Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (26 page)

One of the Cavalry appeared, “Yes, Sir.”

“
After the initial
interviews, look at Emily’s Jeep. It’s making noises.”

“
Right away,” he said, and
blurred out of the room.

“
We’ve decided to bring the
group back in, see if we can find out what they lied about, but we
want to start with Stanton,” Zohn told Chevalier.

“
Or we let Richard and Kyle
take him down to the interrogation chamber while we question the
others,” Chevalier suggested.

Kyle grinned, “I like that idea.”

Zohn nodded, “Go.”

Kyle and Richard blurred from the room.

“
So let’s bring them back,
one at a time, and see what we can find,” Zohn said, and nodded to
one of the Cavalry. A few moments later, a nervous heku was
standing before the Council.

“
Ok, Elizir, let’s try all
of this again…” Zohn said, taking the interrogator role while the
Chief Interrogator was down with Kyle.

“
I told you the truth,”
Elizir said, scanning the Council.

“
No you didn’t, so try
again.”

“
Let’s start with easy
questions. When you came to the palace 79 years ago, which coven
did you come from?” Quinn asked.

“
I wasn’t... they were…
it’s actually…” Elizir loosened his collar and shifted
nervously.

“
Coven… now…” Chevalier
growled.

“
Katorga Coven,” he said,
and looked down at the ground.

“
That wasn’t hard, what did
you do there?” Quinn asked him.

“
I was a guard.”

“
Zohn?” Quinn turned to
him.

“
So far, he’s not lying,”
Zohn said.

“
I didn’t lie!” Elizir
yelled.

“
Yes you did. Now shut up
unless you’re spoken to,” Zohn said sternly.

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

“
No,” Elizir
said.

“
He’s lying,” Zohn
growled.

“
I am not!”

“
How did you know them?”
Zohn asked, sitting back in his chair.

“
I didn’t.”

“
How did you know
them?”

“
I didn’t, I
swear.”

“
Then how did you know they
were hiding?” Quinn asked.

“
I…” Elizir sighed. “I saw
them go into the Elder’s room.”

“
Didn’t you think it was
odd?”

“
Yes, Sir.”

“
What are the outstanding
orders about going into any of the Elder’s rooms?” Chevalier asked,
watching him closely.

“
No one is to enter the
Elder’s bedrooms without prior authorization by a member of the
Council,” he said.

“
And what do orders say you
are to do if anyone breaks a direct order?”

“
They are to be turned in
to the Chief Enforcer, immediately.”

“
Did you?”

“
No, Sir,” he
whispered.

Zohn leaned forward a bit, resting his
elbows on the desk, “Did you know why the heku were in the Elder’s
room?”

“
No, Sir.”

“
Liar… tell us the
truth.”

“
No, I didn’t know why they
were there.”

Zohn turned to Quinn, “Interrogation
chamber? Maybe he’ll learn how to tell the truth.”

“
No! Wait…” Elizir said.
“I… I heard them talking before they went in.”

Zohn sighed, “I still don’t believe that.
Did you put snakes into the bed?”

“
No, Sir, I
didn’t.”

“
See, now that’s the
truth,” Zohn said, smiling. “Do you know who did?”

“
No”

“
Damnit, Elizir, stop
lying,” Zohn yelled. “Tell me.”

***

Emily sat down on the only bed in the
barracks. The room was massive, and she couldn’t see from one end
to the next because of the lack of lighting. Her bed was small and
hard, and the sheets were stiff and uncomfortable. She knew there
were guards at each end of the barracks, and the windows and doors
were barred over with iron bars for her arrival. Mark and Kralen
had chairs off to her sides and were sitting silently, scanning the
room often.

“
This is stupid, Mark,”
Emily said, looking around the room.

“
I’ll admit, it seems a
tad… overprotective,” Mark said, “But let them do what they feel is
necessary.”

“
Where are the heku that
were supposed to be in here?”

“
I actually have no idea,”
Mark said.

“
They have been moved to
the other barracks,” Kralen told her.

“
Just take me to Council
City, and give them their barracks back,” Emily said, and grabbed
her bag.

Mark put his hand out to stop her from
lifting it, “Elder’s orders, we stay here for two weeks.”

“
I’ll give you more blood
if you’ll take me back.”

“
Emily!” Kralen said, and
stood suddenly.

Mark shut his eyes and then opened them
slowly, “I’m ok, but don’t do that.”

Emily shrugged and grabbed her book, “Offer
stands.”

“
Stop,” Kralen hissed at
her.

Emily rolled onto her side and tossed her
book onto the floor. She pulled the covers up to see if she could
get any sleep.

***

“
We’ve got to start moving
them through here faster than two a day,” Zohn said after the
second heku was finished.

“
If they would just tell
the truth,” Chevalier sighed. “That second one was stupid, four
hours to admit he skipped out of work early to meet a
donor.”

“
Can we take an hour?” Kyle
asked. “I had a thought and I want to check something
out.”

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, let’s meet in an
hour.”

He watched as the others left the Council
area, and soon he was alone. He pulled out his cell phone to call
Emily, but looked up when someone walked into the room.

“
What did you find?”
Chevalier asked Shawn, the member of the Cavalry that had gone to
look at Emily’s Jeep.

“
It just needed steering
fluid, now it’s running fine,” Shawn reported. “I found these,
though.”

Chevalier reached out and took the pill
bottle from Shawn, “Where?”

“
It was under the driver’s
seat. It slid out when I was raising it.”

“
Ok, you may go,” Chevalier
said, and read the bottle. “Kyle?”

Kyle appeared beside him with a stack of
files, “Yes?”

Chevalier handed the bottle to Kyle, “That
was under Em’s seat in the Jeep.”

