"Send it back?" Healer Jordan asked. "What do you mean?"
"Yes, to the sacred site. To Ahura Mazda's altar. Where it has been since the beginning of time until this arrogant fiend stole it and brought it here."
"But if it was stolen once, it can be stolen again," Septima muttered. "How can we be sure that sending it back will work?"
"Once it is restored, it will be out of our hands. McCarthy's fate was sealed the moment he desecrated the altar. Letting him drown would have been a mercy; perhaps one he didn't deserve. The altar won't be vulnerable again for another millenium… it will be out of our hands by that point."
They had stretched the cloak over the five of them, pressed together in a dogpile, but still, it couldn't cover them all. Harry's legs, pressed against the icy floor and out of the cover the cloak, shook with cold. Septima extracted herself, claiming that she at least wasn't in danger of losing her magic as she didn't have any. Harry remembered what Besel had told her when they were in the Center, but didn't remind her. He simply followed her and helped her stretch the cloak over the others while placing Nio inside his shirt again.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Healer Jordan protested. "You should stay beneath the cloak."
"I'm okay, I had some extra time under there. You need it now. And Aminah's dad."
"You know my daughter?" Mr. Khan's voice tripped over his grief.
"Yes, she's my friend."
"Is she okay?"
"As far as we know, yes," Healer Jordan answered. "But the sooner we get this null thing away from the Center, the better. Then we can check on everyone."
"Does she still think… Do you know? Does she hate me? For what I did?"
"She and her mother deciphered a message from you… they've been trying to find you ever since."
Mr. Khan's gasped. Harry couldn't tell if it was in pain or relief.
There was a low groan and a sudden thrashing under the cloak that Harry and Septima had stretched over the others. The cloak didn't cover the three of them well and with Mr. Khan scuffling, it was nearly impossible.
"Stop, you must stop!" Healer Jordan cried out. There was grunting as the struggling continued and then just heavy breaths as the clash ended. "We'll deal with him, I swear to you. Right now, we must focus on getting all of us out of here safely, with our magic intact."
Mr. Khan uttered an anguished cry of acquiescence and the grappling stopped.
"Did you get his wand?"
"Yes," Mr. Khan answered as a sharp cracking made Harry flinch.
"You broke it?"
"He's too dangerous with it."
Healer Jordan started muttering drying and warming spells on the two men. Harry was relieved when he heard Healer Jordan also cast a binding spell on McCarthy at Mr. Khan's urging. The groaning earlier had apparently been McCarthy starting to come around.
"Do you have the rope that I was tied with?" Mr. Khan asked, his hands shuffling over the ice and gravel-covered ground as he searched for it.
"Ah, yes. Here it is. Good idea. The magical bindings could come undone. So how do we get rid of this null thing?" Healer Jordan asked.
"Ah! How are we going to do this? This is an impossible task! I need some of the oracle bones I've placed beneath the Center… certain ones! And this cloak…" there was a pause, and Harry felt the cloak move beneath his hands as Mr. Khan reached up and touched it. "I think with it, we can create the passage needed to send it back to it's honored home… where it can restore balance. If it is here much longer, all of the magical world will suffer. Well, and the non-magical world as well. We're all held in balance. But here. This is not the center of the world. It will throw everything off. It must be returned to the Naf. But it took me weeks to place those bones. We can't do it in time!"
"Ah, but Harry talks to snakes," Septima growled.
"What? Snakes?"
"We can get them. We just need to know which ones you need," Healer Jordan urged.
"Harry talks to snakes," Septima ground out again, clearly exasperated.
Healer Jordan took up the thread. "He'll ask them to retrieve the ones you need. The snakes know. They got them when we thought that they were what was attacking the Center… and they put them back when we realized that they were actually protecting the Center."
"What!? There's no way you could have done that. You were under the Imperius curse! You cou—!" McCarthy's scathing voice was eclipsed by a timely silencing charm cast by Healer Jordan. Again the cloak shook with the wrestling beneath it.
