Chapter Eleven: Felize Navidad
"Well, I guess you seem to have survived."
"Don't sound so happy Thomas, please, it's embarrassing."
"Oh hell, you know I'm glad to see you. We were just sort of hoping maybe you would come to your senses after a couple months back and decide not to return."
"We?"
"Well, you know, I see quite a bit of Marie and Aislan, they pop in and out."
"And they should have told you plenty about my stubborn nature. Even if they'd been hanging me by my toenails back there I would have stuck it out."
"Well, you can't blame a guy for hoping. Anyway, you better go check in."
"Check in?"
"Well, darling, you're not staying in my room, your assignment probably won't start till tomorrow, so I'd say you've got a housing issue on you hands. You can find the alma in her office right about now if you're lucky, before she starts making evening rounds. It's in the big corridor off the courtyard with the lion fountain, third on the left."
"Right, will I see you later?"
"Naturally, you'll want all the news, and I'll want to tell it, and the boys will have plenty of sangria; which, since you are probably going to be given a stinky assignment, you will want to avail yourself of. I'll find you later, good luck!"
Lucy headed down the hall in the opposite direction of Thomas, stopping when she passed the right courtyard, and crossed it to take the hallway leading off the other side. She found the office of the Seville Acadamy alma, or head housekeeper, and knocked.
"Si?"
She pushed open the door to see a positively ancient woman sitting behind a small, fancy desk, making check marks in a large ledger.
"Disculpame Senora." Lucy paused as she looked for any sign of the woman's name.
"I'm just called Therese around here, chica, and you must be Lucy Montero."
Lucy's mouth fell open. "How did you know that?"
The woman looked down her nose at Lucy and rose from the desk. "What, without the aid of Thomas reminding me three times today that you are coming? Well, there's the fact that you are wearing a uniform of the unmistakable Espiritu pattern. And since everyone knows there are only two Espiritu left with us and you are obviously not the chicano, well, it stands to reason that you are Lucy Montero, of Espiritu, and that you probably need a bed tonight. And a meal, too, I daresay. Dios only knows what they are feeding you in that school of yours."
"It's not mine," Lucy said automatically.
Therese gave her a sharp look, "I'm glad to hear it. Yes, very glad. Well, come on, let's get you checked in."
"This doesn't require paperwork of any sort, does it?" Lucy spoke with a little trepidation, thinking of the three pounds of forms she was lugging around the world with her, courtesy of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Interior Security.
"Paperwork," spat Therese, "As if I didn't have enough to do looking after these devils, the things they get into, I could keep you up three days straight with the student's exploits this year alone! And the teachers? They're as bad as their students, learn from each other, that's what they do.In any case, what would we do with the stuff, with all the people we get coming through here? No, not at all. If the protections they have up around this place let you in, that's all I need to know. Any soul that can get through THAT, is perfectly welcome to a bed, a bath, and a hot meal. Now the female students' dormitory is just up these stairs..Lord they do get higher every day, and not like it does us much good to separate them any more..the ways those boys figure out how to get across the courtyard are scandalous, leaping like monkeys, scrambling over bridges and boards.I'd just as soon let them all pick their own rooms and save myself the trouble of waking the help when someone finally does fall and land headfirst in the Fonticelli fountain at midnight on a Sunday.here we are at last, those are the current student rooms, and this is the visitor's dormitory, not much in the way of privacy I'm afraid, but you do have the nicest bathroom, just through that door there. Dinner will be on starting in about and hour, you'll want to see the Guild Officer about your assignment before then, its poker night I believe and he won't be in his office after the meal. All set then, take any bed you want, and if anyone of the opposite sex tries to come through that window, push him back out. They're getting downright ROWDY, that's what."
And with that, Therese took her exit, lighting lamps and scooping up dirty towels on her way out, and muttering on the whole time as if Lucy was still next to her.
She surveyed the room. There was, as the woman had said, very little privacy. The visitor dormitory was one long room, with beds lining either side, and a door to the bathroom on the far wall. A glance inside showed that one could walk right through the bathroom and into the student dormitories, which had dividing walls and were, as could be expected, more private. But there were warm quilts on the beds, and a fireplace on the wall at the far end, which was quite a ways from the bathroom, with a cozy sofa near it and several chairs.
Lucy took a bed by the window, and looked down into the long and narrow courtyard she had walked through last summer on Thomas's quick tour. Looking down gave her a view of the courtyard and a goldfish pond, but looking directly across gave her a view straight into the men's dormitory. There were, she noticed, a few joking and lewd signs hung between windows offering what Lucy was sure Therese would deem 'rowdy' invitations from the boys to whomever of their female co-eds happened to be reading them.
She smiled to herself, dropped her trunk, and headed out to the Guild office.
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She cooled her heels for the better part of half an hour outside the door, until, finally, a tall blond haired girl with a slightly disgruntled look on her face emerged, leaving the door open behind her and nodding for Lucy to go on in.
She again faced the officer she had seen earlier in the year. Who obviously didn't' remember her.
"Name please?"
"Montero, Lucy."
"Hmmm, Montero, Montero..no, that's Montegrino, Monteniza..Montezuma, too far, ahh, here we are! Lucille Montero.Espiritu- ah, I saw you this summer, didn't I?"
"Yes, I believe you did."
"Very good. Have a seat then. You're looking for your holiday assignment I presume?"
"Yes."
"Well, hang on a moment, they got scrambled at the last minute, the updates are in another file.." as he spoke several piles of folders floated across the room easily, and Lucy noted that the officer easily rifled through them while keeping his hands resting on top of her file. She sighed and settled back into the chair. It was nice to see the things she had grown up with being used so easily. It just fit, in a way it never would at Hogwarts. In a way SHE never would at Hogwarts.
