Nicodemo Malaspina (nicodemo) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-07-20 14:12:00 |
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Current mood: | working |
Late Monday afternoon 14 September 1942, at Malfoy Manor, Tintagel and the War Bureau, Londinium...
Dracaena swept through the house in a flurry of outrage and petticoats; she’d been meeting with the Governors, and she’d had to dress the part. As usual these days she felt divided against herself, because what she most wanted to do was hug Lucius until he couldn’t stand it any more, then ask him sternly what he’d thought he was doing leaving the house with two boys only a few years older than he was, under conditions like these, and instead, she was obliged to thank him for his inquisitiveness and quick thinking. When she saw him, sitting primly at her desk, she found herself doing All The Above within fairly short order.
Lucius didn’t protest. In fact he was making the same kinds of noises himself before she could open her mouth: “I’m sorry, Mamma, thank God you’re home safe,” and a whole lot of other similar things.
Nicodemo Zabini unveiled the shewstone and began to establish a connection to the War Bureau. He wished, not for the first time, for an accurate map of the Bois des Malfées; but one could hardly map the tracks, Dracaena had explained. Things moved, just like the staircases did at Hogwarts Castle, which was something Nico had never experienced. The floors in the long halls of the Manor could be made to sweep you along, if you knew the right commands, and even Dracaena was hazy on the details of exactly how the plumbing and the lifts had gone in; but the stairs stayed put in the Manor.
Saunders’ face was in the brazier, as Lucius had been conferring with him—and he gave his report. Dracaena nodded, her jaw tightening when she heard how much trouble it had been to get Alexandra Ducas to go down to the house, and she ruffled Lucius’ hair again. “But you’ve got it all under control, St John?”
“I think so,” said Saunders, grinning at her. “Ducas is still figuring out what the sigil is, but she won’t be complaining again that the Dashwood boy overstates things and tries to be overdramatic.”
“Oh, he does,” said Dracaena, “but not about things like these.” Her arm around Lucius’ shoulders, she turned to Nico. “Have we got Edward yet?”
“You’ve got me,” said Lavinia Scalara from out of the shewstone. “He’s coming.”
“What’s going on down there?” Edward Kyteler appeared behind her.
Lucius glanced at his mother, still leaning against her chair, wondering if he should tell it himself or let her. Dracaena nodded.
“We found a sigil in the old Moody house and Mrs Ducas is trying to find out what it is,” said Lucius. “If she’d got started sooner we’d know by now. Saunders and the Company have got the place surrounded and the Floo dismantled; they’re taking everything apart except the house itself, which belongs to the Church I suppose.” He swallowed and looked up at Dracaena, who squeezed his shoulder.
“You’ve done very well,” Dracaena told him. “You can go if you like.” She took the brazier on her desk and angled it toward the shewstone, so that Saunders and Kyteler could see each other.
Lucius shook his head. “I might remember something important,” he said, and sat down in her lap. Dracaena thought he simply didn’t want to leave her, but that was all right.
“Are there any other abandoned houses in the village?” Nicodemo sat down next to them. “Because we’re going to need to open them up, dismantle the Floo, check them for any other access points, that sort of thing.”
“I don’t know.” Dracaena frowned, because she should have known, but she had only been back in the country for less than a month and her life had been completely overturned since then, and before that she’d been more involved in national politics than in ruling her own lands. “Jadis will know, though; I’ll talk to her.” Jadis had been doing a lot of her governing lately, too much of it. “And I’ll talk to Frederick Crabbe. But he always supported my mother, and later he supported Gabrielle; I expect he’ll be difficult.” She made a face.
“I’ve taken care of Gabrielle,” said Edward fiercely.
“The village needs to be secured as effectively as possible. It’s a target, and it needs to be addressed as such,” said Nicodemo, frowning. “Civilians near sacred lands may well end up as casualties otherwise.”
Edward scowled. “I wonder whether the Farrylls have taken this into consideration.”
“I’ve no idea.” Dracaena sighed. “The Company has been idle too long, they can patrol the village after this has been dealt with. We’ll get Santino on it as soon as he comes back from Londinium. The villagers won’t like it, but it’ll do until we can get some of their own people properly trained. Keresek also has people who could be doing this, but I don’t want the villagers to start nailing horseshoes over their doors or being afraid that we’ll steal their children.” She frowned. “Freddie always did have thoughts along those lines.”
