Nicodemo Malaspina (nicodemo) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-10-02 23:56:00 |
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Current mood: | happy |
Early Tuesday evening, 15 September 1942, at Malfoy Manor in Tintagel...
As soon as the carriage had stopped in the drive, Dracaena Malfoy came running out of the Manor in a blur of pale silks, her heart pounding as she came to a stop a few feet away from the carriage itself. She hugged herself in the evening chill, impatient as her eldest unfolded himself from his seat and opened the door and clambered out of the carriage. “Yvon,” she said as his foot touched the ground, “please say he’s with you?”
Yvon Malfoy smiled at her, grinned back at Alessio within, and opened the door; Nicodemo Zabini had pushed past his brother to come to the door.
“Miss me?” Nico asked with a wry little smile as he got to the ground, opening his arms for her.
Dracaena lunged forward, threw her arms around his neck and hugged him hard. “Oh, you know I have been worried sick about you!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with adoration and relief.
“I’m here, it’s all right, I’m all right,” Nico assured her, stroking her hair gently.
“We were right, I didn’t want to be,” Dracaena babbled. “I wanted to be wrong so badly…” She had hoped, so hard, that Lalage hadn’t touched him. His mind. He knew so many secrets and made so many decisions. And even if he had been someone wholly unimportant, he was hers and he’d been violated.
“I know, so did I,” Nico admitted softly. He hated admitting he was wrong; it was easier with her than with anyone else, though, and it was good to hear and feel how much she cared, even though he had never wanted her to worry or suffer.
Dracaena giggled, a slight edge of hysteria colouring her voice. He had wanted to be right, and she had wanted him to be. “You’re all right now, yes? They got it all, everything, no surprises?”
“Oh, there were surprises,” Yvon said sourly. “But we’ve taken care of it all.” Lucius was watching from the steps that led up to the castle door, hanging back to observe quietly. Yvon saw him and waved to him, then helped Alessio out. He was worried about his little brother; the past few days had been hard on their mother, but Lucius was a child.
Dracaena nodded and smiled at Yvon, then looked back up at Nicodemo. She was grateful, and she’d tell him so later—but right now she just wanted to look into Nico’s eyes and see him looking back at her, with no-one and nothing else behind them. “You’re all right? You feel all right, really?”
“I feel fine, I promise,” Nico told her, kissing her forehead.
“We were so worried,” Dracaena said, although she wondered who else she meant—Maddie had been confident enough, Steren and Keresek cared only about the effect on her and she hadn’t told anyone else. Herself and the children she carried, maybe, she realised. “We need you so…”
“We do,” Lucius admitted, finally, darting forward down the stairs, his expression wary as a cat’s.
Nico loosened his hold gently on Dracaena and smiled at him, at them both, really. He knew what that meant, coming from Lucius. “I’m here now. And I’ve no intention of going anywhere else. At least, not until I have to go into the office.”
“Good,” said Dracaena, and walked with him back into the house. “Fortune’s demanded we send them back.”
“I want to go,” said Lucius quietly. “But only if you’re here to take care of her.” He raised an eyebrow and looked intently at Nico. Dracaena had been frantic with the knowledge that Nico was ill; he and Bella had tried to look after her, and so had Steren, but they’d all known that only the sight of him would console her.
“I will be,” Nico told him with a solemn nod.
“May I go then? Please? I can’t let Liane and Charis go by themselves; they’re seventeen, and they’re determined, you know.” Lucius did not do puppy eyes well, despite having the wolf at his side as his exemplar; the effect was rather more grating than ingratiating.
“Luce…you’re my heir.” Dracaena sighed, shaking her head; she didn’t even want to think about sending him away. “If anything happens to you…”
“Nothing will,” Lucius said confidently. “Alessio, you dreamed that there were bad things happening, but not that I was hurt in them?”
Alessio nodded reluctantly. “It’s hard to say, but I don’t think you were.” Someone had been, though. He wished he could remember who it was. Maybe it wasn’t someone who was part of the family. He could hope. After all a lot of people were bound to get hurt in something like that.
Lucius looked up at Nicodemo. “You know it’s important, politically, for me to be there. Especially if something goes wrong. The people will never forgive us if something bad happens and I’m safe at home here. It’s important.”
“It is,” Nico allowed. He looked at Dracaena. “I’m inclined to allow it, but it’s your call, love.”
Yvon rolled his eyes. “And I thought I was bad at that age,” he said under his breath. Alessio chuckled at him.
