Chapter 16 by Carycomic

NAUNG YANG PROVINCE, BURMA

( JUNE 15, 1955)

Cassandra had briefly returned to the vicinity of the Temple of Shadows to survey the extent of its destruction from Voldemort's conjured-up tornado. Only to be drop-jawed with amazement at seeing it still intact! Or, perhaps, more accurately, it had seamlessly reconstituted after being briefly destroyed.

"Jethro wasn't kidding. This thing really does drain most magical power!"

Whereupon, she had assumed a yoga lotus position (just outside the temple's magic-dampening field of influence) in order to astrally project herself to the Green Lama's residence in New York City.* Upon updating him as to what had had happened to her, and then being told by him what she desperately wished to know, she snapped out of her autohypnotic trance in order to apparate to her next destination. The eastern shore of Forbidden Lake in Burma!

Unfortunately, it swiftly became obvious that she had arrived too late.

She could tell from the bluish-black discoloration on the face and arms of a dead Buddhist monk. Each hand still clutching one of the curved broadswords favored by certain practitioners of the Burmese martial art of banshay. She could also tell the probable identity of the monk's killer from the giant shed snakeskin in front of him!

"Someone has a pet maledictus of Nagah descent."

DAINAVA FOREST, LITHUANIA

(TWELVE YEARS LATER)

"A maledictus?" exclaimed Group Captain Summers in disbelief.

Cassandra nodded: "I didn't even have to psychometrize the snake skin! I could tell by the scent. I then assumed my Krinos form in order dig a grave deep enough to bury the monk. After that, I apparated to the local Legacy House in Rangoon. The resident Precept is the one who told me the monk's name: Dharr Samarr. A Jade Warrior for the Court of Infinite Thunders in Ceylon!"

"He'd been sent to Forbidden Lake, ten years earlier, at the Green Lama's request. As an added safeguard that would hopefully discourage any further attempts to recover the Gray Maiden for evil purposes. But, obviously, that hope proved in vain."

"So how did you wind up with sword?" Summers could not resist asking.

"The Precept also told me how Voldemort wasn't the only one who had been looking for the sword. A Chinese secret society called the True Black Hand was after it, too! Yet, while they knew it had been dumped somewhere on the Burmese side of Forbidden Lake, they didn't know the precise location. Hence, their hiring a Tyrolean revenant of the Giovanni Clan -via the East Germans- to draw them a spirit-channeled map.** Unfortunately, for them, the map was stolen by a Turko-Cypriot nationalist named Kara Huseyin on behalf of a Eurasian master thief named Hanoi Shan. Only for the former to double-cross the latter! Thereby delaying the True Black Hand's efforts to get hold of the Gray Maiden ahead of Voldemort."

So engrossed with Cassandra's explanation was John Baring Summers that he failed to notice how strangely quiet Agent Gareth was during it.

"I finally caught up with Voldemort in Macao," the Immortal wizardess continued: ". . .where he'd evidently been persuaded to meet with an emissary from one of this group's five leaders."

MACAO, CHINA

(JUNE 16, 1955)

"Greetings," said the veiled woman with a deep courtly bow. "Have I the honor of addressing Lord Voldemort of Great Britain?"

The erstwhile Tom Marvolo Riddle grinned with shameless narcissism and nodded.

"I am Melinda. Spokesperson for he who is called 'the Index Finger of the True Black Hand.' "

"Ah! You're the one who relayed the invitation using Nagina as a ventriloquist's dummy. A somewhat impressive feat of telepathy, I grudgingly admit. But, the only reason I accepted your invitation is to tell you that I've not changed my mind. My next stop is Hong Kong, and the Gray Maiden is coming with me!"

Melinda tried another approach.

"I am given to understand that you intend to psychometrize the sword. In an effort at learning how to mass produce horcruxes to house your fragmented soul."

Voldemort immediately assumed a defensive stance, with his wand flipping up into his right hand already combat-ready.

"What of it?" he sibilantly demanded.

"My master can provide you that knowledge already transcribed (in magically inerasable ink) on parchment scrolls that were rescued from incineration at the Great Library of Alexandria. All that would require of you is your accompanying me to his domicile in Japan. To personally relinquish custody of the sword (completely unprobed) face to face with him, there."

Voldemort looked at her, for at least a full minute, in stone-faced silence. And, then. . .he chuckled.

"No, my dear, I think not. I've plans of great importance to me. And I think my research will go much faster if I return to them, immediately."

That is when Melinda lost both her patience and her temper. "Then, you will die! Rakshasa!"

Voldemort hurriedly spun about, his wand horizontally leveled, as he shouted, "Stupefy!"

Whereupon, what resembled nothing less than a red streak of lightning shot out. Hitting, square in it chest, what appeared to be a were-cheetah (in either a loin cloth or tattered running shorts) with two legs and six arms! Each of the latter armed with an Indonesian kris. And, as it landed flat on its back, the young nephandus uttered another shout.

