Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  Sotomar nodded, “Yes, I think we are. Everyone is in place out in the city.”

  ***

  “Still no word from Garrett?” Kyle asked when he sat down at his chair.

  “No word from them or the Valle,” Quinn explained. “Zohn is there now trying to find out what’s going on.”

  “Hope he returns.”

  “So do I.”

  Chevalier sat down a ledger, “I’m still just getting annoyance from Em. I don’t think she’s being mistreated.”

  “That’s better than last time at least,” Kyle said.

  “How is Alexis holding up?” the Chief Investigator asked.

  Chevalier frowned, “Not well. She knows the Valle won’t kill Emily. Garrett, however, is another story.”

  ***

  Emily looked up from her book when someone knocked, “Go away.”

  Sotomar smiled and walked in, “You cannot tell an Elder to go away.”

  She watched him closely.

  “Come, I want to show you something,” he said, and held out his hand.

  Emily set her book down and watched him, “Why are you doing this?”

  “Crimes against…”

  “Bullshit… why?”

  Sotomar nodded and then shut the door behind him before sitting down, “The Equites can’t properly care for you.”

  “Yes they do, that’s a cop out. Tell me why.”

  “You belong here.”

  “Are we playing the Ulrich card again?”

  “You are Valle by blood.”

  Her eyes narrowed, “If you say by marriage also…”

  “I won’t.”

  “You’re risking your entire faction by keeping me here.”

  “I know,” Sotomar said. “However, I also know that you’ve not used it much since your return from… anyway. We can better care for you.”

  “I’m tired of being a pawn between factions. Who can keep Emily the longest… I’m not a toy, I’m not a weapon, and I’m most certainly not a Valle.”

  Sotomar smiled, “It’s deeper than that.”

  “Tell me.”

  “It’s been well known for centuries that any faction having a Winchester would be stronger than the rest.”

  “It has to be more than that.”

  “It is… you’re also a friend to the Valle, and we don’t feel that it’s good for the Equites to have you around.”

  She sighed and looked out the barred window, “Even knowing that you can’t keep me here?”

  “This time, I suspect we can.”

  “Just because I may not ash your city, doesn’t mean Chevalier’s going to sit back and watch this.”

  “We’re ready for the attack,” Sotomar said. He watched her for a moment and then stood up and put his hand out, “Come, I still want to show you something.”

  “No”

  He smiled and pulled her to her feet, “You still can’t tell an Elder, no.”

  She rolled her eyes as he gently pulled her out of the room. Four Imperial Guards fell in behind them, and Emily jerked her arm away from Sotomar and followed them down to the council chambers.

  The Door Guard bowed and opened the door for them. When Emily stepped inside, she gasped at the sight of a bloody Equites lying in a heap on the floor.

  She rushed to him and knelt down beside him. She gently turned him over and then became furious when she saw it was Garrett. She looked up angrily at the Council.

  Sotomar took his seat, “It’s simple. He’s ours now and how he’s treated will depend on how you behave.”

  Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Let him go.”

  “No”

  She looked down at Garrett and then took his hand, “I’m here Garrett, it’s ok.”

  They all watched the Equites heal and after a few minutes, he was able to sit up with Emily’s help.

  “Let him go!” she screamed at the Valle Council.

  “No,” Ryan said.

  “Listen to me,” Garrett whispered, though it was obvious he was still in a great deal of pain. “Turn this city to ash and get out of here. Just leave me, I’ll be ok.”

  “Actually, you would be dead,” the Chief Interrogator said.

  “I can’t leave you here,” Emily told him.

  “You’re too important. You have to get out of here.”

  “Again… leave and he’s a dead heku,” Sotomar told her.

  She smiled and squeezed his hand, “I’m not going to leave you here alone.”

  “Smart girl,” the Chief of Defense said with a smile.

  Emily looked up at Sotomar, “You won’t beat him?”

  “Not if you do as you’re told.”

  “He’ll feed?”

  “Yes”

  When Garrett finished healing, Emily helped him stand and they both faced the Council.

  “Fine,” Emily said, crossing her arms. “I’m behaving.”

  “Please, Lady Emily…” Garrett started. With one nod from Sotomar, he was roughly pulled from the room before he could finish.

  “You said you’d be nice to him!” Emily screamed.

  Sotomar nodded, “We will be.”

  “That wasn’t nice.”

  “He’s heku, he’s fine.”

  Emily pointed at him, “Be nicer or I walk.”

  He smiled, “We need to get on with trials.”

  She spun on her heels and walked out. When she was safely in her room, the Imperial Guards escorted Chevalier, Mark, and Kralen into the Valle’s council room.

  “I’ll just preempt this,” Sotomar said, watching them. “The answer is no.”

  “Don’t you think this is getting a little old?” Chevalier asked. “Can’t you just leave her alone?”

  “No, we can’t,” Ryan said. “If she wanted to be with the Valle, then the Equites would kidnap her. She’s valuable beyond anything the heku have ever had.”

  “She’s my wife.”

  “That’s irrelevant.”

  Mark growled, “You’re willing to back that up with a war?”

