Chapter 288 286. Maze under the ice
At this time, it has entered the end of March, and Jon and the others are only four or five miles away from the pole.
The scope of the polar day has been expanded beyond this point, so there is no intention of waiting until it gets dark, and it is impossible for it to get dark.
Gabriel covered the invisibility cloak and took Nick together, and flew towards the direction where the dementors were guarding.
After they left, Jon didn't act rashly. He used the invisibility cloak made by the illusion spell that Eric gave him, and put it on himself.
Because of the lack of means of long-distance contact, and the North Pole is a place where it is very easy to get lost, so he has no idea what to do at this time, just wait for Gabriel and Nick to come back. .
Gabriel and Nick wore invisibility cloaks, and easily passed the defensive circle of the dementors. They continued to fly forward, and soon saw an area not far away, where more than a dozen tents were stationed.
There is exactly the destination of their trip.
"Why don't these people just go home when they take a break?"
Under the cloak, Gabriel asked in a low voice.
"Don't they know the magic that pops up and then disappears?"
Nick explained to her in a low voice.
"The teleportation range of apparition is limited. The farther the distance is, the higher the possibility of separation. The distance from the North Pole to the UK is far beyond this safe range. Therefore, for the insurance period, even if you rest This is the safest decision."
Gabrielle let alone went to school. During her time at Hogwarts, she didn't even open a magic book, and she didn't even understand some of the terms in Nick's mouth.
"What is a split body?"
"It means that your head has teleported to the designated place, but your body did not follow."
Gabriel looked shocked.
"Won't that just die?"
"The magic power will maintain the connection between different parts of the wizard when the body is separated, but this connection cannot last for a long time. If the separation cannot be restored in a short time, the wizard will really die."
Seeing that the group of tents was getting closer, Nick warned softly.
"Okay, we are not here for class, now if I don't speak first, you should keep quiet and watch my gestures to communicate."
Gabriel, who made a guarantee, behaved very well-behaved, holding the invisibility cloak tightly with her two little hands to prevent the cold wind from blowing the cloak away. Even if she was a child, she knew the importance of the matter.
Soon, they floated into the group of tents. After entering, they realized that there were not as many tents here as they saw in the distance. There were only a dozen of them, and most of them were erected around an area. , There are two tents left alone on one side.
The group of tents that formed a circle were obviously ordinary tents, and the entrances were not closed. Gabriel and Nick could clearly see a wizard holding a wand sitting in each tent. Their Attention is basically focused on the area surrounded by them, but from the outside, the snow-covered ice surface is different.
As for the two tents on one side alone, people would come in and out every once in a while, and those who came out would use apparition to leave directly. Nick could clearly hear the voices of many people talking from inside.
This is obviously the resting place for the Death Eaters who are patrolling outside. Both tents have been cast with the No Trace Stretching Charm, allowing any number of Death Eaters to rest inside.
Judging from this situation, those Death Eaters who were in ordinary tents, holding wands and keeping vigilant all the time, behaved very special.
Nick commanded Gabriel, and the two ghosts wandered around the Death Eaters' residence. After making sure that they found nothing else, they set their sights on the snow surrounded by tents.
"Could they also use the invisibility cloak to XZ up something?"
After moving a little away from the station, after Nick signaled that he could speak, Gabriel guessed wildly.
Nick didn't respond to her words immediately, he was lowering his head in thought, as if hesitating about something.
The Death Eater's actions were so obvious, of course he could see that there must be a problem in the area surrounded by tents, but no one could guarantee whether it was a real problem or a decoy.
If they get close, is there any danger of setting off an alarm?
But after much deliberation, Nick decided to find out what happened. They really couldn't give Jon any useful information when they went back like this.
However, he still had to take the necessary protective measures. He asked Gabriel to support the invisibility cloak at the back, while he hid under the invisibility cloak in front, and then cautiously approached the area in the middle of the tent.
It took them nearly half an hour to walk around the open space. The Death Eaters were staring at them all the time, but none of them could see through the invisibility cloak.
Gabriel was also very nervous. After all, she was only a child after being stared at by so many enemies. Anyway, her palms couldn't sweat in the ghost state, otherwise the invisibility cloak might be blown off by the wind when her hand slipped up.
After searching all the places and finding nothing, Nick turned his gaze to the ice layer under them.
He frowned and thought, then gestured downwards with Gabriel, and Gabriel quickly understood what he meant.
If there is no problem on the ice, the problem is likely to be under the ice!
After determining the next reconnaissance target, Nick was still taking the initiative below, while Gabriel was riding on his neck with the invisibility cloak, and the two ghosts carefully sneaked into the ice on the ground.
After they went down, they could only see that the surroundings were surrounded by extremely solid ice. There are many permafrost layers in this ice field at the pole of the North Pole, which have not melted for tens of thousands or even millions of years since ancient times, so some ice layers It is very likely that there will be some strange things frozen in it.
But the ice layer that Nick and the others are in now is relatively shallow, surrounded by some very clean ice blocks, and they didn't see anything special.
After sneaking under the ice, Nick didn't stop. He was extremely cautious and still didn't let Gabriel take off the invisibility cloak. The two still hid in the invisibility cloak and began to reconnaissance the area in the ice.
