Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (89 page)

Emily nodded and turned back to Sotomar.

“Do you have a penis?” Dain asked him.

Sotomar’s eyes grew wide and Emily covered
Dain’s mouth with her hand, “Sorry… so what’s going on?”

“This is no concern of yours and I feel like
you being here will only endanger your life,” Sotomar growled, his
eyes never leaving Zohn’s.

“How so?”

“You’d be stupid to
attack,” Zohn said, ignoring Emily’s question. “You know you’re not
nearly as strong as we are.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re
attacking in 2 hours.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Attacking who?”

Zohn looked over at her, “Council City.”

“Why?”

Sotomar hissed, “Thukil
Coven bought property to extend their land, but it’s too close to
one of our large covens and this Council won’t
intervene.”

“Why should they? Seems to me that Thukil
can buy whatever land they want.”

“Not when it comes near us!” Sotomar
yelled.

“If I ash him, will they still attack?”
Emily asked, turning to Zohn.

“Yes, they will.”

“In 2 hours,” Sotomar
said, and then he turned and left, followed by the Imperial
Guards.

“We’re safe right, not outnumbered?” Emily
asked.

Dustin looked concerned,
“No, we aren’t even a full Council and there’s no Cavalry left
except the 8 that stayed to watch you. Two Elders and our Chief
Enforcer, Interrogator, Investigator, Reporter and Records Keeper
are gone… there are over 4,000 Valle out there.”

Emily glanced down at the
six remaining members of the Council, “What are we going to
do?”

“There’s no we, you are leaving,” Zohn told
her.

“Why?”

“You know why… we can’t
have you here if this goes bad. We’ve called in Powan, Samuel,
Carlsons, and Scotts Covens, but that’s not enough… Thukil is on
the way, but will be about 2 hours late.”

“Then don’t send me away, damnit! Don’t do
this again, let me help.”

“We can’t and you know it,” Dustin told
her.

Emily turned to Zohn, “Let
me even up the numbers, at least take out Sotomar and their
Generals or something. I can’t sit around while you all fight
again, I need this…”

“No,” Zohn told her and
took her hand. “We can’t let you fight this, this is going to be
nasty.”

“Then let me call in
William. He can get the Encala here in two hours.”

“We can’t bring in the Encala, that would
automatically align us.”

“I need to be useful,” she
whispered, and looked down at her hands. “Wen was right, everything
he said was right, and I need this. Let me help.”

“He was not right!” Kralen growled.

“Zohn, let me help, please don’t send me
away.”

“Sir,” Derrick said,
stepping in. “We need to get the Council out of here, the Valle are
moving into position.”

Zohn nodded, “Everyone out.”

The Council stood up and
looked over at Emily, “Don’t do this.”

“I’m staying,” Zohn told
them. “There are still two Elders safe.”

“I want to stay, to fight with Powan,”
Dustin told them.

“Zohn…”

Zohn looked over at
Kralen, “The Cavalry…” he sighed. “The Cavalry will protect the
palace. If we can’t stop them, then it will be the Cavalry’s
responsibility to stop them from seizing the palace.”

“Yes, Elder,” Kralen said,
and grinned.

“Zohn…” Emily said, looking at him.

Zohn looked over at Dustin and then nodded,
“You too, Emily, keep them out of the palace.”

Emily gasped, surprised, “Thank you.”

“Council out, take Alexis and Dain with you…
Dustin… let’s go to the front lines.”

Emily ran out of the room
and helped Dain and Alexis quickly pack essentials and then she
watched as they left with the Council in Equites 2.

“Get in uniform and meet
us on the third-floor balcony,” Kralen told her, visibly angry that
she wasn’t leaving.

“Kralen,” she whispered,
and touched his arm. “It’s ok. I can stop them from taking the
palace.”

“You are letting what Wen said drive you to
danger.”

“No, I’m not, he was
right. All I do is get into trouble and fight the Council… it’s
time I did something useful.”

