Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (113 page)

“
She’s gotten bigger
though, so the baby is ok?”

“
Yes, the baby is fine. The
only thing injured on Emily is her brain. Her body is working
properly.”

Zohn glanced at her, “Does she hear us?”

The doctor shook his head, “No, there’s not
enough of her brain functioning to hear or understand.”

Kyle touched her arm softly before leaving
the room. He wanted to meet up with Chevalier and Quinn in the
interrogation chamber. The screams started in the stairwell to the
prison, and stopped just before he opened the chamber door. He
stepped in and saw three heku in various stages of torture. One was
dead, his body pushed to the side by the fire.

“
Any information?” Kyle
asked, walking up to the rack.

Quinn shook his head, “No, we have
everything we need from them.”

Kyle glanced at Chevalier, but he didn’t
speak. He was busy jabbing iron pins into the heku on the rack. His
eyes were glazed over and his movements were slow and precise.

“
The room’s all set up. The
doctor’s just attaching some things and then will be in his room,”
Kyle said to him.

Chevalier nodded.

Quinn cocked his head slightly to the side,
“Duty calls.”

Kyle nodded and opened the door. He glanced
back and saw that Chevalier hadn’t moved. Quinn motioned for Kyle
to leave Chevalier, and the two walked up to the council chambers
and took their seats.

Derrick stepped forward, “Valle Elder
Sotomar and Encala Elder William wish to speak to the Council.”

Zohn nodded, “Let them in.”

The two Elders came in and bowed
respectfully.

“
We heard that Emily was
able to return to the palace,” Sotomar said, smiling.

“
Not a joyous occasion,”
Quinn said. “We’ve brought her here to die.”

William frowned, “She’s no better?”

“
No, she can’t recover from
this… we will try to keep her alive until the baby
comes.”

Sotomar was visibly upset, “Is there nothing
anyone can do?”

“
No”

“
Turn her,” William said.
“Before it’s too late.”

“
She once told us she would
rather die,” Kyle said. “However, with the limited brain function,
it probably wouldn’t work anyway.”

“
She… she saved the entire
species from chaos,” Sotomar said softly. “We have to help her, we
owe her that.”

“
Don’t you think if we
could help her that we would be?” Kyle yelled. Quinn put his hand
out for the Chief Enforcer to calm down.

“
We’ve done all we can,”
Quinn said. “Now, we wait.”

“
May we see her? Just for a
moment?” William asked, his voice cracking slightly.

Quinn nodded and stood up, “I will take
them.”

Kyle followed them up the stairs. He felt
that if Chevalier weren’t with her that he should be. He kept
feeling like at any moment she would wake up, scared and angry. He
smiled slightly at how fast she would pull the I.V. out and could
imagine her tossing the oxygen onto the floor.

He moved to the side of her bed and sat
down, taking her hand, then pulled the blankets up slightly and
called for servants to stoke the fire when he felt how cold her
hand was. Sotomar and William stood back a ways and watched
her.

“
It looks like she’s simply
sleeping,” Sotomar said.

William nodded.

Sotomar pulled a black pen from his robes
and began writing on the headboard. Kyle briefly debated stopping
him, but then Quinn and William did the same and soon her headboard
was full of ancient runes, runes used only to represent the most
respected heku. He’d only seen such runes once in his life. They
were written on the coverings of the most honored and revered, and
then required the agreement of all three factions. Only Elders knew
how to do it correctly, and it took an Elder from all three
factions to perform it, part of the reason why it was so rare.

Each Elder, to finish the ritual, kissed her
hand softly, and then returned to the council chambers. Kyle
elected to stay with her. He didn’t like the thought of leaving her
alone, even though she wasn’t aware of anything around her.

***

“
I don’t really care what
the reason. Any contact with a Ferus or a suspected Ferus warrants
immediate punishment,” Zohn said, glaring at the heku on the
floor.

