Encala (3 page)

“
We’ll have to run it by
the Elder.”

She cringed, “Do we have to? Can’t I just go
down and talk to them with you? They’ll be in their cells.”

Both shook their heads.

“
Fine, go ask him,” she
said, as one of them blurred away.

Emily slipped on a sundress when the heku
guard returned and handed it to her, “He said we have permission…
but you are to stay back from the bars.”

She nodded, surprised that Chevalier was
going to allow this. She was beginning to realize how badly the
Council wanted to see what she could do.

The prison cells were lined up, row after
row. Emily could only catch a glimpse of how big the prison was
when she was led down a row and a heku guard pointed toward a cell.
Emily heard a hiss come out of the cell toward her, and her guards
crouched and hissed in return. She watched the heku in the cell.
His eyes were fierce, unnatural, and fixed on her neck.

“
May I ask you a few
questions?” she asked him.

“
Depends on what you want
to know, mortal,” he said, as he ran his tongue along his cracked
lips.

“
Why did you kill your
family?” She thought it was a straight forward question, but he
inhaled sharply and his hands balled into fists.

“
Come closer and I’ll tell
you,” he said, and Emily felt a strong hand on her shoulder, though
she had no desire to step toward him.

“
No, tell me now, or I
leave. I have others to talk to,” she said, coldly.

“
My family?”

“
Yes, it’s reported you
killed the ones who lived with you.”

“
They wanted my donor,” he
said, cocking his head to the side and looking at her.

“
So they deserved to die
for that?”

“
Yessss,” he hissed again,
and inhaled deeply.

One of the guards slammed his fists into the
bars and the heku prisoner jumped back slightly.

“
Watch yourself!” the guard
yelled.

Emily sighed, “Take me to the next.”

The guards led her back out into the main
passageway, and then walked past the rows of cells before turning
and facing one.

Emily looked into the cell, the heku inside
looked miserable. He was sitting on the bed with his head in his
hands.

“
Are you ok?” she
asked.

He looked at her and jumped to his feet, “A
mortal? Here?”

“
I have a question for
you.”

He watched her, shocked.

“
Why did you kidnap the
mortals and then kill them?”

He sat down hard on the small cot, “It was
an accident. They were being paid to stay for 4 days but… I
couldn’t stop.” His voice was full of anguish.

She watched him for a bit, and then turned
to leave quickly. She couldn’t watch him anymore and the hisses and
stares coming from the dark cells gave her the creeps.

Once she got back up to the polished marble
and brightly lit hallways, she stopped and leaned against the
wall.

“
Are you ok?” one of the
guards asked, touching her arm lightly.

She nodded, “Tell Chevalier I’ve picked
one.”

One of the guards blurred away and Emily
stayed, leaning against the wall.

“
Are you sure you’re ok?”
the remaining guard asked, concerned.

She nodded again, but didn’t speak.

Within moments, the other guard appeared at
her side, “They would like to meet with you in the council
chambers.

“
Now?” she asked,
surprised.

“
Yes, they said we are to
bring you immediately.”

Emily followed them into the now familiar
room and looked up at the Council.

“
Lady Emily, we very much
appreciate you doing this. Elder Chevalier explained how hard this
is for you,” Maleth said, smiling at her.

She watched the floor.

“
Who have you chosen?”
Maleth asked, breaking the silence.

“
The one that killed his
family,” she whispered.

She heard someone stand and looked up just
as Chevalier appeared at her side.

“
You don’t have to do
this,” he whispered.

“
Just get it over with… I
just...”

“
What, Em?”

“
I just don’t want to see
him,” she said, and he took her hand and led her up onto the
Council’s stand.

He turned his chair away from the room and
she sat down, still watching the pattern in the floor. A few
minutes later, she heard the door open and a low hiss escaped from
the heku behind her. Chevalier’s hands balled into fists and she
heard one of the guards growl.

“
You will behave, or I’ll
have your head,” a guard said.

Emily took a deep breath, “When?”

Leonid spoke softly, “Whenever you are
ready, Child.”

She nodded, ignoring the child comment, and
concentrated. It was over before any of the Council even had time
to blink. The hissing heku was nothing but a scattered pile of ash
in the blink of an eye. Emily stayed facing away from him, and she
heard the council members gasping and talking quickly among
themselves.

Chevalier put a hand on her shoulder.

The entire room grew silent as Emily sat in
the chair and began to tremble.

“
Em?” Chevalier asked,
kneeling beside her. Her eyes were staring intently at the
floor.

“
Please, don’t make me do
that again,” she whispered, but the keen hearing of the entire
Council heard her.

“
I won’t,” he said, and
helped her stand up.

He wrapped his arms around her and turned to
the others, “I’m taking her upstairs.”

They all nodded, watching Emily with
compassionate eyes. They understood how hard it had been for her,
her love of the heku was well-known.

Chevalier led her out of the council
chambers and looked back as the Elders leaned over the desks to
again look at the ash.

They stepped into their room and Emily
immediately lay down on the bed. Chevalier pulled the covers up
over her and sat down beside her. Silence filled the room and soon,
Emily was asleep. He watched her, amazed at how hard it was for her
to kill. He found it easy, never looking back, and never thinking
twice when he brought justice by death.

“
Holy geesh,” Emily said,
watching the new group of guards report for cavalry training. They
were enormous. The seven came toward her, and she couldn’t help but
take a step back some. They looked like tall bodybuilders hulking
forward.

The seven current cavalry members were with
her. They were to watch her and help train the new guards. They
formed a V, with Emily at the front and they watched the new
recruits carefully.

