Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (4 page)

A member of the Cavalry
blurred to them, “Yes, Captain?”

“Take your mare and put her in the corral
with one of the stallions.”

Jaron’s eyes grew wide, “Sir, she’s in
heat.”

“I know,” Mark said, still watching
Emily.

Jaron glanced at Kralen
before doing as he was told. Emily didn’t react or say anything.
The Cavalry slowly gathered and watched her, waiting for her to
start yelling.

“Hm, that is odd,” Mark
said. “Emily, look at me.”

Emily turned and looked at him.

“Go join the Encala.”

“Ok,” Emily said, and
headed for the gates.

“Emily, stop,” Kralen told
her, and she stopped moving.

Mark sighed, “Ok, let’s see… when did she
eat last?”

“Damn, that was
yesterday,” Kralen said.

“Ok, first things first then, Emily, go
eat,” Mark said.

Emily headed inside.

“It’s not that easy,”
Kralen said, and followed her inside. Mark thought for a moment and
then went after them. He met up with them in the dining
room.

***

Emily rolled over in the
comfortable bed and sighed. She smiled when she smelled bacon and
eggs. Opening her eyes, she sat up suddenly and looked around the
room.

“Damnit, Sotomar,” Emily
growled, and hopped out of bed. She looked around the room until
she found a robe and threw it on.

Emily slammed open the
door and stormed out of the room, followed by four Imperial
Guards.

“Can we help you, Lady
Emily?” one of the Valle guards asked.

“Yes, go jump off a
cliff,” she yelled, and ran down to the Valle’s council
chambers.

“They are in session,” the
door guard said, but she glared at him and opened the door
anyway.

“What the hell’s up with
this?” Emily yelled, walking into the trial area. There were three
heku on trial, and the entire Valle Council was in their
seats.

“Good morning,” Sotomar said, smiling.

“Don’t good morning me. Take me back.”

“Dear, we’re in a trial,” Exavior
chuckled.

Emily turned the three
heku on trial into ash without even looking at them, “There, now
you’re done. Take me back.”

“No, we feel it’s better
for the heku if you are no longer with the Equites. The Encala
agree with us,” Sotomar explained.

“What makes you think I’m not going to ash
the entire city and just walk out of here?”

“Because we have Dain.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Where is he?”

“We’re going to keep him for now, to protect
ourselves.”

“So what now? How the hell
did you even get me here? I don’t remember being drugged or
kidnapped.”

Exavior smiled, “We have
our ways, now run along. We have more trials this
morning.”

“I hate you,” Emily said, looking at
Exavior.

“I’m sure you do… guards, escort her
out.”

The four Imperial Guards
appeared and Emily followed them out, still scowling. They walked
her back up to her room and she started going through it, looking
for anything but the overly feminine dresses that Exavior ordered
when she was there before.

***

Kyle walked into the
council chambers, returning after a week-long mission. He briefly
wondered why the sounds of Dain’s screams filled the palace. No one
was in the trial area, but the Council was deep in conversation
when he sat down, “What’s going on?”

Chevalier sighed, “Emily’s gone.”

“Gone? How?” Kyle asked, frowning.

“We had four guards on her
during the Weicks trial… one of them was apparently a spy, and he
told her to ash the three others…”

Kyle sighed, “Which she
did.”

“Right, and then
disappeared. We’re pretty sure the Valle have her, but as of yet,
they aren’t talking to us.”

Quinn turned to Kyle,
“It’s more than just them having Emily. They can completely control
her. We need to prepare ourselves to be massively wiped out by
her.”

“Damn, do you want me to go?” Kyle
asked.

“We’re debating. Whomever
we send could be turned to ash immediately to prove a point,” Zohn
told him.

“The Encala are ok with the Valle having her
then?”

“We haven’t asked them.
We’re not sure they know.”

Kyle nodded, “If the Valle think that the
Encala are going to sit back and let them take control of the only
Winchester, they’re mistaken.”

