Forty-Eight

The Smuggler's Medallion

"Rhett?" Nova called out as they came back down the vault stairs. Roy, for his part, was making a valiant effort at inspecting the traps in the other rooms, despite the fact he was only using the most basic of items tests. Charles stepped over to give him a hand, while Rhett came over to where Nova and Emil were standing at the door. "The modifications you put on the Medallion have to come off. This plate is hexed to cast some sort of curse if someone tries to use a fake Medallion, and I think they might go off by mistake if we put it in altered."

"It hasn't gone off so far," Rhett said.

"Do you want to do the honors in finding out?" Emil challenged him testily.

"I'll remove them," Rhett said, taking the Medallion.

Nova watched for a moment then glanced around, noticing Charles looking at the other two doors.

"There's really no way we can open those," Nova warned.

"I think one of them has been open already. I was attempting to figure out which one," Charles said.

"That would explain why it was so easy to get down here," Nova agreed. "But after studying this one, I think it's safe to say that there's no easy way to tell, because these locks reset once the door is closed, and since it's a goblin-made bank door, it'd be quite a feat to open it any other way. We're probably better off leaving it alone and concentrating on finding the box that matches Emil's Medallion."

Rhett immediately caught how she worded that, but he didn't have too much time to think about it since Emil had pressed the Medallion in the door. The door slowly pulled up through a gap they hadn't noticed before and they stared into the darkness, glints of precious metals reacting to the light they were carrying.

"Wait! Trench has to be the first one to go in, since he's technically the owner. Anyone else would set off the traps," Nova snapped when the rest had begun crowded around. "Sorry, Trench, you'll simply have to go first this time."

"Then all of you should be covering me," he snapped.

"Of course we are," Roy said. Emil threw him a dubious look before cautiously stepping in.

The light level immediately went up, making him jump slightly and look down at his feet at the panel he was stepping on, lighting a magic crystal sphere above their heads that made the room as bright as day, revealing a room filled with large chests and stone pillars of the family's treasures. A great many paintings on the left wall, while on the right were hung several rugs and tapestries of magnificent quality. He took a few more steps in, lines developing across his forehead as he stepped further into the room.

"It should be safe now, the traps must have been disarmed by him standing on the light pad," Nova decided, and the rest of them carefully stepped inside.

"What a beautiful collection," Roy said with appreciation.

"Yes, it is. But it is all from the Renaissance," Rhett noted. "I see nothing that would date from Greek antiquity at all."

"I've told you before," Emil snapped at him. "What we're looking for was of a quality that was simply mistaken for being from of this time period because of the precision of the jade!"

"It could have been mistaken by someone without magic, yes," Rhett acknowledged, but then gestured. "But this is a wizard's collection who knows what our technology was compared to theirs. They would have easily been able to tell the difference. If Pandora's Box is here in any form, it is likely in a different room."

"I didn't see anything earlier than the seventeenth century in any of the open rooms," Charles said.

"Oh, how would you know, Auror?" Emil challenged him.

"I had a good teacher," Charles said evenly.

"And his wife is an archaeologist that works in the museum," Nova added.

"Museum!" Emil repeated with a distaste. "Stick to your job!"

"Perhaps this is it, Emil?" Roy asked thoughtfully.

Emil and Rhett, still toe to toe as if ready to further argue their points, looked over to where Roy was standing near the back. He was carefully inspecting a large ornate chest with his hands behind his back to prevent his urge to touch it.

Emil went over and everyone gathered around and inspected the box Roy had found.

It was beautiful mahogany chest with pure gold trim in a braided pattern, its sides filled with jade carved to look like exotic Indian animals along with stately women in beautiful gowns. Its lid was made of three tiers of mahogany that had been meticulously carved out on every level to formed curved ridges that almost resembled an eastern temple. The feet were jade-carved talons that met up with the gold trim that folded around the bottom edge to give it the finished look of a master craftsman. On the top of the lid was a panel of jade, finely polished with etchings similar to the ones on the sides, but there was little doubt at all that it perfectly matched the design of the Medallion itself.

"It's a cassone," Rhett observed. "fourteenth or fifteenth century, don't you think?" he asked Nova, who was standing next to him.

"Fifteenth," Nova agreed. "Without doing checks, I'd say it has basic charms to keep away tarnish, moths, and to prevent it from being stolen."

