Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (44 page)

“Em…” Chevalier whispered,
and tried to take her hand. She pulled away from him and left the
council chambers.

Kralen waited until she left, “She started
having nightmares again, after the drained humans.”

“Nothing else?” Zohn asked.

“Nothing… she stayed in the living area with
Dain and didn’t speak until we arrived here.”

“48 hour pass to all from
the yacht,” Quinn said, and Kralen nodded and disappeared from the
council chambers.

“Back to our original
discussion. What do we do?” Zohn asked.

Chevalier sighed, “I’d
personally like to keep him as far away from here as we can…
however, he is a former Elder and his request isn’t unheard
of.”

“We can’t send Emily away yet, not this
soon… shall we just accept his request and then warn him to stay
away from her?”

“Except that’s why he’s
coming… back in the 17 and 1800’s he was the foremost authority on
the Winchesters. It’s only natural that he wants to study her,”
Dustin said.

“If he has to come, I
suggest Kyle mentor him here,” Quinn said, and turned to Kyle. “You
know her well. Let him know about things like bringing up her
height or calling her Child, that sort of thing.”

Kyle nodded, “Yes, Elder.”

“I will notify Camber that
he may visit,” the Court Reporter said, and left to make the phone
call.

“A new group of Cavalry
members starts in 4 days. Why don’t we tell Emily that Camber is
here to study them?” Quinn suggested. “He gets to watch her, she
gets to train, and think that Camber is merely studying the
Cavalry.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Chevalier said,
thinking. “If she finds out though.”

“True… it’ll be best if we tell her the
truth.”

“Silas?” Chevalier called
out when the Council heard Emily’s Aero leave the
garage.

“Yes, Elder?” he asked,
stepping into the council chambers.

“Where has Emily gone?”

“She won’t say, and she
wouldn’t let us go.”

“No idea at all where she might have gone?”
Quinn asked.

“No, Elder… she won’t talk
to anyone at all.”

“Camber is coming to stay for a week… please
advise all involved with guarding Emily to be wary of those two
when they are together.”

Silas nodded, “Understood.”

Chevalier picked up his phone and
dialed.

“Hello,” she said
softly.

“We’re worried about you.
Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back soon. I
needed to run an errand.”

“Where are
you?”

Emily sighed, “I’m on the way to a ferret
rescue.”

Chevalier’s eyebrows rose,
“You’re getting more?”

“No, apparently ferrets like the heku as
much as cats, he’s terrified.”

“Oh, you’re getting rid of the ferret.”

“Yes”

“Can you return and take Silas?”

“No, I won’t be long. I
love you,” she said, and hung up.

“Still not talking to me?”
Kralen asked as he followed Emily out to the pool along with three
other members of the Cavalry.

Emily shrugged.

Kralen grinned, “Be mad if you want… you
can’t stay mad for too long though.”

She stepped into the pool
room, turned and glared at Kralen, and then shut the door in his
face. He opened it and stepped in.

“Sorry, Ma’am, we’re to stay in sight of you
at all times for the next week,” one of the guards told her.

“Joy,” she mumbled, and
slipped her shoes off. There were 4 hot tubs lining the pool, and
one was designated as hers, though she wasn’t sure why. No one ever
used it, even if they had to cram into the other three. She’d
argued and complained, but still no one got into her hot
tub.

Emily walked over, aware of the eyes on her
back and flipped on the switch for the jets. She walked over and
started to step in.

“Wait!” Kralen yelled and blurred to
her.

“What?” she asked, irritated.

Kralen bent down by the hot tub and inhaled,
“Something’s not right.”

She sighed, “What do you mean? It looks
fine.”

“He’s right. I smelled it
when I came in, but wasn’t sure what it was,” another guard
said.

Kralen smelled the water from the other hot
tubs, “Something different is in yours, something with a strong
smell.”

Emily bent down and
smelled, but didn’t catch anything. She shrugged and started into
the water again, but one of the guards pulled her away. She growled
slightly and crossed her arms, waiting for the guards to let her
into the water.

