Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (25 page)

Quinn and Zohn nodded and Chevalier left the
council chambers before answering.

“
Good evening, Silas,”
Chevalier said.

“
We have a… situation…”
Silas said hesitantly.

“
Like what?”

“
Emily hasn’t eaten in two
days, and hasn’t been out of bed either. She’s locked the door and
burns anyone who tries to open it,” Silas said
nervously.

Chevalier frowned, “What happened?”

“
I’m… not sure I should
say. Can you call her?”

Chevalier answered him by hanging up the
phone, and he immediately dialed Emily’s phone.

Emily opened her phone, but didn’t say
anything, she just listened.

“
Em? What’s going on?”
Chevalier asked when he heard only silence on the phone.

Emily’s voice was almost too soft to hear,
“I’m alone.”

“
I can be there in a few
hours,” Chevalier said.

“
She’s
drinking.”

Chevalier thought, “Who’s drinking?”

“
Stay there. Tell them to
just leave me alone.”

“
Who’s drinking, Em?” he
asked again.

“
Alexis,” she said, and
broke down crying again.

Chevalier thought for a moment and then his
eyes grew wide, “Is she really?”

Emily heard the excitement in his voice, and
shut her phone, then threw it at the door, where it broke into
pieces.

Chevalier dialed Silas, “Is she really
drinking blood?”

Silas’ voice was amused, “Yes, she is. I
think Emily just broke her phone.”

“
This is great news!”
Chevalier said. “Just leave Em alone for now. She got used to
Allen, too. It just takes time.”

“
Ok, not that we have much
of a choice,” Silas said.

“
I’ll call to check on her
tomorrow,” Chevalier said, and returned to the council chambers.
Zohn and Quinn turned to talk to him, and their faces lit up when
he told them about the development with Alexis.

The Elders turned back to the trial area,
where one of the fourth-floor guards stepped forward, “I’m Yaing
Lee, I’m 899 years old, and have been an Equites the entire time.
I’ve been working in the palace for 77 years. I started out in
laundry, and am now a fourth floor guard. During those 24 hours, I
was working a double. I was on the first-floor from 3am until 9am,
and then I moved to the fourth-floor from 9am until I was called to
this meeting.”

Richard looked up at him, “Did you know
about the heku hiding in the Elder’s bathroom?”

“
No, Sir, I did
not.”

“
Did you know about the
snakes or the poison?”

“
No, Sir.”

Richard glanced at Zohn quickly, and then
back to Pavel, “Guards, take him to the conference room.”

Four of the Cavalry entered, and took the
heku from the room, and then put him in the Council’s conference
room with a few other heku.

“
Next up,” Zohn said,
aggravated. He hadn’t expected so many of the palace employees to
lie to the Council, but the numbers were growing.

***

Kyle stepped into the palace, having just
arrived by helicopter. He was surprised that the door guards were
gone. He listened and heard no noise from the servants, and no
footsteps anywhere in the palace. All he heard was a single voice
from the council chambers.

He walked into the council chambers and took
his seat, then frowned as he looked at the gathered heku in the
trial area.

“
Welcome back,” Quinn
said.

Kyle nodded, “What’s going on?”

Quinn filled Kyle in while Zohn called up
the next heku. In the past ten days, they had heard 127 heku try to
defend themselves, and in that time, twelve of them lied about
something and were waiting in the conference room.

“
I’m… I’m Jaques, I’m 1,928
years old, and was unfactioned before joining the Equites 1,644
years ago. I’ve been in the palace for 298 years. Most of the time
I was on fifth-floor cleaning duty, but when Lady Emily was moved
here, I became one of the morning chefs. I spent most of those 24
hours at home. I had only been in the palace for 3 hours when we
were called in here.”

“
Did you know there were
heku in the Elder’s bathroom?” Quinn asked.

“
No, Sir.”

“
Did you know about the
poisons or the snakes?”

