The temple of Anubis.
Before Arun even attempted to tackle Deacon's requests she headed to the Jackal King Shrine in a muggle taxi. This was a spot of pilgrimage for werewolves because, as legend had it, the Jackal King was part animal part wizard and ruler of all of Africa and his children populated the whole of Africa and embedded the fighting spirit into his descendants. The shrine was little more than a carved stone in the desert, whether beaten and crumbling into fine yellow sand, but footprints told her something had been here recently. She placed her hands on the shrine "Hominus nuntium" she muttered. The incantation for bewitching an object to carry a personal message. The statue shivered.
"Fenrir Greyback, go to the Temple of Anubis, there is a cave system south of there called the Gateway of the Souls, wait for me there. Be careful not to be spotted, they are here."
She wondered if he would bother to come here, but she knew he wouldn't want to risk staying in the city and the Jackal King was just the kind of story that would appeal to him, one that kept hope alive for such a marginalised group of people. It wasn't unreasonable to assume he was here already; if he had taken muggle transport, wiped the memories of the muggle flight attendants and baggage crews, he could have arrived days ago. She should have worked out a meeting spot with him before she left England. This would have to do for now. She sat by the stone for a moment as she thought about what she would do next, then she headed back into Luxor.
In Al Biirat, Arun entered her sister's apartment and took the painting of Amber. "Do you know where Decon's Notebook and map are?"
"She didn't keep them here," Painting Amber told her. "She kept them at the Old Magic Society in her office. I never went there but her boss was a man called Professor Versu Jabare. He's an archaeologist and alchemist."
"Can I trust him?"
"I don't know. He hasn't called at the flat since she was taken, don't you think that's odd?"
Arun bit her lip, "I'm taking you with me this time."
"Be careful Arun. I haven't seen anybody in the flat but it's worrying that nobody's been to check Leatherface in the corner over there. It's likely they are watching."
Arun shot the mummified corpse a cursory glance and grunted her agreement.
"Maybe they won't attack you, you're still in disguise."
Arun put Portrait Amber into the tiny travel trunk around her neck. When she left she did so cautiously but there was nobody around. She took a side street between two apartment blocks, heading in the direction of Magical Thebes.
The stunning jinx smacked into her from behind, she tripped and broke the jinx with a countercurse uttered without movement then rolled and pulled out her sisters wand to keep the illusion of being somebody else. A shadow formed at the end of the road, who drew a wand and disarmed her with ease. She played along for a moment, jibbering whilst she hurried to change her voice. The shadow came closer and materialized into a woman with deep brown eyes and long dark hair. "If you value your life you will stay still," the woman said, she was American, the cloaking spell she had used marked her as powerful.
"I...yes miss… I mean no harm. I help you yes?" She tried to imitate Amon as close as possible as she cowered.
"Where is she?"
"I...I don't know!"
"Crucio," pain racked Arun's body. She screamed out but retained enough of herself not to lose her disguise or her newly masked voice. All that training had come in very handy. If she wasn't so concentrated on keeping her deception intact, she would have felt quite smug.
"I'll ask again. Where is your master."
"She…" Arun gasped with pain. "She moves around, I meet her at the Luxor Temple."
"Who's working for her?"
"Only locals...she pays us...please...no more!"
"Why are you at the sister's house?"
"She asked….She asked me to get...to see….if..."
The woman aimed her wand in Arun's face, "yes?"
Arun couldn't think of anything. Her lie was about to break apart, she had to give her something to work with.
"Crucio"
Arun screamed again.
"The wand, her sister's wand."
The woman's eyes travelled across to it, laying discarded just out of Arun's reach. "Curious," she muttered. "Did she hope to track her sister using it?"
Arun inwardly cursed herself, if the wand is loyal it will point the way. Just how much wand law had she forgotten? Her sister had intentionally given her a way to track her and she had missed it completely. The woman picked it up and stood a little taller. "Tell your master that should she want to see her sister alive again she must bring all three artefacts to the Temple of Khenti Amentiu before the waxing of the full moon in five days time. Should she fail to do this, her sister will die, publically and painfully-" she leant in, "And slowly too." Before Arun could react the woman apperated.