Dracaena swallowed, glancing from her lover to her son to her foster-son and his lover. “I do trust your judgement,” she told Nicodemo. “It is important. I gave Fortune a dose of her own medicine in the letter I sent in reply, but that doesn’t mean we can actually defy her without consequence. Not that I believe Charis and Juliana need your protection, Lucius.” She gave him a sharp glance. “You’ll not manipulate me by appealing to the notion that grown women require your protection.”
Lucius shrugged and smiled, as if to say that no-one could blame him for trying. “I respect you, Mamma, more than ever, but we both know how much you need Nico. And Juliana has no sense of her own limitations, nor the uncertain ground we’ll have to defend there.”
“That’s because she’s a queen. Like me,” Dracaena said pointedly, shaking her head. “I will think about it. I will probably send you back. But this is not so you can court the Lovegood girl without her guardians’ knowledge—do not give her jewellery. Nor do I want to hear that you’ve set up your own plans for defending the castle, despite your phenomenal success as a war-leader.” She smiled at him, a wry, proud thing. “You are to defer to your uncle Will, and not to force your advice on him unwanted.”
Lucius laughed a little. “As if I could force anything on Uncle Will. He’d take a strap to me!”
“Yes,” said Dracaena firmly. “He absolutely would, if he thought you were getting out of control, and I would not say a word to him about it either, as much as I do love you. Lucius, you are a prince. It may yet be that you can command him as I do, but it is not so today. Nonetheless. Because that day will come, you must promise me to listen to him, and not to abuse the power of the voice of kings.”
“I promise,” said Lucius solemnly, his cheeks flushing red.
“You may go,” Dracaena said reluctantly. “I will only be sending my own kin—and Endymion, because he needs to be with Hadrian, and Moruith, and Valeria. I am queen and you are my heirs. The Company children need not take those risks.”
Lucius looked up at Nico. “Thank you,” he said, acknowledging Nico’s support. “Thank you both,” he told his mother. “I really do feel I am meant to be there. Alessio’s dreams are important.”
“As long as you come back with both legs,” Dracaena grumbled, and tousled his hair.
“We’ve had enough missing limbs in this family for one year, I think,” Nico said, looking over at his brother with a little smile.
“Quite,” said Yvon, sliding his arm round Alessio’s waist. “I would love you no matter what, but I prefer you whole, as I am sure you do yourself,” he told Lucius, but it was Alessio who kissed his cheek.
“Yes,” said Lucius, smiling at them. “Yes, I do.”
“So,” said Dracaena to Yvon, “will there be music after supper? If the two of you play perhaps I will sing.” She took Nicodemo’s arm. “Would you like that, Nico?”
“I’d love that,” Nico told her, beaming at her. He loved her voice; he always had. There was something about it: a flavour and scent that never changed, even though she’d gone from counter-tenor to mezzo soprano.
Dracaena kissed him. She wanted this, she wanted her children all gathered around her, singing and possibly dancing. If only it could be like that forever. The work could wait for an evening.
“Of course we’ll play,” said Yvon; he was tired, but he wanted to play with Lucius, and he’d been putting it off too long. “If it is to be our last night all together ‘til Christmas or the next wedding, I don’t see how we could not.”
“All right then,” said Dracaena, and then she sighed. “Juliana has a nice voice, though I haven’t any idea what it was I heard her singing before, something in French. Perhaps there’s a song we both know. I should like to know what the voice of two queens sounds like in harmony, if that is possible.”
“Juliana was singing in French because she’s in love with her teacher,” said Lucius flatly, shaking his head. “Even though she says she’s not. Bella agrees with me.”
“Do you think so,” Dracaena mused. “Maddie didn’t, but Maddie is not one of us; and she can lie to me better than she can lie to the rest of you; that is the disadvantage of having two queens in a household. You can scent her better than I can.” She sighed. “I shall take it into consideration. Surely she must realise I don’t plan to start sending her portrait to princes tomorrow? Well, now I am hungry, and our supper’s waited long enough, don’t you think?” She looked up at Nicodemo. “Could you eat?”
Nico laughed softly. “Funny thing, I could eat a cow.”
Yvon snorted and began to laugh out loud, glancing sidewise at Alessio, who just grinned at him. Dracaena joined in, glad to hear them laughing even if she didn’t know what any of this was about. “What’s so funny?” Lucius demanded, staring at both of them.
Alessio shook his head, laughing. “It’s a long story.”
alessio, artisson, dracaena, luxserpentis and nicodemo