the chance to make a run for the gate. My guess is he'll do it about forty-five minutes to an hour before the start of the ceremony, tomorrow. The ceremony starts at four, so that's three 'o clock, to be on the safe side."
"Still, we've got to get the Weasleys out of there," Harry said anxiously.
"If the Weasleys just disappear without any explanation, Yamato will suspect that something is up."
"Then he'll abort his plan."
"No, he won't. He'll probably pick Diagon Alley as a new target. Several of your school friends work there, don't they? Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, and it will be packed with people."
"Damn it!" Harry cursed.
"The Weasleys will have to be bait until the last possible moment, but with a few Portkeys we can ensure that they're whisked out of harm's way on time. I don't like the plan either," Wolfe said earnestly. "But if we keep Yamato's attention focussed on the Weasleys, we can save a lot of lives. It would be much harder to keep everyone in Diagon Alley safe."
"You're right," Harry said through clenched teeth.
Wolfe made no reply to that. Instead, he nodded to the city. "Let's fly a few laps before going back home. Then we'll head to the Citadel to inform Faust and Sanzotti."
XXX
Gogirl: About the review you got; if the reviewer took time to point out what you were doing wrong and why, and offered tips on how to improve, it's constructive too. But I see what you mean. There has to be something good somewhere in you fic, right? Be very careful with the " I realised that it was only one negative review out of a bunch of positive" attitude, though. Read the story Awakenings by ThePainBelow and the review I left to see what I mean. It is the only critical review among 58, but if that author only listens to the ass-kissers any future improvement is out of the question.
About your other question; Funny that you brought it up. :-)
aznanarchy: I'm glad you liked the idea of the Doxy Anti-venom. I knew that Nicolai would never be enticed to do something irresponsible if he could help it, so I had to put him in a state where he had no control.
glitter8262: Don't hesitate to review also if you think you see an apparent flaw in the fic.
Chloe Black: I too hate it when I don't have access to the net. My sympathies.
NCDSbookworm: Have fun, wherever you are.
blah29: Chapter 4 was intentionally a slow one, the calm before the storm of the next couple of chapters.
maaike-fluffy: Ik heb zo lang geen Nederlands meer geschreven, dus neem mij eventuele grammaticale fouten niet kwalijk.
Zo, leuk om een lezer uit eigen land tegen te komen. Bedankt voor je feedback. Wat de personage Dagobert Wortelgraaf betreft had ik eigenlijk geen grote rol in gedachte. Er komt echter wel een nieuwe Nederlandse Ranger bij, en die zal een iets uitgebreidere rol hebben. Zou je misschien een naam willen voorstellen? :-) Je mag haar ook naar jezelf vernoemen … dan krijg je elke keep dat ze in het verhaal verschijnt een soort cameo. Of het mag een totaal verzonnen naam zijn. (Ik kan mij best voorstellen dat jij enige anonimiteit wilt behouden en je echte naam voor jezelf wilt houden.) Anyway, als je interesse hebt kun je het per e-mail laten weten.
Ja, ik heb het werk van Caitlyn zeker gelezen, hoewel het nu al een tijd geleden is. Ik kan het echter niet nadoen omdat de oudste zoon van Harry en Ginny nog geen drieëneenhalf is op dit tijdstip in het verhaal.
Infinite13: I 'm happy to hear you find my stories so captivating,
Fragarach: I see you caught the "sound-effect." And you were right about Sleeping with the Enemy. Point to you.
Foxfur: Point to you for seeing the Star Trek connection. As for Mary being a bit spoiled; her father is the richest wizard in the world.
Bluerain22: Oh, don't worry. I'll definitely finish the series before going back to canonise it. (if I choose to do so)
Elric Magus: Wow, you took the time to review almost every chapter of Union and Mind War. And you've reviewed all the chapters here too. Thanks!!! Glad my explanation for Nicolai knocking Mary up lived up to your expectations. I was a bit uncertain about whether it would be good enough for my readers.
Lioness-07863: Not to worry, there will be a chart at some point.