Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (116 page)

“
I would have gained her
powers and you know it.”

“
That is a theory, nothing
more.”

“
Get the servants down
here, I want this cell open,” Chevalier hissed. The passageway
filled with heku that began tearing down the brick wall.

“
Going to banish me?”
Exavior asked, staring into Sotomar’s eyes.

“
I leave that to the
Equites. I’m done with you.”

“
Chevalier is just upset.
He knows that if Emily was awake, she wouldn’t let this
happen.”

“
There you’re sorely
mistaken. She is awake and cares nothing about what we
do.”

Exavior frowned, “She is awake?”

“
Yes, she is,” Sotomar
said, and moved back to wait while the wall was torn down. Guards
lined the passageway to make sure he didn’t escape when the binds
were released.

“
Emily!” Exavior
screamed.

Silas, Kralen, and Lex all glanced back at
the palace as they stopped their horses on the hills outside of
Council City. They looked at each other briefly and turned back to
Emily. She was sweating and breathing rapidly. The work on the
horse was excruciating, and every movement caused pain. She thought
it would be a carefree ride, but her muscles were no longer used to
the sway of the horse and Lex guided the stallion slowly around as
she leaned back against his chest.

“
Just relax, let the horse
do the work,” Lex told her, and kicked the horse back into a slow
walk.

Silas glanced at Kralen. Neither of them was
comfortable with the amount of pain she was feeling, or the
closeness of the Valle.

“
Go back,” Emily whispered,
trying to take the reins, but he moved them out of her
reach.

“
This is going to be hard,
but what you need is to work the muscles,” he told her.

“
I agree, that’s enough for
now,” Silas said.

“
If we stop every time it
hurts, she won’t get better,” Lex explained.

“
Still, it’s getting
dark.”

Lex glanced up at the sky, “Fine.”

“
Let me take her,” Kralen
said, pulling his mare up alongside them.

Emily leaned toward him and felt his strong
hands against her waist as he pulled her onto the mare. She sat
sideways with her upper body supported by his arm and her head
against his shoulder. The position was more comfortable, and the
gentle walk of the horse was no longer painful.

They neared the stables well after dark and
members of the Cavalry came and took their horses. Kralen slid off
of the mare, still carrying Emily, and headed inside. Sotomar,
Chevalier, and Kyle were waiting in the bedroom for them to return.
Kralen laid Emily down on the bed slowly as she groaned slightly in
pain.

“
Great first day,” Lex
said, smiling.

“
Does it have to be that
painful?” Silas asked angrily.

“
Yes, actually it does. It
takes a lot to get the muscles to work properly again.”

“
Which is why I’m here,”
Sotomar said. “Now it’s my turn.”

“
No,” Emily whispered from
the bed.

“
This won’t hurt, Child,
it’ll help. I promise.”

“
What do we need to do?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Prop up pillows so she can
lie on her stomach comfortably, then she’ll need to be naked and
under a sheet,” Sotomar said, and walked out with the other
heku.

Chevalier reached over to touch her, but she
winced and he pulled his hand away, “Em?”

“
Please, don’t let them
touch me.”

“
We have to do this.
Sotomar will help, let him give you a massage.”

“
Don’t leave,” she
whispered.

“
I won’t, I promise,” he
said, and pulled her up onto his lap. He arranged the pillows,
careful to leave an opening in the pillows for the baby, and then
helped her slip off her clothes. She was still too stiff to undo
the buttons alone, but with his help, she was soon on her stomach
under a sheet.

Chevalier dimmed the lights and opened the
door, “Ok, I’ll stay with her.”

Silas and Kralen nodded and turned back to
Kyle, who was telling them about Exavior’s 2,000 year banishment
and his burial in the ancient’s room.

Chevalier watched closely as Sotomar warmed
the oil and pulled the sheet down off of Emily’s back. Soon, his
skilled hands were working at the atrophied muscles and her
breathing turned slow and rhythmic as she fell asleep.

“
That baby sure has
dropped,” Dr. Hayden said, helping Emily sit up.

“
What does that mean?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Means it’ll be any day
now,” he said, and sat down with her chart. “The Physical Therapist
did a great job, are you still sore at all?”

Emily shrugged, “Sort of, not as bad
though.”

“
You’ve gained a total of
5lbs with this baby,” he told her, and frowned. “Are you still
having morning sickness?”

“
Morning? I wish it was
just in the morning.”

“
I’ll be glad when you have
the baby and we can get your iron and blood volume back
up.”

“
And fix her mood,”
Chevalier said, and grinned when she glared at him.

“
Ok, any questions?” Dr.
Hayden asked.

“
She seems to always be
tired.”

“
Part of that is the low
blood and iron, though it’s worse than that. There’s something else
going on, and I haven’t been able to find out what. Right now, we
just look to the recovery after the birth and see how things
go.”

“
So we have the I.V.s all
worked out?” Chevalier asked.

“
No, I.V.s,” Emily told
him.

“
Emily, we’ve talked about
this. The doctor that delivered Alexis told me you needed 8 bags of
blood… we have to have an I.V. in,” Dr. Hayden
explained.

“
No”

“
I don’t know how big your
other babies were, but this one is way too big for you. You could
need blood. You could need a C-section…”

“
No”

“
The size of the baby
alone…”

Emily pointed at Chevalier, “He’s a tank! I
can’t help that.”

Dr. Hayden stifled a grin, “I’m not saying
it’s your fault... but we’ll need an I.V.”

“
No”

“
Emily, we almost lost you
last time,” Chevalier reminded her.

“
No I.V.s or I have this
baby on my own.”

