Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (18 page)

“So what now? Are you telling me I can’t go
back to the island?”

“No, I’m not saying that.”

“Are you telling me that I’m to ignore
anyone that asks me for help?”

“No”

“Then what!? What is it you want me to do? I
can go to the island and ignore any calls for help, anyone that
needs an immediate decision… is that what I do?”

“Yes, that’s what I want.”

Emily’s eyes filled with
hurt, “So when I’m on the island, I’m nothing more than a
guest?”

“Is that so bad?” Chevalier asked.

“It’s your island, though Kyle has a lot of
authority too… and I’m just your wife.”

“Just?”

“Yes, just. I have no
responsibility, no authority, I can sit on my ass and be fed and
catered too, yet I can’t help make a single decision… Do I have
that about right?”

“It’s not your place to
make decisions on my island,” Chevalier said softly. He frowned
slightly at the look on her face. He could tell she was fighting
back tears.

“I don’t think the Elder
meant it that way,” Quinn said when he saw the hurt feelings. “It’s
not that we don’t appreciate all you’ve done to help the coven.
It’s just that we would prefer if you let the Elder or Kyle handle
things, they can get dangerous.”

“I see,” she whispered,
and looked down at Nicholas.

“Maybe if you made decisions along with
Storm, then things might go smoother.”

“No, you’re right… it’s not my place, it’s
Chevalier’s coven.”

Chevalier frowned, it wasn’t often she
called him by his full name.

She stood up and put her hand out, “Come on,
Nicholas, let’s go.”

Quinn frowned, “We can’t
let him go. It’s not safe.”

“He needs me,” Emily
whispered. She took his hand and turned for the door.

“Emily, we cannot let you go with him,” Zohn
told her.

Emily slipped the phone
out of her pocket and pushed it across the table, “Lewis is going
to call, he wants reinstated to the pier now that his probation is
over. Ying Lee wants to know if he can start guard training next
week, and Wesley needs building rights for a
greenhouse.”

Chevalier nodded and took her phone, “I’ll
come to the island this weekend, ok?”

She nodded and opened the
door, still holding onto Nicholas’ hand. Three members of the
Cavalry were waiting outside of the conference room, and Emily
looked up at them.

“We need to take him,” the
new Cavalry Lieutenant said.

“I have to go with Emily,” Nicholas told
him.

“It’s ok, he’s coming with me,” Emily
said.

“Maybe if she agrees to
never be alone with him,” Chevalier said, and turned to
Zohn.

Dustin, the Chief Liaison
Officer from Powan, appeared suddenly at Nicholas’ back and
instantly removed his head. Emily watched, wide eyed, as the heku’s
body fell to the floor, spraying blood across her and the
walls.

She backed away slowly,
watching Dustin as he looked down at the heku he just killed. She
was finding it hard to breathe, hard to understand what happened.
Nicholas trusted her. She took care of him and understood his needs
and his kind nature.

“I had to,” Dustin said to
her, and then turned to ash at the feet of the Cavalry.

“Hey!” one of the Cavalry
started to yell, and then also turned into a pile of
ash.

Zohn immediately ordered
the hallways clear and all nonessential personnel were to leave the
palace immediately. The council chambers were locked down, with the
Council inside, and the Elders stayed in their conference
room.

Emily turned and ran up
the stairs to the roof. Her assigned heku pilot powered up the
helicopter when she got inside, and soon they were flying toward
Island Coven.

Emily rolled over and
looked at the clock. It was 1am and she had yet to fall asleep. Her
throat hurt, she had a headache, stuffy nose, and a dry cough. She
hadn’t left her room in the two days since Dustin killed Nicholas.
The coven was quiet. They knew Nicholas was missing and that Emily
was being elusive.

After a couple more hours
of tossing and turning in bed, Emily finally got up and threw on a
robe. She left Dain for a few minutes and went out into her
ante-chamber.