One of the guards knelt
down beside the tub and stuck his hand in. He screamed and the
smell of burning flesh filled the room.

Emily’s eyes grew wide
when he fell backwards, his hand nothing more than bone and he
screamed in agony. Suddenly, there was a blur of Cavalry as they
ran into the pool area, led by Mark. Emily rushed to his side and
bent down. She wrapped a towel around his hand as the muscles very
slowly began to reform. He leaned back, eyes shut tightly, and
groaned.

“What happened?” Mark asked, watching the
guard on the ground with Emily.

“That hot tub is full of acid,” Kralen said,
shaking from how close Emily came to getting in.

Mark knelt down and
inhaled over the steaming water, and then glanced over at Emily,
“Did you get hurt?”

She shook her head. It was
obvious she was upset about it, “No, they stopped me.”

“Get the Chief Investigator,” Mark
growled.

Emily helped the guard to his feet, “Come
into the palace.”

He nodded, and she helped
him toward the palace as the guards spread out through the entire
building, searching for other problems. Emily was shaking. She’d
come very close to getting into the hot tub. By the time they got
to the palace doors, her eyes were full of tears, someone tried to
kill her again.

“What happened?” Zohn
asked, rushing down the stairs. The guard was still in excruciating
pain and Emily wasn’t able to talk.

Emily went to the closest
bed she could think of, the holding cell by the front door, and
helped the guard sit down. She pulled the towel off, and Zohn
gasped at the sight of the bones in his hand. The flesh was
creeping down slowly from his forearm, but it was agonizing and he
leaned back on the hard cot, trying to breathe.

“Mark!” Zohn called out.
The General appeared in the holding cell, “Explain
this.”

“Someone put acid into Emily’s hot tub,”
Mark said, outwardly furious.

“What!?” Chevalier roared
from behind them. Emily turned around when she heard him, and
quickly moved into his arms, burying her face in his
chest.

“We have the Chief
Investigator out, and the entire Cavalry is canvassing the
building. We’ll find out who did it,” Mark assured them.

“Did you touch it?”
Chevalier asked, and Emily shook her head against him.

“Kralen noticed an odd
smell and stopped her,” Mark explained. “This guard reached into
the water and within seconds, his hand was only bone.”

“I want to know who did
this,” Chevalier growled, and then blurred Emily up the stairs to
their room. Alone with Chevalier, Emily’s entire body began to
tremble.

“I almost stepped in.”

Chevalier nodded and sat down with her
cradled in his lap, “I know.”

“He… lost… was… bone,” she
stammered, and gripped his shirt tightly.

He nodded again, now too furious to
speak.

“Is he ok?” she asked, and
looked up at him.

Chevalier whispered toward
the door, and then turned back to her, “He will be, it’s taking a
while.”

“Will they ever stop trying to kill me?”

“No, that’s why we need your guards.”

“I don’t like when they get hurt because of
me.”

“I know, but they love
their jobs and would die for you.”

She frowned, “Why is that exactly? I’m just…
me.”

Chevalier smiled, “When
will you believe me, that you are very important to this faction.
More important than even myself?”

She shrugged.

Chevalier cocked his head slightly to the
side, “That was fast… seems they caught who did it. Do you want to
come?”

“No,” she whispered, and
crawled out of his lap. “I’m going to take that extra mare out.
She’s afraid of heku.”

“Take Silas, please.”

She nodded, “Sure, I’ll meet him in the
stables when I get changed.”

Chevalier kissed her
softly and then blurred into the council chambers. The heku knelt
down before them looked at him with terrified eyes. He knew that
Chevalier was easily the most dangerous member of the Council, and
he also knew how protective he was of his wife.

Mark and Kralen stood behind the quivering
heku and watched him angrily. The Chief Investigator was just
sitting down.

“That didn’t take long,” Quinn said to
him.