She shoved the last thought aside as a file slid out and opened itself in front of him. He picked up the paper and scanned it, nodding and smiling at her over the parchment.
"Well, this all seems to be in order. You like climbing, don't you, Ms Montero?"
Lucy raised an eyebrow, "Why is that important?"
"Well, as it happens you were going to be assigned to the Sahara school, it's about time for them to take one of their longer treks, and it's not the best time for travel, but gating really isn't good for the animals, and they did so much of it last year. but just recently it seems a bout of some sickness has affected a significant portion of the assigned masters in the Congo Conservatory. Looks like sleeping sickness, yellow fever, malaria, I honestly don't know. They should be fine, but epidemics are touchy things as it is, and when a few of the Medicinals became ill they started isolating the whole lot. They're bringing in several Medicine candidates and their mentors to handle it, but they are coming up short as far as working masters are concerned. It's not terribly magically draining, just patrols, but it is an essential part of the school, especially given recent events in local government. You're being sent down for scout duty until the 23rd. After that you have your vacation time to yourself until the summer."
Lucy shrugged, it could have been worse. She could have gotten Siberia. She reached out to accept the summons and sign it after the officer placed his seal at the bottom.
"Present that to Kiplin, he's in charge of the masters down there. He'll get you squared away. Tomorrow, eight a.m. sharp."
Lucy nodded, and left, understanding why the girl before her had looked so disgruntled. It was full summer in the Congo right now, and Lucy had the distinct feeling she was going to be wet, hot, and miserable.
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Itchy. She had forgotten about itchy. But the mosquitoes of the area had made short work of reminding her. Even though she was wearing a very smelly ointment pressed upon her by a few veteran scouts, the bites continued to itch. And multiply.
She was crouched high in a tree, her eyes peeled and her shields at a minimum so she would be as sensitive as possible to the entrance of strangers to the area; and she was very uncomfortable. Just when she thought her entire body was going to go numb-
**Move on.**
The command came from Reggie, one of the few remaining veteran scouts, and who was in charge of her group. At his signal, broadsent to the whole group, the four other individuals in the trees began to walk out along the branches to their very tips, hovering a great deal for balance and stability, and then step easily to the next level. However, trees didn't always cooperate, and a bit of climbing was required.
For her part, Lucy kept a keen eye on Victoria, a 19 year old from Ethiopia, who's position was parallel to her own, but about a quarter of a mile away. They were moving north along the western perimeter about five miles out from the main school complex. Lucy was the farthest out, then Victoria half a mile in, then Reggie, Celeste, from India, and Li, from Kiyoto. Lucy was farthest out because she had less experience, and it would be illogical for her to be the last line of defense, but her senses did stretch farther, so despite the touchy situation, they put her on point, with Victoria a little closer than normal, in case she got in trouble.
When they had moved, slowly and cautiously, another mile out, Reggie signaled a stop, and Lucy found herself a comfortable sitting spot in the tree. Once Reggie felt safe, which could take a minute or an hour, they would move on. They would gradually move more towards the northeast, and finally due east, and meet with the group that headed north along the eastern border this morning. They would travel together back to the main compound.
She hadn't been idle long when she sensed something. something that didn't belong. And whomever it was wasn't far. She quieted herself as much as possible, and stretched her senses.
The band of guerillas wasn't hard to find, at least not for someone who was gifted. Lucy was certain whomever the rebels were patrolling for wouldn't know they were there until it was too late, but they could have been easily spotted even by the younger students who weren't eligible for patrol duty yet.
**Victoria?**
**I feel 'em. You want me to spook?**
Lucy shook her head, not caring that Victoria couldn't see it. From a few key markings on the tattered uniforms, and the general images she gleaned from their minds, the intruders were from the same group they had run off yesterday. Victoria was an empath, a damn good one, and after only about 2 minutes of focused work she had made yesterdays group, and the group the day before that, turn tail and head back about two miles before continuing to trek southward. But spooking hadn't been keeping them from coming back. Lucy suspected that, like a parent with a frightened child, whomever these men, and one woman, she noted grimly, were reporting to wasn't buying the 'monster in the closet' story. They needed to give them something more concrete as an excuse not to venture any further through this area. Lucy had been having the beginnings of an idea yesterday, and she decided it was worth proposing.
**No, spooking doesn't seem to be working. However-** she switched to a broader train of though to include the rest of the group in the discussion.
**Reggie, did you notice the chimps?**
**Sure, they're always around, sometimes they follow us a bit, but when we stop for too long they move off. Why?**
**Well, if we could get THEM to harass the guerillas enough, it would be a more solid reason to avoid the area than bad mojo.**
Victoria's mind voice was enthusiastic. **You know, if we were able to get the idea across to them exactly what would happen to their home if a fight ever broke out here, it might be enough to get them to continually harass these guys if they decide to come back.**
Celeste sounded tired. **It would be one less thing for us to look out for.**
**It would require less energy, which is also wise,** this from Li, who usually never spoke at all.
**Lucy, they study animal mindspeech at Espiritu, don't they?**
**I can get through to anything with enough intelligence.**
**Well, you're not going to have any trouble with chimps then, are you?**
**Provided one of you can find them, you know their movements better than I.**
It took a few minutes, but Reggie felt out where in the canopy the group was, and it was a simple matter for Lucy to explain what they wanted to do. It was remarkable how lucid their thoughts were, and how easily they understood what she told them. All in all the dialogue took less than five minutes.
