LONDON CALLING

Rowan nodded to Marus when he told him to go with Sergio and Ana. He followed them to the tobacconist away from Brin and Marcus. Once there she leaned one leg against the wall as if relaxing with his head down but his eyes scanned the area. Seeing Sergio and Ana both nod to Brin the head over he followed behind. As they entered he took a deep breath loving the smell of fresh tobacco.

He watched as the other seem to know their way arounf the shop and he followed behind them listening and watching he saw the nod sergio and Ana gave to Brin and Marcus and moved to follow them back out side. He moved to stand with them and heard them talk of aperating to the castle , it was now he held onto Sergios arm and ndded letting him know he was ready.

Sergio apparated them away, and they landed in a deep, thick forest. Marcus approved of the landing spot because there was no possible way that anyone in the castle could see them here. The castle seemed to rise up out of the woods in such a mammoth way that the trees looked like mere blades of grass compared to the size of this manmade mountainous structure.

"Great," Brian said, "Now we look like ants."

"We can use that to our advantage here," Marcus said. "Don't let it fool you. Before we get to the castle itself, we will, very likely have some wide open ground that we have to get across."

"Well, Gabe sent along a new toy we can try and see if it works when we get to that point," Brian said. It might eliminate that little problem temporarily."

"I know this one!" Ana said excited. "I've been here before--with Edward. There is a gate on the side--near the moat. It was used in medieval times for carts to bring in supplies for the kitchens. It's rather dilapidated now, so a cart can't get it, but if you're in for a bit of a careful crawl across some rugged ground, we can still get in that way."

"Sounds like fun to me," Marcus grinned, amused at her excitement. "I can hardly wait. Lead the way."

"This way," she motioned. "Try not to make a lot of noise anyway, just in case. She led them along the side wall of the castle, past a moat that still was filled with water, past more external wall, and then she came to a mammoth pile of rubble, broken up wall, mammoth broken building stones, huge old timbers that had been broken into pieces. She pointed to it. "If we get across that, we'll get to the side gate. Well, where it was."

"That is going to take awhile to get across," Marcus said. "And we'll be in a wide open view of the castle windows."

"Not for long," Brian said. "Let's see if Gabe's new toy helps." He drew a glass vial out of his pocket, and to Marcus, the vial looked completely empty at first, but then, the vial caught the light, and he was sure he saw some sort of strange sparkles even though he really didn't see anything in the vial at all. Brian recited an incantation and opened the vial and poured what looked like nothing into his hand and then he blew on his open palm For a brief instant, Marcus saw just a slight shimmering and sparkles. Then, Brian stepped forward into where the sparkles had been and he disappeared.

"Don't ask questions, just move," Marcus said quickly, following Brian, and when he followed Brian, he seemed to disappear too. Marcus found himself under what looked like a sparkling canopy.

"Gabe took an old concealment charm and worked out a concealment powder. It's supposed stay in place for an hour, perhaps a little longer," Brian said. "Let's see if its long enough to get us over this medieval trash pile and get us inside."

"Remind me to get some of this stuff," Marcus said, impressed.

Rowan stepped back from Sergio once they had arrived. He stood listening and then watching as Sergio brought out a small vial watching he saw the slight shift in the air as he blew and then as Brian stepped into it and disappeared along with Marcus. He looked to Sergio and stepped under himself and looked at Brian and Marcus.

"you want me to stay with Sergio or come with you," he asked " two teams might be better at getting in than one." but he had a feeling that they would be staying to gather as they moved over the open ground to the old entrance to get inside.

"Go," Sergio told Rowan. "We don't know where we're going to get out of this place at, and we can't leave someone behind. We stay together from this point."

Ana led the way, and Marcus followed her. Brian motioned to Sergio and Rowan to keep moving. Brian had decided to bring up the rear to try to make sure that no one was following them. Ana was very carefully walking, to keep her balance, across the rocky, rugged surface of broken stones and timbers. She was periodically picking some sort of wild flower and berries along the way and stuffing them into her pockets. There were places that were rough enough that she had had to take to her hands and knees to cross, and Marcus found he had to follow her lead there because it was just too steep and rugged to do it any other way. It was a distance of about 50 feet--or about 15 meters. When she got to the other side, she saw they were in a small overgrown courtyard. She could press herself against one of four huge stone pillars.

