Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

“Wait… he’s been keeping notes on this?” Mark asked.

  “Yes, he has,” the Court Reporter told him, and then continued. “Two weeks ago on Sunday, Mark pushed Emily into the pool. Last Friday, Silas embraced her while they were alone…”

  “Hold on!” Silas yelled. “That was not an embrace…”

  “Stop doing that, anyway,” Emily said to him.

  “Then stop trying to run off when we call a doctor.”

  “I did push her into the pool,” Mark said, smiling slightly.

  “We all realize that was deserved,” Quinn told him.

  Emily frowned, “I don’t want to hear any more of this. It’s ludicrous! There is nothing inappropriate going on and even the thought of it just infuriates me.”

  “I agree,” Chevalier said to the Council. “Laythan is apparently either jealous of the friendship they have, or trying to get them into trouble for some reason.”

  “I second that,” Zohn said. “Destroy those papers and bring the entire Cavalry in here.”

  The Court Reporter nodded and disappeared to shred the notes from Laythan. Derrick called for the Cavalry, and they blurred into the trial area. Mark, Silas, Kralen, and Emily moved off to the side as the Cavalry faced the Council. Silas put his hand on Emily’s shoulder when she headed after Laythan.

  Zohn stood up, “We’ve brought you all here to get to the bottom of allegations that there is inappropriate conduct going on between Lady Emily, your General, and the two Captains. No one’s leaving until we get some answers.”

  “Laythan, step forward,” Chevalier said, and watched the heku proudly step to the front.

  “Let’s start simple,” Quinn said, and stood when Zohn sat down. “If you have witnessed any misconduct or inappropriate and/or unjustified touching, step forward.”

  Quinn sat down, and the Cavalry shifted nervously, but no one stepped forward.

  “How can you not see it?” Laythan said. “He’s doing it now… in front of the Council.”

  All eyes fell to Emily and Silas’ hand on her shoulder. He didn’t move it, but looked Laythan in the eye, “If I let her go, you will be assaulted.”

  “Likely excuse.”

  “Emily!” Mark yelled when she started to concentrate on Laythan.

  The heku turned to look at her with wide eyes.

  “Em, please try to refrain from torturing the guard before we’ve finished,” Chevalier chuckled.

  Emily nodded, and Silas let her go.

  “I don’t see that as unjustified touching,” Quinn told him. “Emily has… well… a temper, and at times it’s prudent to restrain her to keep her safe.”

  “Anyone else? Laythan made it clear that others feel as he does and we need to find out who and what you’ve seen,” Chevalier told them.

  “They won’t step forward with the General and his temperamental girlfriend watching,” Laythan spat.

  “Kiss my what?” Emily yelled, and lunged toward him.

  Mark wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her so her feet were off the floor. He headed for the door, “Come on, Killer. We’ll wait out here.”

  “Silas, Kralen, wait with them,” Zohn said. They both nodded and left the trial area, shutting the door behind them.

  “Yet again… there was no need to lovingly wrap his arm around her,” Laythan said, turning to the Council.

  “Lovingly?” Chevalier asked. “Looks to me like he was justified… again.”

  “Justified? Will you find it justified when his tongue is down her throat?”

  Chevalier growled and Zohn stood up, “That’s enough of that kind of talk.”

  “Laythan, tell us who among these guards agree with your opinion,” Kyle said, irritated.

  “They all do.”

  “Jaron, step forward,” Chevalier said. The Commander stepped up to stand by Laythan. “You’ve witnessed inappropriate or unwarranted conduct?”

  “No, Sir, I have not.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” the Chief Interrogator told the Council.

  “She’s more comfortable with the three of them,” Jaron said. “It stands to reason that they have certain lenience when it comes to the rules set forth by the Council.”

  “Yes, they do… step back,” Zohn told him. “It’s important that anyone who has any misgivings about the actions of Mark, Silas, or Kralen, step forward now. It is your duty, first and foremost, to protect the city and Lady Emily… any misconduct is a grave mistake and should be reported immediately.”

