The Rules of the Game

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.

Titus Maccius Plautus, Rudens

A Spoonful of Sugar

"A lot of scorpions."

Rani believed that the ability that made a good raider was the ability to evaluate a current problem. Being able to patiently find out your current predicament and then figure out how to get out of it was something she valued since she had entered her first tomb. Of course, there were times when patience had to be pushed out of the way and quick thinking was needed.

This was one of those times.

Bill's frantic "Petrificus Totalus!" could be heard. Rani didn't know how many scorpions he was dealing with or if they kept crawling out of whatever door he had opened.

"Can you see the rope?" she yelled. If she threw anymore down she wouldn't have anything to haul him up with.

There was no response besides the hexing and then Rani felt the rope being tugged. "Pull me up!" Bill cried.

Easier said than done. Bill's weight was slowly pulling Rani towards the edge of the pit and her heels were digging the ground for something to stop her falling in.

"You are going to go on a diet!" snapped Rani, holding onto dear life as Bill slowly pulled himself up. "Do I look very strong to you?"

Bill finally managed to reach the top and he frantically scrambled the rest of the way. Throwing one loathing look at the pit, he said, "So, I believe that wasn't the second entrance."

Rani rolled her eyes. "Now what? Do you want to take the main entrance or keep searching?"

"Eddy," Bill said, feeling a bit silly talking to the air, "any luck?"

"I can't pull anything on your mysterious entrance," Eddy's voice said, sounding loud and clear. "Personally, I say go through the first door. I can walk you through the first few traps."

"This won't be like your bricks, will it?" Rani asked dryly.

Eddy's smug smile was perfectly assumable when he said, "Don't worry, babe, I'm a pro."

This time it was Rani who hit the right bricks and instead of a gold knob there was a hook that needed to be pulled. As told, the door rose up and allowed them free roam of the tomb.

The moment Bill put one foot inside, however, two swords at neck's length swished forward. He was only saved by his tomb raider instincts, which kicked in with a slide, tuck and roll, taking him out of harm's reach.

"I am," he muttered out loud for Eddy to hear, "really sick of almost getting killed."

"Sorry, bosom buddy," Eddy said, and the faint tapping of the keyboard could be heard. "That wasn't on my computer."

Rani looked surprised and entered carefully into tomb. The swishing swords did not appear the second time. "Well, keep it on the records then," she instructed. "Careful, Weasley."

Bill was staring at a statue carefully. He could feel the presence of magic, but he didn't want to test it yet. It was quite a beautiful statue of a warrior sitting down on a throne. His arms lay rested on his knees, but it was obvious he had been once holding onto something.

"Go back to the entrance," Bill said. "I want to test something. I think I know how to deactivate the trap."

Rani gave him a suspicious look. "If you kill me, I'll come back to haunt you," she threatened as she moved towards the entrance.

"I have no doubt you will," said Bill. "Okay, now let's see if this works."

Rani stepped out of the tomb, passing the magical barrier that had almost beheaded Bill. The statue's arms moved towards it, as if swinging something.

"Bingo!" Bill said, waving his wand at the statue. "Finite Incantatum. When you pass the barrier it triggers the statue to fling its swords at you. It probably takes a bit for the magical to bring back the weapons."

"Brilliant," muttered both Rani and Eddy.

"The people that were here before never tampered with any of the traps," Eddy explained as Rani and Bill headed down the long hallway. "Of course, it's not like they got very far, but still..."

Bill looked around his surroundings. The walls were indeed mostly grumbled and had given away to age. Every so often they'd come upon a broken vase or statuette, but unlike Gringotts, all this would later be picked up by researches and not Bill himself.

Rani had stopped by a left over necklace and was admiring it from afar. "There must be a good pocket's worth in here," she whispered. "Bellamont will be pleased."

"Do you work with a lot of tombs like this?" Bill asked in hopes of making conversation.

"I usually do tombs up north," Rani said. "Vetula is one of the greatest I've ever done, though. I wish I could take something with me."

Bill shrugged. "Do it. I won't say anything and I don't think Eddy will."

Rani raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"All righty, guys," Eddy said. "You're about to come across a corner. Go left but watch the floor pattern. It's made out of squares, red and yellow. Don't step on the yellow."

"Got it," Bill said as they turned the corner.

"Erm, Eddy?" Rani said, as she inspected the ground in front of them. "These squares are about one centimetre!"

"Yeah," Eddy said, sounding grim, "I suppose that's why none of our men have been able to pass it before."

The task before them was definitely not an easy one. The squares went on for quite a bit and they were indeed about the size of a centimetre. There seemed to be no possible way for either Rani or Bill to get across without activating the trap.