Marcus looked around trying to figure out what the pillars had been for. Then he figured it out. At one point, they had probably supported some sort of a wooden portico so that the carts could be unloaded without the shipments getting wet. Ana pointed to some wide worn outdoor steps leading down. Marcus understood. It was an outdoor entrance to the cellars. They were about the enter the belly of the beast.

Marcus led the way from here, going down the steps. He could tell by the dirt and rocks and rubble that this entrance hadn't been used in a very long time. He hoped that with the usual incompetence of Gelding's people they hadn't known about this entrance. He got to a huge wooden door, and he drew two lockpicks out of his pocket and picked the lock. Now, Ana got out the flowers and berries, and Marcus held out his hands. She gave him half. She used her half to squeeze and crush them against the lower door hinges to lubricate them so they didn't squeal and make noise. Marcus used his to do the same with the upper hinges because he was taller than she was, and he could reach. Satisfied, they slowly opened the doors just enough that they could slip inside noiselessly. Marcus didn't see anyone in this section of the cellar corridor, so he motioned everyone else to follow but noiseless and quickly.

Rowan moved with the others across the ground keeping low so as not to cause suspicion he saw Ana taking berries and flowers every so often and was a little confused but as they got to the door he smiled seeing what she was doing with them. She was making them act as a lubricant to stop an excessive noise, he had to rember to do that if he was in this situation. Slipping inside he stood with Marcus letting the others move past him. H had cast muffle on his shoes so that they would not make any sound as he walked or moved. He glanced around getting his bearings as every one filed inside and the door was shut behind them to make it look as if nobody had gotten in, not that they would notice as he ahd sen they didn't use this door in any way shape or form. " the corridor splits further down" he said having seen two dots of light.

"It is a maze down here," Ana whispered. "There might be another level that I didn't see when I was here with Edward. The dungeon might be one more level down, and any holding cells would be near the dungeon. I just don't know. Let's see what we find. Watch out for servants quarters, kitchens, and that sort of thing. Gelding could be housing some of his thugs down here."

They started slowly down the corridor, and they checked each room as they went. They found storage rooms for coal, firewood, casks of wine, kegs of ale, root cellar storage for vegetables and fruit, a powder room that would have held gunpowder kinds of weapons at one time, and other sorts of rooms. There were some cans and jars of food stored here, and Ana took a bottle of olive oil with her.
They had to cross a large open dining room and an old style kitchen that hadn't been used in hundreds of years. And that took them to a darker portion of the castle. Ana shivered. She had a bad feeling about this. This area now was an area that was being used. She could feel it. She stopped and motioned to them that they needed to now take extra care to make no noise at all.

They were now entering the area of the cells and the dungeons. Marcus began peering cautiously into the little windows in the cell doors and he finally stopped and drew out his lockpicks and unlocked the door. Ana oiled the hinges with the olive oil, and Marcus worked at opening the door very slowly to try to eliminate any noise at all.

Inside the cell, Michael was sitting on the cold stone ground, shackled hand and foot to the wall.

"It's about time," Michael told Marcus as Marcus hurried to him. "I am certainly glad to see all of you."

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Marcus asked, already picking the locks on the shackles.

"No," Michael said. "I'm fine, except they've blocked my magic."

"Yeah, we know about that," Marcus replied. "We're glad you're still in one piece."

"Well, that's because they want me to tell them where the book is," Michael said.

"Yeah, we're not going to discuss that here," Marcus said.

"Very wise," Michael said. "Here. Let me." Michael took the lockpicks and in a mere moment he had himself free. Marcus and Brian helped him to his feet. Michael was stiff and aching from having to largely sit in one piece for days. "Glad you all could make it," Michael told them. "Care if we hold on the reunions until we're out of this hellhole? I could use some fresh air, a cigarette and a pint. Not necessarily in that order."

Rowan listened and chuckled " right so that second liht is a reflection of another someplace , got it" he said thinking how tricky this place was but admiring the design of it too. He walekd with the other until they got to the cells and smiled seeing Micahel alive even if he was shackled. Rowan took out some lock picks and handed them to Marcus who handed thm to Micahel who set himself fre while Rowan looked out the doorway to make sure nobody heard them.

