Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (36 page)

“No”

“Will you at least let me see how badly
you’re injured?”

“No”

“Allen feels really bad
and he’s worried about you.”

“No”

Mark sighed and glanced at her guards, they
all just shrugged.

“We can just break the door,” one of her
guards suggested.

“No,” Mark told him. “No
heku is to enter her office, ever… besides, it’s reinforced against
us.”

“Sorry, Sir.”

“Emily,” Mark tried again.
“We really need you to come talk to the Council.”

“No,” she said, and there
was a crash against the inside of the door.

Mark thought for a moment
before returning to the council chambers. He stood beside Silas,
“She still won’t come out.”

“If you won’t banish me,
then I suggest you leave me for Dad,” Allen said.

“You really want to face your Dad over
this?” the Chief Interrogator asked.

“He won’t have a problem
punishing me like the Council is.”

“It’s not that we have a
problem doing it… we just need to come up with what. This doesn’t
warrant being killed, and we aren’t sure we can banish you,” Dustin
explained.

“How badly is she injured?” Richard asked,
looking at Mark.

“She won’t come out of her
office, but from what I saw, she had bruises forming on her neck
and cheek and a small amount of blood from the corner of her
mouth.”

“Is he an official member of Island
Coven?”

Kyle shrugged, “He’s not
been made official, though the son of the Lord of the coven would
probably warrant immediate membership.”

“Then I propose we strip him of guard rank
and send him back to his coven,” Richard said.

Allen looked down at the ground.

“All in favor?” the Court
Reporter asked, and glanced at the votes.

Richard stood up, “Allen,
it is then decided by this Council that you are to be stripped of
all guard rank associated with Council City and are to be returned
to your coven.”

Mark reached over and removed Allen’s green
cape and the rank insignia on his collar.

“I’ll take him,” Kyle
said, and unbuckled Allen’s handcuffs. He helped Allen to his feet
and both left for Island Coven on Equites 2.

“Notify his Commander,”
Richard said to Mark. Mark and Silas both bowed slightly and
blurred from the trial area.

“Sir,” Derrick said,
stepping into the trial area. “We have a coven in revolt. I’ll put
the line through.”

Richard sighed, “Perfect,
we have no Cavalry… send it in.”

Derrick nodded, and a few
seconds later, the Council’s phone rang.

“Council,” Richard said,
and cringed slightly at the frantic sounds of fighting.

“We need help out here!” a furious voice
said. “Tell Elder Zohn the coven is in revolt, they are rioting in
the compound, 27 have been killed… and…”

The line was suddenly cut off.

“Derrick!” Richard called out.

“Yes, Chief Interrogator?”

“What coven was that?”

“Elder Zohn’s Coven, Sir.”

“Coven information?” Richard asked the
Record Keeper.

The heku blurred away and
returned with a file, “Coven of approximately 391 located in the
Appalachian Mountains in Alabama.”

Richard turned to the
others, “We don’t have a Cavalry, and our city guards aren’t
trained for re-taking hostile covens.”

“Emily is,” Dustin said,
and then the others looked at him he continued. “She’s done it
before and she is a member of the Cavalry.”

“Elder Zohn tried to send her on a mission
without Chevalier or Quinn’s approval once, it didn’t turn out
well.”

“But to that mission, she
said no… I suggest we ask her.”

“Mark, Silas…” Richard
called out, and turned to them when they entered. “We have a coven
revolting, just under 400 of them and some are dead already. Please
ask Emily if she can help and then gather what’s left of the
Cavalry.”

“Right away,” Mark said,
and he went to talk to Emily while Silas went to get Jaron and
Kralen, the only other members of the Cavalry left behind in
Council City.

Mark knocked on Emily’s office.

“Go away,” she said to him.

“Em, there’s a problem... we need your
help.”

There was a pause, “What kind of
problem?”

“The Cavalry’s gone with
the Elders… Silas, Jaron, Kralen and I are all that’s left. We have
a coven revolting and they are killing members.”

