The Egyptian Exodus
Chapter Three: The French and the Fireworks
"If you aren't back in six hours I am coming after you."
"You'll do no such thing, you can't, you've never been there."
"I don't need to, I'll gate to you."
Lucy fixed her brother-in-spirit with a loving but determined look.
"You could try, but I doubt you'd be very good at it. Like you said in Cairo, I've done this more than you."
"I still don't see why you are going in the first place. What could you possibly do?"
"Nothing. I'm not going to DO anything."
"Then WHY are-"
"Because I have a friend in trouble Diego, and I want to make sure she's all right. I'm not going to do anything dangerous or illegal by checking up on her. She's all by herself, and I know what that feels like."
Diego couldn't argue with that. He took her wrist in his hand and muttered something while rolling the strand of tiny colored beads she wore between his fingers.
Lucy recognised the gesture.
"I'm not going to need it, you know."
"It's not for you, it's for me. This way I don't go insane while waiting for you to get back."
Diego had essentially turned Lucy's strand of beads, which was itself half of his own strand and therefore already linked to him, into a sort of panic button. If she became terrified or got herself into trouble, he'd be able to sense it, just in case her mental sheilds blocked him from sensing her emotions directly. Diego was a powerful empath, and emotions were his specialty. They were one of Lucy's weakest areas, a point that often frustrated the hell out of him.
Lucy sighed and peered around Diego, it was impossible for her to look over him, to where Zahra was standing. "Keep him occupied, could you please? I'm going to be fine."
Zahra smiled, "Calm down Diego, she's well experienced in taking care of herself."
Diego made a half growl. "Remind me to tell you how well THAT has worked out the past two years she's been in that place."
Lucy pretended to be indignant before giving Diego a hug. "I'll be careful, I promise. When Omiri wakes up make some excuse, I don't want him to be upset that I gated without my buddy."
Before Diego could try and talk her out of going for a fourth time, Lucy turned to the rickety gate to the pasture they were camped in, and used it as a frame. She breathed, focused, and with what was becoming instinct reached for the energy line that ran beneath her feet, pulling the energy and spinning it out into a gate.
She had never been to the French Embassy, but she had been close enough, and she had a person to focus on as well. In a little under seven minutes of sweating she was looking through into a marble atrium, crowded with people. That wouldn't do, she spied a closet and refocused utill she was looking at near darkness, with a hint of light creeping through. Much better.
With a wave at a cheerful Zahra and a glowering Diego she took a deep breath and stepped over the threshhold and into London.
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She waited in the closet for five or six minutes, opening the door and slipping out when no one was looking. The entryway was filled with men in crisp black robes, pacing back and forth, nodding at each other, and moving along. Guards.
Although Lucy had never been inside this building before, it didn't take her long to Sense where her quarry was, and she slipped down a hall and around the corner from the guards. Past a formal looking dining room she stopped in front of a white door with fancy engraving. Behind it she could hear music. She cracked it open, saw who she was looking for, and slipped inside, closing the door behind her with a click.
Marguerite did not look up from the grand piano, and the strands of Moolight Sonata tinkled on.
"S'il vous plaît, Bastian-"
"Who's Bastian?" Lucy interrupted.
Marguerite hit a wrong chord and didn't let go of the pedal, letting the clashing tones echo in the room as she stared at Lucy in astonishment.
"Lucy?"
"How are you doing?"
Marguerite hopped off the bench and Lucy caught the tiny blond girl in a crushing hug.
"I'm so sorry sweetie, I came as soon as I heard."
Marguerite wiped her eyes, "You didn't have to do that."
Lucy snorted, "Of course I did. You shouldn't be all by yourself. I thought you were at your grandparents this summer, until I read the paper, why did you come back here?"
Marguerite took a seat on the sofa. "I was, but Mama and Papa didn't want me far away, and they spend all day at St. Mungo's, so I stay here. They won't let me come, not yet."
Lucy sat next to her, not saying anything. Marguerite didn't seem to mind.
"It was awful, he wasn't even supposed to be here. We were supposed to go to Paris that day, but Andre, he had forgotton something back here, something for work, and he wanted to take care of it before we left, so he apparated back. And Papa asked him to bring him the gift he had left in his study for Monsiuer Portiscue, the old French Ambassador. Papa feels awful now, if Andre hadn't been in the office when they threw that Thing in there he might not have been hurt at all."
Lucy nodded. "I haven't read the latest papers, have they figured out who did it?"
Marguerite shook her head. "It could have been anyone. After Minister Renout's statement, it could have been anyone who was angry."