“It’s too dangerous. There
are only 8 of the Cavalry here in the palace with you. If the Valle
storm it, we can’t protect you.”

“Then let me protect you, for once.”

He grinned slightly, “That’s not how things
work.”

“Why do you keep coming after me?”

“We’re your guards…”

“No… tell me why you, not
the Cavalry, why do you come after me? Why would you die to protect
me?” she asked him, honestly curious.

Kralen smiled, “Because…”

“Because it’s an order,” Emily guessed.

“No, because I care about
you… you’re like the Cavalry’s little sister.”

“A pain-in-the-ass sister.”

“No, a sister that we treasure and value,”
one of the other guards said.

Emily nodded slightly and
disappeared into her bedroom before the guards could see tears. She
still needed to deal with the facts Wen told her, but she realized
right now she needed to focus. She quickly threw on her uniform and
was slipping her .45 into the holster when she walked out. They all
headed for the balcony as she tied her hair up.

They walked out onto the
balcony and looked out over the city. From there, they could see
the standoff.

Emily shrugged, “Everything Wen said was
right though.”

“Wen is an idiot, nothing he said was
correct,” one of the other guards told her.

Kralen turned to her, “What’s it going to
take to get you into the bar?”

“Hide?”

“Yes… hide.”

“No, I’m going to help.”

Kralen nodded and looked at the standoff, “I
figured.”

“Lock down the palace,”
one of the members of the Cavalry said, and Emily heard the heavy
iron bars slamming into place and the metal window covers sliding
down to cover the glass.

“Calm down,” Kralen told her.

Emily hadn’t realized she
was shaking. She was shocked to feel the fear building. They’d
never let her into a heku battle, and she started to become afraid.
Everyone on the balcony fell quiet when the Valle advanced on the
Equites. City and Palace guards mixed with heku from the city and
began a fight that instantly filled the streets with blood. Screams
and guttural growling echoed up to the palace, and Emily’s heart
skipped a beat.

“Kralen…”

“What?” he whispered.

“I can take them from here.”

“Just wait, we do what we’re told and hold
the palace.”

“But I can stop this, right now before more
die.”

He looked over at her,
“Right now, this exact instant, you’re Cavalry… you’re not a
council member, or even the Elder’s wife… you’re a guard and we
follow instructions.”

She nodded. She knew he
was right.

“Brooks Coven is here,”
one of the guards said, and they all looked over as a large
transport helicopter landed and green clad guards blurred through
the city toward the fighting.

“Does Chev know?” Emily asked, watching the
vicious battle.

“No, we haven’t had contact with any of
those that are out on a mission,” Kralen told her.

For hours they watched.
The Equites were holding off the hordes of Valle as they fought to
get into the city to take the palace. Emily couldn’t tell from this
distance who was winning, and she couldn’t tell the faction of the
bodies piling up in the streets. The Cavalry waited patiently, but
Emily was nervous and pacing across the balcony.

“Captain,” one of the
guards hissed.

Kralen and Emily both followed his gaze out
to the hills west of the city. A black mass of advancing heku could
be seen slowly heading toward the city.

“Enemy or Ally?” Emily whispered.

“Encala,” Kralen hissed.

“Oh my God,” Emily gasped.
“How many?”

“Close to a thousand,”
Kralen said. He turned toward the battle and Emily could see his
mouth moving quickly, but heard nothing. Finally, he turned, “Mount
up. We’re going to head them off.”

Before Emily could react,
Kralen had her in his arms and jumped the third-floor balcony
railing and landed softly on the grass below. He put her down and
she ran toward the stables as the heku blurred. By the time she got
there, her horse was saddled and ready for her. She mounted quickly
and turned to Kralen.

“We’re going out through
the cemetery to avoid the main fight, let’s go,” he ordered, and
then kicked his mare into a gallop.

Emily was able to keep up
while on horseback and finally pulled ahead, her racing horse
hitting maximum speed. She could see the dark figures ahead of
them, but with the setting sun, she couldn’t make out anything more
than a black mass. The Cavalry formed a line and saw the Encala
stop. One heku walked toward them.