“
No, Sir.”

The Chief Interrogator stood up, “You may
go.”

Jaques bowed and quickly left the room while
the council members all turned to their papers.

“
Next,” Richard said, and
sat back down.

The last heku left in the council chambers
stepped forward, “I’m Stanton, I’m 453 years old, and I’ve been an
Equites the entire time. I have worked in the palace for 52 years.
During that 24 hours, I was on cleaning duty on the fifth-floor the
entire time, pulling a double.”

“
Did you know there were
heku in the Elder’s bathroom?” Quinn asked, bored.

“
Yes”

The Council all looked up from their papers,
shocked.

“
You did?” Richard asked,
and stood up.

“
Yes, Sir, I did,” Stanton
said.

“
Did you know about the
snakes?”

“
Yes”

“
The poisons?”

“
Sure did.”

“
Did you put the snakes in
Lady Emily’s bed?” the Chief Interrogator asked.

“
Yes, I did.”

Chevalier growled, “Why?”

Stanton shrugged, “To get rid of her,
obviously.”

Richard motioned for Chevalier to stop, and
then turned to Stanton, “Did you work alone?”

“
Yes”

Richard smiled at Zohn and turned back to
Stanton, “You’re lying to us… did you work alone?”

“
Yes,” Stanton said
again.

“
You’re taking the fall for
everyone involved, so that we don’t find out this was some type of
conspiracy?”

“
No”

“
He’s lying,” Richard said
to the Council, and then sat down.

“
Guards, take him to the
conference room,” Zohn said, and they watched as he calmly left
with the Cavalry.

“
Least we’re done with that
part,” Quinn said. “Seems we’re getting somewhere, too.”

Chevalier nodded and grabbed his phone,
dialing Silas.

“
Silas… how is she?”
Chevalier asked.

Kyle glanced at Quinn, “Is there a problem
with Emily?”

Quinn whispered, “Alexis started drinking
blood.”

“
That’s great!” Kyle said
excitedly.

“
We all agree, but
apparently, Emily isn’t agreeing and has stopped eating again… she
burns anyone who tries to open her door,” Quinn
explained.

Kyle cringed, “Damn.”

“
Switch her to decaf,”
Chevalier said after listening to Silas for a while. “Just don’t
tell her.”

Chevalier smiled, “I’m glad she’s drinking
well. Let us know if you need more, and we can send some. We’re
almost done here, and she has that appointment in two days.”

Chevalier hung up his phone and shrugged,
“She’s moved on to coffee, but still isn’t eating.”

“
How can she be so upset?
We knew there was a possibility because of Allen,” Zohn
asked.

“
When Alexis showed the
Winchester ability, we all thought she wouldn’t have heku traits
though,” Kyle reminded him.

“
She just needs time to
adjust,” Chevalier said. “She’s closer to Mark, so when we send her
to Powan, we’ll send him with her.”

“
What happened to Mark?”
Kyle asked.

Zohn grinned, “He sucked out the snake venom
from Emily’s arm, and got a taste of her blood.”

“
It’s apparently…
exceptionally good,” Quinn chuckled.

Chevalier cleared his throat, “Can we
not?”

“
Sorry, Chevalier,” Quinn
said with a quick glance to Kyle.

“
Mark?” Chevalier called
out, and waited for the Captain to appear.

Mark came into the trial room and stood
before the Council, “Yes?”

“
I want you to go to Powan
with Emily in two days,” Chevalier told him.

“
I think I’m ready,” Mark
said, grinning slightly.

“
How do we want to handle
the liars?” Quinn asked.

***

“
Emily?” Silas called
through the door. “The limousine is ready to take us to the
jet.”

Emily opened the door. It was obvious she
hadn’t slept much.

“
Please come again, and
bring the children,” Lord Thukil said, and hugged Emily.

“
I will,” Emily said
softly, and followed Silas out to the limousine.