"I agree I can hear foot steps , their faint right now but e should move" he told them as he kept his voice soft as he glanced from the hallway to into the cell and back. " do you think we can port out or have they blocked all magic in here?" he asked

"Remember what Edward said," Marcus replied. "He specifically cautioned us not to try to port home on castle grounds because they could well have tracing enchantments so they could either block our exits or trace where we go from here. He told us very specifically not to do that. We need to try to get out the way we came. Ana, give me that bottle of oil, and your scarf if you're not too sentimentally attached to it."

She wasn't sure what he needed it for, but she gave it to him.

"The scarf is nothing," she said, handing it to him. He stuffed some of the scarf down in the bottle, and left the bulk of it outside the bottle.

"Can you get them out?" he asked her. She nodded.

"Then go. I'll be right behind you," Marcus said. Brian looked at Marcus, never one for leaving a man behind. "I'm not staying either. I'll be right there." Ana motioned to them and she led them back down the corridor, the same way they came. She paused at the root cellar and reached in and drew out a bottle of wine. She showed it to Marcus who nodded. Then she motioned to everyone to keep following her towards the door they came in through. Marcus was glad to see the wine bottle instead of the olive oil, so he changed the scarf and put it into the wine bottle instead of the oil.

He took it room that had been used to store gunpowder, seeing some old traces of gunpowder still there, and he waited until Ana had everyone else at the door. She opened the door and gave one look back at Marcus who simply nodded.

"Come," she told them all quietly. "He's providing us a distraction. We need to go--quickly. Out, and head straight back to the woods."

Once most everyone was through the door and back outside, Marcus used his wand to light the scarf. Then he tossed the wine bottle into the gunpowder storage room, and then he ran for all he was worth to get out. The wine bottle blew and it caught the gunpowder that was left causing a large explosion. Marcus made it outside, shut the door and cast a colloportus spell to lock the door. He was glad that Gabe's concealment spell appeared to be working and was hiding him as he made his way back across the rubble towards the woods.

Rowan nodded and thought back remembering he did indeed say that " all right" he said and watched Ana give Marcus her scarf then he followed them back down the corridor towards the door they had come threw. He stayed close to Michael inc case he was needed. He looekd at Ana who said Marcus was making a distraction so they could get away easily.

Making it to the door he waited as he saw Marcus throw the bottle into the powder room and heard a whosh as the gunpowder took and lit up. He moved quickly as he saw Marcus come running and they dove out of the door. Rowan stood up seeing Marcus cast a colloportus spell to lock the door as they still were cancelled by the spell " we should move qquicklythat's not going to slowly them for too long." he said

"Long enough," Marcus told Rowan. "Just keep moving. Gabe's spell will keep them from seeing which way they went. They can't follow what they can't see. keep going."

He moved as fast as he could across the rubble and made a mad dash for the woods.

"Well done," Sergio told Marcus. "Look." He pointed back towards where they had just come from. Flames were rising out of the door that they had just come out of. "Remember a lot of that internal structure is braced up by wood. They're going to have to let us go to put out your little Molotov cocktail. Nicely done, Mr. Belby. You're very handy at distraction."

"Thank you," Marcus grinned.

"You're welcome to come with us back home," Brian said to Sergio and Ana. "I'm sure our kitchen will fix some sort of good meal for us when we get there. I think we deserve a bite to eat."

"Our children will be glad to see us not come back quite so soon. It gives them time with their grandparents," Sergio laughed. "We'd be glad to come."

"Well, then," Brian said, drawing out his portkey "let's go home. Grab hold, All."

Brian ported them home, landing back safely in the kitchen at home. Michael sighed with relief, glad to be finally back in friendly surroundings.

"Well done," Robert told them. "Glad to have you back, Michael."

"Glad to be back,' Michael said. Brian took the envelope from his pocket and handed it to Robert. Robert looked in the envelope and saw the little book but he never made a move to touch it. He looked at Michael. "You shrank a nearly priceless potions book."

"It's dark arts. It has no value at all to me," Michael replied, feeling no respect whatsoever for an evil book of any kind.

"Well, you do have a point," Robert said.

"Will you unblock my magic, please, without making me beg for it?" Michael asked. Robert laid his hand on Michael's forehead and removed the block. "Thank you," Michael said. "Now, if you'll all excuse me for five minutes, I desperately need a shower. I reek. I'll be back." Robert watched Michael go upstairs. "Thank you, All of you. Now, I'll go call off the Unspeakables. I told him he wouldn't need them, not as long as I had you all. and, of course, you proved me right once again to him."