Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “I’ll walk,” she whispered, her words slurred. She got out of the Zonda and slowly stumbled toward the doors, leaving Allen and Alexis in the passenger seat of Quinn’s car.

  “You can’t walk to Montana,” Chevalier said, and took her arm to steady her. He then glanced at the others, “She gets confused if she ashes too many.”

  Emily fell to her knees, grabbing the side of her head. It was pounding too loudly to hear anything, and her vision was like looking through a long tunnel. Voices were distorted and sounded more like angry growls.

  Chevalier picked her up, ignoring the way her weak hands pushed against him.

  “Let me go,” she whispered.

  “Ok,” he said, and then carried her inside. The heku split to form a path between them, and lowered their eyes as a symbol of respect.

  “I said don’t touch me,” she mumbled, her words almost unintelligible.

  “Ok,” he told her again, and started up the stairs.

  “Montana”

  “I know, you’re walking to Montana,” Chevalier said, and then kissed the top of her head.

  The faction doctor met them in their room. He already had an I.V. set up, “Same as last time?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t kill as many as last time,” Chevalier said as he laid her down on the bed.

  The doctor took out a stethoscope and began to check her over as she pushed at his hands. He sighed when he looked in her ears and saw the fresh blood pooled in them.

  “So?” Chevalier asked impatiently.

  “Let’s let her rest on her own and see if she can pull out of it. The confusion and slurred speech make me nervous. I’d like to see her blood pressure go up, and some clear thought process,” the doctor said as he easily removed her hands as they gripped his wrist.

  Chevalier met her gaze after she tried to slap him. He cradled her face lovingly in his hands and told her to sleep.

  He kissed her hand and laid it by her side and then pulled the covers up. Allen ran in and pushed his Dad angrily. He turned around and looked at his son, shocked.

  “What did you do to her?” Allen asked, growling.

  “We’re just helping her sleep,” Chevalier said softly, and glanced at Emily.

  “She wanted to go to the ranch. You promised you wouldn’t stop her,” Allen said, with rage and emotion beyond his years.

  “This was different, she’s sick.”

  “She’s not sick! What did you do?” Allen hissed.

  Chevalier picked up Alexis and nodded at Kyle, who took Allen away as he kicked and screamed.

  “Elder?” Damon said from the doorway.

  Chevalier turned to him.

  “The Valle Elders are requesting an audience within the next six hours,” Damon told him. “They want to… apologize for the behavior of this coven.”

  Chevalier looked at him, irritated, “Apologize?”

  “Yes, a formal apology for the unsanctioned actions of the Valle.”

  “I don’t want to see them.”

  “They insist that you and Emily are present,” Damon said, and glanced quickly at Emily.

  Chevalier growled, “Fine, I’ll be there. Tell them Emily is too mad to talk to them right now.”

  Damon nodded and left the room.

  Chevalier looked at the doctor, who was deep in thought.

  “Is there a problem?” he asked.

  The doctor shook his head, “I was just wondering if she would agree to an EEG or MRI of her brain before, during, and after she’s turned a heku to ash.”

  “I can tell you right now she would never go for that,” Chevalier said as he sat on the bed and took her hand.

  “It could tell us a lot. Maybe even teach us how to stop the aftermath.”

  “I’m sure it would.”

  “With the bloody nose and ears, I’m afraid that one of these times, she’s going to have a stroke,” he told the Elder.

  Chevalier nodded, “The problem is getting her to stop doing it.”

  “She saved us tonight,” he said softly.

  Chevalier sighed, “I look forward to hearing what happened. I saw one of them take Alexis, and the next thing I knew, Damon was reviving me.”

  “It was…” the doctor looked at him warily, “Magnificent. We hear about her abilities, but to see them… how she can talk to one heku, and turn hundreds of others into ash simultaneously is amazing.”

  “We have it on security camera,” Maleth said from the door.

  “We do?” Chevalier asked, surprised.

  Maleth nodded, “Yes, I’m having the tape pulled now. I want to watch again. I couldn’t see a lot of what was happening.”