"Nagina, kill!"

Whereupon, a giant Russell's viper veritably leaped from out of Voldemort's alligator-hide suitcase! Latching its jaws, in a vise-like grip, upon the neck of the still-stunned cat-creature. Yet, just as Voldemort was about to turn back around and gloat, he found himself being lifted off his feet and pinned against the wall to his left, his shoes kicking against it, two feet off the ground.

And the female vampire holding him that way, with her right hand, had no trouble disarming him of his wand with her left.

"Delusional whelp! You think yourself a powerful wizard? I will show you real power!"

Ironically, however, even this pronouncement proved over-confidently made as Cassandra apparated on to the scene, in full Krinos form. Broadsword in hand...and fangs bared.

"Arrgh!" screamed Melinda as Cassandra impaled her with the sword. Knowing full well it would not slay the vampiress! But, relishing the fact that it would painfully slow her down long enough to be granted Final Death. Unfortunately, that moment of mental savoring allowed Voldemort to recover his wand and point it at his bruised throat.

"Sonorus!" he croaked, thereby amplifying his hoarse voice enough that Nagina could hear it and recognize it for carrying out his next command.

"Kill the werewolf!"

Yet Cassandra proved even quicker as she moved from Krinos to Lupine form. Allowing her duck beneath the lunge of the serpentine maledictus. Consequently, it was the Islamically veiled vampire who wound up being entrapped within Nagina's coils! Roaring with anger and frustration as she fought to keep the latter's fangs away from her own throat. At the same time, Cassandra had reverted to Krinos form before apparating behind Voldermort. Backhanding the young nephandus almost as soon as she had rematerialized!

Only, when he crashed against the wall behind him, this time, he slid down it, flat on his back. Thereby giving the Last of the White Howlers ample time and opportunity to remove the Gray Maiden (scabbard and all) with her right. Reaching down to where Voldemort had clipped it to his belt, on the left hip-side.

"Thank you, Milord!" she sarcastically commented in a growly voice. "Enjoy your visit to Hong Kong."

Whereupon, she apparated away. Letting the vampiress Melinda keep her own sword in "fair exchange."

HONG KONG HOUSE

(THE NEXT DAY)

"The junk where all that occurred was called 'The Azure Dragon.' From what I could see when I first appeared on deck, though, there was no one else present but Voldemort and his hostess."

"Yet you say she was dressed like a North African Muslim while referring to herself as Melinda? Tell me, did she roughly resemble this young woman?"

Cassandra looked at the hand-painted picture in the somewhat ancient tome handed to her by Sir Waldo Newton: Precept of the Legacy House in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong.

"Yep!" she exclaimed. "That's her, exactly."

Sir Waldo read from a beige dossier.

"Fatima Al Faqadi. A Moorish antitribu Assamite who's been living in Japanese exile since the end of World War II. The result of her disastrous central role in the ill-fated Springing Tigers affair."

"Springing Tigers?" echoed Cassandra.

"A short-lived subsect of the Assamite Clan composed of INA mutineers*** that she Embraced on behalf of the Kuroi-Te Uji (the Black Hand faction of the Go Kamisori Gama sect). As part of some master plan aimed at driving the British Ventrue out of India, once and for all."

The Immortal wizardess meditatively rubbed her jaw with her right hand.

"I wonder if she's trying to _buy_ her way out of exile using the Gray Maiden?"

"Possibly," replied the Precept. "Many bargains have been struck for stranger reasons!"

Whereupon, Cassandra stood back up and thanked her host for all his help. Then, just as she was about to head for his office fireplace (to magically render it ready for flooing as she was a little too exhausted to apparate under her own power), she suddenly turned to face him.

"Oops! Almost forgot. Sir Clifford sends his regards from Rangoon House."

Sir Waldo grinned like a Cheshire cat at hearing the name of his old mentor. "How's the old boy doing these days?"

"How do you think? Increasingly eager to retire back to England."

The Precept chuckled. "Can't say as I blame him. I'll take the brief torrential intensity of an English summer rain, over the entire Asian monsoon season, anyday!"

LITHUANIA (1967)

Cassandra finished her anecdote as she and her two guests arrived at her personal aircraft. A UH-1 Iroquois (aka Huey) helicopter painted in U.S. Army jungle camouflage colors. Which, quite understandably, astounded John Baring Summers.

"You flew here, all the way from England, in that? Undetected?!"

Cassandra grinned. "It comes with an on-board portkey. After you, gentlemen!"

Five minutes later, after reaching a height of one hundred feet, the helicopter disappeared in a shower of white orbs. Reappearing, a moment later, over a decommissioned RAF fighter base near Thurso, Scotland.

tbc

GLOSSARY

*See chapter 15.

**See chapter 12.

***INA (Indian National Army): anti-colonialist Indians who were recruited by the Imperial Japanese Army from various POW camps as part of a diversionary military campaign ostensibly aimed at freeing India from British rule.