On her ass in the dirt she hung her head. Just like Amber to be too clever for her. To set a clue too hard for her to follow it. She stayed in the same place for a while, watching to see if anybody else was following her then she made her way to Magical Thebes as quickly as she could whilst still racked with pain from the torture curse. The entrance was hidden just west of the Tomb of the Nobles in Al Asasif. It was invisible to Muggles, but Arun saw a huge opening in the rockface with two towering sphinx sitting either side watching witches and wizards enter. This opening was the gateway to Wase Province of Magical Thebes, a massive subterranean labyrinth of buildings and lakes. She passed through, still looking like the Egyptian man, and made her way unobserved to the Egyptian Old Magic Society.
Magical Thebes was beautiful but claustrophobic and it's lightning was not good. The walls and ceilings were painted with hieroglyphs and hung with lanterns but they didn't eliminate the shadows. Residential streets were close together and the public shopping areas were double height and wider but it was hot and close and people rubbed up against each other. Open fronted shops were carved into rock, and sellers jostled for peoples money and attention. She took the twists and turns of Wase, navigating her way by memory to the Old Magic Society. When she managed to get closer the path opened out into wider streets and higher ceilings and the air was fresher too. Eventually she took a flight of steps down into a wide cavern, five stories high, where the Old Magic Society entrance was carved into one of the faces of the rock. Amber's place of work never failed to impress. The plaza outside was packed with people, most playing near the waterfall that was cascading from the rock face opposite, she looked around but if Americans were here watching the entrance there was no chance of her spying them. They had delivered their message anyway so she expected them to back off and let her make the next move. She crossed the space outside the Old Magic Society and climbed the stairs into the building. The receptionist was a cat, an animagus who stretched and scratched behind her dark grey ear when Arun spoke to her. "I'm looking for Professor Versu Jabare. It's about Amber Granville."
The cat got up and walked away from her, turning every so often to see if she was following. It took her into the depths of the Old Magic Society, past the display cases and artefacts of the public galleries and then down into the depths of the research rooms. She saw glimpses of people studying scrolls and pouring over old maps. The cat turned a corner and paused outside a set of double doors. It looked up at Arun, then with a swish of its tail it turned and walked away. Arun knocked then pushed the door open and a large tanned man with a shock of white hair looked up from a huge glass and blinked at her with surprise.
"Have I not given you people enough?" he asked. "I do not know what else I can give," he said in Arabic.
"What have you given professor?" Arun answered in English, but still with her transfigured accent.
He ran a hand through his hair, "You mock me."
She didn't respond, but she slid the door closed behind her and looked around. "I need to see Amber Granville's study."
The professor nodded. "Yes, yes of course."
"What was she studying."
"Apart from the Grants Artefacts?" the professor asked.
"Yes."
"TheSnake-Eyedd King," his voice was but a whisper.
"Tell me about that," she commanded as she followed the professor down the hall towards her sister's study. The professor looked back at her as if he would ask why, but he saw her face and thought better.
"In the Predynastic Period, during the Naqada II archaeological period, there were a number of God-kings. During this time the Magical societies ruled over muggles and there was no segregation or secrecy about our existence, we were worshiped. The rarest talents were the pharaohs: the families who ruled. And legend had it that one of those ruling lines was King Tutmendis, the Snake Eyed King." he reached an unassuming door and opened it then he went in first. Ambers study was like the inside of Arundel's vault at gringotts, it was a treasure trove of artifacts and paperwork and it was a mess. At first Arun thought she had been robbed, but the professor didn't seem too concerned.
"The Snake Eyed King was said to be able to converse with snakes and commanded an army of deadly vipers. His closest followers were made to undertake a blood ritual which meant that they too gained some of his power, temporally, they used this for strength in battle and during rituals and ceremonies."
Arun started to hunt through the room, first going through the desk, still listening to the professor.
"The king had other powers too, his breath was poisonous, his skin was impervious to magic and shined like snake scales, and he had a thirst for human blood. He was said to be unkillable."
"It sounds like he had a disease."
"Maybe, but legend has it that he was powerful, feared and worshiped in the upper kingdoms."
"Why's he important?" Arun moved from the desktop to the draws.