  Elder Ryan nodded, “Yes, we are.”

  “If you hurt one hair on her head,” Chevalier hissed.

  Sotomar’s eyes narrowed, “We care about her too much to harm her.”

  “Taking her from us right now is harming her!”

  “She is fine here. We have provided what she needs.”

  “Then prepare,” Chevalier whispered harshly.

  “Where is Garrett?” Kralen asked.

  “He’s our bargaining chip with Emily,” Ryan said. “You may go.”

  The Equites left angrily, knowing that the Valle wouldn’t hurt Emily, but they fully planned on attacking to get her back.

  As much as it angered Chevalier, Randall was returned to his faction. It was against heku tradition to imprison an enemy Elder for such a small crime.

  ***

  The Valle doctor smiled, “I think we can do without these bandages now.”

  Emily looked down at her scarred hands and shrugged.

  He sat back with a notepad, “Let’s try these questions again, alright?”

  She watched him, but didn’t speak.

  “How far along are you?”

  Emily shrugged.

  “Do you not know, or are you just not saying?”

  She grabbed her book and sat back, but he tore it out of her hands and then calmed down and set it beside her.

  “I can figure that out on my own,” he explained. “Any pains?”

  “Just you.”

  He smiled, “I see… any headaches?”

  Emily reached for her book, but he pulled it out of her reach.

  The doctor sighed, “Let me just put this right out for you. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll be forced to tell the Council and your dear guard may suffer for it.”

  She frowned.

  “How far along are you?”

  Emily felt the panic begin.

  He put a hand on hers, “You can trust me. I just want to help you.”


  She looked around the room, but saw nothing that could save her.

  “I will call in Imperial Guards if you don’t cooperate,” he whispered softly.

  “I…” she started, but then pressed her hands into her eyes to stop the strong headache that was getting stronger by the minute.

  “What’s wrong?”

  When blackness began to creep into her vision, she fought to keep focused. Sounds around her became far away and suddenly, she lost control and fell unconscious.

  “What’s going on?” Sotomar asked as he blurred into the room. The Valle doctor was just lying Emily down on the bed.

  “She passed out,” he said, quickly digging in his bag for a blood pressure cuff. The other two Elders came in and watched him as he put a stethoscope to Emily’s chest.

  “So?” Randall asked.

  “Her blood pressure is way too high.”

  “Fix it.”

  “I can’t just fix it,” he explained. The doctor took her pulse again and then turned to them, “It takes time and a calm environment to bring it down.”

  “So we stop threatening her?” Ryan asked.

  “We’ll have to see if that works. High blood pressure is the 2nd most cause of maternal death.”

  “Death?” Sotomar gasped.

  “Yes, and it’s very well-known that she has pre-eclampsia when pregnant.”

  “You can’t do anything about it?”

  “Birth is the only fix we know of. Right now all we can do is lessen her stress.”

  Sotomar nodded, “Do what you can to calm her down when she wakes up.”

  “We’ll be in the council chambers,” Ryan said. “It won’t help if she wakes and sees us here.”

  Four hours later, Emily slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. She squinted at the bright sunlight, but someone quickly shut the thick curtains.

  “How are you?” the doctor asked as he sat down beside her on the bed.

  Her head hurt too badly to speak, so she pressed her palms into her eyes to try to stop the small flashes of light in her vision.

  “Drink this,” he said softly, and then helped her sit up. She took the drink in her hand and drank the cold orange juice, “Good girl.”

  Emily laid back down and looked up at the doctor.

  “Does your head still hurt?”

  She nodded and shut her eyes.

  “Do you see light flashes?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “I know it’s hard for you to do right now, but you have to try to calm down. If your blood pressure keeps getting high, it can hurt you and the baby.”

  She nodded, “Let me go.”

  “I can’t. You’ll be safe here if you’ll just calm down, ok?”

  “I miss him,” she said with a cracked voice.

  The doctor put a cool rag on her forehead, “I know, Child.”

  When she fell back to sleep, the doctor headed down to the council chambers to give them a report. The trial area was cleared and he was let in immediately.

  “How is she?” Sotomar asked.

  “Her blood pressure is dangerously high, so she has bad headaches.”

  “Caused by?”

  “Stress mainly, though when I first heard of the Winchester having pre-eclampsia, I theorized that it was due to having a baby that was only partially of her own species.”

  Sotomar nodded, “That sounds right.”

  “We may not be able to bring down her blood pressure.”

  “No medication can do that?”

  “Some can help, but the only way to completely fix it is to deliver the baby.”

  “So let’s just take it early,” the Chief of Staff suggested.

  The doctor frowned, “It’s too early for the baby to survive.”

  “So we remove the fetus to save her life.”

  Ryan shook his head, “That’s not a bad idea.”

  “Do you not remember when the Encala did something like that?” the Chief of Defense said. “She wiped out their palace and half of their city.”

  “That’s true,” Sotomar sighed.

  “We may have to return her to the Equites to save her life and the life of the baby,” the doctor said.

  “That’s not an option,” Ryan told him.