**All right Reg, they seem to get the idea, now we just have to wa-**
She HAD been about to say they needed to wait, but before she had finished the chimps were swarming above the fighters, throwing sticks and rocks at them, running up and down the trees, and generally harassing the hell out of them. It took less than ten minutes before they turned around.
**Well, lets hope it worked. I still wanna stay a little longer around here to make sure they keep going. We've made good time, we can afford it.**
Lucy thought longingly of a bath and bed that awaited her back in the visiting masters dormitory, but said nothing. She was lucky she had only been here a short time. Li was on assignment here until the epidemic broke. The Congo was usually great if you were here to study, but working was another story. The area was patrolled during the night as well, and that was another thing Lucy could thank the little gods she only had to do twice. You had to have impeccable night vision and she had fallen three times for the lack of it. So she sighed and settled herself in for a long afternoon. Long, and painful, as she gave a glance at the pink bumps multiplying all over every available skin surface.
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"Ow."
"Now don't be a baby, dear. You're lucky there's anyone available to look after you with an epidemic on our hands and all."
"It still hurts."
"Well it will feel better soon."
"How can it possibly feel better, it's in a vat of boiling water."
"Just leave it there, and don't move it or I'll have to do this all over again. Someone will check on you in half an hour."
"Half an hour!"
But the tall, elegant Medicinal, who was from a village not far from here, had already left by that time. Lucy, who, so Reggie had discovered, had been bitten by something other than the mosquitoes, was not enjoying the anti-venom 'field treatment' for the spider bite. But field treatments could be cooked up by anyone who knew what herbs to use, were quick, and didn't require the use of a healing gift. It was all the Medicinals could offer the scouts who weren't suffering from the illness. So Lucy growled at her slightly green foot where it sat in the tub of very hot, very smelly water; and pouted.
"Well, well, well. Look what the panthers dragged in."
She looked up into the tired but still laughing eyes of Aislan Murphy.
"Aislan! What are you doing here?"
The tall girl with the pixie cut blond hair grinned and rolled her eyes toward the door. "In case you haven't noticed Luce, there's an epidemic out there. Marie and I were brought in to get a little battle training."
"Marie? Where- "
"She's still in deep trance watching one of the seniors work on a really bad case. She should be out in a few hours, although she'll probably want to head right to bed. So now it's my turn, what are YOU doing here?"
"In case you haven't noticed , there's an epidemic out there. And about a dozen guerilla scout troops circling this area. The Guild sent me down to supplement the scout force until you quacks can get them back on their feet."
"So where's Deigo?"
"Very comfortably set up in Egypt I imagine, the louse."
"Do you get to go home?"
"Tomorrow. I'm going to pick up Don Juan and then we're making for the American Southwest like there's no tomorrow. Wanna come?"
Aislan laughed and shook her head. "No thanks, I've been to that place of yours at night in the winter. No, the rest of Chadwicks is meeting up in Bombay on Christmas Eve, and our taskmaster has promised us we can get out by then."
Lucy nodded, "It'll be, good, to be together."
Aislan gave her a searching look. "It's not going to be just you two is it?"
Lucy shrugged, "Who else would it be?"
Aislan sighed, "I mean, I thought you might go to, um."
"Our families?" Lucy gave her a wry grin. "I don't think that would make for a restful holiday. But don't worry, we'll find them soon enough. I've got an idea that I think will work. I just need some time to work it out with the D man."
Aislan nodded, "Well, in that case, I better give you your presents now. No opening till Christmas morning though. That's cheating." She pulled two small wrapped packages out of her robes.
Lucy accepted them with a rueful grin, "You didn't have to, you know."
"Well, I am sort of expecting a similar gesture in return you know."
"They're in my cell, er, room. I'll make sure they get to you before you leave."
"When are you taking off?"
"Tomorrow. As soon as my foot turns a semi-normal color."
"How has it been, you know, among the wild people of the north?"
"I'm pretty much just as unwelcome as ever, but at least I have company."
"Really?"
"Mmmhmmm. First, the government is making it next to impossible to live there if you have citizenship in another country. So there's about 60 students at least whose lives have become very inconvenient."
"And second?"
"I can't really say. But well, let me put it this way. The little gods work in mysterious ways."
Aislan gave her a look, that look that all healers got eventually, when they were simultaneously evaluating your physical condition and how you were behaving. Lucy stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.
"I'm not your patient, doctor."
"You sound busy." From her voice it was obvious she had heard a lot more than that.
Lucy shrugged. "Who isn't?"
It was obvious she wasn't going to get the answers she wanted, so Aislan backed off.
"Fine, fine. Don't tell me. But if you ever need any help, you know Marie and I are here."
"Aren't you busy enough?"
"Who isn't? But this is family we're talking about."
Lucy grinned. "I suppose you're right, I am stuck with you. So, is it true Marie's been dating a Maintainer candidate?"
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"I thought I was going to meet her."
"You'll meet her another time."
"There may not be another time."
"Of course there will."
"I think you've made her up."
"Lucy."
"Is Zahra a boy?"
"Lucy!"
"Well I don't -"
"She went to Greece to visit her mother's family, is that so hard to understand? She left a week ago, what do you think I'm doing, HIDING her from you?"
Lucy just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"She's in the closet, isn't she?"
"Argh! Come on, we'll be late and have to fly home. It'll take the whole holiday to work off the jet lag."
Lucy was taking great delight in the fact that Diego was sputtering for the first time in years. Diego never sputtered. She decided she had punished him enough and silently followed him out of his room and down to the Departure Room, where one of the regulars at the Cairo school was going to gate them home.
