The Grants Artefacts

23 Temple of Anubis

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.