Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (25 page)

Emily frowned, “Not a chance… when I visited
the Encala, we were friends.”

“We are friends, Dear.”

“No, we aren’t. We were,
and it hurt a lot when you broke that. I’m not ready to accept you
back or to trust you.”

“What happened to you in our care, I fought
against that… it’s since been rectified and won’t happen
again.”

“It doesn’t matter. I
can’t come for a vacation.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t trust you, I
don’t like you, and I refuse to be around Exavior.”

Sotomar smiled slightly, “You made that
obviously clear.”

“How could you bring him back?”

“We didn’t have a choice.”

“What? From his ashes he put a gun to your
head? You had a choice and you know what he’s like.”

“We needed him so we could
bring the Ferus to the Valle. It was the only way, and it was done
to protect you.”

“Bullshit… you wanted an Elder that you knew
could get to me.”

“That’s not true,” Sotomar
said, concerned. “We had no choice. I don’t trust him with you
either… he’s an Elder with very limited power.”

“I can’t trust you again, not now.”

Sotomar reached over and
put his hand on hers, “Emily, I consider you a friend, and I miss
the interaction we used to have.”

Emily fought back the tears, “I can’t trust
you.”

“Very well, I guess it’s
deserved. Know though, that I bought you that plantation and no
other soul knows you have it. If you go there, you should be
completely safe from all heku.”

She nodded as a tear fell down her
cheek.

“Let’s go back. I’m sure
they think I’ve killed you by now,” he said, and held a hand out to
her.

She stood up without his
help and walked back to the council chambers. She sat down in the
chair emptied by the Chief Investigator, and watched her hands as
the Council looked at her. Sotomar came in the trial room and stood
by the Imperial Guards.

“We are done. Please
notify us when we can have Madden returned to us,” he said, and
turned to leave.

The Council watched the
Valle walk out, and then turned to Emily.

“What did he want?” Quinn
asked as she wiped away a tear.

Emily stood up and headed
for the door, but felt a hand on her arm. She turned and glared at
Dustin.

“We aren’t done,” Dustin told her.

“Get your paw off of me,”
she whispered.

“Dustin…” Chevalier said.

“Sit down until we are
done,” Dustin said sternly.

Emily ripped her arm out of his grasp,
“Touch me again and Kyle won’t be able to find enough of you to
revive.”

Dustin growled and stood up, “You can’t talk
to me like that.”

“Calm down,” Zohn said, stepping between
them as Chevalier stood up.

“Dustin… Emily is free to
go. We don’t question members of the Council,” Quinn said, and then
turned to Emily. “Please try to show some respect for all members
of the Council.”

She turned on her heels
and walked out of the council chambers, slamming the door behind
her.

“Never touch my wife
again,” Chevalier said, and sat down.

“Sorry, Elder,” Dustin
told him, irritated, and sat back also.

Emily walked out to the
stables. She hadn’t been there in months and she wanted to check on
everything. Four members of the Cavalry were there taking care of
their horses as she walked through the stable.

“Things look good,” she
said when Silas came in.

“We try. It’s good to have
you back.”

She nodded and kept
checking in each stall. She stopped at one and frowned at the
horse. The white horse had pink and yellow ribbons tied through its
mane and long garlands of roses falling with its tail. It had pink
zebra type stripes painted onto its beautiful white
coat.

“Um…” Emily started to
say, but just stepped in and walked around the mare.

Silas grinned, “Hasad got
married.”

“So you took it out on his horse?” she
asked, running her hands along the pink stripes.

“He gets back on duty
today. I’m sure he’ll fix it.”

Emily grabbed a bridle,
and went into the stall with her stallion. As she led him out, she
noticed the four members of the Cavalry were all mounted up
also.

“I’m riding alone,” she
said, and hoisted herself onto her stallion.

“I’d really like to get
these horses out of the city for a run,” Silas said, and glanced
back when Allen appeared with the lab puppy in his arms.

“Thanks,” Emily said, and
took the puppy from Allen. She turned to Silas, “Did the Elders
order you to stay with me?”

Silas smiled and lied,
“Nope.”

“Fine then, you can come,”
she said, and kicked her horse into a canter as she fought to keep
control of the large puppy on her lap.

“Why don’t you let me take him?” Jaron
asked, putting his hands out when the dog scratched Emily’s neck as
he tried to get off the horse.

Emily handed the puppy over and touched the
scratches, “Damn, that hurts.”

“Why do you have a dog with you?” Silas
asked.

“We’re heading out to that pond up north of
the trees.”

Silas glanced at Jaron and back to Emily,
“Sorry, why is that again?”

Emily smiled, “It’s time
to start training these dogs before they get too big to handle.
This guy can get close to 80lbs, and the Malamute is going to be
huge, closer to 120lbs.”

“Good, train them so they
stop chewing on you,” Silas said, and glanced at the single
puncture wound on the back of her arm.

“Sure,” Emily said, and
stopped her horse by the pond. She dismounted and tied the horse to
a tree, and then went on a stick hunt.

When Jaron put the puppy
down, he immediately began to pull and tug at the guard’s pant leg,
“Stop it.”

Emily grinned and
whistled. When she got the puppy’s attention, she tossed the stick
into the pond and watched as the lab ran to the edge of the pond
and lunged into the dark, muddy water. He emerged a few seconds
later, tail wagging.

After almost thirty
minutes, Silas took over and threw the stick further out into the
pond, where it took the lab a few minutes to get back. Emily sat
down and slipped off her t-shirt, leaving just the light camisole
so the sun could warm her shoulders. She leaned her head back and
shut her eyes.

Silas turned when he heard
a slight thud and saw Jaron hit one of the guards over the head. He
had been staring at Emily, but shrugged apologetically and turned
back to the dog.