"Quiet! Blast you! Using an unforgivable curse! We'll deal with you soon!" Healer Jordan growled. "Mr. Khan, which oracle bones do you need?"
"How could snakes know which ones to get?"
"You tell me and describe the markings and I'll tell the snakes," Harry explained.
"But I can't even open my eyes in here. How are you going to see the symbols? How can I draw them?"
"Just trace them on my hand."
Harry spoke to Nio, asking the little snake to transfer to his wrist. "Nio, watch what he does."
"I can't look, Big Friend. The fire burns brightly," Nio said as he curled under Harry's arm.
"What was that hissing?" Mr. Khan sounded alarmed.
"I was just talking to Little Friend. It's okay. He's a friendly little snake. He says he can't look either."
Septima grunted and before she could say more, Harry stood up, leaving the shattered pieces of his cane on the floor where he'd been crouching. "Septima, let's lower the vessel back into the water."
He slid a bit on the ice, placing Nio back inside his shirt again. "Hold the cloak over yourselves."
Septima lurched across the floor, her outstretched hands finding Harry and pulling on him to steady herself. Harry reached out with his toes to find the vessel and then crouched down by it. He grabbed Septima's hand and showed her where the apron strings were. They groaned as they lifted it back into the pool.
"How does it melt the ice, but not burn through the apron?" Harry asked as it broke through the ice and then thudded gently against the side of the pool. Harry didn't bother to open his eyes. It was still too bright for him, but the others sighed in relief.
"The vessel has a greater impact on magical objects and beings. The apron must be mundane and very strong," Mr. Khan explained.
"How long do you think that apron will hold?" Harry asked Septima as he secured the apron again on the protruding rock on the ledge.
"I hope long enough for us to send it back. At least it isn't held together by magic. I sewed it myself."
"You must be good at sewing. It is so strong." Harry worried a hole in the knee of his trousers and realized that the magic that he'd used to repair the hole when he and Neville had fallen off the broom the week before was no longer working.
What else was held together by magic?
Harry crawled back to the huddle of figures under the cloak. He asked Nio to transfer to his wrist again.
"I've asked Little Friend to wrap around my wrist. He'll watch as you write the symbols on my hand and then we'll go find the other snakes and ask them to collect the bones you need."
Harry put his hand under the cloak where he thought Mr. Khan was huddled. It was blessedly warm. He turned his palm face up and Nio adjusted himself so that his head was hovering over Harry's palm.
"Er, wouldn't it be better if you watched, too?" Mr. Khan said as he sat up under the cloak and grasped Harry's hand.
"Naw. I can't see," Harry said.
"Like my Habibti? Blind?" Mr. Khan sighed, his hand trembling as he held Harry's.
"Yes, like Aminah."
"They need to be collected in this order. First Uruz." He drew an angular and upside-down U (ᚢ) on Harry's palm with a slanted base and one side shorter than the other. Mr. Khan repeated the shape several times until Harry was sure that Nio understood the symbol. Harry felt around on the ground and found the largest piece of his splintered cane.
"Okay, Nio, let's go find the oracle bones," Harry said, placing the snake under his shirt again. The cold was really affecting Nio. They needed to send the null thing away before they all froze. At least, when the vessel was in the water, it wasn't quite as frigid, though the ice didn't seem to be melting.
Harry hunched over and used the broken cane to find the exit from the cavern. He called out in Parseltongue, hoping that the snakes weren't so far away. He placed his free hand over the curled form of Nio against his belly, wanting to warm him more.
"I hear the Adelphi. They are coming," Nio said.
Harry stood still and listened. After a bit, he, too, could hear them. He waited.
"You called for us again? Legwalker?" It was the large snake who had reached Harry first.
"Thank you for coming. I know it is too cold for you. And, yes, we need to retrieve some of the oracle bones again. Can you help us? If we do this we can send the vessel back. The one that is making the ice."
"First you need them, then you don't, and now you need them again! You legwalkers! Make up your minds!"
"Yes, I know. We have been trying to figure this out."
"And so now you have?"
"Yes, I think so."
