Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (64 page)

Chevalier walked around,
looking at the ground, “No blood… nothing.”

“I don’t see any sign of
the guards either,” Dustin said, returning from a run in wolf
form.

“Tell us again,” Chevalier
said, and turned to Jaron.

“Silas said they were
getting followed by four black Yukons, two silver Jaguars, and two
black ones. They told me they were passing mile marker 322 and were
being boxed in.”

“Why not go off-road?”
Dustin asked. “There’s plenty of field out there to leave the
others in the dust.”

“My guess is Emily’s
back,” Kyle told him. “They wouldn’t risk permanently injuring
her.”

“But who takes the guards with them?” Jaron
asked, frustrated. “I knew I should have gone.”

“It wouldn’t have
mattered. If those vehicles were full, that’s 43 heku,” Dustin
said, and looked around.

“Damnit, why didn’t she
ash them?” Kyle asked. “She can ash 43 in her sleep.”

Jaron sighed, “Mark’s always told us that if
we’re attacked, to first tell Emily not to turn anyone to ash.”

“Why?” Kyle yelled.

“I told them to,”
Chevalier said, and began going through the Jeep. “I don’t want her
doing that anymore… though normally I can’t stop her.”

The Chief Investigator came out of the
nearby trees, “There was no struggle, but I see signs that three
bodies were lying here on the ground.”

Chevalier got out of the
Jeep and walked over to see what the Chief Investigator was looking
at.

“There are lots of
footprints here too. If I had to guess, the guards were
incapacitated and taken with her.”

Chevalier growled, “Let’s
get back. I want to be there if anyone calls.”

He got into the Jeep and
sped back to Council City with the others following in his Humvee.
He screeched to a halt in the parking garage and then blurred into
the council chambers.

“Nothing so far. No word
at all but we’ve alerted the Valle and Encala,” Zohn told
him.

***

Emily could feel her back
aching badly and the hard surface she was lying on was making it
worse. She felt life coming back into her body and she was able to
move slightly, though her legs had painful stabs running down them
from her back.

“Emily?” she heard Mark
say. His voice sounded like he was calling from down a long
tunnel.

“Mark…” she finally managed to whisper.

“Open your eyes, Em,” he
said softly.

She fought and finally got
her eyes open, and looked around at the gray walls and ceiling when
her eyes adjusted, “Where are we?”

“Ferus custody,” Silas
said angrily.

“Can you move?” Mark asked her.

She shifted slightly and cried out as her
back spasmed and sent excruciatingly painful stabs down her arms
and legs.

“Ok, ok, don’t,” he whispered.

Emily fought to relax and
her back finally relented, though it continued to ache.

“Kralen?”

“I’m here too,” he said, obviously
furious.

“What do they want?”

“We’re not sure,” Mark told her. “They
haven’t said anything to us.”

“If you can, get out a
message to Chevalier that it’s the Ferus,” Silas told her. She shut
her eyes and concentrated. Hundreds of miles away, Chevalier froze
and a low growl erupted from deep within him.

The cell door opened, but
Emily couldn’t see who walked in, turning even a little caused
pain.

“Time for lunch, Sweetheart,” a gruff voice
said. Emily watched as the heku came into view. He was dirty and
covered in tattoos and vicious scars. He grinned down at her and
then set the tray at her side.

“I’m not eating,” she told him.

He ran his eyes over her, “Look at that
body.”

Emily frowned, “Go away.”

“Leave her alone!” Silas
growled when the heku knelt down beside her.

“What’s wrong, Princess?
Never seen a real heku?” he asked, and gently ran his hand along
the vein in her neck.

She pushed his hand away, “Get away from
me.”

“I like’em feisty,” he
said, and bent down to press his lips hard against hers. She pushed
against him with her hands, but he wouldn’t move.

Emily finally managed to
shift her face away from his, but exposed her neck in the process.
He ran his dry, cracked tongue up the throbbing vein and then
looked at her face as he began to unbutton her shirt.

