“No!” Kyle growled and stood up. “We won’t kill her.”
“We won’t have a choice,” Zohn whispered. “If they succeed, she will be the most powerful Yisolatara ever created… an unfeeling monster set to kill both the immortal and the mortal. Yisolatara are massive heku with an appetite and anger beyond your imagination.”
“I won’t let you kill her,” he yelled, and his hands balled into tight fists.
“You won’t have a choice,” William told him softly.
“So she could be on day 5 of the process already. One week to find her to stop it,” Ryan said, and turned to Sotomar.
“There are preparations to be made, those that cannot be done in advance,” Sotomar told him. “That may buy us a couple of days.”
“However, we have no idea where she is, not even a continent,” Zohn reminded them.
Kyle slammed his chair back, shattering it against the wall, and disappeared from the room.
“Good, we need him gone,” Quinn said sadly. “If we have to kill her, we may need to get through Chevalier and Kyle to do it.”
“We can just imprison her… keep her alive,” Ryan suggested.
“She’ll most likely still be able to turn a heku to ash… that would risk the entire city,” Sotomar replied.
“You’re all assuming that the turning ceremony will work on her,” Exavior said calmly. “What does history tell us if the turning ceremony fails?”
“I’ve never heard it to fail, as we’ve… well most of us… have never tried to turn a Winchester.”
“What do you mean by most of us?” Frederick asked, frowning.
Exavior smiled slightly, “I tried to turn Emily when she was 3.”
“You what!?” William growled. “You attempted to turn a child?”
“10 times in 4 days,” Quinn said.
“Minor details, it didn’t work, obviously.”
“You’re pretty calm about this,” the Chief Interrogator said. “Aren’t you all upset about Emily being a Yisolatara?”
“Oh, yes I am, though getting irate about it won’t help,” Exavior told him.
***
Emily had never before felt such hunger or thirst. Her entire body ached from being restrained on the cold, dirt floor, but the worst pain was in her dry throat and aching stomach. She’d lost track of how long she was there. Every few hours, a heku came in and gave her a shot of something that paralyzed her body, but kept her mind alert. She could hear her heku guards talking to her through the day, but they fell silent at night, hoping she was asleep.
Her parched lips were cracked and bleeding, and she could taste the salty blood on her tongue. She could feel her resolve weakening and began to beg for death. She could no longer feel her legs. The back spasms caused them to fall numb after a few days. Her arms ached in the position, and she could feel her wrists swelling beneath the iron shackles.
“Can’t you leave her alone?” Mark yelled when four heku came into the room.
The heku ignored him and sat around Emily, “Congratulations, Winchester, you’ve made it past the first phase. You’re almost there now.”
He took her head in his hands and turned her to face him. Mark growled when he saw how easily the heku was able to lock Emily’s gaze and had her fully under control.
“News from the home front, your beloved husband came to rescue you and fell at the hands of my guards… funny how easily his head was removed from his body as his blood saturated my boots,” he whispered.
“No! Emily, snap out of it!” Kralen yelled.
“Fight back, Em, come on,” Mark growled.
“Not very smart of them to allow Allen to also come. He didn’t die as fast as his father, we had to torture him a bit first. He cried like the mortal he is, sad really. He didn’t stop until I removed his heart.” The heku’s voice was soft and flowing.
“Stop it!” Silas yelled.
“Come on, Emily, don’t do this,” Mark said, frustrated.
“Four thousand and eighty four Equites died today, trying to get you. I wonder why they would do that. You’re useless, nothing but a human. You cause more problems in that faction than you are worth, and now you’ve lost most of their army. The heku will figure it out, and will kill you, they hate you… the heku are bad and they want nothing but to hurt you and cause you pain. Everything that’s happening to you right now is done by a heku.”
He paused long enough to regain some lost control, and continued, “That dear daughter of yours, she’s with the Valle. Last I heard, Exavior was going to make her his bride now that he’s lost you. She’ll make beautiful children for him in a couple of years. She’s been taking care of Dain, that’ll have to stop. A child heku is against everything we believe in, and I assume the Valle will dispose of him.”
“Emily!” Mark roared.
“Now we release the rats and the mice, the ants and spiders, the snakes and scorpions… feel them as they crawl across your body. Feel them as they nibble at your skin and tear at your flesh,” he said, and grinned slightly. “They flood in, a never ending parade of them, all bent on coming to you and feeling your warmth against their wet noses and pointed claws.”
Another of the heku tore open the side of her jeans and removed them, leaving her in only a short halter top and panties, to maximize the amount of skin for their imaginary horde of scavengers to torment her.
The heku broke his gaze and glanced up at another, “No more medication is needed. She won’t be able to focus enough to turn anyone to ash.”
“Yes, Sir,” he replied, and left with the syringe.
“Enjoy, I’ll be back for more,” the heku said, and kissed Emily lightly.
Over the next few hours, the heku guards watched as Emily began to move. At first, slight movements that built up to blood curdling screams and violent thrashing as she fought to get away from the imagined rodents that tore at her skin, and the painful stings and bites of spiders, snakes, and scorpions.