"And then will you all leave?"
"Yes, we'll go away as soon as we get rid of this thing. I promise."
"That would please us. Thank you. We will help you and then we'll be glad when you return to the up-above."
"Me, too. Believe me. Okay, so the first one we need looks like this," Harry knelt down on the path and used his broken cane to scratch the rune symbol in the dirt. "How does that look, Nio?"
Nio nudged at the waistband of Harry's trousers and Harry held up his shirt while the snake transferred to his wrist and stretched toward the scratched symbol in the dirt. "I think the lines need to be slightly closer together."
Harry smoothed out the dirt and tried again.
"That's better."
"Ah, yes. I remember that one. I'll go get it and other snakes to help as well," the big snake hissed as it slithered off.
Harry slipped his wrist under his shirt trying to protect Nio from the cold and turned around to walk back to the others. He was thinking about how Nio's grip on his wrist seemed loose and forgot to feel for the low entryway to the cavern.
His forehead found it and he staggered back as the floor tilted toward him. He sat down heavily, dropping his cane so that he could steady himself. Warm wetness dripped down the side of his face and tears sprang to his eyes.
Reeling from the pain and abrupt stop, he touched his hand to the corner of his eye.
Tears.
He captured a tear on his fingertip and gingerly felt with his other fingers for Nio's head. He smoothed the tear over Nio's silky scales. Nio twitched in surprise and then tightened his hold on Harry's wrist.
"What was that, Sthei cherio kisa?"
"I thought it might help," Harry said as he wiped another tear from his other eye and then felt his forehead until he found the gash (strangely mirroring his lightning scar on the other side of his head) and rubbed the tear over his torn skin. It stung a bit. He held his fingers over the wound as it knit itself back together. Wiping away the blood, his forehead was smooth again.
"It was like sunning on a rock! I feel like myself again. How is that possible?"
"A gift from the Phoenix, I think," Harry muttered as he felt around on the ground trying to find his fragmented cane.
"Reach farther in that direction, Big Friend. You almost have it," Nio directed.
Harry stretched a bit further and his sweeping hand finally made contact with the cane.
Harry placed Nio on his neck and then kept a hand outstretched above his head as he approached the cavern entrance again. He ducked through and his cane found the cloak covered forms on the ground.
"What happened?" Septima gasped.
"Oh," Harry reached up and touched the blood that was starting to dry on the side of his face. "I just found the entrance with my forehead. I healed it already."
Septima drew close to him, her breath warm on his forehead, and touched him with gentle fingers. "It must have been quite the cut to bleed so much! You're quite the sight!"
Harry gave a half-hearted laugh. He imagined he was quite the sight. But there were other things to attend to at the moment.
"I need to get the next symbol. The snakes will be coming back soon," Harry reminded her as he gently pushed past her to crouch down by Mr. Khan and felt around for the edge of the cloak.
Septima knelt down next to him, holding the cloak while Harry transferred Nio to his wrist. He noticed that she hadn't shied away from Nio this time, even though he'd been right under his chin while she looked at his forehead.
Out in the passageway, Harry gratefully accepted the oracle bone from the snakes and scratched the symbol of the next one in the dirt with Nio's assistance. Each time he gave the oracle bone to Mr. Khan who started arranging them in a circle on the floor of the cavern. He explained that they needed the four elements for stability and then between them others that would open the gateway and provide divine protection during the journey.
They had moved Bill McCarthy out of the protection of the cloak and bound him to a stalagmite formation on the far side of the cavern. He groaned on occasion, but seemed to be getting quieter and quieter. Harry imagined that it was the effects of the null vessel, even though it was in the water.
Septima and Healer Jordan stayed under the cloak while Mr. Khan and Harry worked on the bones.
Harry was out in the larger cavern getting the last oracle bone from Saoirse, the petite snake who'd helped organize the snakes the first time they had gathered the oracle bones.
"Thank you so much. You've all done so much to help us," Harry said.
"You are one of us, Snake speaker. You are our brother. And who knows? One day we may need your help," Saoirse said.