“Leave her alone!” Mark
yelled, and Emily heard the heku guards struggling to free
themselves.

“I guess I’ll get me a
piece of this before we have to kill you,” he said, and
grinned.

“Stop it,” another heku
said angrily. “You know good and well she don’t belong to
you.”

He ran his fingertips lightly along the top
edge of her bra, “He won’t even know.”

“Yes he will you idiot, now get out of
here,” the other yelled.

“I guess you’re right,” he
said, and kissed her again. He looked down into her eyes, “You’re
missing out, Gorgeous.”

“Get out of here,” the
heku at the door ordered, and the one on the floor stood up and
disappeared.

Emily quickly re-buttoned
her shirt with shaking hands, then covered her face with her hands
and fought back the tears.

“Em,” Mark said
softly.

She took a deep breath and lowered her
hands, “Where are you?”

“Right behind you. We’re
shackled to the wall.”

Emily braced herself and
flipped quickly onto her stomach, crying out when the movement sent
painful stabs down her back and legs. She rested her head against
the floor until the pain stopped, and then looked up. Mark, Silas,
and Kralen were all sitting beside one another up against the wall
with their hands shackled at their backs.

“What are the restraints made of?” she
asked, watching their furious faces.

“Just iron, but if we move it connects a
circuit and electrifies them,” Silas explained.

“Can I get them off of you?”

“I don’t think so, and if you connected the
circuit it could kill you.”

“Who were they talking about? Those heku
mentioned I belonged to someone.”

Mark shook his head, “We don’t know.”

She laid her head against the cool cement,
“How long have we been here?”

“Four days.”

“Tell me what Yisolatara
is,” Emily said softly.

“What good would that do?”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“You don’t know that,” Kralen told her.

“It has to be, just tell me what I’m up
against, please.”

Mark sighed, “We can’t, we don’t really
know.”

She looked up, “You are all afraid of a word
and you don’t know what it means?”

“We know what the outcome
is, and that’s enough… We know that it was banned by the ancients,
so it has to be worse than anything we’ve encountered,” Mark
explained.

“What’s the outcome?”

“It’s…” Silas started.

“No,” Mark growled. “You’ll be
banished.”

“So what? Maybe she’s
right. At least we have to tell her what’s going to happen. It’s
only right.”

“No, it’s not going to
happen. There are probably 20 heku alive today that know how to
perform it, and those heku are well respected and honor the ban by
the ancients.”

The door suddenly slammed open and four heku
stepped in. One handed Emily a glass of orange juice, “Drink
it.”

She looked down at the drink, “I’m not
thirsty.”

“Do it or we’ll kill one of your
guards.”

“Emily, no! Don’t drink it, they can kill
us,” Mark growled.

Silas screamed as one of the purple clad
heku sunk a dagger into his stomach and cut open his chest, “I’ll
remove his heart… it’s slow and painful.”

She grabbed the straw and quickly drank the
entire glass.

“That’s a good girl,” he
said, and pulled the dagger out of Silas.

“No… Emily…” Mark said
sadly.

She frowned, “That’s… salty.”

“Won’t matter in a few
minutes, Sweetheart,” the heku said, and watched as she slowly
relaxed and fell asleep.

“Where are you taking her?” Mark
growled.

“To do what she’s here
for… you’ll know soon enough when she kills you,” he said, and two
of them took Emily’s arms and roughly dragged her out of the
room.

“Oh my God, they are doing
it,” Kralen gasped.

Mark watched the door, speechless.

“The… the factions will have to kill her,”
Silas said, his voice cracking slightly.

“We’ll be dead,” Kralen
told him sadly.

“She may be dead before it
ends,” Mark said, and his eyes fell to the floor.

Emily was fully aware what
was going on, but she couldn’t move her body or speak. Her back was
screaming as the heku dragged her down a flight of stairs and into
a round ceremonial room, one with the familiar runes etched into
the walls. They laid her down on the cold, damp floor and secured
her feet together and then anchored them to the floor. Her arms
were lifted above her head and fastened, leaving her in a Y shape.
She could see the red painted runes on the ceiling and tried to
scream, but nothing came out.