The heku spoke quietly between themselves as
Emily watched out the window in silence the entire way back to the
palace. When Equites 2 landed on the roof of the palace, instead of
guards coming out of the palace doors, it was the Council. Alexis
ran into Chevalier’s arms and Emily passed them all and headed down
to her Jeep. She was back just in time to drive into the doctor’s
office.

“
Em, want me to go?”
Chevalier asked, following her down.

“
No,” she
whispered.

Emily got into the Jeep and headed into the
city. It was snowing by the time she got to the doctor’s office,
but headed inside without a coat. She was still numb from crying
and not sleeping well for two weeks.

“
Emily?” the nurse called
into the waiting room, and Emily followed her back to the doctor’s
office. She turned away from the scales when the nurse weighed her,
and slipped into a gown after her blood pressure was
taken.

Dr. Hayden came in shortly thereafter and
smiled, “How are you?”

“
Ok,” Emily said
softly.

Dr. Hayden frowned, “You’ve lost 5
pounds.”

Emily shrugged, “Ok.”

“
Are you
eating?”

“
When I’m
hungry.”

Dr. Hayden looked at her and sat down, “How
are things at home?”

“
Fine”

“
Fighting with your husband
again?”

“
No”

After the exam, Dr. Hayden sat down beside
her again, “Let’s talk, something’s wrong.”

“
I can’t say,” Emily
whispered, looking down at her hands.

“
Might I suggest some
pills?”

“
More pills?”

“
Yes, anti-depressants,
they’ll help, I promise.”

“
I’m not depressed,” Emily
said softly.

Dr. Hayden touched her hand, “Trust me, it’s
Zoloft, and I promise you it will help. With the miscarriage,
fighting with Kyle, and now the accidental overdoses, your body
needs help readjusting. Melatonin overdose causes depression. We
need to fight that.”

Emily shrugged and got back into her clothes
when the doctor left. He came back in a few minutes later and
handed her a bottle of pills, “Twice a day.”

“
Ok,” she said, and tucked
them into her purse.

“
I’ll call you in a few
days to see how you’re doing.”

“
I broke my
phone.”

“
That’s ok. I have Kyle’s
cell phone, I’ll give him a buzz,” Dr. Hayden said. “We’re done, so
head home and take it easy.”

Emily nodded and went back out to the Jeep.
She sat it in for a while and just looked around at the snow
covered parking lot. She finally put it into drive and slowly
headed back to Council City. The roads were now snow packed and
slick, but she was in no hurry anyway.

It was almost an hour later when she pulled
into the palace’s garage. She put the pills under her seat and
headed inside. Chevalier was waiting for her inside the door and
pulled her into his arms.

“
How’d it go?” he asked,
kissing the top of her head.

“
Fine,” Emily said, and
pulled away from him to head up the stairs. Chevalier followed her
up the stairs and into the room. She sat in a chair, still avoiding
the bed.

“
Everyone’ll be ready to go
in an hour,” Chevalier told her.

Emily nodded and stood up and leaned her
head against Chevalier’s chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
The guards all left the room and shut the door behind them.

“
We’re going to have to
keep Alexis here,” Chevalier whispered.

“
I know,” she said
softly.

“
It’s going to be
ok.”

“
The Jeep is making
noises,” she said, trying to change the subject.

“
I’ll take care of
it.”

Emily just nodded and buried her face in his
chest. She couldn’t tell him what she was feeling or thinking. The
thoughts were awful and unspeakable, and she was ashamed to even
have them.

“
Tell me what’s wrong,”
Chevalier said, and kissed her softly.

“
I can’t,” she said, and
looked into his eyes.

Chevalier nodded, “Eat, for me… and call if
you need anything. Mark has your new cell phone.”

Emily nodded and took Chevalier’s hand. They
walked up to the helicopter, and she was soon on her way to Powan
Coven for the next two weeks.

Chevalier went down and joined the Council
again, “Shawn?”