"There are not many instances of Pastletongue recorded in the ancient world, but many instances of it being necessary for strong magic. It seems that the practice of worshiping Parseltongue changed after the Snake Eyed King and the use of snakes in Egyptian magic rituals became synonymous with powerful and potentially dangerous magic, particularly that of resurrection and rebirth, it stands for kingship and protection too. The Book of the Dead states "Hail, serpent Amenti who comes from the house of slaughter, I have not defiled the wife of a man." My hypothesis is that the history of the Snake Eyed King will give us historical context to Dark Magic and it's properties. It will bridge so many gaps in our understanding of modern magical practices."
"Your hypothesis," Arundel muttered, she was starting to understand. She straightened up and put her hands on her hips, then dropped them, realising how feminine she looked when she did it. "Where are the diary and the map, Professor."
"What?" the professor asked, he licked his tongue across his lips and began to back towards the door. With a wave of her hand it slammed shut. He backed away and drew his wand. "I do not have what you want!" he told her.
"If you value your life and the continuation of your work you will give me the diary and the map. If you don't I'll burn this place to the ground. Do you hear me. Fiendfyre is a specialty of mine."
"You wouldn't…"
"Oh I would," Arun flicked her hand and fire swirled in her palm. "I do wonder how quickly it will destroy…"
He ran his hand down his face.
"Think about all the artifacts housed here, how many will survive Fiendfyre? How much history will be lost."
"You….you wouldn't…."
Arun brought her hand close to the paper on Ambers desk. She watched the colour drain from the professors face.
"Ok!" he cried. "Ok…" and he pulled up his robes and from a pouch around his waist that thankfully covered his genitals, he pulled a map and a book.
"Put them on the table, along with your wand."
He did as he was told.
"Open the book."
He looked at her, the sweat dripping on his brow. He did it and she leaned in and studied english writing, not in Amber's hand, but annotated by it.
"Open the map."
Again, he did what he was asked to do and she saw a huge number of magical tombs some in red, some in blue and some in black.
"Ok, get in the corner of the room and sit down."
"Wh...why?"
"Just do as I say."
He crab crawled to the corner and sank down, covering his face in his hands.
She pointed her finger at him and whispered "obliviate." His eyes clouded and he forgot where he was momentarily. "Professor, I never visited you. You lost the map and the book in a game of cards to a man you have never met before."
He nodded, she stood up and left quickly.
Despite the fact that she had the map and the diary, she was not inclined to give them over to James Deacon without first copying them. She ducked into the darkest alley way she could find and she duplicated both items then stored them away separately. If the map and the book were worth killing for then she definitely wanted a copy. She figured that, should she survive this, and life go on a map of uncracked tombs would see her sitting pretty for a while.
It was too late to eat tea and Arun hadn't eaten anything all day. She felt lightheaded when she knocked on room 108 at the sphinx hotel. James Deacon opened the door to her and looked her up and down. "Well now," he smiled and spoke as he chewed gum. "That is some fine and swift work indeed. Would you like to come in?"
"Not really. I have other places to be."
James looked a little put out, but not, she suspected, as much as he would have been if she was her usual feminine self. "Well that is sad, but if you must be going then I bid you goodnight. We do just have the matter of when and where we will meet again to complete our transaction. Do come in." He stood back from the door, and Arundel walked into his apartment. It was tidy, meticulously so, and he was reading a muggle picture book, the adventures of Tintin. He unfolded the map on the second bed and then he opened his notebook and thumbed through it, "My my your sister has been busy."
Arun nodded in reply.
"Do help yourself to food, it is over by the desk."
She looked across to a selection of fruit and she helped herself whilst James studied Ambers annotations to his work. "She is a fine woman, your sister, if she wasnt so damn insufferable I think I might fall madly in love." He snapped the book closed and turned his attention to the map. "Lookie here," he told her. She came and joined him.
"The blue marks are archaeology that is available to the muggles. Red are known sites to the magical community and the black ones are the ones yet to be cracked, some of them are ones that have yet to be confirmed as even being in existence. Now, as a man of my word, and a man of considerable moral standing I have made it my business to work out which of these sites has the pleasure of hosting American's. I do have to wait for results, but I expect a full report by the morning."
"Do you know where they hold my sister?"
"I do not, I confess."
"What about the Temple of Khenti Amentiu?"
"It is not one I considered. Why is it of particular interest?"