  “If I might be so bold as to talk about her while she’s not able to respond…” Quinn said from behind Maleth. “I believe had she not been there tonight, the Council would have been wiped out.”

  “How did that many Valle get in without a single warning?” Chevalier asked, frowning as his mind wrapped around the possibilities of what might have happened.

  “It’s also too much of a coincidence that they chose to attack when most of the city’s defense is away fighting at the Powan skirmish,” Quinn added.

  “We aren’t sure, but I can promise you, we’ll find out and it won’t happen again,” Zohn said as he walked into the room with the rest of the Council.

  “Mama mama mama,” Alexis said, extending her hands out for Emily.

  “Shhh, she’s sleeping,” Chevalier said, and kissed her on the forehead.

  Alexis frowned and then pressed a finger to her lips, “Sssss.”

  Chevalier nodded and she smiled at him, exposing her only teeth, the four front ones. He pulled her into a hug and felt her small hand pat his shoulder. No one noticed that Ford was pacing in front of the bed until Alexis reached out for him.

  Chevalier set her down and she walked slowly to the Border collie, and held onto him with a handful of hair. She smiled at the dog, her dimples and a head full of black ringlets gave her the ability to melt even the heku’s volatile hearts.

  “Call me when she wakes up,” the doctor said, checking her pulse.

  Chevalier nodded and watched as the doctor left.

  “We’re ready,” Damon said from the door, and the Council all filed past him. Alexis stumbled over to him and held her hands up. Damon picked her up and kissed her fat cheek, a gesture normally uncharacteristic for the heku, but they found that the beautiful child had broken all of what they believed of themselves.

  Chevalier and Damon were the last to sit in the Council chairs, and Alexis was on Damon’s lap, playing with a pen from the table.

  The Council watched as the security tape replayed, starting from when the Valle first flooded into the reception hall. They watched, entranced, as Emily appeared on the stage to the left side of the screen. The chamber was perfectly quiet except for the recorded voices of the Valle commander and Emily as they spoke. Chevalier frowned when he saw the look on Emily’s face when the Valle commander commented on how the Equites treated her like a ‘purebred bitch’. The replay ended just as Emily fell back behind the curtain.

  “What’s the total?” Damon asked, still watching the blank screen.

  “She wasn’t able to completely ash the Commander, so 529,” Zohn told them.

  “Is she ok?” Maleth asked Chevalier.

  He shrugged, “She’s killed more, but she still got confused afterwards and has a severe headache. Now we just wait to see how she is when she wakes up.”

  Maleth nodded, “We owe her a great debt.”

  “We just have to make it so she doesn’t have to do it again. The toll on her body is too great,” Quinn said as he pictured the confused look on her face when she couldn’t get out of the garage.

  The Council all turned toward the doors when they were told that members of the Valle Council had arrived.

  “Send them in,” Quinn said sternly.

  Four members of the Valle Council, including Elder Jeaniel, came in with no g
uards, a common symbol for peace.

  They bowed before the Equites Council, another sign that they were trying to make amends.

  “Why have you asked us here?” Maleth asked them coldly.

  “Where is the Lady? We asked that she be present to hear this,” Jeaniel asked.

  “She is quite upset by the happenings tonight, and has retired early,” Quinn told them.

  Jeaniel smiled and nodded, “We have come here to apologize for the misguided attempt by one of our covens to contact Lady Emily.”

  “Contact?” Chevalier asked. “You mean kidnap.”

  The Valle Elder cringed, “Perhaps, we have not yet spoken to their leader.”

  “I find it hard to believe that this wasn’t sanctioned,” Damon said skeptically.

  “It was in no way sanctioned by the Valle Council!” Jeaniel calmed herself, “Again, we are here merely to apologize for the behavior of that coven.”

  “Very well,” Maleth said.

  “Now, may we have our Chief Enforcer?” Jeaniel asked hesitantly.

