The Curse-breaker's Sister

The Curse-breaker's Sister

Chapter 2

Three months earlier...

Bill's meeting with Ea Nasir, a papery-skinned Treasure Collector, did not go as planned. The first signs of tension arose before Bill had even walked into the torch-lit antechamber. He was being led through a palace of some sort, twisting and turning through sandy coloured corridors. Everything was of the same colour, every hallway looked like the previous one. He swore he'd been down this one particular staircase three times now. Bill knew there was no way he'd be able to find his way back out again, especially after the lady leading him around- she refused to tell him her name- told him that the castle was covered with Anti-Apparition charms.

The bad vibe intensified upon entering the antechamber, the lady, whom a wrinkly old man called Ninbanda, announced his presence and then left the room quickly. Bill couldn't help but watch her leave, mesmerized by the subtle sway of her hips as she walked away. The silky, white toga she wore left little to the imagination. Therefore, it was with a smile of hearty, male appreciation on his face that he first greeted Ea Nasir. Nasir was not impressed. The look he gave Bill sent shots of ice through his heart and down his pants, instantly quelling any and all fantasies that might have been brewing.

"You are Bill Weasley?" Nasir asked.

"Yes sir, I am. With Gringotts. Nice to meet you, sir." Bill approached the old man while talking and reached out to shake his hand.

Ea Nasir remained seated in his throne-like chair. After a few moments, Bill lowered his hand to his side, feeling a bit abashed. Nasir stretched a crooked finger and pointed to a cloth-wrapped package on the table beside him. Bill reached for the parcel and unwrapped it. Nasir sat back and watched.

"This can't be..." whispered Bill. He looked up at Nasir, his eyes full of disbelief. "It is, isn't it?"

Nasir nodded. "The Plaque of Poseidon, the Anbar of Atlantis, whatever you wish to call it. Go on, examine it, I can see the desire to do so in your eyes."

"A plaque of amber, shining gold, that is not hot and is not cold..." Bill whispered while running his hands reverently over the smooth surfaces.

In his hands was a rectangular block of amber that shimmered like gold in the torch light. It had handles on all four sides that were carved with intricate symbols Bill didn't recognize. It was hard to tell which side was meant to be the top. One side contained icons depicting merpeople and goat-fish swimming together in a golden ocean. The other side was inscribed with cuneiform. It took Bill a few minutes to translate it, as it was a form of cuneiform he had never encountered before. Fortunately, it was similar enough to the Akkadian forms of cuneiform he'd studied in the past and he soon figured it out.

"How did you find this?" he asked incredulously. "No, wait." He shook his head no. "Don't tell me, I don't want to know."

"That is wise, Bill Weasley, very wise indeed. I see you have translated the cuneiform."

Bill nodded. "It looks like a variation of the symbols used in Ancient Sumer, less complex then the Akkadian script, for sure." Bill remembered whom he was talking to and added sheepishly, "I'm sure you already knew that, sir."

"Indeed. Translated and extrapolated where you need to go and what you need to do when you get there. As you can see, I am in no shape to get the treasure myself." Ea Nasir spoke the truth. He was a wrinkled, wizened old man with sallow, yellow skin stretched over a skeletal looking face. His wide, brown eyes were set behind lids that rarely blinked.

"Treasure?" Bill asked, one eyebrow raised, as it often was when he was puzzled about something. His interpretation of the inscription had contained an incantation and instructions on how to raise the once thought to be lost Island of Atlantis. It mentioned nothing about treasure.

Nasir nodded his head slowly up and down. "Yes, treasure. I am tired. EMSAF!" His voice was surprisingly loud for a being so frail. "Emsaf will give you the instructions and the things you require to get the treasure for me. Leave me."

Emsaf had appeared at the door. It was the same muscular man who had originally met Bill in Mesopotamia.

"But sir..." Bill began.

"I said leave me, boy. Do not return until you bring me my treasure."

Emsaf advanced on Bill, the large muscles in his legs flexing as he walked. He was not somebody Bill fancied messing with. Bill left quietly, still confused as to what was going on. He tried to ask Emsaf, but the man was silent. He led Bill to another torch-lit room and left him there.

What seemed like hours later, Ninbanda appeared. She was carrying the Anbar of Atlantis as well as several scrolls of parchment.

"My master says that you can keep the tablet, as gratitude for a job well done. My master has never met another person who can translate cuneiform script as quickly and effortlessly as you had and believes you deserve to keep the Anbar of Atlantis."

Bill looked at Ninbanda in awe. "You can't be serious, besides, payment has already been agreed upon. In fact, I have the contracts with me now, they have to be signed before I..."

Ninbanda snapped her fingers. A flash of green light temporarily blinded Bill and when his vision was restored, the contractual agreements he'd brought with him from Gringotts were resting on the table in front of him. They were signed in Ea Nasir's spidery script.

She pushed a canvas bag across the table. "In here are your instructions and money for necessities along the way. You are not to work for any other Treasure Collector while you are contractually bound to my master, you are not to take any of the treasure for yourself and you are not to return empty handed."

With that, Ninbanda turned and left Bill. He was alone in the room with the amber tablet, his Gringotts contracts, and the bag of instructions from his latest boss. Emsaf returned. The burly man beckoned Bill to follow him and he was lead through the labyrinth of corridors once more. Emsaf said nothing to him, finally leaving him alone in the courtyard.

"Wow," Bill thought to himself while tucking a stray lock of long, red hair behind his ear. "These people are hard work."

He left the courtyard, sensing he was outside the castle boundaries by the lack of the oppressive Anti-Apparition charms in the air. He Disapparated, appearing moments later in a dark alleyway in Ur, a place he had been in the past. He had originally planned to go after the treasure right away but had decided otherwise after meeting Ea Nasir. Instead, he'd take the evening to go over his contracts and the instructions from Nasir and get a fresh start in the morning.