Arun told him about the instructions and how she was ambushed earlier in the day. He nodded, stroking his chin as she spoke. "I would be very surprised if they keep her in the same temple they wish to use to bargain."
"Me too, but close by maybe?"
"That is a true leap of faith."
Arun sighed and looked at the map again. "What are my options," she muttered. "Attack the temples with the artifacts to reclaim them whilst systematically locating and rescuing my sister, or go ahead with the swap and somehow...somehow...get the artifacts back too?"
"The first would require extraordinary manpower, the second extraordinary luck. I do not rate either option as successful or productive."
"What would you suggest? Manpower would not be an issue for me."
Deacon thought about if for a moment. "Truly, I must think on it some more. I tell you what Miss Granville. There is a muggle restaurant called the Delta Crocodile on Al Saha street that is highly recommended. Come there tomorrow night, around six, and we will discuss this at far greater length and with more information to back us. You get yourself cleaned up and I'll scrub up too. What'da say?"
"Sure," Arun told him. As long as she had his information she didn't care if they ate at mcdonalds.
She left Magical Thebes and made her way to the Gateway of the Souls cave system. It was a half hour drive outside of Luxor and high up in the dry hills, she had food with her, enough to feed fifty, stashed away in her bottomless bag and she told the muggle driver to go. He looked at her like she was insane but he didn't question her, or care much for her safety, she was a man, and as such did not need the protection of the Taxi Driver. Some things were strikingly different, but she really was missing her old body and intended to transform back as soon as she could.
As she walked up to the cave two dark shadows shifted in the rocks above her and two wands were drawn. "What's your business?" one of them asked.
"I'm here to see Fenrir."
"Who sent you?"
"Arundel Granville."
One of the guards sent a blue flare into the sky and then they waved her through. Fenrir emerged from the cave and snarled, he came closer to her and sniffed her, the threatening werewolf act was so well practiced. "I can smell you Arundel," he told her.
"That time of the month?" she asked, her eyes shooting up to the heavens to check the progress of the moon, it wouldn't be long now until they transformed- just in time to be useless.
Fenrir grumbled. "Nice cave system to choose, at least it's got water."
"I've brought you food."
He nodded, he seemed troubled. "C'mmon."
He lead her inside, where a group of about twenty werewolves sat around a fire. Arun recognised some of them, but one surprised her more than the others. "Remus?"
He looked up, she knew him from school, in Snapes year. Hadn't Fenrir turned him? Why on earth would he join him?
"Do I know you?" he asked. His voice was nasil.
"Yes, but not like," she motioned to her body, "Not like this."
He nodded again and looked back to the fire, she wasn't shocked that the wolves were grumpy, there was only a few days left to the full moon.
Fenrir took her past the fire and into a different cave where he had set balls of glowing light to bounce off the ceiling and rolled out a number of bed mats.
"Remus Lupin joined us in Yorkshire where he'd been working as a muggle window cleaner. He made us a portkey and then we had to run. We got here yesterday. Good idea with the shrine to leave me a message, these caves are easy to defend. Can you change yourself back? I prefer talking to attractive."
"My god Fenrir," Arun complained. "It'll take a while."
"Give me the food to distribute and knock yourself out."
Arun gave him what he wanted, and climbed into her travel trunk to make the transformation back. It took a while, and hurt like hell but eventually her body was back to normal. She crawled out of her trunk, put it back around her neck and went to join the others in the cave.
Lupin looked back up, now he recognised her but when Fenrir started to laugh he dropped his eyes and said nothing.
"That's nicer," he laughed. "That's better, I prefer a bitch to a dog."
"Fenrir, keep that up and i'll turn you into a bitch," Arun growled at him, and a number of the wolfpack sniggered.
Fenrir's smile fell to a sneer, "Funny fucker ain't ya."
"I try, how's the food?"
"Bloody," he smacked his lips. She'd practically brought a whole side of a cow from the butchers, the meat wasn't even cooked, but with five days left until the full moon all the werewolves wanted to eat was red and raw.
She looked around the cave, a few more had turned up for food but not that many, less than he'd had in the forbidden forest. Thirty people in total, most of them sallow looking and scarred from painful transformations. "Thank you for coming to help me," she told them. "Fenrir's told you what's going on?"