  “Sir?” one of the Cavalry’s Commanders said, and stepped forward.

  “Go ahead, Kain.”

  “There is no misconduct… there is no inappropriate touching going on. Those three heku are well respected by all of us… well, excluding one obviously and I swear to you… if I thought for one moment that anything were happening to the Lady, I would handle it myself. There’s nothing improper going on.”

  “We know that,” Chevalier told him. “But thank you.”

  The door burst open and Emily came inside, furious, “You said what about Mark’s tongue?”

  Laythan’s eyes grew wide as Emily ran up to him. He put his hands out to stop her, but she knocked them away, kneed him in the groin, and then slammed her palm up into his nose, shattering bones into his brain. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

  “I’m your Commander, Damnit,” she yelled at him, and kicked him in the side as Jaron took her arm and pulled her away from him.

  “Sorry, Sir,” Mark said, grinning. “We aren’t supposed to touch her.”

  Chevalier chuckled, “Em…”

  “What?” she asked, pulling against Jaron’s grasp.

  “Calm down,” he told her, and then sighed when the Cavalry began to cover their noses against the smell of burning flesh. Laythan couldn’t scream, couldn’t fight back against the burning, as he was only barely starting to come out of unconsciousness.

  “That’s enough, Emily,” Quinn said sternly, and the burning stopped.

  Jaron let go of her and returned to the rest of the Cavalry.

  “Now, I want one thing made clear,” Chevalier said to them. “This questioning was a legality. In no way did the Council ever consider the General or the Captains to be breaking any laws, or to be acting in any way unbefitting of one of our elite.”

  Laythan slowly got to his feet, out of breath slightly as the burning lingered in his chest, “You’ll see that I’m right.”

  “You won’t, you’re hereby relieved of duty. You may return to your coven,” Zohn told him.

  “What!?” Laythan yelled. “I look out for the best interest of my charge and I’m punished for it?”

  “I’m not sure what exactly you’re up to,” Quinn said. “But I doubt it has anything to do with Emily’s safety.”

  “Fine, I’ll return to my coven… with honor,” he said, and disappeared.

  “Damn, guess we get to clean out his stuff,” Mark sighed.

  “I’ll help. I’m too mad to sleep,” Emily said, and followed him out the door.

  “You may go,” Zohn told the rest of them.

  “You’re taking this well,” Quinn said, turning to Chevalier.

  “If it were any of them but those three, I wouldn’t be.”

  “Are they too close to her though?”

  Chevalier shrugged, “Maybe, but I don’t see how it’s affecting their ability to protect her. Proven by tonight’s encounter with Exavior. Yes, she got bruises, but sounds to me like she caused them by once again trying to get into the middle of a heku fight.”

  Zohn frowned, “I still want to know what Laythan is up to… what caused all of this?”

  “He really wanted to go dancing?” Dustin suggested.

  The Cavalry matched Emily’s speed as they walked to their barracks. No one was in a very happy mood after the accusations by Laythan.

  “Where’s his area?” Emily asked, stepping into the Cavalry’s barracks.

  “Over here… but we can get it, Em,” Sila
s said, and sat down at a chair to start gathering Laythan’s clothes into a bag.

  “I’m already here… besides, I read it was the Commander’s responsibility,” she said, and smiled. She sat down on the floor and started packing up his books.

  “You ok then? After that?”

  She nodded, “Irritated I guess.”

  “No one agrees with him,” Jaron said, and hauled out the mattress. Emily looked over at the bed frame and saw a wooden box sitting under the bed. She pulled it out and flipped it over.

  “What’s this?” she asked, running her hand over the rune etched into the top. It looked to her like an arrow with two of the feathers pointing toward the arrow-head instead of away from it.

  Silas glanced over, “That’s the Nordic rune for love.”

  Emily grinned, “Laythan has a girlfriend?”

  “Not that I know of,” Kralen said, and started going through Laythan’s dresser.

  “Well… I’m just nosey enough to open this,” she said, and pulled at the lock. “Anyone have a screw driver?”

  Jaron reached over and pulled the lock off easily with his fingers.