“Can I get you anything?” Anna asked.

“No,” she said, and
sneezed into a tissue. Emily walked up to the infirmary and started
digging around in the bottles of medicine, put there for her use.
She pulled out another box of tissue and a nighttime cold medicine,
along with a handful of cough drops.

After loading up on cold medicine, Emily
went into the kitchen and started to boil some water.

“Can I make you something?” Gordon asked,
appearing beside her in the dark kitchen.

“No, just making some
tea,” she told him, and glanced up at the ceiling when she heard a
helicopter landing. “Who the hell lands a helicopter at 3 in the
morning?”

Gordon smiled, “We don’t think about it… the
time, I mean.”

Emily dug the chamomile
tea out of the cupboard and ignored the sound of heku entering the
kitchen.

“Good evening, Elder,”
Gordon said with a slight bow.

“Are you sick?” Chevalier asked.

When she didn’t answer,
Gordon finally turned back to her, “Would you like some chicken
soup or pancakes maybe?”

“Oh heavens, Gordon, don’t
ask me… ask the Elder,” Emily said, and turned around with her cup
of tea. She gathered up the cold medicines and cough drops and
walked past Chevalier, Kyle, Zohn, and Quinn without saying a word,
and headed back up to her room.

Gordon turned to
Chevalier, “I… don’t know… why am I asking you?”

Chevalier shook his head, “Just ignore that…
how long has she been sick?”

“Just about a day. She’s
kept to her room since she got back.”

“I’m going to go check over the new roster
and schedule,” Kyle said, heading out toward the barracks.

“Shall we wait until she
gets up?” Quinn asked, looking around the kitchen.

Gordon hesitated and then
started to leave, but Chevalier put his arm out, “Stay.”

Gordon nodded,
“Ok.”

“You’re nervous,”
Chevalier said. “Why?”

“The… members of the coven have grown close
to Emily.”

“Yes, and?”

“They know something’s happened.”

“Ok… keep
going.”

Gordon sighed, “There may be some… who
aren’t happy about it.”

“How much do they know?” Chevalier
asked.

“They know Nicholas is
gone… they know Emily isn’t visiting in the city, and isn’t taking
castle visitors.”

“They’re upset about Nicholas?”

“We’ve all been watching
them closely… any time Emily was with Nicholas, someone was off in
the shadows to make sure things were ok,” Gordon Explained. “She
enjoyed taking care of him.”

“I didn’t realize
that.”

“We protect her. She
doesn’t allow it… so we do it in secret.”

Chevalier nodded, “We had to dispose of
him.”

“I figured.”

“You may go.”

Gordon blurred from the kitchen and
Chevalier turned to the other two Elders, “I’ll be in my
office.”

Chevalier sat in his
office, alone, and went over everything that happened on the island
in the last few months. From what he could find, everything Emily
took care of was handled appropriately and even the arduous
paperwork was meticulously filled out and submitted. He had to
remind himself that the big one, a new member of the coven, was the
only thing left out.

“Come,” he said when
someone knocked on his office door.

Quinn and Zohn came in and
sat down. Zohn was holding a large manila envelope, and he tossed
it onto Chevalier’s desk.

He picked it up and looked
at it, “What now?”

“It came this morning for her,” Zohn
explained. “Do we open it?”

“My vote is no. It’s
specifically addressed to Emily,” Quinn said.

“But from the Valle, my
vote is yes,” Zohn said, and they turned to Chevalier.

“No… and I need to
apologize to Emily,” Chevalier said, and shut the log book. “Aside
from Nicholas, everything’s been handled correctly.”

“She doesn’t have the authority though.”

“Maybe she does, as a
member of the Council and my wife… she’s taken care of things that
I would have had to fly out here to do, and from what I see, she
did a good job at it.”

“But Nicholas…”

“Had I known my coven was watching over her…
it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

Zohn sighed, “Except that no one with
authority knew she added to your numbers.”