“
Please, I didn’t know who
it was,” he begged, dropping to his knees.

“
Doesn’t matter,” Quinn
said. “It’s your responsibility to find out who you are doing
business with. Chevalier?”

Chevalier glanced up from the desk, “Kill
him.”

“
No!” the heku screamed as
he was pulled away from the Council.

“
Daddy?” Alexis asked from
behind them. Chevalier turned around and she ran into his arms. He
sat her down in his lap as she cried against his
shoulder.

“
What’s wrong?” he
whispered, kissing her forehead.

“
Allen said Mommy’s not
going to wake up.”

The Council all turned away from them.

“
We’ve told you that. She’s
been sleeping for two months… too long for her to wake
up.”

Alexis looked up at Chevalier with tear
filled eyes, “Can’t you wake her up?”

“
No, I can’t.”

“
Allen said she fell asleep
trying to save us.”

Chevalier took a deep breath before
answering, “No, she fell asleep saving us, not trying, Alex.”

Alexis leaned her head on Chevalier’s
shoulder and wrapped her small arms around him.

“
Next?” Chevalier said
angrily.

Derrick stepped in, “That’s it for the
roster today.”

“
Adjourn then,” Quinn said.
“I need to feed.”

“
I’ll go,” Kyle said.
“Elder? Allen needs to go, come with us.”

“
No,” he said, and stood
up, still carrying Alexis. He walked out of the room and the door
shut softly behind him.

“
When’s the last time he
fed?” Zohn asked.

“
The night before he led
the attack on the Valle city,” Kyle said, gathering some things
from his desk.

“
Damn,” Quinn hissed,
looking at the door.

“
Emily’s scent is getting
stronger every day. It’s dangerous to have him around her with as
thirsty as he is,” Zohn said.

“
I’ll go talk to him,” Kyle
suggested. “Maybe he’ll agree to go if I stay with her.”

“
Try,” Quinn said,
nodding.

Kyle walked out of the council chambers and
found Chevalier in his usual spot on the side of Emily’s bed.

“
Elder?” he said
softly.

“
I’m not leaving her to go
feed,” Chevalier said, taking her hand.

“
It’s not safe,” Kyle said,
taking a few steps forward. “Her scent is growing stronger every
day, you have to feed.”

“
Then bring back
some.”

“
You know that’s not the
same… why don’t you go with the Elders and I’ll stay with
her.”

Chevalier glanced at her and gently brushed
the hair off of her shoulder, “You won’t leave?”

“
No, I swear,” Kyle said,
relieved that Chevalier was finally going to go feed.

“
Her scent is getting
stronger.”

“
I know. It’s hard even for
those of us that haven’t been fasting for two months.”

“
Anna is coming to change
her bedding and bathe her,” Chevalier said, standing up. “She
should be here in an hour.”

Kyle nodded, “I know, it’s ok… go.”

Chevalier hesitated and then left, shutting
the door behind him. A few minutes later, Allen came in and sat
down on the bed opposite Kyle.

“
I thought you were going
to go feed,” Kyle said, looking at him.

“
I told Dad I’d stay. I’ll
go out later.”

Kyle nodded and looked over at one of the
monitors.

“
He pulled me off the
Cavalry,” Allen told him.

“
I know,” Kyle
said.

“
I liked it, it kept me
busy.”

“
He just doesn’t want to
risk any more of his family getting hurt,” Kyle explained. “He also
never told Emily and didn’t want to go behind her back.”

“
Do you think he’ll let me
go back?”

“
Someday…
maybe.”

“
She’s getting big,” Allen
said, and gently laid a hand on her belly.

“
Yeah, well, you all were
big.”

Allen smiled, “Baby’s kicking.”

Kyle glanced at his hand, “You can feel
it?”

“
Sure, try it.”

Kyle hesitated and then put his hand beside
Allen’s. Within just a few seconds, he felt the soft thump, “Wow,
that’s amazing.”