“Emily, look at me,” Mark growled.
“Can you control her from this far away?” Kralen asked, pulling at the iron shackles.
“Emily!” Mark yelled again.
Her inhuman screams slowly faded as her voice gave out, but her panicked movements and painful whimpers continued for hours as the guards watched her helplessly.
On the morning of the ninth day, Emily was still screaming silently on the floor as imaginary rodents tore at her flesh. She pulled against the restraints and her wrists and ankles were swollen and bloody.
“Your turn,” a heku said, and walked in with a scalpel and clamps.
“Let her go or so help me…” Kralen growled.
“Oh do behave, you’ll be dead soon enough,” he said, and cut Kralen’s right wrist until his blood trickled out. The heku then used a small clamp to hold open the wound and soon, a slow stream of blood was dripping down his arms.
“What the hell!?” Mark growled when the same was done to him, and then Silas.
“Enjoy,” the heku said, grinning, and walked out.
“Why would they… Em?” Kralen asked when he saw her. She was now perfectly still as she watched the blood on their arms.
“Emily can you hear us?” Mark asked.
“She’s watching the blood,” Silas said, and tried to get at the clamp with his teeth.
A slow hiss escaped her lips as she watched the blood drip to the floor. She could almost taste it and feel how it would wet her throat and stop the painful starvation.
***
“How can we not find her?” Chevalier growled, and threw a chair through the wall of the conference room. Chevalier, Sotomar, Zohn, Quinn, Kyle, Aaron, and William were all that was left in the council chambers. The other Elders had returned to take care of their factions and to send out new scouts to look for the Ferus.
“We’re looking!” Zohn growled. “We’ve taken out four Ferus compounds, and we’re still trying.”
“There are just too many,” Sotomar whispered. �
�I keep hoping she’ll tell us where she is… If she can contact the ‘old ones’ again.”
“She can’t,” Chevalier said, and leaned his hands against the wall, lowering his head. “She’s no longer thinking rationally.”
“That makes it day… eight or nine, correct?” William asked.
Sotomar nodded.
“How is this working?” Kyle yelled, and stood up to look out the window. “She’s a Winchester for hell’s sake! She can’t be controlled… she can’t be anywhere near a turning ritual… how is this working?”
“What I don’t understand is how she dreamed of this,” Sotomar said, and shook his head.
“She dreamed of the Yisolatara ritual?” William asked, shocked.
“Yes, that’s where she first heard the word.”
“How can she dream about something that’s been outlawed for over 4,000 years?”
“If we knew that, we could probably find her.”
“We should have found that damned painted ceiling,” Kyle growled, and put his fist through the wall.
“The what?” William asked.
Chevalier sighed, “In her dreams, the ritual was performed in a ceremonial room where the runes were painted on the ceiling instead of etched.”
William looked over at Aaron with wide eyes and then turned to Chevalier, “Was the paint red?”
Chevalier turned to him, “Yes.”
“We had a coven, hundreds of years ago, that used a cave… the ceiling was made of something that couldn’t be etched, so it was painted in red,” William explained. “We had to kill off that coven about 80 years ago, though.”
“Where is that cave?” Chevalier asked, stepping closer to him.
William was on the phone, instantly, “Get me the location of the Armstrong Coven in Wyoming.”
Aaron turned to Chevalier, “We were all Coven Lords at the time. We’ll get the location, but it can take time. Some of those records were sealed by the Elders that ruled then.”
***
“Want some of the blood now, human?” the heku asked, grinning. “See… you can’t take your eyes off of it. Don’t worry, you’ll get it soon enough.”
Emily hissed softly and pulled her eyes away from her bloody companions to watch the heku in the room.
“Day ten, my dear, tomorrow we turn the infamous Winchester,” he told her, though she didn’t seem to understand.
“It won’t work! Stop now before you kill her,” Silas growled.
“Oh this’ll work. Master was very sure of that,” he said, and grinned.
“Who is your Master?” Mark asked scathingly.
“In due time. He’ll be here for the turning, I’m sure,” he told Mark, and then leaned over her. “This part won’t be hard at all, not with that back injury of yours.”
She watched him with angry eyes. His words were foreign and confusing.
“Course, you have no idea what I’m talking about, Sweetheart, do you?” he asked, and smiled at her.
“Stop this! You know it’s wrong,” Kralen yelled.
The heku took a short log from a servant and turned back to Emily. He quickly lifted her back from the floor and slipped the log beneath her. When he let her go, she screamed in agony as her back began to spasm again at the odd angle.
“See, easy enough, there’s more though… 12 hours is all, and we’ll be done with it. Then we turn you,” he told her, and left the room.
When the spasms began to die down, the heku returned with a sharp knife and proceeded to slice long, deep cuts into her arms, legs, and abdomen. He grabbed a small bag from his coat and sprinkled salt into the bloody wounds as her silent screams became more harrowing.
“Do you have no compassion? Why are you doing this?” Silas asked. His heart ached from watching Emily in so much pain.
“Compassion for a Winchester? None,” he said bluntly, and then left the room.