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It was the quietest Christmas Eve that Lucy could remember. Even last year at Hogwarts she had been surrounded by more people than she was now.
Not that she minded. There was a peace and acceptance that Lucy felt when she was at home that she didn't think she would ever really find at Hogwarts. It wasn't quite the prison she had imagined it to be last year, but it just wasn't home.
She smiled to herself as she pulled her knit cap down lower over her ears and adjusted her sweatshirt before climbing back up the ladder with a fresh bucket of spackle. She and Diego had spent most of the previous day and that afternoon looking after the buildings. There was still a lot of damage, all cosmetic, thank the little gods, that they were busy repairing.
At the moment she was inside the rooms of Marcela and David Engroff and their son Austin, who had been born over a year ago, in July. Actually, as Lucy had realized with a pang, now the suite belonged to just David and Austin. Marcela Engroff had been killed in the attack and lay now with the other eleven victims in the Espiritu cemetery. But she pushed that memory aside as she set about filling in the ugly, gaping holes in the stone wall just behind Austin's crib. Besides the walls and a little paint, this room was almost completely repaired. The bed had been stripped, the mattress aired, and the wooden four-poster fixed, sanded, and polished. The bed was made now, with a brightly colored quilt folded at the end near the trunk that held still more blankets.
Lucy shivered, she could use a blanket right now. They hadn't been lighting any fires in the rooms they were working in, it wasn't necessary, and the Engroff apartment was very cold at the moment. She carefully puttied up her last hole, making sure the spackle was flat and even, and put the cap on the can. She could do the touch up painting tomorrow. She rolled up her drop cloth, closed the shutters she had opened to let in light and air, and sat Austin's teddy bear back up in the crib before finally leaving the room with a sigh.
One down, a couple dozen more to go.
She hurried back to her own room, blessedly warm, to change out of her painting clothes into jeans and a sweater, and pulled out her warm gloves. Then all she had to do was follow her nose to the Alvarez apartment to find out what Diego was making for dinner. Or at least, trying to make.
"It smells."
"Delicious."
"Um."
"Mouth watering."
"Um."
"Delectable?"
"Burnt, was what I was going to say."
Lucy eyed the pot that Diego stood over.
"How can you manage to burn macaroni?'
"I defy logic."
"You certainly do." Lucy carefully walked over to the stove to survey the damage. "I'm not sure that's edible."
"Sure it is."
"I'm not eating that."
"Then what do you supposed we eat?"
"This!" Lucy held up a large basket she had left outside the door.
"Where did that come from?"
"Peru," Lucy chirped cheerfully. "Sophia sent it to us, but it is not without strings."
Diego's eyebrow shot up, "What kind of strings?"
"The official, very binding, can't ever be cut kind. I didn't open it yet, but there is an official message in there for the Council Reps."
"That's us, right?"
"You're quick, yes that's us. Let's leave it till tomorrow, I'm starved." She quickly began to unpack a turkey with trimmings and potatoes, vegetables, and bread."
"No cranberry sauce, almost perfect, oh well, at least I came prepared." Lucy pulled a can of cranberry sauce out of the cupboard."
"Um, Luce that might be kind of old."
"First of all, this stuff lasts forever, and second, this, is new. I picked it up when I went into town to get the spackle. I got the last can at the market."
"Congratulations, let's eat."
The food was very good, and the official message was tucked inside Lucy's stocking to be opened the next morning. After supper the young pair set about decorating the 'tree.'
It had been a little late in the season to find a decent, and cheap Christmas tree, and most of the local farms had been cleaned out. There weren't any naturally growing conifers in that part of New Mexico, but Lucy had insisted that they decorate something. So, rather painfully, they had dug up the largest cactus they could manage and floated it back to the school. Lighting it was a bit prickly, to say the least, but the hanging of the ornaments was pretty easily accomplished due to the plants long spines.
Lucy collapsed exhausted onto the sofa and sighed. "It's beautiful."
Diego was placing ointment on his hands and wrapping them in gauze. "It's painful."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that pain is beauty?"
"Doesn't seem to work for hockey players."
"Stop, you're ruining it."
Diego gave her a look.
"What, what's that face?"
"It's not that I don't appreciate the enthusiasm Luce, really, but this is never going to be a Leave it To Beaver Christmas, and you know it."
Lucy surveyed the room, the burnt macaroni, the glowing cactus, the two presents beneath it, the two stockings hung by the fireplace, and Rosa's old record player playing an even older album of carols.
"All right, all right, so it's not exactly out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Trust me, anything beats being at Hogwarts."
"I know, its just weird."
"I think we did all right. We have the essentials, well, almost all of them. We're just missing the snow, and the little poppers, and that big plastic Santa Claus Tony used to put on his roof." Which made Lucy realize just how much SHE missed the last thing they were missing. The family.
"Sorry, I mean, I was alone last year, I forgot this was your first Christmas without them."
They fell into a silence, Diego staring at the cactus and Lucy picking at a loose thread from the couch, trying to fix it. Diego watched her and realized just how hard she HAD been trying to fix things. She'd spent all her time fixing rooms and windows and ladders, but she had still insisted they have a normal Christmas. As normal as they could get. And that didn't mean she didn't miss them as much as he did.
He reached over and pulled her into his shoulder.
"Hey, you did great. I mean, we uprooted a cactus, how many people get to do that for Christmas Eve?"
Lucy grinned, "Merry Christmas."
"Feliz Navidad."
They fell asleep watching the fire go down and listening to Frank Sinatra sing off Diego's mother's record player.
"Someday soon, we all will be together. If the fates allow. Until then, we'll have to muddle through, somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now."