"He's said enough," one of the others said, Arun knew her too. She was called Georgina Godrick and she followed Fenrir everywhere. When she transformed into a wolf her hair was thick silver but as a human, she was thin, pale and had deep bags under her eyes. Like Fenrir, she sharpened her nails and her teeth too. "Said you're going to help us in return."
"I am."
Fenrir shifted, "The Americans, what've you learned?"
"There's a lot of them here. They are holding my sister in one temple, and the artifacts in four others. I've got somebody finding out where. They have proposed a trade, my sister for the artifacts on the waxing of the full moon, at this point they would have to bring the four artifacts together. If four different people are holding the artifacts then their power is diminished, put them together and it's catastrophic."
"And all seven can raise an army of the dead."
"Or just resurrect and control one particular dead man, yes."
The werewolf's were quiet as they ate, each seemed in their own world of worry.
"To destroy the artifacts I have a box, which keeps them separate. If I drive a cursebreaker through the box i'm hoping that will be enough. We have to get the artifacts into the box, and get my sister back alive."
"Your precious sister is the weak link here Arundel," Fenrir told her with a growl. "It'd be easier to locate and attack the Americans when they are divided."
"Perhaps, but if we do it that way I will be rescuing my sister at the same time. I won't let her die."
Remus looked up from the fire, he was chewing his steak slowly, studying her. She cast a look in his direction and saw an image of one of his friends dead, eyes open, blankly looking towards the ceiling.
"You don't know where anything is though, do you."
"Not yet."
"Not yet," Fenrir muttered. "Tomorrow Fenrir, I'll know tomorrow," he imitated her voice. "Every day wasted is a day closer to the full moon and if this trade goes down on that day at that time we will be little more use to you than a bunch of rabid dogs."
"What about Wolfsbane?"
"What about it? I can't make it, I can't afford it."
"What if I can get it for you?"
"Then you would need to get it quickly, you have to take it every day for a week leading up to the transformation, we only have five days left."
"Leave it to me."
Arun returned to her travel trunk and she spread a map out on the floor. There was a knock from the door in the ceiling and she went up the stairs and peered out. Remus Lupin looked like a giant from above "Can I come in?" he asked. She pushed the trunk open and as he stepped in he shrank to the size inside. "This is a nice bit of magic," he congratulated her.
"I'm surprised you are here."
"Are you? I may have an intense dislike for Greyback but my dislike for the Dark Lord is far greater. I've lost enough as it is."
She hardly knew him, but she knew enough to see why he wanted to tag along for this fight.
"I knew your sister," he told her.
Arun looked up, "How?"
"She was the one who taught my friends to become animagus. She gave them the process, helped them to be successful with it. She knew what I was and she was kind about it. Even though she was Ravenclaw and even though she was a seventh year when we were so young, she was kind. I'd like to pay her back somehow."
"Then help me with this-" Arun pointed to the map on the floor.
"What is it?"
"The African Ministry of Magic takes a different view on the status of Werewolves. Not a nicer one, mind. They have what they call Kennels, where they forcefully imprison werewolfs during their transformation. They brew Wolfsbane in large quantities which they feed them in the runup."
Lupin blinked, shocked. "What do they do with them for the rest of the time?"
"They keep them in secure communities and force them to work in payment for the wolfsbane."
"That's inhumane."
"They would argue that we are inhumane. They would say that we are leaving a marginalised group of people to starve and live humiliated."
"But free."
Arun nodded. "The closest Kennel is thirty miles west of here in the desert. It's called the Armant Kennels."
Lupin looked over her shoulder at the map again. "Is that a Ministry Military Map?"
"Yup," Arun flashed him a smile. "I occasionally work as a curse breaker for Gringotts, the more you know the better you survive. I stole this about two years ago from the Ministry offices in Cairo, it's proved accurate so far."
"Two years ago I was a mess," Lupin muttered. "Everything was a mess. I remember a lot of people hated you, called you a traitor, constantly on the make. They said you would sell your own mother for the right price."
"It's not easy to remain neutral, walking that line didn't make me many friends." She would happily sell her mother too.
"I bet."
"But it did keep me safe, and in pocket."
Lupin didn't like that, but he said nothing and returned to the map. "You want to hit it tonight?"
"Yeah. I do."