"It's fifteenth century, just like the Medallion... as I have been trying to tell you from the very first time I appraised it, Trench," Rhett said with satisfaction.

"Impossible!" Emil shouted out of pure frustration. "I was so certain!"

"It isn't the end of the world, is it? It simply means that Pandora's Box must be somewhere else," Roy said, and Emil stared him down angrily. "It may not prove your theory, but it doesn't disprove it either, does it, Emil? At any rate, since we've come all this way, shouldn't we see what is in it?"

"I don't see any indentations in the chest like we saw in the door," Charles said, stepping around the back to be certain. "On the bottom?"

Nova got down to look underneath the clawed legs.

"No, but it would be more likely to be closer to the lid either way, or it wouldn't be practical," she pointed out.

"Do you want to see if you can open it by touch, Emil? Since it was gifted to you, after all," Rhett suggested.

"I really don't care anymore," Emil said irritably, putting his hand on the lid.

Nothing happened.

"Apparently it isn't triggered by touch," Emil said with annoyance, leaning over to inspect it.

"Emil! Look at your Medallion," Roy said in alarm.

Emil looked down at it, and he grew alarmed as well.

"The black marble in the middle is missing!" Emil shouted.

"I warned you that marble was loose! You should have been more careful!" Rhett scolded him.

"I have had enough of you!" Emil shouted at him.

"It can't have gone far. You restored the Medallion just before you stepped into this room, so it must be here somewhere," Nova interrupted. Everyone began looking around the floor.

They had been searching several minutes when Charles saw a shadow and realized that someone was standing in the doorway.

"Ludo Bagman! What are you doing here?" Charles demanded. Everyone whipped around in surprise, and Charles noticed that Roy and Rhett both had their wands pointed at Ludo. "Put those wands away before you get us all killed!" he snapped at them.

"That's very wise," Ludo agreed, nodding calmly as Rhett and Roy reluctantly did as they were told. "Good afternoon, Charles, aren't we far from home. Have we lost something?"

"The black marble that goes in the Medallion has fallen out... not that it matters at the moment. Did you lie to me?" Emil confronted Ludo, who gazed at him in feigned surprise.

"About what?" Ludo asked.

"You must have known from the beginning that this Medallion was not connected to my search for Pandora's Box in any way, despite funding my research to investigate it further!" Emil accused him.

"I admired your determination and your traditional ethics. You were also a member of Equinox once... long before Equinox lost its way and decided to back the losing side," Ludo noted. "Yes, I knew that you were wrong about the Medallion, Emil, but I also knew there was no point to dissuade you. Any attempt by me or anyone else to convince you that your views were wrong would have done nothing but made you dig in your heels further. You would have built upon your conviction with convenient explanations as to why your view was the one and only correct view... no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary. I am certain that Mr. Heron, coming from a similar background as your own, must have at least tried to point out the flaws of your thinking."

"You are correct, I did try. He took it as an affront to his experience and expertise," Rhett replied.

"Nothing you or anyone else said would have changed his mind, Rhett. not with as powerful of an ego as that. The only way to handle this was to allow him to face his mistake head on. You have realized you made one now, haven't you, Emil?"

"That doesn't disprove my theory about Pandora's Box! It only shows me that this Medallion wasn't given to me to help me with my research," Emil snapped.

"No, it was given to you because before Roy stole your memories, you were a highly respected member of our society, whether your colleagues agreed with your views about Pandora's Box or not. They respected you for standing up against the rampant smuggling of Artifacts that was going on back then. They knew you as a wizard who could not be bribed when you saw something that wasn't right. Your mate at Beauxbatons, Jacques Favreau, trusted you enough to leave that Medallion to you... not to find Pandora's Box, but to help safeguard this vault so that its contents wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

"And yet here you are," Charles said evenly.

"Thank you," Ludo said with an amused expression. "You might be surprised to know that Favreau entrusted me with the silver bracelet with the Celtic Knot... I acquired the ring as well, but it was entrusted to someone else, originally."

"Likely Cornelius Fudge," Charles said.

"Well done. I'd expect nothing less from such an esteemed Auror," Ludo replied.

"I understand now. You needed Emil to open the door you had no access to," Rhett realized.