"Well, I guess you seem to have survived."
"Don't sound so happy Thomas, please, it's embarrassing."
"Oh hell, you know I'm glad to see you. We were just sort of hoping maybe you would come to your senses after a couple months back and decide not to return."
"We?"
"Well, you know, I see quite a bit of Marie and Aislan, they pop in and out."
"And they should have told you plenty about my stubborn nature. Even if they'd been hanging me by my toenails back there I would have stuck it out."
"Well, you can't blame a guy for hoping. Anyway, you better go check in."
"Check in?"
"Well, darling, you're not staying in my room, your assignment probably won't start till tomorrow, so I'd say you've got a housing issue on you hands. You can find the alma in her office right about now if you're lucky, before she starts making evening rounds. It's in the big corridor off the courtyard with the lion fountain, third on the left."
"Right, will I see you later?"
"Naturally, you'll want all the news, and I'll want to tell it, and the boys will have plenty of sangria; which, since you are probably going to be given a stinky assignment, you will want to avail yourself of. I'll find you later, good luck!"
Lucy headed down the hall in the opposite direction of Thomas, stopping when she passed the right courtyard, and crossed it to take the hallway leading off the other side. She found the office of the Seville Acadamy alma, or head housekeeper, and knocked.
"Si?"
She pushed open the door to see a positively ancient woman sitting behind a small, fancy desk, making check marks in a large ledger.
"Disculpame Senora." Lucy paused as she looked for any sign of the woman's name.
"I'm just called Therese around here, chica, and you must be Lucy Montero."
Lucy's mouth fell open. "How did you know that?"
The woman looked down her nose at Lucy and rose from the desk. "What, without the aid of Thomas reminding me three times today that you are coming? Well, there's the fact that you are wearing a uniform of the unmistakable Espiritu pattern. And since everyone knows there are only two Espiritu left with us and you are obviously not the chicano, well, it stands to reason that you are Lucy Montero, of Espiritu, and that you probably need a bed tonight. And a meal, too, I daresay. Dios only knows what they are feeding you in that school of yours."
"It's not mine," Lucy said automatically.
Therese gave her a sharp look, "I'm glad to hear it. Yes, very glad. Well, come on, let's get you checked in."
"This doesn't require paperwork of any sort, does it?" Lucy spoke with a little trepidation, thinking of the three pounds of forms she was lugging around the world with her, courtesy of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Interior Security.
"Paperwork," spat Therese, "As if I didn't have enough to do looking after these devils, the things they get into, I could keep you up three days straight with the student's exploits this year alone! And the teachers? They're as bad as their students, learn from each other, that's what they do.In any case, what would we do with the stuff, with all the people we get coming through here? No, not at all. If the protections they have up around this place let you in, that's all I need to know. Any soul that can get through THAT, is perfectly welcome to a bed, a bath, and a hot meal. Now the female students' dormitory is just up these stairs..Lord they do get higher every day, and not like it does us much good to separate them any more..the ways those boys figure out how to get across the courtyard are scandalous, leaping like monkeys, scrambling over bridges and boards.I'd just as soon let them all pick their own rooms and save myself the trouble of waking the help when someone finally does fall and land headfirst in the Fonticelli fountain at midnight on a Sunday.here we are at last, those are the current student rooms, and this is the visitor's dormitory, not much in the way of privacy I'm afraid, but you do have the nicest bathroom, just through that door there. Dinner will be on starting in about and hour, you'll want to see the Guild Officer about your assignment before then, its poker night I believe and he won't be in his office after the meal. All set then, take any bed you want, and if anyone of the opposite sex tries to come through that window, push him back out. They're getting downright ROWDY, that's what."
And with that, Therese took her exit, lighting lamps and scooping up dirty towels on her way out, and muttering on the whole time as if Lucy was still next to her.
She surveyed the room. There was, as the woman had said, very little privacy. The visitor dormitory was one long room, with beds lining either side, and a door to the bathroom on the far wall. A glance inside showed that one could walk right through the bathroom and into the student dormitories, which had dividing walls and were, as could be expected, more private. But there were warm quilts on the beds, and a fireplace on the wall at the far end, which was quite a ways from the bathroom, with a cozy sofa near it and several chairs.
Lucy took a bed by the window, and looked down into the long and narrow courtyard she had walked through last summer on Thomas's quick tour. Looking down gave her a view of the courtyard and a goldfish pond, but looking directly across gave her a view straight into the men's dormitory. There were, she noticed, a few joking and lewd signs hung between windows offering what Lucy was sure Therese would deem 'rowdy' invitations from the boys to whomever of their female co-eds happened to be reading them.
She smiled to herself, dropped her trunk, and headed out to the Guild office.
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She cooled her heels for the better part of half an hour outside the door, until, finally, a tall blond haired girl with a slightly disgruntled look on her face emerged, leaving the door open behind her and nodding for Lucy to go on in.
She again faced the officer she had seen earlier in the year. Who obviously didn't' remember her.
"Name please?"
"Montero, Lucy."
"Hmmm, Montero, Montero..no, that's Montegrino, Monteniza..Montezuma, too far, ahh, here we are! Lucille Montero.Espiritu- ah, I saw you this summer, didn't I?"
"Yes, I believe you did."
"Very good. Have a seat then. You're looking for your holiday assignment I presume?"
"Yes."
"Well, hang on a moment, they got scrambled at the last minute, the updates are in another file.." as he spoke several piles of folders floated across the room easily, and Lucy noted that the officer easily rifled through them while keeping his hands resting on top of her file. She sighed and settled back into the chair. It was nice to see the things she had grown up with being used so easily. It just fit, in a way it never would at Hogwarts. In a way SHE never would at Hogwarts.
