CHAPTER 42 – Treasure hunt
The flames in the fireplace flared green and two humans stepped out, or rather, one did so while the other tumbled out as if she had dived in the fire on the other side. Grimgrin –the goblin who had been handpicked by director Ragnok to be the liaison with the wizards for his brusque personality and the hideous scar that prevented him from forming any expression that wasn't a feral grin– immediately noticed that neither was the entitled buffoon he was used to speak to: for one thing both were female, but more importantly those two had an air of power to them.
He had been sleeping in the adjacent room, as his custom, when he heard the floo connect. He only took time enough to grab his waraxe before rushing to meet who had been stupid enough to come to Gringotts in the middle of the night.
"I hate floo," commented the one who had tumbled out of the fireplace, a redhead smelling of sulphur and ash, as she picked herself up "If I never use one again it will still be too soon."
The other one –a raven haired woman that smelled of death and darkness– didn't respond to her companion's comment. Instead she kept her amethyst gaze on Grimgrin. He instinctively lowered his weapon, for every neuron in his brain was screaming to him that the woman was dangerous.
"Who are you?" he asked, forcing down the cold hand of fear he felt gripping his heart.
"Oh, sorry for waking you," said the redhead grinning "We didn't really expect to find anyone."
If she was perturbed by him being armed, she didn't show it in the least. On the other hand, her words hinted at them being thieves.
"We have a matter of the outmost urgency," stated the other, again looking completely unconcerned with his weapon "Kindly do point us at the bank director."
It wasn't a request, but an order, and one she expected to be obeyed. Right away. Grimgrin decided that director Ragnok could deal with the scary witches himself.
Director Ragnok's office was visibly more opulent than Grimgrin's. It was the kind of wasteful display of richness that Chandra found distasteful and Liliana appreciated, especially in her manor. Contrary to that, Ragnok himself was a direct person that went straight to the heart of the matter, though the redhead was realist enough to admit that it was at least partially due to the hour.
"I do not appreciate being woken, but you said it was a matter of the outmost importance, so speak," he barked once they were all sat at his desk.
"Are you familiar with the concept of phylactery?" asked Liliana, obviously the one more at ease with dealing with authority in a friendly manner.
"Dumbledore called them horcrux," supplied Chandra.
"No self respecting goblin would ever deal with a soul jar," replied Ragnok, his scowl deepening "If you're about to entrust one of those to me for safe keeping I will have to direct you away."
"On the contrary, we're here to eliminate one that is already inside the bank," explained Liliana in the same calm tone she had been using.
No need to worsen the goblin's mood by being anything less than calm and cordial, after all. It would be a bother if they had to fight their way to the vault and then back out.
"Unless it is one of your own vaults..."
"My friend here, Rose Potter, is also Lady Black and as such she should have access to Bellatrix Black's vault. Is that correct?"
"Ms. Lestrange's vault rights were transferred back to her person when she escaped from Azkaban. The Goblin Nation cares not for Wizarding laws not directly linked to the economy."
"Is that a no?" asked Chandra scrunching her face "It sounded like a no to me."
"You'll have to get Ms. Lestrange's permission to access her vault," stated Ragnok showing far more pointed teeth than necessary "This is non negotiable."
Silence descended on the room. The two planeswalkers exchanged a long look, almost as if they could communicate telepathically –which they actually could with Jace acting as a relay, but that wasn't the case– when in reality they were just used to reading each other: Liliana's smirk spoke of troubles, Chandra raised an eyebrow to convey her doubts, the necromancer shrugged and the pyromancer shook her head in surrender.
"Look Mr. Ragnok," said the redhead in an hesitant tone turning to stare at the goblin "We really needed to find that cup so we'd really appreciate if we could do this the easy way."
"And if I prefer the hard way?" hissed the director with a feral grin that showed far too many sharp teeth for anything not related to sharks "The Goblins are a warrior race. Unlike you wizards, we don't shy away from a small skirmish."
The way he said wizards one might think it was some kind of insult. Of course, considering the relationship between the two races, it was hardly surprising.
"Then you'll discover that Chandra Nalaar doesn't do small skirmishes," evenly replied the redhead leaning forward "I'll tear down this blasted bank brick for brick if necessary."
Ragnok ground his teeth, anger seeping off him in waves.
"Next time leave diplomacy to me, dear," commented Liliana gesturing two of her shades to take down the onrushing group of guards "We could avoid useless deaths."
