Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (112 page)

The Valle guards forcibly hauled her into
the palace and into the Valle’s council chambers. She’d been there
many times before, but this time was different. She didn’t know any
of the Council, and they were watching her angrily.

“
You have come to turn
yourself in, I see,” one of them said.

“
Yes, you can stop
kidnapping council members from the other factions now,” she told
them. She concentrated on the situation. She knew the Encala and
Equites council members were in the palace also, and she drew from
the anger and fear she was feeling and let it build.

“
On your knees, mortal,”
one of the guards said, and pushed her down onto her
knees.

“
We weren’t aware you are
with child,” one of the temporary council members said.

“
Yeah, well… I am,” she
said, irritated.

“
That changes nothing. You
will still be tried and punished for the death of our
mortal.”

“
I would expect nothing
less.”

“
We expect no trouble from
you. If you try to turn any of us to ash, we’ll remove your head
before you can do it,” he warned.

Emily saw a heku appear at her side with a
sword in his hand, he was grinning down at her.

***

Waves of heku in black blurred through the
city silently, and quickly made their way to the palace. Darren
held up his hand as he approached the front door. There were no
guards, just piles of ash. He gave the signal for the first group
to enter the palace, while the second group headed toward the back
entrance. The first group reported finding no heku in the building,
and quickly headed for the prison, led by the Valle’s true Imperial
Guards.

The offensive groups quickly spread through
the Valle’s palace, finding no one and hearing nothing. The silence
of the building and the city behind them was eerie. They quickly
killed the electricity to all of the prison cells and spread out,
looking for any of the missing faction members.

“
Down the stairs, there’s
more down there,” one of the Imperial Guards said when they found
the upper prison section to hold nothing but regular
prisoners.

The deathly silence of the palace was broken
as the Blackhawk helicopters landed to take away the injured and
leaders as the forces swarmed deeper into the Valle Palace’s prison
block. One of the Encala cut the power to the restraints, and the
black clad forces descended into the dark and began releasing the
faction’s Leaders.

“
Get them to the
helicopters!” Darren yelled, angrily following the orders Emily
gave them. The Faction Leaders were in too much pain, and healing
too slowly for them to override what she told the army to do, so
they were required to follow the orders they were given.

The Imperial Guards stayed with the Valle
Council while they healed. Sotomar was the first to sit up on his
own. He looked around at the members of the other factions as they
were helped out of the palace by the guards.

“
What happened?” Sotomar
asked weakly.

“
Lady Emily, she… led the
army to get to you,” an Imperial Guard explained, looking
around.

Sotomar frowned and glanced over as
Chevalier was let down from high shackles, “She’s here?”

“
Yes, she came in first. I
haven’t seen her, but it looks like the city and the palace have
been turned to ash.”

Sotomar struggled to his feet and leaned
against the wall, “Change the orders for the Valle… find her.”

The Valle Lieutenant called out for his
forces to find Emily.

“
Who is giving orders?”
Zohn asked, steadying himself against the wall.

“
Lady Emily is the highest
ranking. She’s leading this,” one of the Cavalry said.

Zohn sighed and glanced at Chevalier, who
was being led out of the palace, “What were the orders?”

“
We were to get the
kidnapped out to the helicopters and leave,” he
explained.

“
Where is she?” Zohn asked,
looking around.

“
She came in first,” he
explained. “We were to come 15 minutes later and get everyone out.
We haven’t seen her. There’s nothing but ash throughout the entire
city.”

“
Belay those orders,” Zohn
said, wincing as he healed. “Stop everything. Take the wounded to
the lawn, load the dead onto the helicopters, and find
her.”

“
Right away, Elder,” the
member of the Cavalry said, calling out the new orders.

Jaron helped Zohn up the stairs. He was
clutching his chest and fighting to breathe as they came up to the
main floor of the Valle Palace.

Sotomar came up behind them, able to walk on
his own with a slight limp, “If you find any of the invading
covens, put them in cells for now, I’ll deal with them later.”

“
There’s no one, Elder,
they are all ash,” one of the Imperial Guards explained.

Chevalier came up to them, leaning against
the wall, “Have they found her?”

“
Not yet, we’re searching
the palace,” the Imperial Guard said.

“
One of the Lieutenant’s
from Powan explained what happened,” Quinn said, slowly walking up
to them. “They’re getting a count of the wounded and
dead.”

A voice rang through the palace that Emily
was in the council chambers. Chevalier, Sotomar, Quinn, and Zohn
made their way to the council chambers, assisted by the Valle’s
Imperial Guards. One of them met the Elders at the door.

“
We didn’t touch her… I
didn’t know how to help,” he said softly, and opened the
door.

The Elders walked in and saw Emily on her
side on the floor, surrounded by worried looking guards. She was
unconscious, lying in a pool of blood as the heku guards watched
helplessly. Chevalier knelt down beside her and moved her face
toward his.

“
Em?” he asked, and took
her hand.

She didn’t respond, but the blood from her
nose and ears stopped flowing. Chevalier lifted her eyelid and saw
that her eyes were blood red.

“
We need to get her to a
hospital,” he said, and stood up with some difficulty. One of the
Imperial Guards reached down and gently picked her up.

“
Let’s go, we’ll take the
Valle helicopter,” he said, and headed out the door, followed by
the Elders.

“
I’ll go,” Sotomar said.
“Ryan can take care of the recovery.”

“
I’m going too,” William
said. He seemed to be the least injured out of all of them, and was
able to help others as they healed.

Chevalier nodded, “We’ll leave Zohn here
also.”

Quinn struggled some, but finally got into
the helicopter, followed by Sotomar, William, and Chevalier. The
Imperial Guard cradled Emily and buckled in as the pilot lifted off
and headed for the hospital outside of Council City.