Emily heard a familiar sound as they drew
closer, the chink-chink of spurs. She looked down and saw that the
largest of the new recruits was wearing spurs on his black cowboy
boots. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, this new group
made her uneasy.

“
Thank you for coming, my
name is Emily and I’ll be helping you with the horses,” she said,
not stepping forward as usual. She watched them carefully. Six of
them watched her as she spoke, but the largest, the one with spurs,
wouldn’t look at her. She frowned slightly and
continued.

“
First off, will you remove
your spurs please?” she asked, looking at the one she nicknamed
Tank in her head.

“
No,” he said, watching
above her head.

She frowned and then walked up to him. As
she looked up to meet his eyes, she realized exactly how tall he
was. Emily normally didn’t let her height hinder her, but as she
looked into the eyes a good two feet above her, she felt her
resolve fading. She knew better than to show any kind of weakness
around the heku, so she squared her shoulders and put her hands on
her hips.

“
Excuse me?” she snapped at
him.

“
I said, no.” He looked
down at her and his broad shoulders shook slightly as he
laughed.

“
Take them off, now,” she
ordered.

Too fast for her to even react, the large
heku put a finger against her forehead and pushed hard, sending her
to the ground as he muttered another, “No.”

In less than a second, the heku, Tank, was
pinned to the ground by four of the Cavalry. His neck was wrenched
roughly to the side, one fraction of an inch more and his neck
would break.

“
Touch me again and I’ll
have your hands removed,” she said, standing up and brushing
herself off. She reached down and untied his spurs, then slipped
them off of his boots. She tossed them into the trash.

“
Are we going to have more
trouble with you, Boy?” one of her guards asked him.

“
No, Sir,” Tank
snapped.

The guards let the large heku up and he
stood up slowly and glared at Emily. She ignored him as her guards
returned to her back.

“
Fine, does anyone else
have a problem with me?” she asked, irritated.

When no one spoke, she pointed to the first
recruit, “Let’s go find you a horse.”

Emily took each of the recruits through the
stables, picking out a good horse for them. She didn’t have many
choices. The heku were so large, that she had to pick the tallest
she could find. Each was handed a brush and told to brush down
their horse. She was nervous when it was time to take Tank around,
and he walked behind her, obviously not wanting to be with her at
all.

Once they were out of sight of the others,
Emily turned to him, “What’s your problem?”

“
You are,” he said, looking
down at her.

“
Well get over it or get
out of my stables,” she hissed, crossing her arms.

“
I can’t get out, this was
an order,” he snarled at her.

“
Then get over it,” she
said, turning around.

“
You know you have no right
being here… a mortal in the palace, it’s embarrassing,” he said,
following her.

Emily ignored his remark and took him to the
stall of the largest horse she had. She opened the stall and
turned, “This one’s yours.”

He stepped inside and took the horse roughly
by the mane, “Stupid animal.”

The horse pulled against his strong hands
and Emily jumped at him, stepping between him and the horse, “Let
go.”

Tank let go of the horse and stood inches
from Emily, looking down at her. He was so close she could feel the
anger radiating from him.

“
You telling me what to do,
Tiny?”

“
Yes I am, and if I ever
see you touch another horse with anything but soft respect, you’ll
have to deal with me,” she said, seething.

Emily felt her feet leave the ground as the
heku picked her up by her arms and lifted her above his head.

“
I don’t take orders from a
mortal,” he told her, and roughly shook her.

“
Let go of me,” she said,
gritting her teeth.

He dropped Emily and was immediately thrown
to the back of the barn by her guards. She felt the crack in her
ankle as she landed hard on the ground. She rolled onto her side
and grabbed her leg, screaming slightly at the pain. The sound of
the heku being torn apart by her guards could be heard throughout
the stables, and the other new guards came to see what
happened.

They were immediately able to see the large
heku being taken apart and Emily lying on the ground in pain, her
foot at an abnormal angle to her leg. One of them knelt down by
her, being careful not to touch her.

“
Lady Emily, are you
injured, other than your ankle?” he asked, watching her.

Emily shook her head and groaned. The pain
in her leg was intense.

“
What’s going on here?” she
heard Kyle snap. The seven cavalry members stood up, covered in
blood. Body parts of a heku were tossed into a pile in the
corner.

He didn’t see Emily when he first walked up.
The six new recruits were crouched around her. As they parted, he
gasped and knelt beside her. She was gripping her leg and he saw
the break in her ankle.

Kyle picked her up quickly and cringed when
she moaned in pain.

He turned to the Cavalry, “Mark, Bill, Pat…
come with me… you other three get the horses put away and get this
cleaned up.”

Kyle blurred into the palace, followed by
the three cavalry members. He set her down on the bed and looked at
her ankle. He could see a bone protruding against the skin and her
foot was swelling and bruising a dark blue.

“
Mark, get Chevalier. Pat,
get the doctor,” he ordered.

The doctor appeared in the room and his eyes
grew wide when he saw her ankle. He sat down quickly and pulled a
syringe from his bag, filling it with a clear liquid.

“
What’s that?” Kyle
asked.

“
Pain meds, we need to get
her to a hospital,” he said, quickly giving her the
shot.

“
Why can’t we do this
here?” Kyle asked, surprised Emily didn’t complain about the shot.
He realized she was in too much pain to argue with the
doctor.

“
I don’t have an x-ray
machine, and she may need surgery to re-set the bones. Then she’ll
need a cast and crutches.” He was feeling her foot for a
pulse.

“
Pat, go get the helicopter
ready,” Kyle growled, and the heku ran off, almost running into
Chevalier, who was just coming through the door.