When I came to, it was night, it was cold, and it was windy. I could immediately tell that I'd been stripped of my duster from the fact I was shivering. The smell of saltwater and crash of waves suggested I was outside near the ocean. Also, something was threatening to rip my right arm out of its socket, making playing at being unconscious not worth it.
Opening my eyes, I could tell that I was sitting on a large boulder atop a cliff. The full moon's light streamed down upon the scrubland to my left and the sudden drop to the crashing ocean to my right. Several large braziers were set up in a circle around the area to provide firelight, though I was far enough from the nearest one that I was still close to freezing beneath the thin white robe I'd been dressed in.
I was sitting across a ritual circle from Sirius Black, in his human form and dressed in the same white robe. Well, not directly across. The circle was marked into thirds, and the giant snake Voldemort had possessed at the theater was coiled in the third spot around the large diagram. The stupid snake got a brazier close by to keep it warm. A seemingly-inanimate, human-sized scarecrow was propped in the middle of the circle and drapped in a black robe.
Also like me, Black's arm was manacled, though it was his left arm versus my right. I looked up and realized that both of our arms were bound to stout ropes leading up through a pulley system into a complicated gantry that was basically a crane arm or gibbet dangling a structure over the edge of the cliff. The hanging object was a human-sized birdcage… and Mathilda was trapped inside, also dressed in what had to be sacrificial robes. She still seemed out of it.
"Yes. You might be able to get loose," Mavra's voice grated from behind me, explaining, "but can you do it without her falling? Between the two of you and the pulleys, you're not quite being dragged down after her. If one of you gets out… she certainly falls to the rocks below." I could smell the grave stench of her breath as she moved closer and whispered in my ear, "A certain sidhe princess was willing to pay me extra to ensure she dies, but if you're good I'll just make her into a new child to replace some of those you've denied me."
"Even if you could get out," Crouch added, manner jolly as he emerged from behind one of the braziers, "we've taken all your gear. Had to leave it on the body doubles to sell the bit. I doubt Moody will be fooled for long, but a few hours of confusion is enough to cover up an abduction quite nicely."
"How'd you even have time to switch our clothes without him catching you?" I wondered out loud, while furiously trying to figure out how I was going to escape from my regularly-scheduled annual death trap.
He explained gamely, "It's not like undressing charms are hard, and Nott popped his head around a building and let Mad-Eye chase him for a minute."
"No names!" Nott shouted from down the hill, probably working on whatever ritual they were using.
"It's not like your identity's much of a secret at this point, old bean," Crouch chided. The snake hissed, and he apologized, "Yes, master. Sorry. Just explaining to Dresden why he shouldn't try to escape."
For some reason, my left hand hadn't been bound, which seemed like an oversight, and I used it to confirm my belt, vest, and amulet were missing. That gave me cover to use my bound hand to feel that my ring was still in place. It wasn't super shiny, the runework was subtle, and it wasn't really enchanted, it was a focus, so they may have missed that it was a threat in their hurry. Hopefully they'd missed Mathilda's as well, but at the very least I'd be able to send a message to our friends if I could figure out where we were.
The cage Mathilda was in really wasn't much more than enough metal wire to keep her from squeezing out without them being able to drop it or stun her before she could escape. After all, too much weight on the thing and it would just drag Black and me over the edge anyway: as emaciated as he was, Black probably didn't weigh much more than Mathilda. That gave me a few options to get her out quickly. A simple cutting charm might manage it, and I was good at doing those wandlessly.
"Tell Remus I'm sorry," Black babbled in a moment of semi-lucidity while I planned. They'd finally trimmed down the rest of his hair and beard, making his missing ear more prominent. "I didn't realize he was there! You told him I was innocent? That it was the rat? I tried everything I could to let him catch me back at the village, but I have no control when I'm Padfoot! We got away from him. And my little cousin Nymphadora?"
"Yeah, that's her. And Remus feels really bad about thinking you were the traitor all those years," I assured the possessed animagus. "Just try not to transform, and maybe we'll all get out of this."
"Good ol' Siri will be fine," Crouch chuckled. "He's going to live a long, safe life."
"Why didn't they call you last year?" I needled Crouch. "You're Macnair's replacement in this whole deal, right? Does it hurt that you only got read in when he got blown up?"
"I trust the Master's wisdom," he shrugged, though he flicked his tongue over his lips in what could have been annoyance. "Fewer people involved means fewer chances of capture. No one could have expected you to be such a persistent hindrance. But third time's the charm, right?"
"I think this is technically four, if you count the first possession attempt," I argued. "Not an auspicious number. Better let us go and try something else."
He chuckled. "I like you, Dresden. Shame."
"What's going on?" Mathilda groaned, waking up in the cage and getting her bearings. She was far enough over the edge of the cliff that she was really only visible by the flickering firelight reflecting off of her robes and the moon shining on her hair. I was caught for a moment in worry and fear. This was exactly what I'd been afraid of, getting involved with her. Another person for the bad guys to take away.
"Another resurrection attempt. They used guerrilla warfare to capture us," I hinted, hoping she was coherent enough to work out that I was making escape plans.
She cursed quietly in Welsh, as she realized the predicament she was in, testing the cage and making it sway enough that Black and my arms were jolted. "Sorry!" she said, catching how our obedience was being enforced. I thought I spotted her eyes widen in surprise as her thumb flickered over her hand, which I took as evidence that she'd also kept her ring.