“Hm, where’d he go?” Silas
asked when he turned back around and the dog was gone.

Emily looked over at the pond, “He’s out
there?”

“Yes, just tossed the stick in.”

She stood up and walked to the water’s edge,
“Encala!”

“Emily… tell me you didn’t name that dog
Encala,” Silas sighed.

She grinned, “I
did.”

“Fun”

She whistled loudly and
watched for the lab. The pond’s water had grown still, “Where the
hell did he go?”

A ripple in the water started behind a group
of reeds and soon the puppy appeared, dragging something behind
him.

“What is that?” Emily asked, taking a step
into the water.

Silas moved beside her and his eyes grew
wide, “That’s not a stick.”

Silas jumped into the
murky water, followed by Emily and the guards as they swam over to
the dog. The water was only chest deep to the heku, but came up to
Emily’s neck. She pulled the puppy away from what he was dragging
as Silas pulled an arm out of the water.

“Oh my God!” Emily yelled,
and started for the shore.

The puppy followed behind her, proud of his
find. Jaron and the other guards disappeared back behind the reeds,
following the dog’s scent as Silas moved to the shore with
Emily.

Emily got to the shore and turned around to
see where Jaron went.

“Um… Em?” Silas asked
hesitantly.

She looked over at him and
then down to her arm where he was looking. Hanging from her arm was
a long, thin, leech. She screamed slightly and started to pick it
off, but it slipped out of her fingers.

“Let me get them,” Silas
said, and quickly pulled it off of her.

“Them?” she yelled, and
scanned over her exposed skin. She felt Silas pull another off of
her shoulder and yet another off of the back of her arm. Panicked,
she pulled off her shirt and started to unbutton her jeans, but
Silas stopped her.

“They can’t get under your
jeans, let me get these,” he said, and she felt a slight tugging on
her back. She looked down at her arm and there was a small red mark
that had blood dripping from it.

“I think that’s it,” Silas
said, and quickly looked over her skin again.

“How many?” she asked, and
shuddered.

“Eleven,” he told her, and
smiled slightly.

“Your turn,” Emily said,
and ran her hands along his back.

“I don’t think leeches are
interested,” he said, and looked down at his arms. Emily and Silas
both turned when the other members of the Cavalry came back, Jaron
was still carrying the arm.

Emily slipped her camisole and t-shirt back
on as the others got to them.

“What did you find?” Silas asked, taking the
arm.

“Nothing, we tracked to
where the dog went, and there’re no other body parts,” Jaron
explained.

“Let’s get back and we’ll bring a team out
here to search.”

“Yes, Captain,” he said,
and they all mounted up, though Emily kept jerking at tingles in
her skin she thought might be another leech.

Silas chuckled, “I got them all.”

“I smell blood,” Jaron said, frowning.

“There are leeches in that
water,” Silas explained, and kicked his horse to catch up with
Emily.

Jaron grinned,
“Nice.”

They rode up to the
stables as the Elders were stepping out after talking about yet
another addition. They watched the five ride up, and were both
shocked and pleased that Emily was out with members of the Cavalry.
As they drew closer, the Elders all caught the scent of Emily’s
blood and then saw Silas carrying an arm.

“We’ll explain it all when we put the horses
away,” Silas told them as he headed into the stables.

Emily was the first to
step into the stall with her stallion, and as she slipped off his
bridle, she felt an odd tingle on her ankle. She reached down to
scratch it, and felt the soft, slimy body of another leech.
Panicked, she stripped off her wet jeans and fell out into the
stables.

“Silas!” she screamed, and
began to pull at the leech.

The Elders were watching
her, confused, as she fell out of the stall only half dressed and
began clawing at her ankle.

Silas knelt down and
pulled the leech off, tossing it over into a trash bin, “Got
it.”

She scrambled to her feet and turned around,
“Do you see more?”

Chevalier growled slightly when Silas stood
up and looked along the back of her exposed legs.

Quinn put a hand on
Chevalier’s arm when his hands tightened into fists. Silas froze
when he heard the growl, and turned around to face them. Emily was
still inspecting her arms and legs, unaware of the confrontation
going on behind her, all because she slipped off her
jeans.

“Sir…” Silas said, putting
his hands out. “She went into a leech infested pond, that’s it…
pulling leeches off, I swear.”

Once Emily was sure she
had no more leeches on her, she turned to see everyone watching
her, and saw how Chevalier was growling at Silas. She blushed and
stepped back into the stall. A servant appeared and gave Zohn one
of the robes from the pool, and he handed it over the stall to
Emily. She slipped it on and came back out, placing herself between
Silas and the Elders.

“Don’t be mad,” she told
Chevalier. “He was picking leeches off me. I couldn’t get a hold of
them.”

Chevalier stood up out of a crouch but kept
an eye on Silas, “And the arm?”

“The dog brought it back
when we were playing fetch,” Silas explained. “Jaron and Laythan
went looking for the rest of the body, but didn’t find anything. I
was coming back to get a search party.”

“Do it,” Chevalier
growled, and the Cavalry blurred from the stables.

“Must you strip in front
of the Cavalry?” Zohn asked, irritated.

Emily sighed, “I had another leech.”

Quinn grinned, “Go get
cleaned up… but leave the dog. He needs a bath before he goes back
in.”

Not wanting to argue, Emily nodded and
headed inside.

“Calm now?” Quinn asked, turning to
Chevalier.

He nodded, “I know I should trust them more
than that…”

One of the servants
assigned to keep the dogs clean came up and picked up the lab,
“Come on, Encala, time for another bath.”

“Wait… what did you call it?” Zohn asked
him.

The heku servant turned to
the Elder, “His name, Sir, Encala.”

“Who named him?”

“Lady Emily, I presume. I
didn’t ask… I just know the names.”