Kyle put the files down and took the pill
bottle, reading it. He grabbed his cell phone and called Dr.
Hayden.

“
Dr. Hayden, it’s Kyle,
Emily’s husband,” Kyle said, and glanced nervously at Chevalier. He
knew the reasons why he had to pretend to be Emily’s husband, but
it always made him nervous.

“
Yes, she is, well, I was
cleaning out her Jeep, and found a bottle of pills under the
seat.”

Kyle nodded, “Those are the ones, but she’s
gone away for a few days to visit family and didn’t take them.”

There was a pause while Kyle listened to the
doctor and then he grinned slightly, “Yes, you were right.”

“
I’ll try,” Kyle said, and
hung up the phone. He turned to Chevalier. “They are
anti-depressants that she’s supposed to be taking twice a
day.”

“
Damnit, Em,” Chevalier
sighed.

“
Dr. Hayden said he got the
feeling she wasn’t going to take them,” Kyle told him. “The
overdose on melatonin caused it. These pills can counteract their
affect.”

“
I can go tonight, make her
take one, but she won’t keep taking them,” Chevalier said, and
rested his elbows on the table. “Did he say anything
else?”

“
No, just wants us to try,”
Kyle said, and moved to his chair and then began going through the
folders.

Chevalier opened his cell phone and dialed
Emily.

“
Hi,” she said
softly.

“
How are you holding up?”
Chevalier asked her.

“
I want to come
back.”

“
I know… we’ll be done
soon. Are you eating?”

“
I eat when I’m
hungry.”

Chevalier sighed, “Your Jeep is working… and
we found your pills.”

“
This is Mark,” the heku
said.

“
Damnit, Mark, why do you
have the phone?” Chevalier growled.

“
She just handed me the
phone, Sir.”

“
Fine,” Chevalier said, and
shut the phone. He sat back in his chair as the council members all
returned from the hour-long break.

“
I want to bring in several
of them at once,” Kyle said, and looked up at the Cavalry. “Bring
in Stanton and Elizir… again, Dalton, Rick, Filipe and
Bryce.”

Within a few minutes, the six heku were
standing back in the trial area.

“
These six all came to us
from the Katorga Coven. I thought that seemed odd,” Kyle said to
the Council.

“
Katorga stats?” the Chief
Investigator asked.

The Records Keeper opened a folder, “The
Katorga Coven is home to 298 heku in Northern Ohio. They were made
a coven in 1211, an offshoot from the Zio Coven. It’s run by Lord
Victor, who was also the founder.”

“
Any problems with them?”
Zohn asked.

“
Nothing, they’re quiet and
self-sufficient.”

“
Kind of a coincidence
isn’t it? Six of you are from the same coven originally?” Zohn
said.

“
No, Sir,” Bryce told them.
“We at Katorga Coven strive to move to Council City and serve in
the palace, it’s our duty.”

“
I see,” Quinn said,
sitting back in his chair.

“
Even stranger… we have
three guards missing from the barracks, and all three are also from
Katorga Coven,” Kyle told them.

“
Three missing? Dead,
maybe, found while hiding in Emily’s bathroom,” Chevalier said
angrily.

“
No, no, no one from our
coven would have done that,” Bryce said.

“
Only guards and servants
have access to the palace, and none of the servants are missing,”
Zohn said. “Plus, I’m sensing a lot of nervousness in your little
group there. You wouldn’t be lying to us would you?”

“
The Katorga Coven is
honorable. We wouldn’t do that.”

“
Stanton admitted to
knowing the three heku, and to putting snakes into the bed,” Quinn
said. “He’s from Katorga.”

“
Then he acted alone,
without permission from Lord Victor,” Rick said
nervously.

Zohn sighed, “There’s something deeper
here.”

“
Put them in holding cells.
Let’s talk to the last three and either add them to the list, or
clear them,” Quinn suggested.

Cavalry came and took the six Katorga Coven
members away.

“
Lord Victor,” Kyle said,
“Was an ancient supporter.”

“
He was?” Quinn asked,
turning toward Kyle.

“
Yes, once the ancient’s
were banished, he pledged to follow the new rules
though.”

“
It wouldn’t be the first
time an entire coven has turned on the Council,” Chevalier reminded
them. “As Chief Enforcer, I personally wiped out fourteen of
them.”

Kyle grinned, “Sounds like fun… maybe Emily
would stop referring to me as the wimpy Chief Enforcer if I do
that.”

Chevalier frowned, “She did?”

Kyle laughed, “Not in so many words. More
like in comparison to the three Chief Enforcer’s she known, I’m
calm and sweet.”

Quinn chuckled, “You? Sweet? You put our
tempers to shame.”

“
I told her that,” Kyle
said. “She didn’t believe me.”

The Council turned when the three remaining
heku came into the room.

***

“
So you lied to us just
because you’ve only been with the palace for 49 years instead of
50, and you didn’t want to leave?” Zohn asked, frowning.

“
I’m sorry! I love my job,
and I didn’t want to lose it. I was only short a few months,” the
heku said, looking at the floor.

“
That wasn’t very smart.
You could have come back to your job in 6 months… now you’re going
to be returned to your coven, your services are no longer needed
here,” Zohn told him.

“
Please, don’t do
that.”

“
It’s done. Next time the
Council asks you a question, you will answer it
truthfully.”

“
Yes, Sir,” the heku said,
and lowered his head as he walked out of the council
chambers.

Zohn sighed and turned to Quinn, “We need to
make some changes.”

“
I agree. We have traitors
in our palace and heku who lie. It’s despicable,” Quinn said
angrily.

“
After we handle the
Katorga Coven, I suggest we make some much needed
changes.”

“
Agreed”

Kyle called out, “Bring the Katorga Coven
members back.”