“Then let’s put the Company to work. There’s no need to antagonise the villagers any more than we must,” Nico agreed with a nod. “What about the Wiltshire House and those grounds, are they secure?”
“The Wiltshire House? That Carmela stole Ercole from?” Dracaena winced. “No. No, of course not, and our connection to that land’s not stable. Liane…” She shook her head. “If only she were older, and I were sure that I could trust her.”
“I take it her father is absolutely not to be trusted,” said Edward.
“No farther than you can bodily throw him,” Nico confirmed.
“No farther than Lucius could, really,” Dracaena said, shaking her head. “Besides, I’ve never heard of a tribe having three crowned heads without one of them…breaking away. Swarming, really. Like bees. And her father would be the other power in that land, since she has no children nor siblings. That wouldn’t be helpful at all.”
“Still, the house, the stones there, it’s all sacred territory, and with that house sitting empty, it’s an access point. We’re going to have to check on it. I know you don’t want to go there, love, but all the same, anything unattended is dangerous right now,” said Nico.
Dracaena looked over at him, smiling a little. “I didn’t say we wouldn’t go. For God’s sake, it’s Stonehenge. I shall have to be anointed there. And make a rade. And do all of the things I meant to do when I first returned to Britannia; only, with you.” She put her hand in his. “It would be easier if we could get the Wizengamot to meet—without the Irish, of course—and name me High Queen. Someday there will be another ruler there. We can’t have that now.”
“A lot of things would be easier if we could get the Moot to meet,” said Edward. “But we can’t even get the Governors to agree on anything, and a lot of them are going to be hostile to you until your estranged wife finally accepts that she’s lost this one.”
“Lucius may rule there,” Lavinia said after a long moment, looking down at the pile of charts on her desk. “He was anointed while we thought you were dead, and nobody knew that Yvon…”
Lucius frowned. He loved the Bois and had no intention of leaving his family to go to Wiltshire, nor of splitting the family in half.
“I didn’t want them to know,” Dracaena said sharply. “Yvon wasn’t ready to accept it. Lucius was more ready than he was, despite their ages.”
Edward frowned. Dracaena glanced at Nico and then at Lavinia. “Well, am I wrong?”
Nico shook his head. “I don’t think you are,” he said; he wasn’t sure that Yvon would ever be ready.
Dracaena nodded. “He’s Brocéliande, anyway, and I really do not want to think about what the Axis must be doing out there that the land has decided it wants a healer of any sort—let alone one like him—as its ruler.”
“That’s such a cheerful thought,” Lavinia said with a smile that was hardly more than a grimace.
“And irrelevant to the current discussion,” said Edward, “but there is absolutely no question that Yvon is not a good war-leader. I do agree with you, Nicodemo, that you must secure your borders. But I also hope that you will not be going out yourselves to do that, and especially not tonight?”
Nico shook his head. “Not tonight. Tonight, all things considered, bunkering down is the best option we have.”
“I’ll send people to Crabbe’s riding,” Edward agreed with a nod. “If he wants to know why, I will tell him that you asked me to send men everywhere. The Farrylls have not asked for help, but we are sending people to watch their estates, as well; I do not think Cyneheard pays enough attention to events in Londinium to realise that he should be working with me.”
Nico nodded. “Crabbe will cope. Remind him there is a war on, contrary to common belief,” he said wryly. “But I think we should get down to the bunkering portion of this evening. Before anything else happens.”
“I agree,” said Edward, and took the dispatch that had just appeared in his brazier. “Ah, that will be Julian,” he said, and nodded when he opened it. “Julian says he is now in Trevena and will be arriving soon at the Manor, unless he’s directed to go somewhere else.”
“Send him to me,” said Saunders. “The Church by the Old Pond. We’ll come up to the Manor as soon as we’ve got this thing settled. I have an idea who did this, but I think we’ve discussed enough of our plans through the aether; I know these connections are warded but the longer the wards stay up, the more easily broken they are.”
Dracaena nodded. Lucius made a small noise of complaint and shifted; her chin had been directly on top of his head.
“That would be excellent. We’ll keep you informed as to the status of our borders as soon as we know,” said Nico.
“Very well, Nicodemo,” said Edward. “Take care of our dear little miss. The whole country depends on it now. And you, Little Miss—you take care of yourself.”
avise_le_fin, dracaena, donnapericolosa, dux_bellorum, luxserpentis and nicodemo