At the river bank, Cross and Tristen were waiting: Tristen with rifle at the ready, while Cross was still unconscious on the stretcher. Evan and McCormick put down their stretcher and went to work on the dinghies.
"Dobby. I need you to stay invisible to everybody. I need you to put an anti-portkey and anti-apparation ward around our captive; also banish any portkeys and extra wands, knives or other weapons he might use. Can you also apply sticking charms to all the contacts on these little boats as we complete them – make sure they don't come apart? After that, put a silencing ward around the raft." he asked. Dobby tugged at his pants leg.
Using the boards, ropes and canvas, they interconnected the dinghies and skiffs into a large catamaran style raft that could hold all of them. They tied four of the inflated inner tubes beneath the center of the supports (between the two sets of boats) to provide additional floating support, just in case; and tied one in each of the four boats, to keep them afloat even if the hulls filled with water. Evan cut several branches from several native bushes along the river and tied them to the sides of their contraption. The gear they put in the boat hulls (except the transmitter). Lastly, Evan cut a long and thin tree down using his survival saw. After trimming, he had a push pole.
After loading everybody on their 'raft', they shoved off. About 10 minutes later, Evan turned to their 'guest'. "Why are you here, wizard?" While it wasn't the first time most of them heard the word 'wizard', it was the first time they took the time to understand what that meant, and they all watched as their 'Fenix' transformed as he pulled his Goblin sword out, placing it at the neck of the wizard while pulling off the tape from his mouth. "The Dark Lord will have fun torturing you." The wizard chuckled. "In the meantime I'll have fun dismembering you." Said Evan dispassionately, moving the sword slightly against the man's neck, nicking it. The wizard jerked his head away as he felt the cut. "I repeat, why are you here?" "It is pretty obvious; we are looking for someone." The wizard said. "Who, and why are you looking for them?" Evan asked. "I am not afraid of some muggle" the wizard responded, before screaming in pain. Evan dug his finger into a pressure point just behind and under the wizard's ear causing immense pain. "I believe you have a lot to be afraid of, wizard. Answer the question." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. After getting back his breath, the wizard said "you have nothing on the Dark.." and began screaming again, even harder than before. Evan's team mates were looking at him in surprise. (Fenix typically appeared to be a cool and collected soldier. Not one subject to evil inclinations, yet here he was inflicting pain with a stony face.) Evan was now squeezing two pressure points – one behind the ear as before, and one at the base of the skull adjacent to the spinal cord. "You know, wizard – your Dork lord requires magic to make you scream. I do not. And I have many, many means to make this continue. Answer the question". "We…..we…..we are…..looking for…Ambassador B…..B….Ambassador Bajric" the wizard stammered out between breaths. Evan shifted his eyes only to the Ambassador and locking eyes with her while shaking his head ever so slightly. "Who is this Ambassador? Why are you looking for them?" Evan asked. The wizard hesitated and Evan applied pressure to a new pressure point just under the other ear. After the wizard stopped screaming he stammered out "Th…the….DDDaark Llorrd ..ssaid sh…sh..she is imm…imm..pporrt..tant. Hhee wants hher..aass a pp..prisoner." "And the vampires – why are they involved?" Evan asked. This resulted in more snapped necks as the team refocused on Evan. "Vampires? Their real?" Bremmer asked. McCormick added "the one that turned to ash? You stabbed him with a wooden stake! That's why?" Evan nodded. Looking at the wizard, he asked again "and the Vampires?"
As he looked intently at their prisoner, Evan (unintentionally) saw a meeting between a wizard and a vampire: "What is it you need now wizard Dolohov?" inquired the vampire. "Prince Rachmanov, the Dark Lord requires your assistance finding and capturing Ambassador Merjem Ilma Bajric. He is most magnanimously offering you human flesh in payment" replied Dolohov. "We do NOT require his mercies" responded the vampire, with a sneer. "This is OUR land, OUR turf wizard." "All the same, Prince, its easy flesh. We will do most of the work – we just need some information." And then the vision disappeared.
"Why do vampires do anything?" the wizard finally responded. "Why attack us? We don't have your Ambassador?" asked Evan. "The Serbs who met with her failed to deliver her. We were told she was accompanied by British soldiers. You are foreign soldiers in these lands – you should not be here." The wizard responded. "You would not have known that – how did you find us?" asked Evan. It turned out to be just dumb luck. One vampire and one wizard teams were jumping around the area. They knew the British team was somewhere close by scrying for them, but they could not get an accurate read.
....
Do you want to read ahead by more than 60 exciting premium chapters?
Then join my p*atreon right now.
Link: p*atreon.com/Sonic_Spectre (Remove the *)
Free members can unlock upto 2 chapters.