Lucy nodded again, the French Minister of Magic had issued a very strongly worded statement against Fudge's treatment of international students last year, and his handling of the Azkaban situation and Death Eaters in general only a few weeks ago. Many British wizards had been angry, but Lucy had never suspected they had been angry enough to hurl a Dragon Breath Bomb through the window of the French Embassy, directly into Mr. Ducasse's public office. Andre Ducasse had the unlucky chance to be in the room at the time, and had suffered from both the fire and flying glass as well as the noxious fumes created by the bomb itself. The paper Lucy had read had left him in critical condition.
"And Andre? They won't let you see him, but he must be strong as an ox to have survived that."
Marguerite smiled, "He'll likely boast about it for some time. They have moved him off the critical cases floor, but he is still in the burn unit. And he's still groggy from the potions he has to take to heal what the smoke he inhaled did. Mama won't let me see him until they have fixed his face."
Lucy nodded, "You know, it is probably just as much for his sake, he'd probably be embarassed to have too many people see him with a burn on his face. Diego wouldn't even let me take a picture of him when he had a broken nose. Boys can be surprisingly vain."
Marguerite smiled.
There was a knock at the door.
"Mademoiselle?"
Marguerite looked alarmed. "Shh, don't say a word! I'm in here Bastian, I don't think I'll have my lunch yet, thank you, I'd just prefer to be alone."
Bastian was apparantly not one to pry. "Very good, Mademoiselle, I will leave a plate in the kitchen for you."
"Merci, Bastian, c'est gentil!"
Lucy was puzzled by Marguerite's alarm. "You don't want to introduce me to your butler?"
Marguerite shook her head. "Bastian's not the butler, Louis is the butler, and he was sent away along with the other servants. Bastian is the French Ministry guard who is assigned as my bodyguard for the time being. Lucy, how on earth did you get here?"
"Well, it's a little complicated."
"Well it just got more complicated. No one is supposed to be able to get in here! There are guards everywhere, and Papa has ordered that no visitors be admitted when he and Mama are not at home. If they catch you here I'm not sure what they'll do."
"Mademoiselle?"
"Yes?" Marguerite squeaked, shoving Lucy behind the sofa in case Bastian decided to come in.
"Your mother wanted me to remind you to take your vitamins."
"Yes, thank you Bastian, I'll take them with my lunch!"
"It is getting cold."
"Yes, I'm sorry, I will go eat it very very soon!"
"Very good Mademoiselle."
"Hmm, Bastian must not be too happy to have babysitter duty."
"The other guards tease him mercilessly about it, I try not to make him do very much, but mother has made it his job to make sure I eat."
Marguerite crept to the door and peaked out.
"Ok, it's safe, he's gone the other way down the hall, I can get you into the kitchen and out the door, quick!"
Before Lucy could protest that she could leave from the music room, Marguerite had her by the hand and was pulling her along the hall. They were nearly at the corner when deep male voices conversing in French could be heard, coming closer.
"Merde," Marguerite muttered, looking up and down the hall. She pulled Lucy back towards the music room and sharply to the left, down the corridor past Lucy's closet. At the entryway she peaked through the window.
"Merde, they still have Marius on the front door."
At the sound of the same voices, apparantly finishing their circuit, Marguerite once again grabbed Lucy's wrist and pulled her to the left of the door, past a pair of large double doors covered in Ministry "DO NOT CROSS" tape and directly in front of a smaller door.
"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité," Marguerite muttered. The door swung open, Marguerite thrust Lucy inside and closed the door.
Lucy was alone in a dim room, the drapes were pulled across the window behind an elegant desk. Large bookshelves burst with leatherbound tomes with titles in French. There was a fireplace, unlit, on the far side of the room, and an equally elegant sofa and chair in front of it. It was not a large room, and it smelled of pipe smoke and brandy.
Lucy had wandered in a circuit, trailing her fingers along the spines of the books, before the door opened and Marguerite callled, "The coast is clear."
Lucy emerged back into the hall.
"I told them I saw something in the garden. They'll be searching that place for at least the next fifteen minutes. That means they will take Jean of the door to the solarium and I can slip you out there.
"You know Marguerite, I came in through the closet."
"What?"
Lucy shrugged.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't really give me a chance."
Marguerite stared at her for a moment before bursting out in bell-like laughter. Lucy couldn't help but join her.
"That," Marguerite wiped a tear from her eye, "Is the most laughing I've done since this all happened. Thanks."
Lucy gave her a hug, "Don't mention it, I just wanted to make sure you were ok. They aren't going to keep you stuck in this mausaleum all summer are they?"