"Just let me know. I'll be there."
Harry had wandered a little farther into the large cavern to bid farewell to the Adelphi. Exhausted and hungry, he leaned against the wall; in the mental map he'd made of the space, it was just opposite of the passage they had used to enter the domed room. He felt a faint tapping reverberating through the wall and, when he stilled, he could hear it, too.
"Nio, do you hear that?" Harry asked, pressing his hand with the snake coiled on it to the wall.
"Yes, Big Friend. What could be making that sound? I don't think it is the Adelphi."
Harry rapped his cane against the wall in the shave-and-a-haircut rhythm and held his breath, waiting for the five-bobs response. It came moments later and when he pressed his ear to the wall he could hear muffled shouts telegraphed through the rock.
"There are people in there! Nio, do you think the snakes can reach them? Could they take a message?"
"I'll take a message, Sthei."
"You're feeling okay?" Harry was loathe to part from the little snake. The possibility weighed heavy in his gut.
"Your tears. They contain great healing."
They were far enough away from the null vessel that Harry was able to use the Scribunt loqui notes to write out a short message. He caught the paper as it fluttered by his lips and rolled it up for Nio who took the message and assured Harry in a muffled tone as he slithered away that he would return soon.
Harry waited a moment until he couldn't hear the snake anymore and then hurried back to the cavern with the pool, though he was careful to feel for the low lintel. He held the last oracle bone in his sweaty palm.
Harry passed the smoky bone fragment to Mr. Khan. They were ready to send the vessel back.
"Do you think the cloak will survive this?" Harry asked with trepidation as the group huddled around the edge of the circle that Mr. Khan had laid out.
"I don't really know," Mr. Khan sighed. "I hope so. But it's not like I've done this sort of thing before. I don't want to make you promises I can't keep."
McCarthy, from his captive position across the pool, started shouting ineffective curses when he realized what they were about to do. Healer Jordan jumped up and silenced him. She explained when she returned to the group that she had used a sharp rock to sever one of the apron strings and her own sock to fashion a gag.
"Way to put a sock in it, Medea," Septima commended. "I almost feel sorry for him."
"Well, the sock isn't that dirty since my recent bath in the pool," Healer Jordan chuckled. "I could have asked for one of Harry's."
"That would have been cruel and unusual behavior," Harry said, feeling a little giddy.
"Come on. Let's do this," Mr. Khan urged. His anxiety had increased once Harry had told the adults about the muffled voices behind the cavern walls. Healer Jordan and Septima speculated that it could be like the cave they had been trapped in when they first entered the tunnels.
"Yes, McCarthy had me set all sorts of traps connected to the rooms in the Center. Now that we've moved the oracle bones, those traps could have been triggered," he explained in a rush of nearly unintelligible words. "My Habibti could be trapped down here. Her magic could be drained and she might even have very little air to breathe. It is a wicked trap."
McCarthy struggled against his bonds and made a sound that sounded sickeningly triumphant. Harry's shoulders sagged thinking about his friends.
"We must place the cloak over the circle and the vessel. We need to focus, all of us, on sending the vessel back to the sacred Naf. The Naf is a place of immeasurable beauty, stark contrast of sky and earth, of water and fire and it is the center of the universe, the navel of eternity. Help me send it home."
At first, it was hard to imagine a beautiful belly button, but then Harry focused on the concept of a clear sky and striated mountains, he thought of the expanse of water contrasted with a brilliant sun. They chanted the words that Mr. Khan had taught them as they held the cloak over the circle of rune bones. The ground shook, bits of dirt and gravel rained down on them and the cloak rose up, ballooning under their hands and then was suctioned down almost pulled from their grasp as the cavern exploded with ice, water, and vapor.
Harry held on tight to the cloak and it flew up against his face, enveloping him in a warm hug that protected him from a good portion of the watery blast from the pool. He fell back and laid still while he tried to find his breath again.
"Where'd Harry go!" Septima's shout echoed off the walls. "Oh, no! It took him, too!"