  “Thanks,” Emily told him, and opened the lid. Her face fell as she saw the top picture. It was an 8x10 black and white photo of her on horseback. She flipped it aside and the picture beneath was a smaller color photo of her swimming alone in the pool.

  “So is his girlfriend cute?” Kralen asked, grinning. He turned to look at Emily, and she was quickly going through the photographs, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s…” she managed to say, and quickly read a hand-written note she’d once left for Sam.

  “What?” Kralen asked, and sat down. He picked a handful of pictures from the pile and gasped, “Mark…”

  “What now?” Mark asked, turning around. Kralen handed the pictures up to Mark as Emily continued to look through them.

  “Oh my God!” she yelled as she held a picture in her shaking hand. The black and white picture showed her asleep in bed, Dain as a newborn was curled up next to her.

  “Get the Elders and clear out the barracks,” Mark said, motioning for Silas and Kralen to stay as Jaron blurred to the council chambers.

  “What’s this?” Emily asked, and held a picture up to Mark. This one was a full color photograph of her from the chest up, and someone had drawn puncture marks on her neck with red pen.

  “Fantasy, I’m guessing,” Mark said, and took the picture from her.

  “This one’s a note I wrote to Chev a long time ago… told him I went to get my hair cut. Why would he have this?”

  “Is there a problem?” Zohn asked when the Elders arrived.

  Emily kept looking through the odd assortment of items in the box while Mark filled the Elders in. She picked up a leather glove, one that she’d lost a few months earlier, and set it down on the growing pile beside her.

  “Let me see,” Chevalier said, and picked up the stack of pictures.

  “Where is he?” Quinn asked.

  “He left immediately, didn’t even come back here,” Mark said. “He has to know we’d find this stuff.”

  “He might have assumed we’d ship it to him and not go through it.”

  “Well… I wouldn’t have gone through it… but…”

  Quinn nodded, “But Emily found it.”

  “Track him down… I want him,” Chevalier said. Silas and Kralen disappeared to gather the Cavalry to search for Laythan.

  Emily finally dropped the pictures in her hand and stood up. She glanced once more at the stack of personal items and headed for the door.

  “Em?” Chevalier called. “Where are you going?”

  “To sleep,” she told him, and walked out of the barracks.

  “For now,” Mark said, irritated. “That’s one huge personal violation.”

  ***

  Emily woke up and glanced over at the clock, it was 1pm and she still felt tired from being up all night. She quickly looked around the room and saw that she was alone. The window was open and a cool breeze was coming in through it.

  She rolled onto her back and watched the sun shine patterns onto the ceiling above her. She wondered what to do about the pictures. Both Chevalier and Mark were furious, actually madder than she was about it. It suddenly occurred to her to let them deal with it, to let them do what they were inherently born to do.

  Emily crawled out of bed and threw on a t-shirt and shorts, opting to not wear any shoes. She called down for some pizza, and then grabbed a bucket of tennis balls she kept in the closet.

  “She’s out of bed,” Quinn said, stating the obvious.

  “This is it then. She’ll run,” Zohn said, and glanced over at Chevalier.

  “Derrick, call her in,” Chevalier called out.

  The Council braced themselves for the angry lashing they were about to get from Emily. The pent-up fury at Laythan that was about to be released on the Council caused them to tense. She came in a few minutes later with both the Labrador and the Malamute with her. The Council was shocked at how large the Malamute was, and how Emily was dwarfed as she stood beside the giant wolf mix. She had a piece of pizza in one hand and a bucket in the other as she walked up to stand in the trial area.

  The Malamute sat, facing her, then howled slightly and wagged his tail.

  “No,” she told him and took a bite. “You called?”

  “How are you?” Quinn asked, watching as the Labrador stood perfectly still and stared at the bucket in Emily’s hand.

  “Fine, why?” she asked, and then gasped. The Malamute jumped suddenly and put his front paws on her shoulders as he reached to bite her pizza, which she had at arm’s length above her. “Get down!”

  The dog answered her with a cross between a growl and a howl, his tail wagging happily behind him.