“
Mom used to let me feel
when Alexis was kicking.”

Both Kyle and Allen looked up at Emily
suddenly, when it sounded like she sighed. Kyle looked up at the
monitors, but nothing changed, her heart rate was slow and steady
and her breathing was shallow and weak.

“
I’m hearing things,” Allen
said, and stood up.

“
I think we all are, just
hoping she wakes up.”

“
I better go find Alexis.
She was hiding from her guards,” Allen said with a slight
grin.

When Allen left the room, Kyle glanced once
at the door and turned back to her.

“
Emily?” he asked. He felt
stupid. The doctors assured them she couldn’t hear them nor
understand them, but he heard what Allen did, a brief change in her
breathing.

“
Em, can you hear me?” he
whispered, and watched her closely. He sighed and reached over to
grab the book she had been reading. He opened it to the bookmark
and began to read. It kept the silence from the room away and gave
him something productive to do.

The Elders returned three hours later and
came in immediately to check on Emily. Kyle was in the middle of a
sentence and looked up at them when they came in.

“
Feeling better?” Kyle
asked, noticing some color was back in Chevalier’s face.

“
Some,” he said. “Did Anna
come?”

“
No, she decided to wait
until you returned.”

The heku all turned when they heard a crash
from below them. They blurred down the stairs when guards moved to
Emily’s door. They appeared at the front entrance and saw members
of the Cavalry at a standoff with heku in purple capes.

“
What’s going on here?”
Zohn growled.

“
They came to take Emily,”
Silas hissed. “Over my dead body.”

“
We can arrange that,” one
of the Ferus said.

“
What, exactly, were you
planning on doing with her?” Quinn asked.

“
She’s to be buried in
Ferus soil, as our Elder.”

Chevalier growled.

“
Had it not been for the
Ferus, she wouldn’t need a burial spot,” Mark said, and advanced on
the Ferus, followed by Silas and Kralen. The heku blurred into a
fight as the Elders stood back and watched, letting the guards do
their job to protect those in the palace. It was only a few minutes
later when the Ferus were restrained by members of the
Cavalry.

“
Bring them into the
council chambers,” Zohn said, walking to the back entrance,
followed by the other two Elders.

They took their seats among the empty
council chairs and waited while the Cavalry shoved the Ferus down
onto their knees before them.

***

“
Everything looks good with
the baby,” Dr. Hayden said, smiling at Chevalier. “She’s right on
track at 7 months along.”

“
I appreciate you coming
out here. It’s hard to move her,” Chevalier told him, glancing
around the farmhouse.

“
No problem,” he said,
gathering his things. “For her next appointment, we’ll go over
signs of labor, because she won’t be able to tell you when the pain
hits.”

He nodded, “Ok.”

Dr. Hayden began writing in a chart, “Let’s
see… 3 months in a coma.”

Chevalier just watched him write. He still
felt numb after all this time, and everyone started to believe it
might be better for all involved if she were to pass peacefully in
her sleep after the baby came.

“
We’ll see you in one
month, after that, it’ll be every week,” Dr. Hayden said, and shook
Chevalier’s hand before leaving. Chevalier picked Emily up gently
and carried her through the tunnels to the palace and laid her back
in bed. He pulled the covers up over her and kissed her lightly
before going down to the council chambers.

Chevalier frowned and opened the doors when
he heard screaming. Things quieted a bit when he came in and sat
down. The terrified looks of the heku in the trial area made him
suspicious.

“
What’s going on?” he
asked, turning to Zohn.

“
These fine heku were
planning on killing Emily in her sleep,” Zohn said, turning back to
the heku with a grin.

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Why… would you
do that?”

“
Oh, that’s the best part,”
Kyle said scathingly.

Mark turned and yelled to clear the palace
of all personnel and lock it down. Chevalier waited while the
palace cleared out, and he heard the loud bang as the metal bars
slammed down to cover the doors and windows.