Marguerite laughed and shook her head. "No, once they calm down and once Andre is released to the French doctors they will take him home to recuperate. Untill then, Parker's family has been owling every other day to repeat their offer to let me come stay with them in the north. A few more letters and I think Mama and Papa may give in."
Good old Parker, Lucy thought, such a sweet boy.
Voices could be heard outside the windows along with the sound of rustling bushes.
"Poor fellows," Marie giggled, "I really must be extra good for them after putting them through this, they'll have to make a report and everything."
"You could start by eating your lunch."
"Now you sound like mother and Bastian. I eat just fine. But just in case they aren't being as thorough as usual, you better get back in the closet."
Lucy gave her a final hug. "See you at school!"
Marguerite closed the closet door on her just as Bastian came down the hall.
"There was nothing in the garden but the cat, Mademoiselle. Are you ready for- What was that?"
Marguerite pretended that she had not heard the crackeling and popping sound coming from the closet.
"What was what? You know Bastian, I am quite ready to have my lunch now. Would you like some lemonade, it must have been hot outside."
But Bastian was looking at the closet door. "Stand back, Mademoiselle."
Marguerite sighed and stepped away. Bastian took his wand out and swiftly opened the closet door.
To both their surprise, there was no one there.
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Three days later...
"Ahkmed if you don't put that lizard down this instant our next stop witll be Antarctica so help me God."
Three days later...
"Where do you want to head next?"
"We could take them to Australia. If we avoid the outback we won't be close to any schools."
"Oh, brilliant idea Diego. Do you have any idea how many poisonous animals they have in Australia? They have wildlife that can kill you in every way imaginable! I thought you liked Ahkmed? We might as well just shove him down the crocodile's throat and be done with it!"
"Fine, fine, you pick then."
"How about the Galapagos?"
"With this lot? They'll drive three precious species to extinction per hour the minute we land. I thought you liked tortises Lucy?"
"Point taken. Zahra, anywhere you can think of where we won't be endangering the lives of the children or the existence of several dozen endangered species?"
Zahra smiled, "Well, there is one place that I have always wanted to visit."
Twelve hours later...
"We are going to get caught. No way we don't get caught."
"We only get caught if we go in as one big group. If you drop off Zahra and her dozen in one place, then gate your other 12 somewhere else, and I land my motley crew in a different part, there's no way they will notice. It's summer, there are SUPPOSED to be crowds."
"Whatever you say. When are we meeting?"
"At lunch, say Japan around 12:30ish. And all the little darlings have their food in the backpacks already, so if they get lost at least they won't starve."
"Don't even talk about them getting lost."
"It's going to be fine. It's going to be fun."
"Right, fun, until they go missing."
"Buck up Diego, it's the happiest place on earth."
"Whatever. All right! My groups, over here!"
Lucy whistled sharply three times. From the tents thirteen children came at a run. Omiri took his place at her side with the clipboard and the other twelve lined up in twos.
Diego was still trying to quiet his lot down.
"How the he- heck, how the heck do you get them to behave that way?"
Lucy shrugged. "All right, is everyone wearing sunscreen?"
Not that most of them needed it, but still.
"Yes!"
"Everyone has water in their packs?"
"Yes!"
"A map?"
"Yes!"
"Where do you go if you get lost?"
"The castle!"
"Do we talk to strangers?"
"No!"
"All right Omiri, where did you guys decide you wanted to start?"
Omiri handed her a colorful map and pointed to a spot near the middle.
"Good choice. Ok, Diego, we're taking off!"
With that she turned and built her gate. It wasn't very far, and she was nearly as excited as the children.
A mile or so away, just as the early bird guests began to arrive, two by two children began to exit from a bathroom. Finally a short teenager emerged holding the hand of a small boy. Slipping on her sunglasses she looked around, satisfied no one had noticed their entrance.
"Regina, Ashok, and Ari, come here for a second."
Her three "squad leaders," who were in charge of three younger children, came forward.
Lucy handed them each a few dollars. "You're in charge of this, everyone gets ONE thing, it has to be within the budget though, got it?"
The children nodded.
"All right, off with you. Meet me back here in three hours."
Lucy looked down at Omiri, "Well old man, where do you want to go first?"
Omiri pointed to the left, and Lucy, grinning, took him by the hand as they followed Ari and his group towards the entrance to Pirates of the Carribean.
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Two hours later...
"It's Jasmine!"
"I swear it wasn't me!"
"Not YOU Jasmine, HER Jasmine!"
It would be another 45 minutes before they could persuade Princess J to part from the human incarnation of her favorite heroine and come get some lunch.