“It wasn’t on purpose,
though extremely careless… it wasn’t an attack,” he
explained.

“How do you call filling
Emily’s hot tub with acid, harmless?” Zohn asked,
frowning.

“I didn’t say harmless…
stupid is what it was,” the Investigator said. “This is Geoffrey,
and his job is to keep the outbuilding clean.”

Chevalier growled and the
heku looked up at him.

“Start talking…” the Investigator said to
him.

“It’s common… to clean hot tubs with acid, I
swear,” he finally managed to say in his defense.

“So if you were cleaning
Emily’s hot tub, there must have been signs… warnings, so she
wouldn’t get in?” Kyle asked, irritated.

“Yes! I put up a warning sign.”

Kralen slapped him on the back of the head,
“Where?”

“In… in… the dressing room… on the inside
door.”

Dustin leaned forward,
“General… Captain… when’s the last time you saw Lady Emily use
those dressing rooms?”

Mark’s hands tightened
into fists, “Never… she goes to the pool already ready, and then
puts on a robe and returns to the palace afterwards.”

“I didn’t know!” the
cleaner said frantically.

Derrick appeared in the trial area, “Camber
would like to observe.”

“Let him in,” Zohn said,
and turned back to Geoffrey when Camber stepped in and leaned
against the back wall in the shadows.

“Did you attempt to harm or kill Emily?” the
Chief Interrogator asked him.

“No! I wouldn’t do that.”

“He’s telling the truth.”

Zohn nodded, “Stupidity
will not be tolerated. You are hereby charged with attempted murder
of a member of the Council and unwarranted attacks on the
Cavalry.”

“I didn’t attack anyone or
attempt to murder the Lady,” he said pleadingly.

“You removed the flesh
from the hand of one of the Cavalry. That sounds like an
assault.”

“It was an accident.”

“Again… stupidity is no
defense. Anyone vote not-guilty on this?” Zohn asked, and looked
around. “Fine, then we will decide on a punishment.”

Before anyone could react,
Chevalier blurred to the heku, grabbed him by the neck, and
disappeared, almost instantly appearing at the interrogation room
door.

“Or we can just let the Elder handle it,”
Quinn said, grinning slightly.

“Would not want to be that heku right now,”
Dustin chuckled.

“Interesting,” Camber
said, and stepped out of the shadows. “Does the Winchester often
elicit attacks?”

“Emily… is frequently attacked, yes.”

“And not just by the Valle and Encala?”

“No, not just by them.”

Camber thought for a moment, “Is she rude,
demanding, maybe highly unkind to the heku?”

Zohn growled slightly, “No, she is not.”

“She has a great deal of
respect and loyalty to the heku. She treats us with nothing but
kindness… unless one manages to get on her bad side,” Mark said,
and glanced at Dustin.

“You then?” Camber asked Dustin.

“Yes, I fall into that category.”

“What exactly did you do to the Winchester
then?”

Dustin’s eyes narrowed, “Conflict of
personality, nothing more.”

“I see.”

“Camber… did you listen to nothing I said to
you?” Kyle asked, irritated. “She’s not ‘the Winchester’.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” he said, obviously
anything but sorry. “Where is she now?”

“She’s out on horseback
with a Captain of the Cavalry and a problem horse,” Kralen told
him.

“Might I observe?”

Kralen glanced at Zohn,
and when he nodded, Kralen sighed, “Sure, I’ll take you up
there.”

Camber smile and headed out after Kralen.
They both ignored the screams echoing through the palace from the
interrogation room.

***

“Maybe she’s a lost cause,” Silas said,
watching Emily comfort the mare.

“I don’t understand how
she’s not getting used to you,” Emily told him, and rubbed the
mare’s nose. “Let’s try again, move off about 20 feet.”

Silas nodded and moved his
horse back. Emily mounted the mare and turned her to face Silas. He
slowly inched his horse forward, and stopped only when he heard
others approach. He turned and saw Kralen stop a few feet behind
him.