She shoved the last thought aside as a file slid out and opened itself in front of him. He picked up the paper and scanned it, nodding and smiling at her over the parchment.
"Well, this all seems to be in order. You like climbing, don't you, Ms Montero?"
Lucy raised an eyebrow, "Why is that important?"
"Well, as it happens you were going to be assigned to the Sahara school, it's about time for them to take one of their longer treks, and it's not the best time for travel, but gating really isn't good for the animals, and they did so much of it last year. but just recently it seems a bout of some sickness has affected a significant portion of the assigned masters in the Congo Conservatory. Looks like sleeping sickness, yellow fever, malaria, I honestly don't know. They should be fine, but epidemics are touchy things as it is, and when a few of the Medicinals became ill they started isolating the whole lot. They're bringing in several Medicine candidates and their mentors to handle it, but they are coming up short as far as working masters are concerned. It's not terribly magically draining, just patrols, but it is an essential part of the school, especially given recent events in local government. You're being sent down for scout duty until the 23rd. After that you have your vacation time to yourself until the summer."
Lucy shrugged, it could have been worse. She could have gotten Siberia. She reached out to accept the summons and sign it after the officer placed his seal at the bottom.
"Present that to Kiplin, he's in charge of the masters down there. He'll get you squared away. Tomorrow, eight a.m. sharp."
Lucy nodded, and left, understanding why the girl before her had looked so disgruntled. It was full summer in the Congo right now, and Lucy had the distinct feeling she was going to be wet, hot, and miserable.
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Itchy. She had forgotten about itchy. But the mosquitoes of the area had made short work of reminding her. Even though she was wearing a very smelly ointment pressed upon her by a few veteran scouts, the bites continued to itch. And multiply.
She was crouched high in a tree, her eyes peeled and her shields at a minimum so she would be as sensitive as possible to the entrance of strangers to the area; and she was very uncomfortable. Just when she thought her entire body was going to go numb-
**Move on.**
The command came from Reggie, one of the few remaining veteran scouts, and who was in charge of her group. At his signal, broadsent to the whole group, the four other individuals in the trees began to walk out along the branches to their very tips, hovering a great deal for balance and stability, and then step easily to the next level. However, trees didn't always cooperate, and a bit of climbing was required.
For her part, Lucy kept a keen eye on Victoria, a 19 year old from Ethiopia, who's position was parallel to her own, but about a quarter of a mile away. They were moving north along the western perimeter about five miles out from the main school complex. Lucy was the farthest out, then Victoria half a mile in, then Reggie, Celeste, from India, and Li, from Kiyoto. Lucy was farthest out because she had less experience, and it would be illogical for her to be the last line of defense, but her senses did stretch farther, so despite the touchy situation, they put her on point, with Victoria a little closer than normal, in case she got in trouble.
When they had moved, slowly and cautiously, another mile out, Reggie signaled a stop, and Lucy found herself a comfortable sitting spot in the tree. Once Reggie felt safe, which could take a minute or an hour, they would move on. They would gradually move more towards the northeast, and finally due east, and meet with the group that headed north along the eastern border this morning. They would travel together back to the main compound.
She hadn't been idle long when she sensed something. something that didn't belong. And whomever it was wasn't far. She quieted herself as much as possible, and stretched her senses.
The band of guerillas wasn't hard to find, at least not for someone who was gifted. Lucy was certain whomever the rebels were patrolling for wouldn't know they were there until it was too late, but they could have been easily spotted even by the younger students who weren't eligible for patrol duty yet.
**Victoria?**
**I feel 'em. You want me to spook?**
Lucy shook her head, not caring that Victoria couldn't see it. From a few key markings on the tattered uniforms, and the general images she gleaned from their minds, the intruders were from the same group they had run off yesterday. Victoria was an empath, a damn good one, and after only about 2 minutes of focused work she had made yesterdays group, and the group the day before that, turn tail and head back about two miles before continuing to trek southward. But spooking hadn't been keeping them from coming back. Lucy suspected that, like a parent with a frightened child, whomever these men, and one woman, she noted grimly, were reporting to wasn't buying the 'monster in the closet' story. They needed to give them something more concrete as an excuse not to venture any further through this area. Lucy had been having the beginnings of an idea yesterday, and she decided it was worth proposing.
**No, spooking doesn't seem to be working. However-** she switched to a broader train of though to include the rest of the group in the discussion.
**Reggie, did you notice the chimps?**
**Sure, they're always around, sometimes they follow us a bit, but when we stop for too long they move off. Why?**
**Well, if we could get THEM to harass the guerillas enough, it would be a more solid reason to avoid the area than bad mojo.**
Victoria's mind voice was enthusiastic. **You know, if we were able to get the idea across to them exactly what would happen to their home if a fight ever broke out here, it might be enough to get them to continually harass these guys if they decide to come back.**
Celeste sounded tired. **It would be one less thing for us to look out for.**
**It would require less energy, which is also wise,** this from Li, who usually never spoke at all.
**Lucy, they study animal mindspeech at Espiritu, don't they?**
**I can get through to anything with enough intelligence.**
**Well, you're not going to have any trouble with chimps then, are you?**
**Provided one of you can find them, you know their movements better than I.**
It took a few minutes, but Reggie felt out where in the canopy the group was, and it was a simple matter for Lucy to explain what they wanted to do. It was remarkable how lucid their thoughts were, and how easily they understood what she told them. All in all the dialogue took less than five minutes.
