The Grants Artefacts

22 The Snake Charmer

The Snake Charmer

Ambers apartment was in Al Biirat in a muggle neighbourhood but only a stone's throw away from Magical Thebes where the Center for Egyptian Historical Artifacts of Magical Significance, the Egyptian Old Magic Society and the Hidden Library of Wase were housed. Along with the Wase province, where a number of magical people lived and there was access to a selection of magical tombs, which were hidden from muggles but heavily regulated by the Egyptian ministry of magic. Like any city, there were pockets of magical communities all over, Arun knew most of them. Luxor wasn't a new place for her. She'd been curse breaking here for long enough to have a network, but she didn't much care for any of her acquaintances or trust that they wouldn't screw her over for a good opportunity or a sack of gold. And tensions between those who worked for Gringotts and the Egyptian Ministry were taught at the best of times. She wasn't expecting a friendly reception.

There was a lot to do now she was here. First Fenrir needed a place to lie low, as did she. Then she needed to locate the Americans before they found her. She kept watch on the apartment for the best part of a day, but nobody was hanging around outside or keeping watch that she could see and as the sun set she flew across and entered the apartment by unlocking the window.

There were signs of a struggle. Books and clothes strewn everywhere, burn marks on the ceiling and furniture on its side. Arun ignored it all, she was only looking for the portrait, which she found eventually, behind the dresser where it had fallen from the wall.

The painting of her sister looked out at her with a blank expression.

"You ok?" Arun asked.

Painting Amber nodded once, then slid her eyes across to the corner of the room. Arun sent a curse at a brown leather chair, which squealed and turned into a little old man.

"Who are you?" Arun demanded.

"Please!" he hissed in Arabic.

"English," Arundel demanded. "My Arabic is rusty."

"Please!" he said in English. "I have family."

"Tell me why you are here," Arun squatted down opposite him. "What are your orders?"

"I am... I am to wait."

"For what?"

"For you. I am to wait for you and to give you this." he held out his hand. Arun didn't take what was offered.

The man shifted with unease.

"Where are the Americans?" she asked him, taking advantage of his reluctance.

"I...I don't know."

"Who are you meeting with, when would you meet with them?"

"I don't meet. I get given this and told to wait here."

"Where did they give you this?"

The man shivered away from her, "The Crocodile Bazaar, They gave me no choice. They..." he pressed himself into the corner of the room. "They gave me no..."

Arun studied the letter he tried to pass to her. "Open it." she commanded.

"It's for you," he wailed. "It's for you."

"Open it!" she shouted. "Do not make me force you."

But the man shook and gibbered and Arun raised a hand "Cru-"

"Ok!" the little man was crying. "Ok, ok...." He wrenched open the paper, turning his face away as he did. Arun flinched, expecting an explosion, and cast a protective bubble but none came. The gibbering man looked at the paper too but inside was blank, he started to laugh but as he did Arun watched his muscles waste away and the shin shrink on his body, he began to scream, and then he was still. His hands still clenched the paper but the paper held no more clues for her and he had nothing else to give either.