Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (90 page)

“Emily! We can’t call an
Enemy Council,” Kralen whispered, still shocked.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Emily
yelled.

“Emily? Where are you?”
William asked, loud enough the entire Cavalry could
hear.

“I’m sitting out here freezing my ass off to
keep your army from getting to my city.”

“You’re in Council City?”

“Yes”

“We were told you’d left.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass
what you were told. I want to know what gives you the right to
attack my family.”

“This has nothing to do with you,” William
told her.

“Yes it does. I’m an
Equites and you’re attacking my home… What keeps me from ashing
Freddy and the rest of your officers?”

There was a slight pause, “Tradition.”

“Screw tradition,” Emily
said, and glared across the field.

Kralen sighed when four of
the Encala Captains fell to ash, “Em…”

“Stop it!” William growled. “You have no
idea what you’re dealing with.”

“I do too! I’m dealing
with a piece of shit heku and trust me… I will personally get you
back for this,” she said, and shut her phone.

Emily couldn’t see it, but
the Cavalry could, across the dark field they saw Frederick shut
his phone and look over at them furiously.

“Swedesford Coven just
arrived,” Kralen said, loud enough that Emily could hear. “They’ve
pushed the Valle back out of the city.”

“What are they doing?”
Emily asked when the Encala army moved forward slightly.

“They’re getting ready to
attack us,” Kralen said, and she saw the eight members of the
Cavalry tense. “The Valle are falling back, which leaves the Encala
to get to the palace. We’re all that’s in their way.”

“Well that’s stupid,”
Emily said. “I can ash all of them.”

“They know we’ll tell you not to.”

“You’d rather die and have
the palace taken, than for me to handle it and then sleep for a
while?” Emily asked frowning.

“No, I’d rather die than
to have you die,” he said, and looked over at her. She saw the
worry in his face and looked over at the Encala, “We thought we’d
lost you the last time. I won’t do it again.”

Emily gasped when the Encala moved forward,
close enough she could see them clearly in the dawning light.

“Get ready,” Kralen said
angrily. “They’re going to get past us, there’s no doubt about
that, but take out what you can, lessen the numbers.”

“Kralen…” Emily whispered.

“Do what you can without
ashing them, Em… shoot them if you have to, to buy us some
time.”

She nodded and pulled the .45 from her
hip.

“Here they come,” Kralen whispered, his
voice turned evil and malicious.

Emily found it hard to
breathe and could feel her hands shaking as the angry Encala army
began to slowly come toward them. She was shocked when they stopped
and turned suddenly to look behind them. In the low light, she was
able to make out men on horses, a lot of them. They came from the
trees behind the Encala and split to ride around them as they
headed for the Equites.

Not sure what else to do, Emily raised her
.45 and carefully aimed at the one in front.

“Em, no,” Kralen said, and
reached out to push her gun down.

“Why no…” she started, and
then froze. As the horses came into view, she saw the front heku
was Chevalier, and soon was able to see Quinn, Kyle, and Mark
behind him. The rest of the Cavalry rode up to their line and fell
in behind them.

“What the hell is this?” Chevalier
growled.

Emily shut her eyes and took a deep breath,
finally feeling like the battle might be in their favor.

“Valle attack in the city,” Kralen explained
quickly. “We saw the Encala coming in from the side and came to
hold them off.”

Quinn and Chevalier turned
and faced their horses toward the Encala. Everything on the hill
grew quiet, and Emily figured they were also getting a full report
from in the city. She watched when Chevalier rode forward as
Frederick did the same. They met in the middle, and she could hear
angry yelling, but couldn’t make out what was said.

“Why is she here?” Kyle yelled at
Kralen.

“Elders order,” Kralen
told him, and Kyle turned to her.

“He said I could stay with
the Cavalry and fight.”

Kyle shook his head and turned back to
Quinn. She saw their lips moving quickly and her eyes narrowed.
Before she could defend herself, Chevalier turned and kicked his
horse into a gallop back toward them.