**All right Reg, they seem to get the idea, now we just have to wa-**
She HAD been about to say they needed to wait, but before she had finished the chimps were swarming above the fighters, throwing sticks and rocks at them, running up and down the trees, and generally harassing the hell out of them. It took less than ten minutes before they turned around.
**Well, lets hope it worked. I still wanna stay a little longer around here to make sure they keep going. We've made good time, we can afford it.**
Lucy thought longingly of a bath and bed that awaited her back in the visiting masters dormitory, but said nothing. She was lucky she had only been here a short time. Li was on assignment here until the epidemic broke. The Congo was usually great if you were here to study, but working was another story. The area was patrolled during the night as well, and that was another thing Lucy could thank the little gods she only had to do twice. You had to have impeccable night vision and she had fallen three times for the lack of it. So she sighed and settled herself in for a long afternoon. Long, and painful, as she gave a glance at the pink bumps multiplying all over every available skin surface.
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"Ow."
"Now don't be a baby, dear. You're lucky there's anyone available to look after you with an epidemic on our hands and all."
"It still hurts."
"Well it will feel better soon."
"How can it possibly feel better, it's in a vat of boiling water."
"Just leave it there, and don't move it or I'll have to do this all over again. Someone will check on you in half an hour."
"Half an hour!"
But the tall, elegant Medicinal, who was from a village not far from here, had already left by that time. Lucy, who, so Reggie had discovered, had been bitten by something other than the mosquitoes, was not enjoying the anti-venom 'field treatment' for the spider bite. But field treatments could be cooked up by anyone who knew what herbs to use, were quick, and didn't require the use of a healing gift. It was all the Medicinals could offer the scouts who weren't suffering from the illness. So Lucy growled at her slightly green foot where it sat in the tub of very hot, very smelly water; and pouted.
"Well, well, well. Look what the panthers dragged in."
She looked up into the tired but still laughing eyes of Aislan Murphy.
"Aislan! What are you doing here?"
The tall girl with the pixie cut blond hair grinned and rolled her eyes toward the door. "In case you haven't noticed Luce, there's an epidemic out there. Marie and I were brought in to get a little battle training."
"Marie? Where- "
"She's still in deep trance watching one of the seniors work on a really bad case. She should be out in a few hours, although she'll probably want to head right to bed. So now it's my turn, what are YOU doing here?"
"In case you haven't noticed , there's an epidemic out there. And about a dozen guerilla scout troops circling this area. The Guild sent me down to supplement the scout force until you quacks can get them back on their feet."
"So where's Deigo?"
"Very comfortably set up in Egypt I imagine, the louse."
"Do you get to go home?"
"Tomorrow. I'm going to pick up Don Juan and then we're making for the American Southwest like there's no tomorrow. Wanna come?"
Aislan laughed and shook her head. "No thanks, I've been to that place of yours at night in the winter. No, the rest of Chadwicks is meeting up in Bombay on Christmas Eve, and our taskmaster has promised us we can get out by then."
Lucy nodded, "It'll be, good, to be together."
Aislan gave her a searching look. "It's not going to be just you two is it?"
Lucy shrugged, "Who else would it be?"
Aislan sighed, "I mean, I thought you might go to, um."
"Our families?" Lucy gave her a wry grin. "I don't think that would make for a restful holiday. But don't worry, we'll find them soon enough. I've got an idea that I think will work. I just need some time to work it out with the D man."
Aislan nodded, "Well, in that case, I better give you your presents now. No opening till Christmas morning though. That's cheating." She pulled two small wrapped packages out of her robes.
Lucy accepted them with a rueful grin, "You didn't have to, you know."
"Well, I am sort of expecting a similar gesture in return you know."
"They're in my cell, er, room. I'll make sure they get to you before you leave."
"When are you taking off?"
"Tomorrow. As soon as my foot turns a semi-normal color."
"How has it been, you know, among the wild people of the north?"
"I'm pretty much just as unwelcome as ever, but at least I have company."
"Really?"
"Mmmhmmm. First, the government is making it next to impossible to live there if you have citizenship in another country. So there's about 60 students at least whose lives have become very inconvenient."
"And second?"
"I can't really say. But well, let me put it this way. The little gods work in mysterious ways."
Aislan gave her a look, that look that all healers got eventually, when they were simultaneously evaluating your physical condition and how you were behaving. Lucy stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.
"I'm not your patient, doctor."
"You sound busy." From her voice it was obvious she had heard a lot more than that.
Lucy shrugged. "Who isn't?"
It was obvious she wasn't going to get the answers she wanted, so Aislan backed off.
"Fine, fine. Don't tell me. But if you ever need any help, you know Marie and I are here."
"Aren't you busy enough?"
"Who isn't? But this is family we're talking about."
Lucy grinned. "I suppose you're right, I am stuck with you. So, is it true Marie's been dating a Maintainer candidate?"
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"I thought I was going to meet her."
"You'll meet her another time."
"There may not be another time."
"Of course there will."
"I think you've made her up."
"Lucy."
"Is Zahra a boy?"
"Lucy!"
"Well I don't -"
"She went to Greece to visit her mother's family, is that so hard to understand? She left a week ago, what do you think I'm doing, HIDING her from you?"
Lucy just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"She's in the closet, isn't she?"
"Argh! Come on, we'll be late and have to fly home. It'll take the whole holiday to work off the jet lag."
Lucy was taking great delight in the fact that Diego was sputtering for the first time in years. Diego never sputtered. She decided she had punished him enough and silently followed him out of his room and down to the Departure Room, where one of the regulars at the Cairo school was going to gate them home.
