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Chapter 16: The Holy Children

Indy would have admired the place any other time. He was being led through the biggest mansion in the Ile Saint Louis district of Paris. Marie led him into the main room, which looked like it was once a grand hall or something.

'I believe you know the Kamars and the Ramons,' she said.

Indy nodded. 'Guess I should've figured on why you guys knew each other.'

Leo and Kamau both chuckled. Marie went on. 'As for everyone else, this is Sigurd Dalen, his wife Ingfrid and their son Andor. They're from Norway.'

Sigurd and Andor both had long sideburns. Sigurd was a blue-eyed blond while Andor was a green-eyed redhead. It was something he appeared to have gotten from his mother. Ingfrid looked delicate and ladylike. She probably was the latter but the former was highly unlikely.

Indy looked at Andor. 'You're the one that removed half of the tablet to the Holy Grail?'

Andor chuckled. 'Ja. Know someone who's after it, do you?'

'Yeah,' Indy said with a grin. 'My father.'

There were sniggers all around the room. Marie pointed to the next one. 'This is Yoshida Yuichi. I trust you know how Japanese names work?'

The Asian man cracked a grin and continued polishing the curved blade he had across his lap. Indy nodded and said, 'Family name first and then the given name.'

'I thought so.' Marie then turned to the only other group. 'We've got Jordan Hood, his paternal aunt Penny Hood, her husband Dr. Carlos Shields and the faux-ward Sara Fenning. When you were beaten up in Morocco, the place that Marion took you to belonged to them.'

Jordan was tall with light brown hair and blue eyes. Penny was blonde but she had green eyes. Carlos had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Sara…well, Indy could see the reason for the phrase "faux-ward". She had to be as immortal as the rest of them, but she was unfortunately stuck in the body of a twelve year old. And she looked like a hell of an innocent one with the small stature, the wheat blonde hair and the bright blue eyes.

Yeah, if you didn't know how old she was, you'd think she'd never tell a lie.

Indy looked at Carlos. 'What are you a doctor of?'

'Medicine.' British.

'Ah.' Indy looked at Jordan and Penny. 'Robin Hood?'

The aunt and nephew looked at each other and laughed. 'Yes,' they said.

Jordan tittered. 'He was my father and Auntie's brother. Which is how I'm here.'

Indy frowned in concentration. 'Yeah, Marie said something to that effect.' He looked around at them. 'What does it mean?'

Leo grinned. 'Adeola, Andor, Jordan, Yuichi, Elena and Marie are the Holy Children.'

'What are Holy Children?' Indy asked.

'Simply put, the Holy Children are the firstborns of notable heroes,' Sigurd said. He cringed. 'Not in the conventional sense either.'

'Real heroes are deeply flawed men who can't mind their own business and can't turn a blind eye to save their lives,' Penny explained. 'And I'm betting that describes you.'

Indy thought on it. He realised that they were right, but he'd only just warmed up to the idea of sharing his life with someone. If not for his selfishness, Indy knew he would have taken it as a hint that they weren't meant to be. That cast aside, these guys were proving it was. Indy frowned. 'So basically my firstborn is gonna be one of you?'

All six Holy Children answered "yes" in their native tongues. Indy nodded and leaned back. They could get to that later. He certainly wasn't ready to be a dad yet, much as he would love to see Marion pregnant with his kid…wow. Indy never thought he'd consider something like that positively.

A late middle-aged man in a suit walked into the hall. 'Excusez-moi, mademoiselle Boiur, mais le dîner est servi.'

Marie turned and asked in interest, 'Ce que est sur le plateau?'

'La génisse qui s'est cassé la jambe pour commencer,' the butler said. Well, if the young cow broke a leg, most farmers did find it easier to just eat her. The butler went on. 'Nous avons aussi des escargots, un plateau de fromages, le vieille truie et la moitié des agneaux de cette année sur la table.' Snails, cheese and lamb. The former two would be just appetisers. Obviously, Marie intended…

Marie smiled. 'Manifiuqe.' She turned to Indy. 'How about we finish this conversation over dinner?'