An angry looking heku
looked down at her, “Now it begins… he said the first stage was
starvation. She’ll be here for seven days with no food or water.
He’ll give us further instructions when that’s over. For now… we
wait and keep her drugged up. He says she has to be conscious
though, so keep with what we’ve already used.”

“Can she turn us to ash though?”

“He doesn’t think so. He
thinks she’d need control of her body to do that.”

“She’s done, bring in the three she’s close
to,” one of the heku said, checking the tightness of the
restraints.

“Right away, Sir,” someone
said, and blurred from the room.

Mark, Silas, and Kralen
were all wrestled into the room and restrained high above the
floor. They were situated where they could easily watch what was
being done to Emily, but each knew their purpose and they wouldn’t
live to tell anyone.

As soon as the door was shut, Mark looked
down at Emily, “Em… can you hear me?”

She tried to answer him,
but couldn’t move her mouth.

“If you can hear me… do it, ash this entire
place, us included… do it now,” Mark urged.

Emily couldn’t tell him
she’d already tried. She could concentrate, and it felt right, like
it was happening, but no one was turning to ash.

“Tell Chevalier the word, Emily… scream it
at him if you can,” Silas told her. “He has to know what’s
happening.”

Emily decided it was worth
a shot. She concentrated and screamed ‘Yisolatara’ in her mind as
loudly as she could.

***

All across the planet,
‘old ones’ heard the forbidden word in their minds, a word that
sent shivers up their spines. They glanced nervously at any heku
near them to ascertain if they all heard it, but the rooms remained
silent, as if no one beyond their ‘old one’ senses heard the most
prohibited of words screamed.

Chevalier jerked and looked around, wide
eyed.

“Elder?” Kyle asked, looking over at
him.

Sotomar, standing down in
the trial area, took a fast step back, as if suddenly hit in the
chest. Exavior put his hand out to steady him, “Elder?”

Chevalier stood up, “Did you all hear
that?”

“Hear what?” Zohn asked, looking up.

“I heard nothing,” William
said, and frowned, then glanced at Sotomar.

Sotomar nodded and
whispered, “Yes.”

“Well I didn’t hear anything,” Frederick
growled.

“Is it just the ‘old ones’ in the room
then?” Quinn asked.

Sotomar looked up at Chevalier, his eyes
wide, “It’s happening isn’t it?”

Chevalier nodded, “I think so.”

Quickly, Sotomar grabbed his cell phone and
dialed, “Alton, did you just…”

There was a pause while the others
listened.

The Valle Elder nodded, “Yes.”

“What’s going on?” Exavior yelled.

“Shut up until he finishes,” Valle Elder
Ryan hissed at him.

Sotomar shut his phone and
looked up at Chevalier, “Alton is an ‘old one’, he leads one of our
covens in Bangladesh… he heard it also.”

“Heard what, exactly?”
Zohn asked, and turned to Chevalier.

Sotomar nodded, “We might as well.”

“Emily just screamed Yisolatara,” Chevalier
whispered. The room filled with angry gasps and surprise that the
Elder spoke the word.

Sotomar sighed, “They need 3 of her closest
friends.”

Chevalier sat down and rested his head in
his hands, “They have her 3 closest guards… I didn’t even imagine
what that meant… I couldn’t figure out why they took the
guards.”

Quinn finally gained his composure, “Did…
did she say more? Like where she is?”

“No, just a single word
that rang out to those of us with ancient’s blood,” Sotomar told
him. His shoulders were sunken and his eyes downtrodden.

Zohn turned to Chevalier,
“No more forbidden word. We need to know everything that we’re
dealing with now that it’s happening.”

“It may not be happening,” Frederick said.
“She may just be questioning…”

“It’s happening. How she
said it was too personal,” Sotomar told him.