“True,” Chevalier said,
and he grew silent when he heard Emily get up, coughing.

“So now what?”

Chevalier grabbed the envelope and stood up,
“Let’s go see what they sent her.”

The Elders walked up the
stairs to her bedroom, and Chevalier couldn’t help but notice how
quiet the servants were being around him and how they sunk back
into the shadows as he passed. Tension in the castle was high, and
it started to irritate him.

“Elders,” Anna said when
they walked into the ante-chambers. There was a hint of annoyance
in her voice.

“Is there a problem?” Chevalier asked
her.

“No,” she said
bluntly.

Zohn knocked on the door
and opened it when he heard Emily mumble for them to come in. The
Elders walked into the stiflingly hot bedroom. Emily was sitting
out on the balcony on a chaise. She had a heavy blanket over her
and a box of tissues on her lap. Dain was on the floor playing with
the puppies.

“What?” she asked, her voice hoarse from the
cold.

Chevalier sighed, “How are you feeling?”

“You flew to the island to see how my cold
is?”

Zohn handed her the
envelope, “This came for you this morning,” he said, and leaned
against the balcony railing.

Emily sat up and opened
the envelope. She pulled out a large stack of papers and held it
away from heku eyes to read. She tried not to react as she read the
deed in her name to a plantation outside of Savannah,
Georgia.

“Anything interesting?” Quinn asked.

“Another gift is all,” she
said, and slipped the papers back into the envelope.

“What kind of gift?” Zohn asked.

“A personal one,” she told
him, and grabbed a tissue when she started to cough
again.

“I want to apologize,”
Chevalier said. “I see now that I was being hasty in telling you to
stop making decisions for the coven, and I appreciate you watching
over things in my absence.”

“Yeah, no problem,” she
answered sarcastically.

“No, no bi,” Dain said, walking out onto the
balcony.

Chevalier picked him up, “Nope, not leaving
right now.”

Dain shook his head and
grinned, “No.”

Emily crawled out of the chaise, left the
blanket, and grabbed the box of tissues.

“Dow,” Dain said, and
pointed at the puppies. Chevalier put him down on the floor, and he
walked over and started playing.

“Can you at least tell us why I smell
another small wound?” Zohn asked, sitting down in a chair by the
fire.

“No,” Emily snapped, and
then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

“Is it something
dangerous?” Quinn asked her through the bathroom door.

“No,” she called
out.

Kyle walked in and looked
around the room, “Is she sick?”

“Just a cold,” Chevalier
explained. “What did you find?”

“Nothing amiss, everything’s been handled
and the rosters look good.”

“Damnit, I should have checked before
assuming she shouldn’t be helping out around here.”

“She still shouldn’t…
though… I can tell you the guards are all acting strangely, and I
suspect they would rather deal with her than you or I.”

Quinn grinned, “Can you blame them?”

Zohn reached down when
Dain screamed and then started to cry. He picked up the baby and
comforted him, “What happened?”

“Bi,” Dain said through
tearless sobs.

“Bi?”

“The dog bit him,” Kyle
said, and showed Zohn a small trace of blood on Dain’s
pants.

“No bi,” Dain said, and
leaned his head against Zohn’s shoulder.

Chevalier frowned, “Do the dogs bite you a
lot?”

Dain shook his head.

“Who says no
biting?”

“Mommy no bi.”

Kyle chuckled, “Guess the
dogs are chewing on Em. That explains the small wounds. She’ll get
a hold on them soon enough.”

Emily came out of the bathroom dressed and
started to tie her hair up.

“Are you leaving? It’s
still early,” Chevalier reminded her.

“Yes, I’m not sleeping
anyway, might as well go do something.”

“Do you want us to keep
the puppies at the palace? We can see if we can find someone to
train them for a while.”

“I’m training them, they’re good dogs.”

“Except for when they bite you?” Quinn
asked, smiling.