So they all moved upstairs and into the dining room. Marie called for her butler to get something from her study. They all sat down with the deception of formality, but as part of it Indy could see that every single person was relaxed and comfortable with each other.

'Abner first came to see me when Marion was fifteen.' Marie, naturally, was the one to start explaining the story. 'The Royal Psalms had given him a prophecy.' As she said this, her butler came back with two slips of paper. Marie took them both. She handed one of them to Indy. 'This one.'

Indy took the paper and looked at it. 'And Abner interpreted this to mean Marion's kid would return the family to the French Throne?'

'Ja,' Sigurd said. 'He didn't outright say it and he denied it when Marie did, but his plan was to use the Ark of the Covenant to scare France into submission and to use the hero to consolidate influence in the world. Sort of a way to guard his own back, we imagine.'

'His only problem was he had no idea what he was looking for.' Kamau smirked. 'He was searching for what I believe you'd call a fairytale hero. Heavily religious, infallibly noble, wealthy, chivalrous…'

'Boring.' Leo cut in.

Indy rolled his eyes. He was nothing like that, which was why Abner never sighted him as a candidate. But, according to what these guys were saying, that's what made him a hero. 'Problem with those guys is that they get into a fight and they can't handle it.'

'Especially nowadays.' Yuichi nodded in agreement.

'My father gave the Psalms back to the Royal Family because it was required and it belonged to them in the first place,' Marie said. 'Before he did, though, the Psalms gave us one more prophecy. Marion told you about the truth of D'Eon de Beaumont?'

Indy chuckled in amusement. 'Yeah.'

'Good. He…' Marie paused. 'She…that's bit's always confusing. Anyway, they were there. And that's how we got this.' She handed Indy the other slip of paper. 'As you can see, it's much more precise.'

Marie was right. It actually said that they'd have a Holy Child. Indy looked at Marie. It looked like the Psalms had picked the wording based entirely on who was looking at it. The French Holy Child chuckled. 'The Royal Psalms chose the path of the monarchy. Toward this end, the wording is chosen very carefully to inspire different courses of action.'

'So I see,' Indy said. Now it made more sense. All Abner's life had been put to this. It was one thing to be manipulated but Abner was the kind of person to be a manipulator as well? Marion had risen above it. Why couldn't her father? Because he wanted the power. He wanted to rule a country that no longer had a monarchy. Anger boiled under the surface in a way Indy had never felt before, but he could feel it was sitting waiting like it was as sentient as he was.

There was one more thing Indy wanted to know before anything else. 'Who's the jackass Abner's picked out?'

Marie picked up the jug of gravy and poured it over her lamb. 'An Italian knight, Sir Ezio Parodi.'

A Nobleman, no doubt trained. 'So that's it?' Indy asked. He wouldn't be easy to take unless…

'Si,' Elena said.

Now came the important bit. 'How do I get into Versailles?'

Marie turned to the butler and said, 'Monsieur Franco, les plans, s'il vous plaît?'

Franco nodded his head once and walked out. Marie turned back to Indy. 'How are you with plans?'

'Plans?' Indy laughed quietly. 'I make plans, they tend to fall apart. I prefer to make things up as I go.'

'As with all of us,' Sigurd said. 'But we do occasionally.'

'Even then, the plans aren't very precise,' Ingfrid explained. 'What we mean to say is that you do realise that Parodi won't want to give Marion up without a fight?'

'Yeah, I'd thought of that,' Indy said. 'And Abner's single-minded. He won't let one little setback stop him.'

Adeola smirked. 'Then why don't we make it one big setback?'

Franco returned with the blueprints of Versailles Palace.

Versailles Palace

Marie Boiur stood in the hallway and waited. The attendant stepped out of the parlour. Marie believed his name was Durford. He raised his chin. 'Sa Majesté vous verra maintenant.' He turned and walked in. Marie followed him.

Abner was standing in the parlour. He was being fitted for some of the finest clothes Marie had seen this side of the Revolution. Silk and satin blended perfectly and he was looking rather proud of himself. 'Marie Boiur, nous sommes heureux de vous revoir. Pour quelle raison avez-vous présenter?' He was speaking French and in the plural pronoun of royalty. Someone was definitely getting too big for his boots.