Her door opened slightly, “They are killing
members of their own coven?”

“Yes, it’s Zohn’s coven…
we really need your help on this. The four of us are heading out,
but it won’t turn out well, us against 400,” Mark told
her.

“Are you lying to get me out of my
office?”

“No, we really need your help.”

Emily sighed, “Meet me at my helicopter in
20 minutes.”

Mark nodded and
disappeared. He blurred into the council chambers, “She agreed,
we’re heading out in Winchester 1 in 20.”

Dustin gasped, “She agreed to go?”

“Yes”

Richard smiled, “Good, then we won’t need to
call in Powan for this.”

The four members of the
Cavalry met up with Emily at the helicopter. She was in uniform
with her .45 in its holster. They all crawled in, and Mark gave
directions to the pilot and they were soon heading off.

“Zohn’s Coven is located
on the shore of Lake Guntersville, outside of Scottsboro, Alabama.
There are 391 registered members, and as far as we know, 27 of
those are now dead. We don’t know what’s causing the problem, we
just know they are out of control,” Mark said during the
briefing.

“What am I allowed to do?” Emily asked.

“I hate that we don’t know what we’re
getting in to… if it gets too bad, ash them all and we’ll sort it
out later.”

Emily nodded.

“We’ll land outside of the
cement walls and see what we find. Stay behind us, Em, and we’ll
try to clear it out so you can take over. I hope it works like
Michael’s coven and they freeze when they see you.”

“Not a clue what the fighting is over?”
Silas asked.

“Nope, the phone call was cut short, we
really have no idea.”

Emily curled up on the
couch in the helicopter and watched out the window as the clouds
turned gray. They heard the pilot call out the 5 minute warning
just as lightning and thunder started.

“I’ll have to carry you.
We’re still about 5 miles away,” Mark told her.

“I can run 5 miles.”

Mark grinned, “Not fast enough, sorry.”

Emily started to get sick
to her stomach when they landed. The five of them running into an
unknown environment made her nervous, and she dreaded the
possibility of turning 400 heku to ash and then having to face Zohn
afterwards. They stepped off the helicopter in a torrential
rainstorm and were immediately completely soaked.

Mark picked Emily up in a
cradle and began to blur toward the coven. His speed made the
raindrops turn into hard pellets that stung when they landed
against her. She buried her face in his shoulder to keep them off
of her, and pulled the cape around her. Finally, he set her down
and she saw Silas and Jaron knelt down, peering around a rock
outcropping.

“There are two guards,”
Silas said. “Still standing at the front gates. I would imagine
Zohn would have more than 2 normally though.”

“I just wonder if they’re
friendly,” Mark said. “From the sounds of it, that’s one nasty riot
going on inside.”

“So how do we get past them? Want Silas and
I to take them out?” Jaron asked.

“Oh for hell’s sake,”
Emily said, and before they realized what she was doing, she
stepped out of the cover and walked up toward the gate.

“That’s one way I guess,” Mark chuckled.
“Let her approach them first.”

They watched as she walked up to the
guards.

“Turn around, mortal… get your ass out of
here,” one of the guards said.

“You will address me as
Commander or I’ll have your head,” Emily growled at him.

“I’ll not address you as anything but
Sweetheart, now get out of here before I make you.”

“Fine then,” Emily said,
and the two guards turned to ash. She was soon joined by Mark,
Silas, Kralen, and Jaron.

Silas frowned, “Did you notice their guard
uniforms didn’t fit?”

Emily nodded, “Yeah, I saw
that… one had high-waters.”

“Jaron, Silas, hold the entrance… don’t let
anyone through,” Mark said.

“Yes, Sir,” they both told
him, and fell into position.

“Let’s get in there.
There’s a fountain in the middle of the coven… I’ll blur you there
and we’ll see if they will stop when you talk,” Mark said to Emily.
She felt her feet leave the ground and she was soon standing on the
edge of the fountain, which put her almost on an even level with
the heku.