  “That all depends. It seems to us that your Enforcer has defied the Council,” Chevalier said angrily.

  “Yes he has, and he will be dealt with.”

  “Then you may have the dagger, but we will keep the ashes,” Damon told them.

  “Did… did the Lady take the dagger?”

  “No, she did not,” Damon said, grinning. He still thought it was funny that such an ancient rule was broken by the naivety of a mortal.

  “Very well, we will take it and replace him as a show of goodwill,” the Valle Elder said.

  The Valle council members nodded and left, meeting their guards in the hallway, they headed out to their waiting helicopter.

  “I don’t know about you, but I could use some time alone with the Commanding Officer,” Chevalier said, standing up.

  “I think I’d like to get my hands on the former Chief Enforcer,” Damon said, and hurdled the desk, landing softly on the trial room floor.

  Chevalier and Damon headed down to the prison to try out a new addition to their Interrogation chamber.

  ***

  Emily opened her eyes slowly and watched the ceiling as her eyes adjusted. She felt a fog over her mind from the long sleep, but it was slowly clearing.

  “Good morning,” Chevalier said, smiling.

  “What happened?” she asked quietly. Her head hurt badly and talking made it worse.

  “First, how is your head?”

  “Is it smashed in?” Emily whispered, and covered her eyes with her arm.

  “Feels like it, huh?” he answered, slightly amused.

  “There were Valle.”

  “Yes”

  “They had Allen and Alex.”

  “Yes, but we have them now, they never left the palace.”

  “I was pretty mad,” Emily said, and she fought to remember what happened.

  “I would imagine you were.”

  “Are you mad?”

  Chevalier smiled and touched her cheek softly, “No, I’m not mad.”

  “Did I get them all?” she asked, looking up at him.

  “You left one, but he’s been dealt with.”

  “Damn, my head hurts,” Emily said, sitting up slowly. The doctor handed her two pills and some orange juice, and she took them without even asking what they were.

  As Emily’s eyes adjusted, she frowned and looked around the bedroom at the flowers, balloons, teddy bears, and gift baskets that lined one entire wall, “What’s that?”

  “You have some supporters,” Chevalier told her, and looked at the gifts again.

  “Supporters?” Emily asked, and then laid back down.

  “The coven dignitaries that would have died had it not been for you.”

  “Don’t exaggerate.”

  “I’m not, sadly.”

  “I’m pretty hungry,” Emily said, and looked over at the doctor.

  “Yes, please eat.” He smiled.

  Emily sat up when the tray was delivered and grabbed the cheeseburger first thing and started to eat. She looked up self-consciously when she noticed the two heku were watching her.

  “Can I help you with something? Why are you watching me eat?”

  “Sorry, we’re overdoing it again aren’t we?” Chevalier asked, and then stood up to talk to the doctor at the door.

  Chapter 13 - Ranch

  Emily woke up from a nap and looked round the room. After three weeks, the gifts had stopped pouring in and she finally had her bedroom back. The fire was roaring in the fireplace, and a silver tray sat on the table next to a pot of hot coffee. She glanced at the clock, it was already 9am.

  Sighing, Emily crawled out of bed and threw on some clothes. She grabbed a mug of coffee and sipped it as she walked out of the room.

  “Hello,” a strange heku said to her.

  Emily turned to him and frowned, “Who are you?”

  “I’m your guard today,” he said, sounding annoyed.

  “Where’s the Cavalry?”

  “I’m not sure that’s any of your concern.”

  “Go away.”

  “No, Ma’am. I was told to stay with you.”

  Emily opened her phone quickly when it rang, but continued to stare at the unhappy guard.

  “Yes?”

  Emily’s eyes narrowed, “When?”

  “Encala?” she growled.

  “Damnit!” Emily slammed her phone shut and ran down the stairs, taking two at a time. The guard followed behind her, rolling his eyes.

  “Em, what’s up?” Kyle asked as she ran past him and skidded to a halt.

  “Get him away from me.” She pointed to the guard.