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It was the quietest Christmas Eve that Lucy could remember. Even last year at Hogwarts she had been surrounded by more people than she was now.
Not that she minded. There was a peace and acceptance that Lucy felt when she was at home that she didn't think she would ever really find at Hogwarts. It wasn't quite the prison she had imagined it to be last year, but it just wasn't home.
She smiled to herself as she pulled her knit cap down lower over her ears and adjusted her sweatshirt before climbing back up the ladder with a fresh bucket of spackle. She and Diego had spent most of the previous day and that afternoon looking after the buildings. There was still a lot of damage, all cosmetic, thank the little gods, that they were busy repairing.
At the moment she was inside the rooms of Marcela and David Engroff and their son Austin, who had been born over a year ago, in July. Actually, as Lucy had realized with a pang, now the suite belonged to just David and Austin. Marcela Engroff had been killed in the attack and lay now with the other eleven victims in the Espiritu cemetery. But she pushed that memory aside as she set about filling in the ugly, gaping holes in the stone wall just behind Austin's crib. Besides the walls and a little paint, this room was almost completely repaired. The bed had been stripped, the mattress aired, and the wooden four-poster fixed, sanded, and polished. The bed was made now, with a brightly colored quilt folded at the end near the trunk that held still more blankets.
Lucy shivered, she could use a blanket right now. They hadn't been lighting any fires in the rooms they were working in, it wasn't necessary, and the Engroff apartment was very cold at the moment. She carefully puttied up her last hole, making sure the spackle was flat and even, and put the cap on the can. She could do the touch up painting tomorrow. She rolled up her drop cloth, closed the shutters she had opened to let in light and air, and sat Austin's teddy bear back up in the crib before finally leaving the room with a sigh.
One down, a couple dozen more to go.
She hurried back to her own room, blessedly warm, to change out of her painting clothes into jeans and a sweater, and pulled out her warm gloves. Then all she had to do was follow her nose to the Alvarez apartment to find out what Diego was making for dinner. Or at least, trying to make.
"It smells."
"Delicious."
"Um."
"Mouth watering."
"Um."
"Delectable?"
"Burnt, was what I was going to say."
Lucy eyed the pot that Diego stood over.
"How can you manage to burn macaroni?'
"I defy logic."
"You certainly do." Lucy carefully walked over to the stove to survey the damage. "I'm not sure that's edible."
"Sure it is."
"I'm not eating that."
"Then what do you supposed we eat?"
"This!" Lucy held up a large basket she had left outside the door.
"Where did that come from?"
"Peru," Lucy chirped cheerfully. "Sophia sent it to us, but it is not without strings."
Diego's eyebrow shot up, "What kind of strings?"
"The official, very binding, can't ever be cut kind. I didn't open it yet, but there is an official message in there for the Council Reps."
"That's us, right?"
"You're quick, yes that's us. Let's leave it till tomorrow, I'm starved." She quickly began to unpack a turkey with trimmings and potatoes, vegetables, and bread."
"No cranberry sauce, almost perfect, oh well, at least I came prepared." Lucy pulled a can of cranberry sauce out of the cupboard."
"Um, Luce that might be kind of old."
"First of all, this stuff lasts forever, and second, this, is new. I picked it up when I went into town to get the spackle. I got the last can at the market."
"Congratulations, let's eat."
The food was very good, and the official message was tucked inside Lucy's stocking to be opened the next morning. After supper the young pair set about decorating the 'tree.'
It had been a little late in the season to find a decent, and cheap Christmas tree, and most of the local farms had been cleaned out. There weren't any naturally growing conifers in that part of New Mexico, but Lucy had insisted that they decorate something. So, rather painfully, they had dug up the largest cactus they could manage and floated it back to the school. Lighting it was a bit prickly, to say the least, but the hanging of the ornaments was pretty easily accomplished due to the plants long spines.
Lucy collapsed exhausted onto the sofa and sighed. "It's beautiful."
Diego was placing ointment on his hands and wrapping them in gauze. "It's painful."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that pain is beauty?"
"Doesn't seem to work for hockey players."
"Stop, you're ruining it."
Diego gave her a look.
"What, what's that face?"
"It's not that I don't appreciate the enthusiasm Luce, really, but this is never going to be a Leave it To Beaver Christmas, and you know it."
Lucy surveyed the room, the burnt macaroni, the glowing cactus, the two presents beneath it, the two stockings hung by the fireplace, and Rosa's old record player playing an even older album of carols.
"All right, all right, so it's not exactly out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Trust me, anything beats being at Hogwarts."
"I know, its just weird."
"I think we did all right. We have the essentials, well, almost all of them. We're just missing the snow, and the little poppers, and that big plastic Santa Claus Tony used to put on his roof." Which made Lucy realize just how much SHE missed the last thing they were missing. The family.
"Sorry, I mean, I was alone last year, I forgot this was your first Christmas without them."
They fell into a silence, Diego staring at the cactus and Lucy picking at a loose thread from the couch, trying to fix it. Diego watched her and realized just how hard she HAD been trying to fix things. She'd spent all her time fixing rooms and windows and ladders, but she had still insisted they have a normal Christmas. As normal as they could get. And that didn't mean she didn't miss them as much as he did.
He reached over and pulled her into his shoulder.
"Hey, you did great. I mean, we uprooted a cactus, how many people get to do that for Christmas Eve?"
Lucy grinned, "Merry Christmas."
"Feliz Navidad."
They fell asleep watching the fire go down and listening to Frank Sinatra sing off Diego's mother's record player.
"Someday soon, we all will be together. If the fates allow. Until then, we'll have to muddle through, somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now."