“She’s not under their
control right now,” Chevalier explained. “When she’s under the
Ancient’s control, I get nothing from her. As far as I can tell…
right now she’s furious.”

***

Emily screamed when she
felt herself falling. Once her feet were on the ground, she glared
at the Imperial Guard and turned to Sotomar, “Let me
go.”

“No, and stop trying to scale down the side
of the palace, you’re going to get hurt.”

“Then give me my baby.”

“Again, no. We need to
protect ourselves.”

Emily glared at Sotomar,
and he gasped and clutched his chest as a short burst of burning
filled him. He looked up at her with furious eyes, “Do not do
that.”

“Give me my baby! I can’t
take out the city but I can ash the Council.”

“No you can’t, or you’ll
never see him again,” Sotomar said, and turned to walk into the
palace.

“Or I could just ash you,” Emily said,
following him.

Sotomar ignored her
comment and returned to the council chambers.

“The Equites are calling
again, demanding a meeting,” Exavior said. “Pushy
bunch.”

“I would imagine they
would like to speak to us. Send a delegation. We can’t have them
here,” Sotomar said, and sat down. He was still feeling the
lingering effects of Emily’s burn.

“Are you ok?” Elder Ryan
asked him.

Sotomar grinned slightly, “Just a little
burn, more of a warning.”

Exavior chuckled, “It does sting for a
bit.”

“When do you want to do it?” Ryan asked the
other Elders.

“Soon… maybe tonight. We
could just get it over with,” Sotomar suggested.

“I understand we need to show our power, but
it seems risky for her to do that amount. She was in a coma, on the
brink of death the last time she turned a large amount.”

“I know, but this isn’t
nearly the 3400 she did here. This is a lot smaller. I suspect
she’ll just sleep for a bit,” Sotomar said, and turned to the Chief
Enforcer. “Do it, now.”

The Valle’s Chief Enforcer
nodded and disappeared from the council chambers.

***

“All of them?” Quinn asked, shocked.

Kyle nodded, “Every one of
them. General Skinner didn’t have time to call for an alert. From
what I can gather, they let Emily walk right in.”

“Damnit, of course they
did,” Chevalier growled. “Alert the covens not to let her
in.”

“We’ll have a problem
doing that with Thukil,” Zohn said. “They revere her.”

“Explain what’s happening,
put out an order, no one’s to let her in.”

Kyle sighed and stood up,
“This could take a while. I’ll be back once I’ve revived
them.”

Once Kyle was gone, Zohn turned to the other
Elders, “It’s happened then… they are going to try to wipe out the
Equites.”

“It’s irritating how easily Emily can be
controlled by an ancient,” Dustin growled, still angry over her
mass ashing of his home coven.

“She’s going to be upset,”
Chevalier said. “If she remembers turning Powan to ash, they are
going to have an entirely new set of problems on their
hands.”

“Why do you suppose she’s not just turned
the Valle to ash and gotten away?” Zohn asked, frowning.

“I’m not sure. I told her
to stop ashing, but I doubt she’s listening to me.”

***

“Emily?” Sotomar said
softly. He sat down on the edge of her bed and touched her hand
softly, “Child, wake up.”

“What do the Equites do with her?” Ryan
asked, watching her sleep.

“I think they just let her sleep it
off.”

“Her eyes are blood red though, that can’t
be normal.”

“I don’t know… I’m usually
on the other end of this,” Sotomar explained, and stood up. “Let
her sleep.”

Exavior sat down on the bed and took her
hand, “You do realize she’s going to be pretty mad when she wakes
up.”

“Yes, I do,” Sotomar said, watching him
closely.

“I’ll stay here with her.”

Ryan sighed, “You know we
can’t leave you alone with her. That was part of the
deal.”

“I’m not going to hurt
her,” Exavior said, irritated. “She shouldn’t be alone.”