Of course he was happy to see her. He thought she was helping him. And the reason why she was here…Marie held herself respectfully. 'Je crains que ma curiosité personnelle l'a emporté contre ma conscience, Sa Majesté. Aurais-je maintenant être autorisés à rencontrer la princesse?' As if she hadn't already met the princess. But if Abner was this confident then…

Abner smiled. 'Je pense que ce serait acceptable. Mais je vous préviens, elle est actuellement de disposition aigre.' Oo. Big words. Abner turned to his footman. 'Durford, prendre mademoiselle Boiur à la princesse.'

Durford nodded and led Marie out of the parlour. They walked down the grand hall and up several flights of stairs. Although she knew her way around the place, Marie wasn't going to share that information with anyone on Abner's side and all the servants counted for that.

Durford stopped at a set of doors. 'Son Altesse est presque constamment dans sa chambre.'

'Merci, monsieur.'

Durford walked away. Marie knocked on the door and tried the handle. Locked tight. Clearly, she trusted no one around here. 'Marion, it's Marie.'

Marie heard light footfalls and then a click. Marion opened the door and stood aside to let her pass. Stepping in, Marie dug into her skirts and produced le Sabre de Beaumont. 'From your hero.' She held it out.

Marion smiled and took the sword. Closing and locking the door again, she looked it over. Marie took the opportunity to look at the dress Marion had been forced into. As much silk and satin as Abner apparently liked to wear. Her hair was done up becomingly and decorated with jewels. An ornate sapphire necklace hung around her neck.

What really caught Marie's attention was the diamond engagement ring on Marion's finger. Marion looked at her and noticed where he eyes were. She smiled and raised her hand to look at it better.

'Indy gave it to me the day before they took me,' Marion said. 'Dad and Parodi hate it.'

'Of course they hate it,' Marie said. 'It's the symbol of love between you and someone who's not Parodi.'

Marion nodded. 'Did you tell Indy everything?'

'We did.' Marie cast her eyes out the window. 'He took the whole thing very calmly, even the part about the fact that he'll be the father of the next Holy Child.'

Marion raised her eyebrows. 'That's a surprise.'

'Mind you,' Marie mused, 'he did tell Kamau, Sigurd and Leo later that he didn't want the child to be born before he got the Cross of Coronado because he didn't think he'd be able to focus on what was important if that happened.'

Marion smiled. 'At least he knows where his priorities should be, unlike some people we might mention with delusions of grandeur.'

Marie chuckled. 'I should say so. And it's nice to see someone with an obsession with an artefact that does not have power. How did it start anyway?'

'Hm?' Marion took a moment to come back to reality. 'Oh. Well, when he was a kid he found this guy stealing it and he tried to stop him but he just couldn't. He's been obsessed with getting it back ever since.'

'Well, that's not too bad,' Marie said. 'Speaking of getting things back…' She stood up and walked over to the window. 'Indy doesn't think Abner will easily let you go.'

'Of course he won't.' Marion scowled and sat down. 'I'm his ticket to power.'

Marie turned to face her. 'And Parodi will want to fight Indy for your hand, like a couple of knights.'

'Indy's not a knight though,' Marion pointed out.

'Maybe not, but he did fight in the war and he got up to the rank of "Captain" in a few short years.' Marie grinned. 'Did you know anyone with a knighthood was excused from the drafting board? I don't think there was a single one in the army.'

Marion clearly pondered that. 'I wonder if Parodi's ever shot off a gun.'

'Probably not,' Marie said. 'We'll be helping but it'll really be up to you and Indy.'

'What do you mean?' Marion asked, frowning.

'Indy thought you might appreciate fighting for your own freedom.' Marie raised her hand and curled her fingers.

Marion stood and walked over to her. Marie pointed out the window to a constructed stone circle in the courtyard. It'd been there for centuries. Marie smiled.

Marion scrutinised it. 'What does that mean?'

'The word "versailles" means "poems".' Marie pointed to the circle. 'That is where the Royal Psalms were born. Therefore, that is the place where they are strongest.'


AN: I'm not actually sure people with knighthoods were excused from the drafting board but they are here for characterisation purposes.