  “Do you require assistance?” the Chief Interrogator asked, somewhat amused.

  Emily finally managed to push the dog off of her shoulders, “No.”

  She walked up and put her pizza on the desk in front of Zohn, and then turned to the dog, “Valle, sit down!”

  The Malamute stomped his feet and lowered his chest to the floor playfully, while the Labrador kept a close eye on the bucket of balls.

  “Sit!” she yelled at him, and he stood up fully. Emily walked around to his hind end and pushed on his rump above his tail, “I said sit.”

  Valle turned suddenly and put his paws on Emily’s back, sending her to the floor. He licked her face as she struggled to get away from him. When she fell, the bucket of balls spilled across the trial room floor and the Labrador picked one up, excited, and ran up to the Council’s chairs and dropped the ball at Quinn’s feet.

  “Umm…” Quinn said, and looked down at the ball.

  When the Council turned back to the trial area, Emily was rolled into a ball on her knees and the Malamute was standing over her, licking the back of her neck as she screamed at him to get off.

  Zohn’s hand flew up to cover his mouth as he started to laugh and Kyle appeared beside them and pulled the dog off of her.

  The impatient Labrador growled slightly at Quinn and stomped his feet, looking quickly from the heku to the ball.

  “He wants to play fetch,” the Chief Investigator told Quinn.

  “Oh, right,” Quinn said, and tossed the ball back to the trial area.

  Emily finally got to her feet and called for Jaron, who appeared almost instantly with 3 other guards. They saw the fray and immediately hauled the dogs out.

  Emily walked over and picked up her pizza from the desk, “Ok… where were we?”

  Kyle blurred around the room and picked up the balls, then handed the bucket back to Emily and returned to his seat.

  “Em…” Chevalier said, and then started to laugh.

  “They’ll learn, I swear… they’re just puppies,” she said, knowing already what he was laughing at.

  “That puppy is close to 130 pounds already,” Dustin said. “He may be too big for you to handle.”r />
  Emily glared at him and Kyle spoke quickly, “He didn’t mean that.”

  “They’re just excited because they haven’t been out to play today,” she told them, and took another bite while Chevalier calmed down.

  “Did you get hurt?” he asked finally.

  “No”

  “Fine then… we are wondering if you were planning on leaving the palace,” Zohn said, suddenly serious.

  Emily frowned, “Why would I leave?”

  “It seems a violation, what the guard did.”

  “Oh, that… I figured I’d let Mark and Chevalier handle that.”

  “Wait… do what?” Chevalier asked, shocked.

  “I have 2 dogs to train, a horse that needs broken in, one heku that can’t stay on his horse, and a group of new recruits starting… I don’t have time to seek revenge on the little git… so I leave that to you.”

  “Wow,” Quinn said, glancing at Zohn.

  “That’s new,” Zohn said, impressed.

  “Now I’m off to play fetch,” she said, and started for the door. She turned and looked at Dustin, “Or did you want to join us?”

  Dustin glared at her and she smiled and walked out of the trial area.

  Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Not sure I trust that.”

  “It is odd,” Kyle said, frowning. “She’s never let us handle things like that before.”

  “So does that mean she’s already gone?” Zohn asked.

  Quinn whispered and then shrugged, “Nope, she’s out with the dogs.”

  “I still don’t trust her,” Chevalier said, and blurred from the room.

  “Let’s go to Morse Coven then,” Zohn said to Kyle. “We’ll see if Laythan is there and leave instructions if he’s not.”

  “Why not call?” Dustin asked.

  “To scare them,” Kyle said, and he and Zohn left.

  Chevalier walked out and pulled on some sunglasses, it was mid-summer and already up to almost 100 degrees. He heard Emily on the south lawn and walked over. Silas was tossing a ball for the Labrador, far enough it took the dog several minutes to return with it. Kralen was crouched down, pulling on a leash attached to the Malamute’s harness while Emily called the dog to her. The dog was pulling frantically against the heku, his tail wagging as he struggled to get to Emily. Mark and Jaron were off to the sides, scanning the area.