***
“It’s almost 12 hours,” Kralen whispered as Emily groaned in agony, her arms and legs shook with the pain and her blood saturated the dirt beneath her.
Mark nodded, “Then they turn her.”
“No!” Silas screamed when thirteen heku entered, twelve in blue robes and one in black.
“Don’t do this,” Mark growled.
The heku in black knelt down beside Emily and touched her cheek softly, “It will be over soon.”
“Stop this!” Kralen yelled.
“Mortal, do you know where you are?” one of the heku in blue asked.
“She does,” the heku in black replied.
Mark gasped, “Exavior!”
“Do you know what is about to happen?”
“She does.”
“Do you do so willingly and without coercion?”
There was amusement in his voice, “She does.”
“Proceed”
Hisses were heard from around the room as the heku in blue knelt down beside her and sunk their teeth into her soft flesh. She gasped at the pain and her back arched.
“Exavior, stop it!” Silas growled. “There are other ways to get back at Chevalier.”
As she was about to lose consciousness, she felt something placed against her mouth. At first she struggled, but when the blood wet her dry lips, she began to drink feverishly.
The twelve heku in the blue robes all pulled away from her and stood back along the circular walls. Exavior stayed knelt by her as she drank heartily from his wrist. After a few minutes, he stood up, pulling himself forcefully away from her.
Exavior took a stick and wrote runes in the dirt around Emily as she began to convulse and her eyes rolled back in her head. The twelve in blue began to chant and sway slightly in place as the runes were etched into the blood soaked mud.
“Stop!” Mark yelled. “Exavior, stop it!”
He brought the stick above his head, and poised it over her chest, ready to plunge it into her heart, stopping it and bringing her into immortality. The runes around the round ceremonial room began to glow and a grin formed on his face.
***
Chevalier, William, Sotomar, and Kyle stepped up to the cave entrance and tore down the boards that covered it.
“I smell her,” Kyle whispered from the entrance.
Chevalier nodded and quietly walked farther into the cavern. The others followed behind him and kept a close eye out for signs of any heku.
Suddenly, Chevalier held a hand up and motioned off to the side. The others walked to see what he was pointing at, and saw a type of recreational room carved into the cavern. In it were eight heku, lying motionless on the damp floor. Kyle moved forward quickly and knelt beside one of them, then frowned. He’d never seen an unconscious heku with no obvious signs of injury.
Kyle motioned to the others, to indicate that they were still alive, and stood up to join them. Following her scent, Chevalier passed through the labyrinth of caves, quickly following it. They stepped over many unconscious heku, all bearing the purple capes of the Ferus. None were dead, yet none seemed to be healing and coming out of their unconscious state.
Chevalier’s body tensed when he came face-to-face with a heavy stone door, and the others moved up to face it. He nodded at Kyle, and Kyle reached out and opened the door to the round ceremonial room.
The heku instantly took in the scene. Emily was lying motionless on the floor, still shackled in a Y position. She had brutal cuts all over her body and thirteen fresh bite marks. Blood dripped down the corner of her mouth. The ceremonial rod was lying at her side, and a small bloody mark was on her chest where it fell. There were thirteen unconscious heku lying across the floor, twelve in blue, and one in black. Mark, Silas, and Kralen were hanging from shackles on the wall, all unconscious.
“Em?” Chevalier asked, kneeling down beside her. Kyle quickly broke off the restraints on her ankles and wrists, and Chevalier gently wiped the blood away from her face and ears.
“Oh my God,” Sotomar gasped when he lowered the hood of the heku in black.
William hissed and Chevalier looked over at the unconscious Exavior.
“It was him this entire time!” William growled.
Chevalier turned back to Emily and pulled the log out from under her back. He gently picked her up in a cradle, “Kyle, get them down.”
Kyle nodded and went to the hallway to turn off the electrical current to the shackles. Once dead, he was easily able to free the heku guards from the wall, “They’re unconscious too, but I don’t see any injuries.”
William gently touched the blood on Emily’s chest, “They made it that far.”
Chevalier fought to control his rage, “It looks like they only pierced the surface. Something stopped it from going into her heart.”
A sickening tearing sounded, and Chevalier turned just as Sotomar tossed Exavior’s head off to the side of the room.
“We… we have a coven near here, only about 10 miles away,” William said. “I’ll call them in to clean this up… What do you want done with the Ferus?”
“Kill them,” Chevalier said, and started out of the room with Emily.
“And your guards?”
“I want them brought back with us,” he said. Kyle, Sotomar, and William each picked up one of the unconscious members of the Cavalry, and headed after Chevalier.
Once William had his coven on the way to dispose of the Ferus, Equites 1 headed back for Council City.
“Will this affect her?” William asked, motioning toward Emily.
“I don’t know,” Chevalier told him.
“Yisolatara is two parts,” Sotomar said. “The first of which is to drive the human insane. The second is to turn them. Once turned, they are then emotionless creatures with one purpose in mind, to kill. If it worked, which I’ve never heard of it not working... She may be insane.”
Chevalier pulled her tighter against his chest, “She’s Emily though.”
Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series Page 48