“They’re coming,” Quinn whispered
angrily.

Emily looked over at the
Encala and as soon as Frederick returned to his army, they again
began to advance on the Cavalry.

Chevalier stopped by Quinn, “If the Encala
can’t get to the front lines, the Valle are going to lose this…
they’re coming.”

Quinn nodded.

When they got close enough, a single gunshot
rang out through the trees as Emily pegged Frederick right between
the eyes. He fell backwards and the Encala began to run. The sudden
crash when the Encala hit the Equites line echoed through the
valley, followed by angry growls and the sound of tearing flesh and
screams.

Emily checked to make sure
the Equites were busy before she rode up to Frederick. He looked up
at her angrily before falling to ash. She slipped off of her horse
and quickly scooped the ashes into her pocket. As soon as she got
back onto her stallion, she came face-to-face with an
Encala.

“Seems orders are to bring you back alive,
Sweetheart,” he said, grinning.

“Good luck with that,” she
told him, and shot him between the eyes. A blur came from the side
and his body disappeared from before her.

She turned and saw three
heku attacking Chevalier. Taking aim, she took one out with a clean
shot to the head, and then she turned and did the same to heku
around Silas. After shooting a heku off of Mark, Emily was hit
full-force from the side and slammed into the ground. She was
pinned face down on the snow and felt her gun ripped from her
hand.

“You’re being a pain,
shooting us,” a heku said from above her. His body crushed hers as
he whispered into her ear.

She felt his weight
disappear as Kralen hit him and threw him onto the snow beside her.
They began to blur into a fight, and she stood up quickly and ran
to her horse, then pulled a rifle from the saddle bag and turned to
shoot a heku that was clinging to Quinn’s back. Her next shot
missed, and she grabbed the barrel and slammed the gun into the
neck of a heku on Chevalier.

Emily was grabbed from
behind, her arms pinned at her sides, and she screamed as she felt
herself being blurred into the trees. The strong arms held her
tightly and squeezed painfully.

“Screw it,” she gasped,
and the heku turned to ash at her feet. She turned and ran back for
the fighting. The trees grew quiet, and she pushed to run faster,
not sure what she was going to find. When she cleared the trees,
she stopped and looked at the Cavalry standing among the bodies of
the Encala. They were standing around the remaining live Encala,
their uniforms torn and covered in blood. Emily walked forward
slowly and stood beside Chevalier.

The only Encala officer looked up at her
angrily.

“Are you ok?” Mark asked from beside
her.

“I’m fine,” she said, breathing heavily.

“The Valle retreated,” Kralen told her.

Emily nodded and then
looked at the Cavalry, “Where’s Jaron?”

“Em…” Mark sighed.

She turned and looked over
the scattered pieces of heku and saw his body lying off to the side
with four more of the Cavalry. Emily slowly walked toward them. The
world slowed down and she couldn’t hear anything but the pounding
of her heart.

Emily knelt down by his
body and took his hand, “Jaron?”

As she looked into his
unseeing eyes, the screams started behind her. The remaining Encala
fell backwards, thrashing in pain against the snow and screaming in
agony. She shut her eyes, and a tear fell as she put her hand on
Jaron’s chest and lowered her head.

Emily felt Chevalier’s
hand against her back as he knelt beside her and whispered, “Em…
let them go.”

She released the Encala from the burning and
leaned forward. She kissed Jaron’s forehead softly and then let
Chevalier help her to stand up.

“Zohn said it’s over. The
Valle are gone,” Kralen said, coming up to them.

Emily wrapped her arms
around herself and looked down at the dead Cavalry. As the others
spoke about getting the Encala back into the city, she felt her
anger growing. Turning quickly, she mounted and kicked her stallion
into a gallop. As she flew past the Encala, they turned to
ash.

Chevalier looked down at the ash and then up
to Emily as she disappeared over the hill toward the city,
“Damnit.”

“Gather them up,” Kyle said. “I’ll revive
them in the prison.”