“Then I’ll stay. You two
go deal with the backlash from the Equites,” Sotomar said, and
moved to stand by her bed.

Exavior’s eyes narrowed,
and he blurred from the room angrily. Ryan glanced at Sotomar
before leaving.

The following evening,
Emily finally started to stir. Sotomar sat on the edge of her bed
and touched her shoulder, “Emily?”

She rolled over and looked at him, “You were
my friend.”

“I still am, Child.”

“No… no you aren’t,” she
said, and sat up slowly. Her head was pounding, and suddenly, the
attack on Powan came back to her.

Sotomar frowned, “Emily?”

“Noooo,” she whispered,
and she turned furious eyes to the Valle Elder. “You made me do
that.”

Sotomar stood up, “Yes, we did.”

Emily scrambled out of bed
and faced him in a crouch. Sotomar watched her, confused. He hadn’t
seen her display any traits of a heku before, but realized that
after almost 15 years, she managed to pick up some of
them.

“Calm down,” he said
sternly.

“Give me my baby and let me go.”

“No”

Emily flew at him and
rammed her shoulder into his stomach. He wrapped his arms around
her, spun her away from him, and held her tightly, “Stop it before
you hurt yourself.”

She lowered her head and
slammed it back into his nose. The sound of shattering bones filled
the bedroom. He growled and gripped her tighter as he
healed.

“I said stop it,” he hissed.

“They are my friends,”
Emily growled, and jabbed an elbow into his stomach.

Sotomar groaned and
tightened his grip, “Calm down, immediately.”

“Or what? You’ll make me
attack my friends again?” she yelled, and kicked backwards,
displacing his knee. Sotomar let go of her and fell back against
the wall, growling. The room suddenly filled with Imperial Guards,
and two of them tackled Emily and pinned her against the
floor.

Emily screamed angrily and
fought against them. The Council came into the room and watched her
with wide eyes.

“Are you ok, Elder?” the Chief of Defense
asked.

“I’m fine. She has quite
the temper,” Sotomar said, and straightened his shirt.

Elder Ryan knelt down
beside her, “Calm down.”

Emily tried to kick him,
but another Imperial Guard caught her leg before it connected with
his jaw.

Exavior blurred to her
side and knelt down, his voice was angry, “Stop it right now or
you’ll be punished.”

She froze, her eyes wide
as she looked at him. The Imperial Guards were still holding her
firmly to the floor. As she watched him, it became hard to breathe
and she started to panic.

“Exavior, get out,”
Sotomar growled.

Exavior reached over and
took her face painfully in his hand, “Did you hear me?”

She nodded slightly, and
Sotomar pushed Exavior from the room. The guards let go of her and
she stayed on the floor while they left and shut the door, leaving
her alone in the foreign bedroom.

“Exavior, she’s not to be
harmed,” Sotomar yelled when they got to the council
chambers.

“She’s young and needs to
learn obedience,” Exavior said, and sat down.

“Not through discipline or punishment.”

“It’s the only way. She’s
stubborn and defiant.”

“I don’t care. I don’t
want her hurt.”

“Give it time. You’ll see
what I do,” Exavior explained, and turned to the trial
area.

Emily stayed on the wooden
floor and looked up at the ceiling. She calmed the terror that grew
when Exavior threatened her, and finally was able to breathe
normally. The image filled her mind of the Powan guards smiling at
her and letting her into the coven. She shut her eyes tightly as
she remembered turning them all to ash almost instantly, unable to
stop herself.

She stayed in her room for three days,
refusing to talk to anyone, the trays of food left untouched. She
never moved from the floor and only turned away from the ceiling
when someone entered the room to talk to her.

On the evening of the third day, Sotomar
came into the room and sat down on the floor beside her, “You have
us worried.”

Emily watched him, unmoving.

“I know what you’re doing,
and we can’t allow you to wither away.”

She turned back to the
ceiling to count the holes in the tile again.