Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 286: Ice Maze
It was already the end of March, and Jon and his team were only four or five miles away from the pole.
The range of the polar day has expanded here, so there is no need to wait until dark, and it is impossible for dark to occur.
Gabrielle, covered with an invisibility cloak, took Nick with her and flew towards the direction guarded by the Dementors.
After they left, Jon did not act rashly. He used the invisibility cloak made of the Disillusionment Spell that Eric gave him and put it on himself.
Due to the lack of means of long-distance communication, and the fact that the Arctic is a place where it is extremely easy to get lost, he had no intention of doing anything else at this time. He just had to wait for Gabrielle, Nick and the others to come back.
Gabrielle and Nick, wearing invisibility cloaks, easily passed the Dementors' defense circle. They continued to fly forward and soon saw an area with more than a dozen tents not far away.
That was the destination of their trip.
"Why don't these people just go home during their break?"
Gabrielle asked quietly under the invisibility cloak.
"Don't they have that magic where they appear with a snap and disappear with a snap?"
Nick explained to her in a low voice.
"The teleportation range of Apparition is limited. The farther the distance, the higher the possibility of splitting. The North Pole is far beyond the safe range from the UK. So for the sake of insurance, it is the safest decision to stay here even during the rest time."
Gabrielle didn't even open a magic book during her time at Hogwarts, let alone go to school. She didn't even understand some of the terms Nick said.
"What is a split body?"
"It means that your head has teleported to the designated place, but your body has not followed."
Gabrielle looked shocked.
"Won't that mean he will die immediately?"
"Magic power will maintain the connection between the different parts of the wizard when the body is separated, but this connection cannot last long. If the separated parts cannot be restored in a short period of time, the wizard will really die."
Nick warned softly as they were getting closer and closer to the group of tents.
"Okay, we're not here for class. If I don't speak first, you should keep silent and communicate by looking at my gestures."
Having made a promise, Gabrielle behaved very well. She held on to the invisibility cloak tightly with her two little hands to prevent the cold wind from blowing the cloak away. Even though she was still a child, she knew the seriousness of the matter.
Soon, they floated into the group of tents. After entering, they found that there were not as many tents here as they saw in the distance. There were only a dozen or so, and most of them were standing around an area. There were also two tents standing alone on the side.
Those tents formed a circle and were obviously ordinary tents. The entrances were not closed. Gabrielle and Nick could clearly see that there was a wizard holding a wand sitting in each tent. Their attention was basically focused on the area surrounded by them, but from the outside, there was something different about the ice surface covered with snow.
As for the two tents standing alone on the side, people would come in and out every once in a while, and the people coming out would directly use Apparition to leave. Nick could clearly hear the sound of many people talking from inside.
This was obviously the resting place for the Death Eaters who were patrolling outside. Both tents were cast with a traceless extension spell, allowing any number of Death Eaters to rest inside.
In this situation, those Death Eaters who were in ordinary tents, holding wands and keeping alert were acting very special.
Nick directed Gabriel, and the two ghosts circled the Death Eaters' base. After making sure that there were no other discoveries, they turned their attention to the snow surrounded by tents.
"Could they have used the invisibility cloak to hide something?"
After they were a little further away from the base and Nick indicated that he could talk, Gabrielle made a wild guess.
Nick did not respond to her immediately. He was looking down in thought, as if hesitating about something.
The Death Eaters' actions were so obvious that he could certainly see that there must be something wrong with the area surrounded by tents, but no one could guarantee whether it was a real problem or a bait.
If they get closer, is there a risk of triggering some alarm?
But after thinking it over again and again, Nick decided to find out what was going on. If they just went back like this, they wouldn't be able to give Jon any useful information.
However, he still had to take necessary protective measures. He asked Gabrielle to hold up the invisibility cloak and stand at the back, while he hid under the cloak in front, and then carefully approached the area in the middle of the tent.
It took them nearly half an hour to walk around the open space. During this time, the Death Eaters kept staring at them, but none of them could see through the invisibility cloak.
Gabrielle also seemed very nervous. After all, she was just a child being stared at by so many enemies. At least her palms couldn't sweat in the ghost state, otherwise her hands might slip and the wind would blow away the invisibility cloak.
After searching everywhere and finding nothing, Nick turned his attention to the ice beneath them.
He frowned and thought, then gestured to Gabrielle and pointed downwards, and Gabrielle quickly understood what he meant.
If there is no problem on the ice, then the problem is most likely under the ice!
After determining the next reconnaissance target, Nick was still the one who took the initiative below, while Gabrielle rode on his neck with the invisibility cloak on her arm, and the two ghosts carefully dived into the ice on the ground.
After they went down, they could only see extremely solid ice everywhere around them. This ice field at the North Pole has a lot of permafrost, which has not melted for tens of thousands or even millions of years from ancient times to the present, so some ice layers may contain some strange things.
But the ice layer where Nick and his friends were now was relatively shallow, and there were some very clean ice blocks around, so they didn't see anything special.
After diving under the ice, Nick did not stop. He was extremely cautious and still did not let Gabrielle take off the invisibility cloak. The two of them still hid in the invisibility cloak and began to scout the area in the ice.