"Like you weren't aiming exactly for that," snorted Chandra as she threw a fireball with her free hand, the other one occupied with dragging Ragnok's unconscious body as they made their way towards the vaults "We would have ended exactly in the same situation."
"Why yes, of course we would have," laughed the necromancer, the sound almost covered by the cries of the dying goblins "I was speaking about next time, in fact."
"A necromancer that wants to avoid deaths, what next?" replied the pyromancer smirking.
Things weren't going as smoothly as the two had hoped –getting the goblins' collaboration would have made the whole debacle much easier– but neither was going to shed any tears about it. They were no stranger to violence to get what they needed or wanted, though Chandra had to admit it was the first time she robbed a bank. She found it particularly funny that that first time came after she had stopped her activity as a thief.
The goblins were fighting fiercely as Ragnok had promised –alerted by the director himself through a rune cluster hidden under his desk– but while their silver armours protected them from direct spells, their weapons were completely ineffective against Liliana's shades. The incorporeal undeads, in turn, had little qualms with decimating the defenders, backed up by the redhead blowing up the corridors under the guards' feet or on their heads.
Truth to be told, Chandra wasn't exactly thrilled with all the needless killing. But she wasn't foolish enough to think she and Liliana could find a different way to accomplish their mission. Gideon's policy of incapacitating without killing had certainly its merits and the pyromancer espoused it with no reserve, but they could hardly punch into submission an army of heavy goblin infantry. Moreover, their specialities were especially unsuited for subduing without killing or at least maiming.
The duo made their way down into the cave system that held the vaults with little problem, but found their first obstacle in the rails: neither of them knew how to summon –or pilot– one of the carts and waking Ragnok wasn't really an option since he couldn't be trusted, so they were forced to walk along the rails, suspended above a gaping abyss. It was stupidly dangerous and slow going, but with no real alternatives they had no choice. They could hardly give up and walk away, after all.
The railway was mostly suspended and deserted, but it passed often enough near some open passages in the rocky cliffs making up the cave walls. Some lead to various vaults, helping the planeswalkers get a feel of how far they were from their target, while others disappeared into the earth, surely linked in a vast labyrinth of tunnels –no matter the plane, goblins loved their tunnels apparently– that let the guards keep coming for them.
Things, or at the very least Chandra's mood, took a turn for the worse when they first were forced to pass under a waterfall of all things, and then discovered that the bankers on Earth employed dragons as watchdogs. The problem weren't the dragons per se, rather the fact that they were chained, covered in badly healed wounds, and had obviously been tortured to ensure their complacency. The pyromancer was almost tempted to wake Ragnok and throw him into the gloomy abyss. Almost though, they still needed the director to open the vault door if what info Chandra had received in her role as Lady Black was to be believed.
The roller coaster-like nature of the tracks unfortunately was ill suited for walking on them: while dips and raises were mostly no problem, the rail contained near-vertical drops, steep climbs, missing parts that the fast carts simply flew over, and even points were the drive moved on the walls or the roof of the cave. Since taking their chances with the tunnels seemed like a terrible idea, Chandra summoned one of her spitfires –a birdlike elemental made of pure flames– to ride down. This in turn forced them to wake Ragnok to get directions, after having threatened him with a painful death followed by a long servitude in Liliana's care. The goblin proved to be receptive, especially when he realised how far they had come in the bank without injury.
In the end they landed before a pale skinned, blind dragon that shied away from the spitfire's screeches as if absolutely terrified of the much smaller elemental.
"They've been trained to expect pain when they hear loud noises," explained Ragnok as he made his way towards the trio of vaults behind the cowering beast "Standard Gringotts policy. Makes the best guards sort of employing silver golems."
Chandra silently fumed, already meditating how to free all the poor creatures. Liliana studied the bell-like instruments piled in a box near their landing point, wondering if they could be used to better direct her minions. She decided that zombies were probably too stupid to be trained to do anything other than moan, shamble around, and eat people.
Ragnok caressed the black door marked as 678, letting it dissolve into an equally dark cloud to reveal a cave-like opening crammed from floor to ceiling with coins, goblets, armours, jewels, potions in ornate flasks, tapestries, furniture, some skins for various creatures, and even a human skull wearing a spiked black crown on a shelf.
AN: Yeah, did anyone really think it was going to end any other way?
See you next week with the second part of the hunt.