Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (43 page)

“Ew,” he said, and
wrinkled his nose.

“Not ew, he’s cute.”

“Tinky,” Dain said, and
moved away from the cage.

“No it’s not stinky. I
just cleaned it.”

“I beg to differ,” Kralen said from the
stairs.

Emily knelt on the couch
to look out the window when she heard thunder, “Damnit, I hate
storms.”

“Do something fun, get your mind off of
it.”

She smiled, “Poker?”

Kralen shrugged, “Poker’s no fun with 2 of
us.”

“Do you four know how to play?” she asked
the stiff guards.

“Affirmative, Commander,”
the blond answered.

“Come play then. It’ll be
fun,” she said, and pulled out a deck of cards.

“Sorry, Ma’am, this is a
mission. We can’t play games.”

“It’s not strip poker, now
sit down, and play,” she said, and sat down at the table to
shuffle. Kralen chuckled and sat beside her, and then looked up at
the unmoving Powan guards.

“I think that was an
order,” he said, and the guards all moved to the table.

“Hmm, what are we going to
use as a wager?” Emily asked, still shuffling. She winced slightly
when thunder cracked above them.

“Guard hours,” one of them
said, and smiled.

“I can’t work guard
hours,” Emily said. “What will I use?”

“We have cleaning hours too, the
barracks.”

“Ok… but what do I
win?”

“Babysitting?”

“Deal, Kralen, cut the
deck.”

Emily got up and grabbed a
bag of spaghetti. She handed each player eight pieces to represent
a guard hour.

Kralen sighed, “I don’t think the Elder
would like it if you clean the barracks.”

“He won’t care… come on, cut it.”

Kralen shrugged and cut the deck.

“Blondie, what are we
playing?”

“5-card draw,” he said,
and then glanced at Kralen. “Will we log these hours?”

“Yes, we will,” he said,
and chuckled. “It was an order.”

“Ok, Sir, are we to let her win?” the guard
asked Kralen, too low for Emily to hear.

“Not a chance,” Kralen
whispered back, and watched as Emily dealt each player 5
cards.

Everyone shifted their cards and then Emily
turned to Kralen, “You’re up.”

“I’m opening with 3,”
Kralen said, and slid 3 pieces of spaghetti across the
table.

The guard beside him
thought, and then slid 3 pieces forward, “Call.” Everyone else
called and slid 3 pieces of spaghetti forward.

“How many, Kralen?” Emily
asked, and handed him two cards when he asked. She went around the
table and gave each guard the cards they asked for.

Kralen grinned, “Opening with another
1.”

“Fold,” the guard next to
him said, and laid the cards down.

“Raise 1,” the next guard
said, and slid 2 more onto the pile.

The next guard looked
around at everyone’s face, and then slid 2 spaghetti onto the
pile.

“Fold,” the next said.

Emily thought and then smiled, “Call it at
2.”

Kralen showed his cards.
He had three of a kind with Queens.

“Ouch,” the guard said,
and then grinned, “But not enough… full house, 2’s and
Jacks.”

Everyone looked at Emily and she shook her
head, “Damn… I only have a flush.”

“Ooooh yeah,” the winning
guard cheered, and pulled the spaghetti toward him.

Five hours later, one
guard held almost all of the spaghetti and the last round was just
ending.

“Fold,” Emily said, and
laid her cards down.

“Open with 2,” Kralen told them.

“Fold”

“Fold”

“Fold”

“Calling 2,” the guard by Emily said.

“Show’em,” Emily told them.

“Flush, aces high,” Kralen
said, and showed his cards.

“Damn, flush jack’s high,”
said the guard, and Kralen collected his spaghetti.

“Back to work,” Kralen
told them, and the four guards disappeared up the stairs and were
soon replaced by four different ones.

Emily smiled and started picking up the
cards, “Thanks… that was fun.”

“Won’t be when Chevalier catches you
cleaning the barracks.”

“Oh he won’t care. He
knows I have small betting issues.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“Yup,” she said, laughing. “He better get
used to it, I owe 6 hours of cleaning.”