The Cavalry began to do as
ordered and Kyle walked up to Chevalier with Quinn, “Where’s she
going?”

“I’m not sure,” Chevalier said.

Zohn called out that Emily was riding
through the city, turning any Valle she rode by to ash.

“Let’s go,” Chevalier
ordered, and the entire Cavalry rode back into the city. The
destruction was immense. Bodies lay along the walkways and some of
the houses closest to the gates were on fire. Equites worked
feverishly to put out the fires as others gathered the dead and
moved them to the palace lawn.

As they neared the
stables, they saw Emily’s stallion tied to the hitching post. The
Cavalry took the horses from the Council, and put them away so they
could head inside to the council chambers. Chevalier and Quinn sat
down beside Zohn, who was watching as Kyle revived some of the
higher ranking Valle and Encala. When he was done, he returned to
his seat.

“What brought this on?”
Chevalier asked them angrily.

“The lack of your Council
to take action against Thukil!” the Valle Captain
yelled.

“What did Thukil do?” Quinn asked Zohn.

“They made a land purchase that is attached
to their coven, yet near a Valle stronghold.”

“I see,” Quinn sighed, and
sat back.

“That gave you the right to attack us?”
Chevalier asked.

“Yes!” the Captain
yelled.

“Who led this?”

“Elder Sotomar led it honorably.”

“So how did the Encala get involved?” Kyle
asked, confused.

The Encala Captain
grinned, “It’s time to eradicate the Equites. We’ve joined to
accomplish that.”

“Who led the Encala Forces?” Zohn asked.

“Frederick, Sir,” Kralen told him.

“So let me get this
straight,” Kyle said. “The Valle attacked the gates, while off to
the west the Encala decided to come in unnoticed and flank
us.”

“Yes, and it almost worked
had it not been for that Bitch and her Cavalry,” the Encala Captain
yelled.

Chevalier turned to Zohn, “How did Emily get
involved?”

“She made a valid argument
for her case,” Zohn explained. “She was to stay in the palace with
the 8 members of the Cavalry, and defend it if the Valle got
through our front lines. They are the ones that saw the Encala
coming and I diverted them there.”

“Where is Emily?”

Kralen stepped forward, “In her office,
Sir.”

“Derrick, bring her here,” Quinn called
out.

“These are the highest ranking then?”
Chevalier asked.

Zohn nodded, “Yes, the highest ranking that
are left.”

“So Sotomar…”

“Fled with the Valle.”

“And Frederick?”

Zohn frowned slightly,
“I’m not sure exactly. None of the Encala fled. Was he
killed?”

Kralen shook his head, “No, Elder.”

“Did you see him run?”

“No”

Emily came in through the
back door of the council chambers and sat down in the empty chair
next to Chevalier. It was obvious she had been crying and she
glared down at the Valle and Encala officers. They all fell back
and began to scream as the familiar burning smell filled the
chambers.

“Em, that’s not why we brought you here,”
Chevalier told her.

She kept an eye on the enemy as they writhed
in pain.

Chevalier put a hand on
her arm, “That’s enough.”

She sighed and looked at
him as she released the officers from pain. They stayed on their
hands and knees, gasping in breath as the pain slowly subsided. The
Council watched her. She was concentrating and the look on her face
was familiar to them. She was turning someone to ash, yet the heku
in the trial area were no longer in pain. A small trickle of blood
began to form under her nose but she watched the prisoners,
unmoving.

“Em… what’re you doing?”
Chevalier asked softly.

A slow hiss escaped her lips as she exhaled
and concentrated on the enemy heku.

“Em,” he said again, and
touched her arm.

Kyle cocked his head slightly to the side
and then rushed to her and moved her face toward him, “Emily, stop
it.”

She blinked a few times and then frowned,
“What?”

“Stop”

She sighed, “Fine.”

Kyle moved back to his
chair and sat down. He turned to face the Elders, “She just ashed
the entire prison.”