"So, we'll have to deactivate it first," Rani said. "Bugger, you'd think they could have laid one trap by floor, not by every ten feet."

"Paranoid idiots that are buried in tombs," Bill said grouchily. "Always."

Rani was looking around the place, obviously trying to get Eddy to focus his technology on the surroundings.

"Eddy, do we know what we'll activate if we hit the yellow squares?" Bill asked. If they did maybe it'd be like figuring out about the soldier.

"Well, the files aren't specific - like anything else this fuckin' idiots left behind - but it should be something big. With teeth, more like it." Eddy went quiet for a bit, and then, "Yeah, big and ugly. The bodies were definitely mauled. Yuck, that can't be pretty."

"Do you want to risk it?" Rani asked, a gleam in her eye. "If it comes we could always run."

Bill looked at the floor and across the hall. There seemed to visible way of passing this. And, well, while running didn't seem quite inviting, he had been through worse.

Bill took out his wand and so did Rani. The decision seemed unanimous. Carefully, almost as if afraid he's certainly light up on fire, Bill touched the nearest yellow square.

Nothing happened.

"Well," Rani said, letting go of the breath she had been holding. "Shall we then?"

Bill grinned. "Lets."

And then something let out a ferocious roar behind them.

"RUN! RUN!" shrieked Eddy on their earpieces. "For God's sake, don't stop and think, RUN!"

Neither had to be told twice. Bill took one quick look behind him, saw it was a very angry Chimaera and took off like a bullet, Rani close on his heels.

"It looks pretty hungry," Rani wailed. She pointed her wand at it, "Petrificus Totalus!"

The Chimaera merely shook the spell off and kept chasing them.

"Well, I think he's certainly furious now," Bill said dryly. "There is a good side to this, however."

"And what would that be?" Rani asked as she cast Incendio at the beast.

The Chimaera's mane set on fire and he let out an angry roar.

"We've made it beyond any other researcher," answered Bill. "Ok, let's try the Impediment Curse. On the count of three?"

"One," he said, as they halted and turned to face the raging Chimaera.

"Two," he added as the Chimaera got closer.

And on three they both pointed their wands at it and cried "Impedimenta!"

The Chimaera slowed down, but not by much.

"Impedimenta!" Rani cried again, but her efforts were not of much help.

"Door!" yelled Bill. "There's a door!" He flung another curse at the Chimaera. "Keep running!"

Rani was the first to reach the door and she wrenched it open. Both of them made it safely in before the beast flung itself at them.

"That was close," Bill muttered as he made sure to ward the door. "Eddy, how are we doing?"

"You're alive, ain't you?" Eddy said cheerfully. "Where are you now?"

Bill looked around. They seemed to be in a small chamber of sorts. The walls were painted in hieroglyphics he wasn't familiar with. The floor was made of stone like the rest of the tomb, but it was covered in white sand.

"It's too... empty," Rani said, and Bill wondered if it was to him or to Eddy or to herself.

Bill looked at the floor suspiciously as if expecting something to pop out at him. The sand had been shifted towards the door they had come through. Drag marks, perhaps?

"I think someone was here before us," he said, looking around.

"That's not possible," Rani said. "Bellamont has had hold in this place for ages. No one has been able to get beyond the Chimaera before us."

"I'm sending a sample of the hieroglyphics to Bellamont," Eddy said. "Rani, hold still."

"There's a small passage way here," Bill said, as he pulled open a small wooden door. "We can crawl to the other room."

The following room was not much larger than the one that had been before, but it there was a clear hole for them to pass on to the room after. However, the moment Rani had crawled in after Bill, he had grabbed her arm and squeezed, making her stay still.

"What is it?" she snapped.

"Shh," Bill muttered, his eyes were scanning the room.

Rani looked at what he was scanning and noticed the room was clearly occupied by mummies.

"Running again, then?" Rani asked, a defying look in her eyes.

Bill smirked. Mummies were child's play in Egypt. They couldn't be anymore complicated in ruddy Venezuela, could they?

"You know," he said, twirling his wand with his fingers, "for people who shouldn't be using magic except in emergencies, we've been using it a lot, haven't we?"

"I think being close to death is an emergency enough," Rani said, raising her own wands at the closest mummy. "So, before they spot us, what will it be?"

"I'm sure they'd hate to have their wrappings on fire," Bill said as if discussing the best way to grow pumpkins. "Don't you think?"

"Oh, I agree," Rani said. "Incendio!"

The closest mummy lit up in fire and wailed, thrashing around.