And this time, they found out soon!
Under the ice in the middle area surrounded by Death Eaters, they found a secret passage in the solid ice!
Such a discovery made them all very excited.
Did not leave immediately, Nick and Gabriel continued to go down the secret passage together.
They made an appointment with Jon before they set off. No matter what happens, they will definitely return within five hours. There is still plenty of time, so they can investigate more deeply.
Along the winding and secret road, they had been floating for about ten or twenty minutes before they encountered a fork in the road.
The power to choose the forward route was handed over to Gabriel by Nick, and the little girl tapped the soldiers with her fingers, and finally chose the left road.
decided on the route and they continued to move forward, but within a few minutes of walking, they encountered a fork in the road again, and this fork in the road led to three different directions.
This made Nick's brows furrow deeper, and now he finally felt that this was not a secret passage under the ice at all, but a maze!
There are no road signs, and there is no information. If it is not a ghost, anyone who comes here will inevitably get lost.
Didn't choose to stop here, this time they chose the middle road to go down, and soon there were forks in the road that confirmed Nick's guess.
This is indeed an underground labyrinth. If there is no map, it will be very difficult to find a correct way from such a complicated environment.
Even if Nick took advantage of the ghost, he floated for more than an hour without reaching the end, and started to take Gabrielle across the ice to wander around, but there was no more valuable discovery.
They could only tell that this maze was really huge. According to their speed, they could at least cross the urban area of a Muggle city, but they still couldn't find a way that was completely blocked.
After confirming this point, Nick is not going to take Gabriel to continue floating down.
They want to bring this news back to Jon, and let him decide how to make a choice next.
After deciding to return, they went straight up, trying to float out of the ice, but after flying for half an hour, Nick almost thought that there was something wrong, and they had actually been teleported to other places It was only when he finally returned to the ground.
At this time, he realized that he and Gabriel had already gone so deep under the ice!
Back to the ice of the North Pole, they drifted around for a long time before finally relying on the dementors to find their way again, and then returned to the starting point where they separated from Jon.
"They are guarding a huge maze. That maze is in the underground ice layer. Gabriel and I have been floating together for a long time without testing how big this maze is."
Nick tells Jon what they found.
Jon listened and took out the map that Grindelwald gave him at the beginning.
The end point of their trip was clearly marked on it, and the location of the end point was the maze described by Nick.
After telling the discovery, Nick also gave his own judgment.
"According to the information on the map, there is indeed a high probability that it is the destination of our trip, but it cannot be ruled out that this is actually an illusion created by the Death Eaters."
"The goal of their defense is a little too clear. Under such a defense, anyone with long eyes can see what they are protecting and where the goal of protection is. So I decided that this so-called maze is also possible. It's actually a trap."
After listening to his words, Jon folded the map again and put it in his pocket.
"Actually, your two guesses can also be combined. That maze is our destination, and the purpose of these Death Eaters is also not to protect that maze, but to capture or kill me. "
Nick didn't understand Jon's words, but this was normal, because neither the students nor the ghosts on the ship knew exactly what effect the contract Jon tore up from the tower had achieved.
I don't know who he killed on the sea that day.
"Isn't the stuff here very important to the Dark Lord?"
Jon shook his head, explaining what Grindelwald had said to him in private before.
"When it was the Death Eaters who appeared on the sea looking for us at that time, instead of the Dark Lord himself, it meant that this point in the North Pole was not very important to him, or it may be that he had already put the important point in advance. Things were taken."
Nick thought about Jon's words, and after a while he continued to ask.
"So what are you going to do?"
Jon patted the falling snowflakes on himself.
"What else can we do? We've all come here, so why don't we just go back in such a desperate way? Haven't you already confirmed that there is no one in that maze? This proves that these Death Eaters themselves dare not go in deep, they You'll get lost in it too, so there's nothing to be afraid of."
As he spoke, he patted the pocket on the robe that was secretly sewn on the chest, and there was a feather in it emitting warmth.
"Besides, we still have a guaranteed means of escape, so we can definitely break into it."
Of course, Jon is the absolute mastermind in this team of one person and two ghosts. Now that he has made a decision, Nick will no longer have any doubts, but starts to change his thinking and think about how to enter the room safely. Maze under the ice.
"The entrance to the labyrinth is sealed off on the ice, but Gabriel and I can still remember where it is, but the Death Eaters guarding there are very vigilant, and next to their base camp in the North Pole, if something happens Their support will come quickly."
"These dementors are easy to deal with." Jon looked up at the tall black shadows wandering in the distance, "The patron saint can drive them all away, but after that we have to act quickly, we can't give Too much reaction time for Death Eaters."
Jon said with some regret.
"It's a pity that we didn't bring the Firebolt with us, otherwise they would have no time to prepare if they would just accelerate with all their strength and try to rush over here."
As long as you want to pass these dementors, you can't continue to stay hidden. The movement caused by the Patronus Charm is too great, so Jon can only find a way in terms of speed.
"How thick is the ice at the entrance of the maze?" he asked.
Nick thought about it and used the blasting spell that Jon usually used to make a measure.
"Two blasting spells, or three shattering spells, are enough to break through that ice layer."
(end of this chapter)