  When Kyle nodded, Emily took off again, shoeless, toward the garage.

  “Where are you going?” Kyle called after her, but she disappeared around the corner.

  The guard rocked on his heels and watched the Captain as they waited to see if she would return. Before long, they heard the Durango peel out of the garage and speed off.

  Kyle turned to him, “What did you do?”

  “What makes you think I did something?”

  “Just a hunch.”

  “Well I didn’t do anything. She’s just a drama queen,” the guard said, rolling his eyes again.

  Kyle frowned, “Drama queen?”

  “Yeah, yelled something into her phone about the Encala then cursed and took off,” the guard shrugged.

  Kyle gasped, “What?”

  The guard shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s just too quiet round here, and she’s looking to get everyone riled up.”

  Kyle slapped him upside the head and grabbed his shoulder, pushing him toward the council chambers. When he shoved the guard into the trial area, the Council looked up.

  “Problem, Kyle?” Quinn asked.

  “Yeah, Genius here was Emily’s guard today,” Kyle pushed him forward so he was directly in front of Chevalier.

  “Yes, and?”

  “Why don’t you tell them why you called her a drama queen,” Kyle urged.

  Chevalier sighed, “What now?”

  “Hey,” the guard said. “I’m ok taking my turn with the mortal, but I’m not going to coddle her and freak out just because she yells into the phone and takes off running.”

  Kyle growled, “Keep going, Dipshit.”

  “Is this really important? We were sort of busy,” Chevalier sighed.

  “Ok, so her phone rings and she starts yelling about the Encala, and then takes off running. It’s not my job to stop her, so I followed, but she…”

  “What?” Chevalier yelled, standing up.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” the guard said casually.

  “Kyle…” Quinn said, gritting his teeth.

  “She was already gone in the Durango before he told me why she took off,” Kyle said, slapping the guard again.

  Chevalier had his phone out, “Damnit, it’s busy.”

  Quinn stood up quickly, “Kyle, ge
t your Ferrari and head east, I’ll head west, Chevalier, head south.”

  The three heku took off as Maleth looked at the guard and motioned him forward with the bend of a finger. The guard walked up to the Elder pompously, and crossed his arms, smiling, “Yes, Elder?”

  “Who assigned you as Emily’s guard?” the Elder asked.

  “Captain Linch, Sir.”

  Maleth thought for a moment, “Why haven’t I heard of him?”

  “He’s new, just moved in from one of the English covens,” Zohn told him.

  “Fire him… and you,” Maleth said, turning back to the guard, “Will report to the kitchen.”

  “The kitchen, Elder?” he asked, confused.

  “Yes, the kitchen, talk to Ron about your position on the servant staff here at the palace.”

  The guard puffed out his chest, “I’m a guard.”

  “No, you were a guard… now you are a servant,” Maleth said, and stood up. “Zohn, let’s go talk to Allen for a moment.”

  Zohn nodded and followed the Elder to the make-shift classroom where Allen was being tutored. His 6-year-old body didn’t match his mind, which had advanced well past elementary school and into the world of astrophysics and multivariable calculus.

  Allen looked up when the Elder and Chief Interrogator walked into his classroom.

  “Can I help you?” the tutor asked.

  “Yes, we need Allen for a moment,” Maleth told him.

  “Alone,” Zohn added.

  The tutor huffed and then walked out of the classroom.

  Allen looked up from his studies, “Yes, Elder?”

  “Allen, this is very important,” Maleth said, taking a seat by the boy.

  “Ok”

  “Where is your mother’s ranch?”

  Allen sighed, “I’m not going to tell you that.”

  “We need to know. She’s taken off after a phone call about the Encala, and I’m afraid there may be some problems,” Maleth explained.

  Allen looked at them calmly, “It’s not my place. If she ran off without protection, then I can only assume that she can handle it herself.”

  “Please, Allen, tell us so we can make sure she’s ok,” Zohn said.

  Allen shook his head, “I’ll not betray my mother’s trust by giving away her secret.”