“It’s Frederick,” Kralen whispered.

Emily watched as the Encala Elder came
forward and stopped in front of Kralen.

“You’ve stooped to helping the Valle?”
Kralen growled.

Frederick grinned, “When it serves our
purpose, yes.”

“I suggest you turn around
and return to your city. We aren’t going to let you join this
fight.”

“Who’s going to stop us?”

“I am,” Emily said from
down at the end of the Cavalry line.

Frederick gasped and took
a step back. He’d been too focused on Kralen and hadn’t noticed
Emily, “Wh… you’re here?”

“What, are you afraid to fight a girl?”
Emily asked, glaring at him.

“We were told you would be taken away,”
Frederick said, taking another few steps back.

“Your informant was wrong, and I’m not going
to let you into that fight.”

“There are a thousand of us… you’d risk
harming yourself if you turn that many to ash.”

“I’d do it and you know
it. I’m an Equites, and I’d die to protect them.”

Frederick grinned broadly and turned to
Kralen, “You’re going to let the girl fight your battles?”

“No, we’re going to let her help us,” Kralen
told him.

Emily grinned and watched them.

Frederick glanced nervously at her and back
to Kralen, “It’s disgusting, letting a mortal fight.”

“I’d much rather fight beside her than the
Valle.”

“What?” Frederick growled
when Emily laughed.

“Oh, nothing,” she told him.

“I’m not afraid of you! Traditional heku law
says you can’t touch me.”

She rolled her eyes, “Like
I can’t touch your Generals?”

“Yes,” he said, pleased.

“Oops then.”

Frederick’s eyes grew wide
and he turned back to his troops, and then back to the Cavalry, his
eyes red with fury, “How dare you!”

Emily took a tissue and wiped the small
trickle of blood from her nose, “When’s the last time you saw me
adhere to heku codes?”

“Enough, Em,” Kralen said, fighting back a
laugh.

“Sorry, Captain,” she
said, and watched Kralen.

Frederick growled and blurred back to his
troops.

“That was great,” one of
the Cavalry said, laughing.

“I wondered how long it’d
be before he noticed his Generals dropping one at a time behind
him,” another chuckled.

“So now what?” Emily asked. “They’re just
standing there.”

“Our orders were to hold the line and keep
them from joining,” Kralen explained. “So for now, we wait.”

“I could just ash Frederick and send them
into a panic.”

Kralen smiled, “As much as I’d like to see
that… we wait.”

Emily nodded. She decided
to follow orders. Hours passed as the horses nibbled at what was
showing of the yellow grass above the snow. The heat from her horse
kept her warm and Emily waited, trying to be as patient as the
Cavalry, but her mind kept wandering, picturing different scenarios
in her head, from the obliteration of the palace, to her ashing the
entire Encala force.

“Damnit,” Kralen hissed, the first noise any
had made in almost six hours.

“What?” Emily asked.

“It’s not going well.
Thukil arrived along with four other covens, but the Valle are
still holding strong.”

Emily turned toward the city, “I can even up
those numbers.”

“We can’t, we have to stay here.”

“I can maybe do it from here.”

“Won’t you get the Equites too?”

She sighed,
“Yes.”

“Then no.”

“I can go back, just for a
few minutes, and even up the numbers.”

Kralen thought for a
moment, “Let’s just see. If you leave here, there’s a chance the
Encala will join in. We can’t stop this many.”

“Oh,” Emily said, and
turned back to the Encala.

Two hours later, she could
tell the mood of the Cavalry changed. They were now fidgety, and
whispering among themselves.

“Tell me,” Emily
whispered, and looked over at them.

“They broke through the front line and are
in the city, heading for the palace,” Kralen told her, obviously
upset.

“Let me go, please.”

“If the Encala join them,
it will end for sure. We can’t have you leave this
line.”

Kralen looked over, wide
eyed when Emily spoke again.

“Let me talk to William,” she said into the
phone.