"And to solve the Grimlin problem. They were quite the nuisance any time I wanted to get in and out of here, you know. But Emil made it clear that he would have plenty of help getting in, and I really didn't want to spare any of my men for such a chore, especially when I'm waiting for a couple of them to get out of jail," Ludo explained. "So thank you, one and all for all of the help! My men will clear out most of this, but I think I'll be taking a couple of things now just to be safe," he said, removing a jewelry chest and a gold and dragon-leather bookcase. "Any luck finding the marble?"

"No, but I really don't care anymore. It's not what I'm looking for and I sold you the rights to the items in here already," Emil said, handing over the Medallion to Ludo.

"Did you now? I guess that explains the luxuries in your flat recently," Rhett said dryly.

"Yes, so it does," Roy agreed with a sigh. "But it sounds like everything is settled now, doesn't it? We should probably head back to the ship since it sounds as if we've already done our part."

"Go? You're not going anywhere," Emil informed him coldly. "Because you still have yet to answer for what you did to me, and to the fate of Favreau! You may have gotten out of my first trap, but we are going to stuff you in a vault so deep that even if anyone came looking for you, they wouldn't find you in time to save you! Surrender your wands, all of you!"

"Us too? What did we do?" Nova asked.

"You were helping him! And you weren't even supposed to be here in the first place!" Emil reminded her vehemently.

"True, but I'm not sure that's a great motive for murder," she complained.

"Ludo, you can't touch me. I'm family," Charles reminded him.

"Are you?" Ludo asked as if he wasn't quite convinced. "Emil, I'm not so sure the idea of locking them away in goblin vaults is a going to accomplish much. While I have access to couple of lower level vaults you can borrow to do so, wands or no wands, they will get out eventually. It will not be a permanent solution."

"Do you have any idea how impossible it would be to get out of a goblin vault without wands?" Emil asked, staring at him.

"I was told it was impossible to escape Azkaban, yet I have done so twice," Ludo reminded him calmly. "Incarcerating them will only buy us the time we need to get by belongings out of here. Deacon, if you'll do the honors?"

Suddenly their wands were jerked out of hands, sleeves and belts sped across the room, hovering in the air. Deacon Aldus appeared out of nowhere, taking out a bag.

"Three of these wands have a charm on them to return if anyone touches them. I'll just put them in here for now," Deacon said.

"Thank you," Ludo said. "I have two vaults five levels down. We should split them up to give us more time."

"Of course, Ludo. Lead the way. So, gentlewizards and lady witch, would you four like to walk down on your own power, or shall I have to use fairy magic to make you cooperate?" Deacon asked.

"Calm down, calm down! We're going already!" Nova snapped, grabbing Rhett by the arm. Charles helped Roy up and lent him an arm on the stairs as they went further down into the darkness.

The drip, drip, dripping sound got louder and more persistent, along with a hollow sound that made them realize they were well below the water table now. Finally they stepped off onto Level 23 to the end of one of the twisting corridors, the vault numbers going down as they walked.

"Here we are! Numbers one and two!" Bagman said, opening them.

But when he opened the vault on the very end, water came splashing out.

"Apparently the seal's been broken on this one," Bagman said thoughtfully, peering up at the walls and ceiling. "Pressure cracks. Might want to put Lockhart in this one. A change in tides might do you a favor if that water mark is right. Put Willowby in the other, if you don't mind."

"I will volunteer to go in with Roy. I do not want Nova to suffer under these conditions," Rhett volunteered.

"Fine by me! You're nearly as insufferable as he is," Emil scowled, watching as the two wizards stepped inside.

"Try to stay dry!" Ludo advised, closing the door on them.

"After you," Charles said, and Nova went inside, Charles following behind.

Ludo shut the vault door.

"Now that they're out of the way, let us finish emptying this Vault and get out of here shall we? Preferably before their boat captain starts wondering where they are."

"I forgot about Bob! Maybe we should get rid of him too," Emil suggested.

"While I appreciate and admire your bloodthirsty attitude, sometimes it's better simply to take the victory and go. You may not have found your grail, Trench, but we have won the day! And you, sir, will be a valuable asset should you care to join us as a permanent member of my Artifacts Research team," Ludo proposed.

"I would be a fool not to accept," Emil replied.

"I agree whole-heartedly," Ludo agreed, and they made their way up the stairs.