And this time, they soon made a discovery!
Under the ice in the middle area surrounded by the Death Eaters, they found a secret passage in the solid ice!
That tunnel was obviously dug out artificially, and according to Nick's judgment, it was also reinforced by special magic to prevent the tunnel from collapsing or being frozen again.
This discovery greatly excited them all.
Instead of leaving immediately, Nick and Gabriel continued to go deeper into the secret passage.
They agreed on a time with Jon before setting off. No matter what happened, they would return within five hours. There was still plenty of time now, so they could explore deeper.
They floated along the winding secret passage for about ten to twenty minutes, and then they came to a fork in the road.
Nick gave Gabriel the power to choose the route forward. The little girl pointed with her fingers and finally chose the road on the left.
After deciding on the route, they continued forward, but after just a few minutes, they came across another fork in the road, which led to three different directions.
This made Nick frown even deeper. He finally felt that this was not a secret passage under the ice, but a maze!
There are no road signs and no information. If it weren't for ghosts, anyone who came here would inevitably get lost.
Instead of stopping here, they chose the middle road and went down. Soon, more and more forks in the road confirmed Nick's guess.
This is indeed an underground maze. Without a map, it would be extremely difficult to find the right path in such a complex environment.
Even though Nick took advantage of the ghost and floated for more than an hour without reaching the end, and began to take Gabrielle around across the ice, he did not make any more valuable discoveries.
They could only see that this maze was extremely large. At their speed, it could at least span the urban area of a Muggle city, but they still hadn't found a completely blocked road.
After confirming this, Nick decided not to continue floating with Gabrielle.
They were going to take this news back to Jon and let him decide what to do next.
After deciding to return, they went straight up, trying to float out of the ice, but after flying for half an hour, when Nick almost thought something had gone wrong and they had actually been teleported to some other place, they finally returned to the ground.
Only then did he realize that he and Gabrielle had gone so deep under the ice!
Back on the ice of the Arctic, they floated around for a long time before finally finding the right direction again with the help of the Dementors, and then returned to the starting point where they separated from John.
"They are guarding a huge maze. The maze is in the ice underground. Gabrielle and I have been floating together for a long time but have not been able to test how big the maze is."
Nick tells Jon about their findings.
As Jon listened, he took out the map that Grindelwald gave him at the beginning.
It clearly marked the end of their journey, and the location of the end was the maze that Nick described.
After telling his discovery, Nick also gave his own judgment.
"According to the information on the map, there is a high probability that this is our destination, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this is actually an illusion created by the Death Eaters."
"Their defensive target is a little too clear. Under such a defense, anyone with eyes can see what they are protecting and where the target is. So I decided that it is possible that this so-called maze is actually a trap."
After hearing what he said, Jon folded the map again and put it in his pocket.
"In fact, your two guesses can also be combined together. That maze is our destination, and the purpose of these Death Eaters is not to protect the maze, but to capture or kill me."
Nick didn't quite understand what Jon said, but that was normal, because neither the students nor the ghosts on the ship knew what effect the contract that Jon tore up and got from the tower had achieved.
No one knows who he killed on the sea that day.
"The things here...are they not very important to the Dark Lord?"
Jon shook his head and explained what Grindelwald had said to him privately before.
"When the people who appeared on the sea to find us were Death Eaters instead of the Dark Lord himself, it meant that this point in the North Pole was not that important to him, or it was possible that he had already taken away something important in advance."
Nick thought about what Jon said, and after a moment he continued.
"So what are you going to do?"
Jon brushed the falling snow off himself.
"What else can we do? We have come all the way here, are we just going to go back in disgrace? Haven't you confirmed that there is no one in the maze? This proves that these Death Eaters themselves dare not go deep into it. They will also get lost in there. There is nothing to be afraid of."
As he spoke, he patted the pocket on his robe that was secretly sewn on the chest. There was a feather inside, emitting warmth.
"And we have a backup plan for escape, so we can definitely go for it."
Jon is of course the absolute mastermind in this team of one man and two ghosts. Since he has made the decision, Nick will no longer have any doubts, but will begin to change his thinking and think about how to safely enter the underground ice maze.
"The entrance to the maze is sealed on the ice, but Gabrielle and I still remember where it is. However, the Death Eaters guarding there are very vigilant, and their base camp in the Arctic is right next to it. If anything goes wrong, their support will arrive quickly."
"These Dementors are easy to deal with." Jon looked up at the tall black shadows wandering in the distance. "The Patronus can drive them all away, but after that we must act quickly and not give the Death Eaters too much time to react."
Jon said with some regret.
"It's a pity that we didn't bring the Firebolt with us. Otherwise, we could have just accelerated to the limit and rushed over here. They wouldn't have had time to prepare."
If he wanted to get past these Dementors, he could no longer remain hidden. The noise caused by the Patronus Charm was too loud, so John could only think of ways to increase his speed.
"How thick is the ice at the entrance to the maze?" he asked.
Nick thought about it and used the blasting spell that John usually used to make a measurement.
"Two blasting spells, or three crushing spells, should be enough to break through the ice."