At which they would discover that Ahkmed had fallen in the river on the Jungle Cruise while trying to get a look at a python, Darius had been sick on the Dumbo ride, Ashok was STILL riding Big Thunder Mountian Railroad, and a pair of the 12 year old boys had gotten in a fight with Goofy.
"That's it," Diego growled, "You are all sentanced to Epcot for the rest of the day."
For children on a field trip, nothing sounds worse than what's actually educational.
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"How much longer?"
"Five minutes."
Silence, then... "How much longer?"
"Four minutes and 45 seconds."
Silence, then... "How-"
"Simon, I swear if you ask me that question one more time I will lock you in a closet until this is over."
Simon decided to be quiet and return to his spot on the bench.
Lucy sighed and leaned back in her chair.
Deciding that no intervention was needed, Zahra turned back to Diego.
"Sorry, missed that last bit, what did you say?"
Diego grinned and pulled her against his shoulder. "I was saying, that maybe we could take the kids to Morocco tomorrow."
Zahra nodded lazily. "Sounds good, near the ocean, I assume?"
"Mmmhmmm, we can't technically go into the desert since the whole god damn Sahara is technically a possible location for the school, and we promised not to take the kids to a school."
"Well, I'm sure it's not for too much longer."
Diego sighed and looked out over the water.
"You don't believe that, do you?" Zahra turned her head up to him.
"Don't believe what?" Diego wasn't looking at her.
"You don't believe that they're going to call us back soon, that they'll just leave us wandering on our own for months more."
"We've been on our own for a month already. And we've heard nothing. We havn't heard from anyone in almost two weeks. I'm sure nothing's happened, because we'd feel it. So that means that nothing has happened. No progress, and we're no closer to bringing the kids home than we were in the beginning of July. How long are we supposed to keep going like this?"
Zahra didn't say anything, just leaned back and stared skyward as the first fireworks of the nightly show exploded over the lake.
The fireworks shut the children up as well. All mouths were closed as everyone stared skyward in rapt fascination.
Everyone except two. Zahra was just tearing her gaze away to give Diego a kiss when she saw that he wasn't watching the show. She followed his gaze to where Lucy sat, with Omiri, Regina, and Jasmine clustered at her feet. Lucy was asleep.
"You're worried about her."
"She got some more of those wizard newspapers today. There was an assasination attempt on the French Minister of Magic a few days ago."
"Did she know him or something?"
"No, of course not. It's just another reminder of what's going on back there. There's this horrible tension and anticipation, you know, just waiting for another attack."
Zahra shrugged, "I know the feeling."
Diego smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Yes, but you're prepared, somewhat. That's why we're exiled for the time being. We aren't just sitting around waiting for it anymore, we are actively working to prevent any damage, right?"
"Of course. And Lucy's doing that too."
"But she can't do anything about what's happening back there. You know that after the front page she always turns to the obituaries second?"
"Seriously?"
"Every time. It was different last summer. She didn't have many close friends there, she didn't even get the paper to know what was going on. But she's got all these ties now, I mean, look at the way she went charging back to London when she heard about that French kid."
"And when she's back at school, she's always ravenous for news from you about what's going on in the Circle, is that it?"
Diego nodded. "She doesn't get a break, she's always pulled in two between where she is and where she can't be."
Zahra looked over at the figure lightly snoring in the chair. "Must be exhausting."
"That's what I'm worried about. Lucy isn't as strong as she thinks she is. She does too much, too fast. It was something that even Antolin was worried about."
"Why?"
"She's always been obsessed with making Adept, and as quickly as possible, for reasons I never figured out. You've heard her mutter that "There isn't enought time", right?"
"Yeah, but that was usually about bathroon breaks before gating or stopping for a cup of coffee. It always made sense."
"It always does, but she moves so damn fast, there's never enough time. I can't count the number of times when she's told me that."
Diego looked up at the fireworks.
"You're afraid she'll burn out, is that it?"
Diego watched a rocket explode into a curtain of light, felt the impact of the BOOM. It was so bright it made him blink, then there was the typical fizzing sound, and the light's blinked out.
"Bright, loud, explosive, and brief." He muttered to himself.
"What was that?"
But Diego kept his eyes on the sky. When the show was over, he looked over to see Lucy stealing candy from Regina's pocket, while yelling at the twelve year old boys, Mikos and Kristos, to keep off the wall.
Zahra was still looking at him intently. Diego grinned, kissed her, and the ominous conversation seemed to melt out of their minds.
"Come one, let's go pack up for Morocco."