Dr. Hayden’s eyes grew wide, “You
wouldn’t…”

“
Oh, I would.”

Chevalier nodded, “She would.”

Dr. Hayden sighed, “Ok, we’ll discuss it
further when you come in to have the baby. I suspect it won’t be
long, but if it’s not this week, I want to see you next week.”

“
No”

“
Why don’t you go get your
blood test and I’ll talk to your husband for a moment,” the doctor
suggested.

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Good, then you can
discuss cutting off his…”

“
Em!” Chevalier yelled,
shocked.

Dr. Hayden chuckled, “We’ll discuss it… now
go.”

Emily jumped off the table and left,
irritated.

The doctor shut the door behind her and
smiled, “Wow, grouchy is an understatement.”

“
She’s always moody during
pregnancy, but this time it’s worse,” Chevalier told
him.

“
I would imagine she never
feels good though,” Dr. Hayden said, and sat down on the edge of
the examination table. “With the sore muscles after the coma, and
not feeling well, I’m wondering if she may need some
anti-depressants.”

“
She won’t take
them.”

“
I’ll just come right out
and ask this… you’re extremely well off, correct?”

“
Yes”

“
Do you then, have a
chef?”

“
Yes,” Chevalier told
him.

“
Then I suggest crushing
them up in her food,” Dr. Hayden said. “There’s one that’s almost
completely tasteless.”

“
We can try, but she’s
barely eating anything.”

“
Would your chef have a
problem doing that?”

Chevalier grinned slightly, “He does what
he’s told.”

Dr. Hayden wrote the prescription and handed
it to Chevalier, “See what you can do, maybe put it into ice
cream.”

“
About the I.V.,” Chevalier
said. “In the past, we’ve had to actually restrain her hands to the
hospital bed.”

“
That’s not really feasible
while she’s in labor. She needs to be able to try to move into more
comfortable positions.”

“
Then if you can get it in,
I’ll make sure it stays.”

“
Do you think you could
restrain her long enough to get in an I.V.?”

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, I’ll bring her
brother to help.”

“
Ok, then, let’s plan on
that and not bring it up again.”

“
Bring what up again?”
Emily asked. She came in with a sucker and sat down.

“
Your weight, I’m not going
to push the issue,” Dr. Hayden lied.

“
No use, not like I’m
starving on purpose.”

“
We’ll see you in a week,
if not sooner.”

Emily nodded and headed for the door to the
office. Chevalier grinned at the doctor and put the paper into his
pocket before following her. They drove back to the palace in
silence. Emily sat with her feet up on the dashboard and candy
suckers in her hand.

“
Stop the car!” Emily
yelled when the Humvee was by the stables. Chevalier hit the
brakes, and she was out the door and moving toward the corral
before he realized what was going on. He grinned and pulled the car
into the garage.

“
What the hell!?” Emily
yelled, crawling through the gate.

“
What’s wrong?” Silas
asked, appearing beside the corral. He saw the horses and grinned,
“Oh.”

The rest of the Cavalry moved to the corral
when they heard her yell. Mark saw her and headed into the corral
with her. She was trying to pull the stallion away by the reins,
but he wasn’t budging.

“
It’s too late, Em,” Mark
said, taking her arm. “Just leave him.”

“
Why do they keep putting
them out here? What? The guards think they’re playing leap frog?”
she yelled.

Mark turned to hide his laughter, and she
finally got Chevalier’s stallion away from the mare and led him out
of the corral and into the stable.

Mark whispered through his laughter, “Who
put them out here?”

“
I put the mare out here
alone,” Silas said. “She was kicking at the stall door.”

“
Erm… we put the stallion
out here, he was agitated,” Jaron said, grinning slightly to two
other members of the Cavalry that were standing by him.

“
Silas, Kralen, take your
team inside. Sotomar and William are here and I don’t want
trouble,” Mark said, and pointed to the stables. “You three get in
there.”

Emily shut the stallion’s stall and turned
to the guards, “You three put him out with the mare?”

“
Sit,” Mark said to them.
“Yes, they did.”

“
Fine, then we’re going to
have a little lesson,” Emily said, and disappeared into the stall
of a calm pinto stallion. She led him out and tied him up by the
guards, “This is a male horse… I know he’s male, because he has a
penis.”

Mark blurred out of the stable and stopped
outside the front door, laughing. He was still grinning when he
appeared in the council chambers after being summoned by Quinn.

“
Yes?” he asked, stifling a
grin.

“
What’s so funny?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Emily is giving three of
the Cavalry a lesson on sex,” Mark said, laughing
slightly.

William’s eyes grew wide, “She is?”

Mark nodded and heard Silas and Kralen
laughing behind him, “They put a stallion out with that mare that’s
in heat.”

“
Again…” Chevalier
chuckled.

“
From the looks on their
faces, they would rather be banished than to face the lesson they
are currently being taught,” Mark explained, and
chuckled.

“
I’d like to say it serves
them right... but that’s brutal,” Zohn said, grinning. “To have a
sex ed lesson with an Elder’s wife...”

“
A pregnant Elder’s wife,”
Quinn laughed. “Can you imagine?”

Emily led the stallion back into the stall
and came out with a mare, “Ok, so… now that we know the anatomy of
the male horse and how baby horses are made, we’ll go over the
female.”

The three guards glanced at each other
nervously, all still sitting on the bale of hay as Emily explained
how horses breed. The attack came from behind them, the eight heku
appearing from deep in the stables. Emily barely had time to scream
before the Cavalry blurred into a fight with the purple clad heku.
One appeared in front of Emily and backhanded her onto the straw in
the stall. He pinned her to the ground and slammed his fist into
her jaw when she tried to scream for help.