I was having a hard time coming up with a workable plan. I didn't think they were stupid enough not to put up anti-apparition jinxes. This site might even be a permanent enough ritual space to have wards. The hillside below would be a shooting gallery if we tried to run that way. Maybe the wards didn't extend all the way down to the water, but trying to apparate mid-air wasn't exactly reliable in the best of times and the consequences for failure were pretty great.
Sticking charms were another thing I'd used a fair amount without needing a focus, due to my crafting work, but temporarily affixing a couple of pieces of leather to each other was a lot easier than freezing a pulley system long enough to cut myself and Black free and then retrieve Mathilda. If they just left us alone it would be no problem.
And, of course, any one of Nott, Crouch, Mavra, or the Voldemort-snake would probably be dangerous to me even if I was fully armed.
Speaking of armed, I was surprised to see my unicorn horn focus in Nott's possession as the masked Death Eater trudged up the hill and into view. If I could get hold of that, I could exorcise the snake. He had it placed on a tray that also included two wands, some pots of ritual components, and a small wooden box covered in sigils. The whole process was being treated gingerly, even more than I'd expect from an old man in the cold outdoors. Maybe I should just try a banisher to knock the stuff into the ocean.
"I'll stop you if you raise that hand," Mavra explained, still lurking behind me. I could hear the smugness in her voice as she explained, "Your heartbeat increased. It's almost as good as reading your mind."
Right, new step one was hoping I could knock a super-strong, preternaturally-fast vampire off the cliff behind me before trying anything else. I was really upset they weren't underestimating me nearly as much as they had the previous year. Even despite the chill, I started to sweat a bit. I wasn't sure how I was going to get out of this.
"The ritual of three by three," Nott began to intone, setting down the tray of items on a small table outside of the circle and withdrawing a pot of salve. "Three come to the circle. The most loyal servant," he dabbed a bit of the green ritual paste on the snake's head. Figured that Voldemort didn't have any real friends. "The enslaved foe," he walked over and daubed on Black's forehead, as Crouch held his head to keep him from squirming away. "And the recalcitrant enemy," he said, daubing my own head as Mavra's vice grip held it in place.
With both of her hands on my head, she couldn't exactly stop my left fist from flying free at the old man. He managed to twist so I didn't get him in the gut or the groin, but I felt like the crack I felt was his hip and not my hand. He snarled in pain as Mavra moved one hand off of my head to grab my arm, and Mathilda hissed as the jostling made her cage shake dangerously. "You're sure you need him alive?" the vampire asked. "This is risky."
"For now," he allowed, limping back around the circle to his tray and picking up the three foci. "Three wands, all with cores from the same phoenix, for rebirth," he explained, voice less certain from the pain. "The master's old wand, badly burned," he explained, placing a wand that was little more than charcoal in front of Black. Someone must have recovered it from the house Snape had burned Voldemort alive in. "The enemy's wand, too pure for this mortal world," he scoffed, setting my focus down in front of me with great wariness, though Mavra still held me in her rotting embrace. At least she was wearing robes so it wasn't much skin-to-skin contact. "And a new wand, for a new dominion," he finished, placing a slender wand that was maybe 11 inches long and, I guessed, made of holly in front of the snake.
I figured I now knew why they'd robbed Ollivander's.
It was at least small comfort to see that having to keep kneeling to place the foci was further messing up Nott's injury. Maybe he wouldn't be mobile if I could bring it to a fight. I kind of regretted the gesture, though. I probably should have used my shot to fire a cutting charm at the scarecrow in the middle of the circle, which was likely packed full of all kinds of gross stuff for Voldemort to use to form a new body.
"Finally, the three anchors," Nott began. "My lord, if you would remove yourself from Nagini?" The snake flinched as the smoke of Voldemort emerged from its body and hovered in wraith form above the circle, just over the scarecrow. "Two are already in place, and only one more remains," he said, flipping open the ring box to reveal an oversized, shiny gold ring set with a black stone that would have been uncomfortably large to wear, even for a signet ring. "My lady, if you would take it?" he asked Mavra.
"The curse only applies if you put it on," she disagreed. "And I need to keep hold of Dresden." She wasn't wrong. If she'd released either hand to take the ring, I'd have gotten enough mobility back to do something about it.
"Practice your occlumency, Nott," Crouch suggested, flippantly, from where he was still making sure Black didn't try anything. "It's only a death curse if you succumb to the compulsion and put it on." Well I didn't like that at all.
"Fine," Nott agreed, treating the ring box like a live grenade as he walked it over to me. Mavra wrenched my left hand up toward him, but she couldn't both control my arm and bring her strength to bear on my fingers. The old man certainly didn't have the strength in his palsied hands to pry my fist open, especially when he had to be so careful of the ring.
I was just winging it, trying to stall out the ritual. While she could only control my arm, Mavra's strength was too much for me to even think of shoving her away or knocking the box off the cliff. He'd started when the full moon had been highest in the sky, so I might only have to hang on for a couple of minutes.
But Voldemort's wraith had a better view of the proceedings, and was the one that had been there every time I'd messed up his plans previously. With a wavering sigh of spectral annoyance, he ordered, "Crouch. Kill the ssspare."
"Yes master," Crouch agreed, and then cast a negligent, "Diffindo!" to sever the ropes holding Mathilda's cage to the gantry.
She screamed as she plummeted, and in my own scream of anguish my fist went slack enough for Nott to pry it open and slam the cursed ring onto a finger.
And then I blacked out from the pain of the curse that began to mummify my hand alive.