Bill let out his own curse and they were quite successful in passing the room. However, what was on the other side was not what they had expected.

*

Despite being a researcher, Doyle was never quite good at directions. Sure, he could go from point A to point B, but finding his way from point A to point Z was near impossible without a proper map. He usually relied on Summer or Chuck's direction spells to do the trick, for while he was a vampire, a wizard he was not.

However, the trio currently found themselves in the seedier side of Caracas and with no idea of how to get to Puerto Ayacucho and Rani's side.

"I told you we shouldn't have used a stupid portkey," Chuck complained as he tried to bat a mosquito away with his hand. "I don't like the looks of this neighbourhood."

"It smells of burnt rubber," added Summer, who looked at the ground in distaste. "Do you think we'd be able to find a taxi?"

"We're probably more likely to find our death here," Chuck said. He noticed Doyle seemed to be staring off in the distance. "Hey, boss, what's up?"

"There's this smell," Doyle said, as if recalling a memory from when he was still alive. "It's blood, but it smells different."

"Animal, perhaps?" Summer said with a small smile.

"No, that's not it." Doyle tilted his head. The smell was rich blood, so familiar. Warm and still flowing in a human's body. His stomach rumbled and Chuck snorted.

"I'm quite sure someone would give us directions to a bus stop," Summer said, already ignoring her companions. "Do you think... what is it, Doyle?"

"Montanez," Doyle spit out. "Magical blood, that's what I smell. Wizards are here."

"Hasn't it occurred to you it might be any other wizard?" Chuck asked, his hand gripping in wand in precaution anyway. "I mean, it's not like Caracas doesn't have any fine magical people..."

"It's Montanez," Doyle assured.

"I'm going to go take a look, then," Chuck said haughtily. "If it's not Montanez and company, I'll ask for directions from the hopefully nice wizards." He gave Doyle a quick smirk and ran off.

"Boys will be boys," Summer muttered. She had her wand out and rested on her palm. "Well, if we were planning to walk to Puerto Ayacucho - which we aren't - we'd have to go directly south from here. Pity it isn't closer."

Doyle smiled at Summer's ramblings. She had a tendency to go on and on, not really caring if anyone was actually paying attention to her. Of course, when she noticed no one was, she'd just huff and refuse to talk again until the next time she had something to say.

"Come on," a voice said quite loudly, "I want something small and pretty to enjoy."

"They're all pretty here," another voice agreed evilly. "A nice mix of ladies, this country has."

Summer pulled out her wand, but Doyle grabbed her wrist. "Goons," he whispered and dragged her into a dark corner. She looked at him with curious eyes, her whole body tensed in preparation for a fight.

"High death rate here too," the first voice continued, and the body of it appeared in the light. He was a big wizard, with plenty of muscles and the expression of a rather stupid monkey. "I suppose they won't miss one more."

The second person, who was quite similar to the first, laughed. "Hey," he said, nudging his companion, "who's there in the alley?"

Doyle looked at Summer, who stared at him in confusion. "Scream," he whispered harshly.

"What?" she asked, trying to wrench her wrist and wand free of his grip.

Upset she was taking long to process his order, Doyle bit down on her shoulder.

Summer let out an effective shriek.

"Fuckin' vampires," one of the wizards said. "Getting all the good ones."

"Yeah, fuckin' vampires," agreed the second, and they left with a few more insults to Doyle's kind.

"Oh god, I'm bleeding," Summer whimpered, shoving Doyle back with all her might.

"I didn't bite hard," Doyle said in self-defence. "You wouldn't scream."

"I wouldn't scream? I. Wouldn't. SCREAM?" Summer hissed angrily. "Did you have a nice snack, you leech?"

Doyle licked his lips, picking up the few traces of her blood, and then noticed it was the wrong thing to do. "Er, sorry, Summer, really. But if they got too curious they'd attack. It's not like I took advantage."

Summer, who was usually quite calm and detached, placed a hand on her wound and shot Doyle a death glare. "Of all the rotten things you could have done... Oh, real good this will look. I'm going to stake you in your sleep."

"What on earth is going on?" It was Chuck. He looked at the duo with eyebrows raised and then spotted Summer touching the bite on her shoulder. "Doyle, what happened?"

"He bit me," Summer spat with enough venom to scare a rattlesnake.

"Because it was necessary," Doyle said quickly, and he briefly explained their situation.

Chuck nodded, seeming to understand. "You were right," he said, after he inspected Summer's wound and declared she wouldn't die, "it was Montanez. It was a pretty easy to sneak nearby. I even got this." Chuck lifted up a bicycle chain.

It was their portkey to Puerto Ayacucho.