“
I want a report,” Sotomar
growled. “Everything that’s happened.”

One of the Imperial Guards began to go over
everything from the takeover of the palace to Emily’s army. No one
knew what happened when she arrived, but he was able to let them
know what occurred when the army flooded into the palace.

“
Numbers?” William
asked.

“
There were 1,917 heku in
the palace. Most were from the attacking covens, and a few were
traitors from the guard staff,” he explained, avoiding the angry
glare of Sotomar. “The city had 1,517 people left. The rest fled
into other covens to wait out the coup.”

“
Damnit, she ashed 3,434?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Yes, as far as we can
tell. We’ve not found anyone alive.”

“
Elder, we have permission
to land at the hospital’s helipad. They are waiting for our arrival
in 10 minutes,” the pilot called back.

Sotomar nodded, “Alliance numbers then?”

“
Lady Emily only left those
in the prison. We found 12 dead heku, 6 from the Valle, 4 from
Equites and 2 Encala. There are over 354 injured, and we’re still
ascertaining how many of those won’t make it.”

“
There may be more then?”
William asked.

“
Yes, if any were not in
the prison, then they were also turned to ash.”

“
From what I saw,” Quinn
said, “The only ones that were up above the prison were ones that
were giving information or agreed to join.”

“
The Ferus were out
guarding the city,” Chevalier said. “They are growing too
quickly.”

“
The Ferus were there?” the
Imperial Guard asked, shocked. “We didn’t know that.”

Chevalier nodded, “They joined forces.”

The Imperial Guard holding Emily turned away
from her, breathing the air coming in from the front of the
helicopter, “She’s bleeding again.”

Chevalier unbuckled and took her from the
guard.

“
Two minutes til we land,”
the pilot called back. “They have personnel waiting for us, a Dr.
Hayden.”

The helicopter landed and the pilot killed
the engines. Dr. Hayden and four nurses wheeled a gurney up to the
Blackhawk. Chevalier jumped out and laid Emily down on the gurney.
She didn’t move as they threw a blanket on her and rushed her into
the hospital.

“
What happened?” Dr. Hayden
asked, walking with them into the Emergency Room.

“
We aren’t sure exactly,
found her like this,” Chevalier said as worry crept into his
voice.

“
Stay out here,” the doctor
said, and headed in to the room with the nurses. The heku all stood
silently and waited for the doctor. They moved aside only when
equipment was moved into the room.

Hours passed with no word. Chevalier,
Sotomar, and William waited while the others returned to help in
the Valle’s city. Different doctors were called into the room. They
came and went, nodding at the waiting heku, but not giving any
word.

Dr. Hayden and an older doctor came out
finally, looking worn out and exhausted.

“
Come, we’ll talk to you in
my office,” the older doctor said, and motioned for Chevalier to
follow them. They walked to a small, crowded office full of degrees
on the wall, and books and medical journals lying around in
piles.

“
This is Dr. Greenfield.
He’s Head of Neurology here at the hospital,” Dr. Hayden said.
“We’ve been running scans to try to see what happened to
Emily.”

“
What did you find?”
Chevalier asked, not liking the soft tone of their
voices.

“
We’re still trying to find
out what happened, exactly,” Dr. Greenfield said. “All we can tell
you right now is that her brain function is only about 13% of what
it should be, her heart rate and breathing are shallow and
slowing.”

“
Meaning…”

“
Meaning, she’s dying,” Dr.
Hayden said, visibly upset. “We can’t find a cause. There’s a small
bleed in her brain, but that wouldn’t cause her body functions to
be slowing.”

Chevalier’s heart dropped, “She’s dying? Fix
it.”

“
We’re trying, but first we
have to find what’s causing it. Right now she’s in a coma, and her
brain function is on a steady decline.”

“
She cannot die,” Chevalier
growled.

“
We’re doing all we can…
you need to make a decision though… if she goes, do we keep her on
life support until the baby is ready to be born?” Dr. Hayden asked,
respectfully lowering his eyes.

Chevalier felt numb as he nodded slightly,
agreeing with whatever the doctors said.

“
Why don’t we let you see
her,” Dr. Hayden said. “Right now we’re just watching to see if
things stabilize.”

He nodded and followed the doctors out. The
other heku already heard the report, and he didn’t say a word to
them as he stepped into the room. The doctors checked a few things
and then left him alone. Emily was on the bed, covered in wires
with multiple I.V.’s in her arms, and a tube helping her
breathe.

Chevalier sat down in a chair by the bed and
took her cold hand in his, “Em?”

She didn’t respond. To him, it looked like
she was simply sleeping. She looked peaceful and at rest. He
glanced up at one of the monitors and saw her pulse drop another
few beats per minute. Hours passed and he sat with her hand in his
as he watched the monitors, willing her to keep breathing.

“
Where does this go?” Kyle
asked, wheeling a large machine into Chevalier and Emily’s
room.

“
It needs to go by the head
of the bed,” the Dr. Cook said, pointing to where he wanted
it.

“
Tell me again why she’s
not in the hospital?” Zohn asked, watching as equipment was moved
into the bedroom.

Kyle stopped and looked at the Elder, “She’s
breathing on her own, and her heart is beating, there’s nothing
more they can do for her.”

“
I thought they said her
breathing and pulse were too slow though, isn’t it dangerous to
bring her here?”

The faction doctor sighed, “We’re just
making her comfortable… until she goes.”

Zohn frowned and whispered, “So she just
lays there until she dies?”

“
She’s been in a coma for 6
weeks. It’s not likely at this point that she’s going to wake up,”
the doctor explained, checking Emily’s I.V. “Right now we just make
sure she has what she needs.”