“Yeah well I owe 2 hours
of guard duty, and I’m not even assigned to the city like they
are.”

“Nice,” Emily said, and
wiped down the table.

“We get to go back
tomorrow and it’s supposed to be sunny out,” Kralen said, and
started up the stairs.

Emily shooed the guards to
the top of the stairs and got herself and Dain ready for bed. Once
she was tucked in bed, two guards moved to the living area and shut
off the lights. She tossed and turned. Every time she shut her
eyes, the image of those 17 dead bodies filled her mind. Her
screams pierced the night as she cried out in her sleep. They
became bad enough that Kralen sat beside her on the bed so he could
touch her arm when she began to get upset.

She woke up early the next
morning to the sound of another boat approaching. She looked up and
her guards weren’t by the door. Dain was already on the floor
playing, so she snuck up the stairs and listened by the
door.

“Why are you following
us?” Kralen growled angrily.

“We’re out looking for
anything suspicious, and look what we found… Equites…” a voice
gruff voice said.

“Yeah you found us. Now
get lost.”

“I think not, prepare to be boarded.”

“You have no right to board this boat.”

“You’re outnumbered, that give us a right. I
want to know why the Equites are out on a leisurely cruise… that’s
more something the Valle would do.”

“What we’re doing is none of your business,”
Kralen said, angrier.

“As Encala, we have a
right to know everything the enemy is doing… again, we’re
boarding.”

Emily stepped out onto the
deck, still in her nightgown, and faced Frederick, the Encala’s
Chief Enforcer, “Freddy, are you causing problems?”

Frederick gasped, “We didn’t know you were
on board.”

“Doesn’t matter if I am or not, seems to me
you’re being a pain in the ass.”

“Winchester or not, we’re
on orders to stop any ship we find.”

Emily’s eyes raged,
“Including helpless mortals. Decided to drain 17 of them did
you?”

Frederick’s eyes narrowed, “We did no such
thing.”

Emily held a hand out, “Phone.”

One of the guards handed
her a cell phone, and she dialed while the others watched
her.

“Let me talk to William,” she said,
irritated.

Frederick watched her carefully.

“Don’t give me any lip! This is Emily.”

She rolled her eyes,
“William… I’m at a bit of a stand-off with your Chief Enforcer. I
suggest you tell them to leave us the hell alone, or you’ll have a
boat load of ash and no one to revive them.”

“Heku tradition says you
can’t hurt me,” Frederick said haughtily.

“Yeah, that’s what he just
said, and I want you to name one heku tradition that I haven’t
broken yet,” Emily said, and grinned when Frederick shifted
nervously.

There was a pause and then
Emily spoke again, “One other thing… 17 mortals out on a boat were
drained by the Encala. What are you going to do about
that?”

She nodded, “I better not find out any
different.”

Frederick sighed and glanced at the heku
next to him.

“Fine,” she said, and hung
up, then handed the phone back to the guard.

The Encala all looked up
when their radio sounded. Emily couldn’t hear what was being said,
but knew the rest could.

Frederick glared at her, “You’ll pay for
that.”

“Bring it on, Freddy,”
Emily yelled.

“Stand down,” Kralen
ordered when a few of the guards started to advance on the
Encala.

“Get us out of here,”
Frederick said, and the Encala ship moved away quickly.

“Bring it on?” Kralen
asked, turning angrily to Emily.

Emily sighed and walked down into the living
area to make coffee.

“She called the Encala Elder on my phone,”
the blond guard told Kralen.

“Yeah, I saw that… I’ll
let the Council know,” Kralen said, and headed down after her.
“What’s with picking a fight with the Encala?”

“I wasn’t picking a fight.”

“Sounded like it… saying ‘Bring it on’ to
Frederick is dangerous.”

“I can handle them, should have ashed them
all.”

“No, you should have stayed below where you
belong and let us handle it.”

Emily turned to Kralen, “Where’s this coming
from? You always let me do whatever I want.”