  “There’s just not much I can do.”

  The Elders turned and spoke in private for a few minutes before turning around, “Do what you can.”

  The doctor nodded and then left the trial area. He spoke to the Chief of Finance in the hallway and ordered medical supplies before returning to Emily’s room. She was still sound asleep, so he took the opportunity to study her more to try to determine how far away she was from delivering.

  Emily dreamt of having a headache, and when she woke up, her head was pounding and she had a hard time even opening her eyes.

  “It’s ok,” the doctor whispered as he took her hand.

  “Where’s Chev?” she asked softy.

  “You’re still with the Valle, but you’re going to be ok.”

  She felt something on her face and tried to pull it off, but the doctor held her hands down.

  “It’s oxygen, leave it on,” he told her.

  “My head,” she whispered, and squeezed her eyes shut.

  The doctor replaced the rag with a new cold one, and then dimmed the lights in the room.

  “Please, Emily. Tell me how far along you are,” the doctor said. “If you get sicker, we’re going to have to take the baby and I need to know when it’s safe to do that.”

  A tear fell from her eye, “Four and a half months.”

  He nodded, but inwardly cringed, “Thank you.”

  “I’m so tired,” she whispered.

  “It’s the magnesium sulfate in your I.V.”

  She frowned.

  “I’m trying to keep you from having a seizure because of your high blood pressure.”

  Emily couldn’t fight when she felt the heku restrain her hands to the side of the bed, but moaned when she felt the pinch of a needle.

  “What are you doing that for?” Sotomar asked softly when he walked into the room.

  The doctor stood up with a syringe full of blood, “I need to test her kidneys to make sure they aren’t failing. Magnesium Sulfate is pretty hard on them and if they give out, she could die.”

  “You have her on a medication that can kill her?”

  He turned to his Elder, “It’s all there is to control this.”

  Sotomar sat down on the side of the bed and checked Emily’s wrist restraints to make sure they weren’t too tight.

  “Can you stay with her while I run this?” the doctor asked.

  Sotomar nodded and adjusted the cold rag over Emily’s eyes.

  She sighed, “Kyle, please get Chev.”

  “You’re with the Valle,” he told her softly.

  “Why?”

  “We’re going to keep you safe.”

  ***

  “Not even a day!” Lt. Andrew yelled.

  “We’ll get her back,” Chevalier told him from his seat on the council stand.

  “It’s pathetic,” William growled. “How can you lose her the same day she returns from the Encala?”

  “Valle attack, plain and simple,” Zohn said. “It’s obvious that you have an informant. They knew as soon as she left.”

  “We do not!”

  “Calm down,” Quinn said. “We’ll get her back.”

  “Maybe the Valle are right and you aren’t fit to have the Winchester in your care,” the Encala’s Faction Liaison Officer said.

  Chevalier glared at him, “Get out of my palace.”

  “No, I want to go to the Valle with you,” Lt. Andrew told him.

  “Well that would be awkward,” Zohn said, smiling slightly.

  Lt. Andrew growled softly.

  William sighed, “We want to help. Emily is our friend too, and I don’t like that she’s back under the Valle’s influence after what Salazar did to her.”

 
“You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Quinn said.

  Lt. Andrew’s eyes narrowed, “She told me what he did.”

  Chevalier snarled, “She did?”

  He nodded and then smiled, “Don’t even ask.”

  “We’ll get her back, and we don’t need the Encala’s help to do it,” Zohn said, trying to break the tension.

  William scowled and then turned and left with the rest of his faction.

  Quinn looked over at Chevalier, “Still sick?”

  He nodded, “Yes, I’m afraid she’s very ill. I can tell she’s not alone, but that’s all I’m getting. It’s pretty vague.”

  “Kyle should be back soon with a report on the attack,” Quinn said. “We’ll see how they like being attacked while they’re busy.”

  Chevalier nodded.

  “Do you really think she told him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “She may have,” Lori said from the doorway. “Sorry, I overheard.”

  “You think she would tell him?” Chevalier asked.

  “Salazar didn’t plant fear about the Encala. It’s actually healthy for her to be able to get it out and speak to someone about it. When William forbid him from telling anyone what she said, he gave her the opportunity to let loose.’

  “I just wish it had been one of us.”

  Lori nodded, “I know, but I’m quite pleased she told him.”

  “But we’ll never know.”

  “Maybe”

  “Here’s Kyle,” Quinn said, turning to the door.

  Kyle came in and sat down, then turned to them, “It’s done. We wiped out the entire Wright Coven.”

  Chevalier nodded, “Now we wait for them to come talk to us.”

  “What were our losses?”

  “Thukil lost 4, Powan 4, and Council City lost 12,” Kyle reported.

  ***

  “Emily?” Sotomar said, sitting down on the bed beside her.

  She looked over at him and then pulled at the restraints on her wrists again.

  “We can’t let you go. You have to keep your oxygen on and your I.V. in.”

  She sighed and looked toward the window.

  “How can we convince you to trust us and calm down?”

  “I don’t feel well,” she whispered, and squeezed her eyes shut.