“Hey!” Emily yelled, and
some of the sounds of fighting slowed. “I had to bring my ass all
the way here from Council City, so if you aren’t lined up in nice
little rows by the fountain in 30 seconds… I’ll turn you all to ash
and let Zohn sort through this!”

“They don’t listen to
anyone but me, Gorgeous,” a heku said from behind her. She and Mark
both turned and came face-to-face with a grinning heku in a torn
guard uniform.

“And who might you be?” Emily asked.

“I’m the new leader of
this coven, and I suggest you stop threatening us and get your
asses out of here.”

“No,” Emily said, and he
fell to ash. She turned, “There… now I’ve turned your new leader to
ash and no one’s lined up… so let me introduce myself… my name is
Emily Winchester… now you know… so turning you all to smoldering
piles in 3…”

A few timid heku appeared
and started to form rows.

“2!” she shouted.

More started to appear,
unsure what to do, but when they saw Emily and the Council City
heku standing beside her, word soon got out that she wasn’t kidding
about turning them all to ash.

“1!” Emily yelled, and
there was a mass of blurring as the others joined in.

“How many are there?”
Emily asked Kralen.

“I see 333.”

“We’re missing quite a few then.”

“Hold them here. I’ll do a
quick sweep of the compound,” Mark said.

Emily smiled at the ones gathered, “Hold
tight, we’ll sort through things in a second.”

After almost 10 minutes,
Mark returned, “I didn’t find anyone. They are all
here.”

Emily frowned and pointed at a shy looking
heku on the end of the first row, “You, come here.”

He walked forward and Emily noticed he was
almost a foot shorter than Mark.

“There should be 391 of
you, correct?”

“Well… 390 when the
Elder’s gone.”

“Right, and 27 were killed? That means we’re
missing 30.”

“You’ve turned 3 to ash,” Mark reminded
her.

“Oh, that’s right… so we’re missing another
27?”

“Dead,” another heku said.

“Get back in line,” Emily
said to the one in front of her and he returned to the line. “I
turned your leader to ash. Who’s next in line?”

A tall, muscular woman stepped forward,
“That’d be me.”

“Come here,” Emily said to
her. She stayed on the edge of the fountain where she was closer to
their height. The woman stepped forward. She stood as tall as Mark
and had a thick neck and broad shoulders. “Who are you?”

“Sheryl,” she said
seethingly.

“Ok, Sheryl, what caused
all of this?” Emily asked.

“I don’t think that’s any concern of
yours.”

“Oh, I think it is… I was
sent here to clean this mess up and I want to know what it is I’m
doing it for.”

“This coven no longer
belongs to Zohn, so I suggest you back away and let us
be.”

Emily shrugged and turned the woman to ash,
“She wasn’t very helpful.”

Mark put a hand against her back when she
swayed slightly.

“This was quite the fight,
which tells me that some of you don’t agree with the new
leadership… if you are still loyal to Zohn, form a line behind me…
the others can stay where they are.”

***

“Seems quiet around here,”
Zohn said when they stepped into the palace. They knew there would
be no guards to meet them, other assignments were given when the
Cavalry left with them. The Cavalry followed the Elders down to the
council chambers.

Derrick glanced at them
nervously, “The Council is waiting for you.”

“Very well,” Quinn said,
and the Elders headed around back. They heard Derrick tell the
Cavalry to stay and glanced at each other before walking in and
taking their seats.

“What’s going on that has everyone so
tense?” Chevalier asked, turning to Richard.

Richard glanced at Kyle and then back to
Chevalier, “There have been a few problems with… well… first off,
your family.”

“Such as?”

Richard turned to Kyle again and he spoke,
“Em caught Allen kissing his girlfriend, Miri… she turned Miri to
ash and then began to drag Allen into the palace by his ear.”

“Oh God,” Chevalier
sighed.

“Then they got into a bit
of a fight… he strangled her, she burned him, he backhanded
her…”