“Not when I’m in charge and you’re about to
get us all killed.”

“Oh, sorry,
Captain…”

Kralen turned and walked up the stairs,
“Stay down here, that’s an order.”

***

The line of guards to the helicopter ended
with the Elders by the door.

“Welcome back,” Zohn said,
and smiled.

“Thanks,” Emily mumbled, obviously not happy
about something.

“What is that?” Quinn
asked when one of the guards pulled a large cage out of the
helicopter.

“He’s mine,” she told him,
and started down the stairs without another word to
anyone.

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Was there a
problem?”

“A couple,” Kralen said. “I’m ready to give
a full report.”

“I guess we should make it
official. Let’s go to the council chambers,” Zohn said.

“I’ll meet you there,”
Chevalier told him, and blurred down to his room. He shut the door
and looked over at Emily as she unpacked, “What
happened?”

Emily ran into his arms and buried her face
in his chest.

“Next time there’s a
turning, I’ll go to my own house, by myself,” she said, and wrapped
her arms around him.

Chevalier sighed, “Did you get into a fight
with the guards.”

“Just one of them.”

“Kralen?”

Emily shrugged.

“Over what?”

“Telling Frederick to ‘Bring it on’.”

“When did you see Frederick?” Chevalier
asked, confused.

“Out on the water after they drained 17
mortals,” she explained.

“Come, I want to hear this briefing and you
should be there.”

“I don’t want to. I want
to get on my horse and head out alone.”

“For me,” he asked, and
kissed the top of her head.

“Fine, let me change and I’ll be down.”

Chevalier nodded and
blurred to the council chambers. He sat down and sighed, “She’ll be
right down. From the sounds of it, I want her here.”

A few minutes later, Emily
came in dressed for riding, with her hair pulled up into her cowboy
hat and as she sat down, she slipped on her riding
gloves.

“Going out?” Quinn asked.

“Yes… alone.”

He sat back in his chair and turned to
Kralen, “We’re ready for a full report.”

“Other than the storm, the first day went
smoothly,” Kralen started. “Nothing happened until the next day
when I received an unmanned S.O.S. We followed it to a boat adrift
out at sea. I headed up the stairs and gave strict instructions for
everyone else to stay onboard Emily 2.”

“He means me,” Emily said, irritated.

“I didn’t find anything up
on the top decks but heard a scream below. That’s when I realized
Emily followed me and started her own inspection. She somehow
managed to fall into 17 dead mortals… all drained and covered in
the distinct smell of Encala.”

Unaware of what she was doing, Emily wrapped
her arms around herself and leaned forward a bit.

“Fell into them?” Zohn asked her.

She nodded.

“Emily found a new pet,
and after supplies were taken, I burned the boat to hide any
evidence,” Kralen said.

“Pet?” Chevalier asked.

Emily didn’t answer. She
just stared down at the desk.

“Ok… then what?” Zohn asked when it became
quiet.

“Storms again that night
but nothing happened… until the next morning when I saw a boat
approaching. It was a larger class boat, and there was no way we
could outrun it, so I dropped anchor and they pulled alongside us.
It was the Encala being led by Frederick.”

Kralen glanced at Emily
and then continued, “They were insisting on coming aboard until
Emily appeared, but that didn’t stop them. The next thing I knew…
Lady Emily was on the phone with William.”

“The Encala Elder?” Dustin asked,
shocked.

“Yes, he pretty much
agreed to stand down, and told the ship’s Captain as much.
Frederick told Emily she’d pay for that, and she told him to ‘Bring
it on’,” Kralen told them, still angry. “Luckily, Frederick decided
not to defy his Elders, and they left.”

“You picked a fight with the Encala’s Chief
Enforcer?” Kyle asked, frowning.

“Yes, I did,” Emily told him.

“That’s pretty dangerous.”

“So I’ve heard… I’ve
already gotten reamed by Kralen, and then he pulled rank and
grounded me,” Emily said, and stood up. “So you all can just sit
here and bitch about me all day, I’m going out alone.”