Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Yes we know.”

  Chevalier gently patted the baby’s back, “We’ve spoken to Mitch and the idea is intriguing. We don’t want to go against Emily’s will though and she may not agree to be hypnotized.”

  “It may be the only way to stop the attacks,” Mitch said. “If we wait for her to allow it, it could be too late.”

  “She thinks he’s going to kill her,” Zohn said to Chevalier.

  “I know… he’s already tried.”

  “Let’s go with plan B then,” Quinn said.

  “Plan B?” Lori asked.

  “Yes… have Chevalier go back into her dream and stay there. We want to see if he can break free of whatever’s restraining him and see if he can destroy the Salazar image.”

  “What do you mean break free of restraints?”

  Chevalier looked at her closely before speaking, “When I’m in her dream… I can’t move.”

  Lori frowned, “That doesn’t make sense. You’re not actually in her dream, but simply watching it. How can you not move?”

  “I don’t know… what do you mean I’m not actually in her dream?”

  “I mean you may not be able to interact with, nor destroy, Salazar from inside the dream. You’re an observer, nothing more. Dreams come from her mind and unless you can influence her mind, you can’t influence her dreams.”

  “Well damn,” Chevalier sighed.

  “However, I would still think you might pick up on subtle clues about not only the assaults, but about her entire capture,” Lori explained.

  “It’s not worth the risk for me to go in there just for information,” Chevalier said. “Whenever I do, she’s assaulted worse. When Salazar backhanded her across the room, he’d seen me and it was obvious it was in retaliation for me being there.”

  “Hypnosis is our best bet then,” Mitch said. “If I can get in there and erase the scenes, it would stop.”

  “Can’t I do that by simply controlling her then?”

  “No, being controlled by a heku is deeper than hypnosis. Two separate levels of psyche are involved.”

  The Council paused when Silas notified Chevalier that Emily was asleep.

  Chevalier sighed and stood up, “I hate this. I wonder what abuse she’ll endure.”

  “Let me see if I can help her,” Mitch suggested.

  “No, I’ll go in one more time.”

  “Just remember you can’t influence the dream. You move if her mind moves you… you talk if her mind tells you to,” Lori said.

  Chevalier handed the baby off to Kyle and then disappeared up the stairs.

  “She just barely fell asleep,” Silas said.

  Chevalier motioned to Silas and Horace, “You two come with me.”

  They nodded and followed him into the room.

  “I’m going to look into her dream again. If you see injuries, call for Dr. Edwards. Position yourselves to catch her if she flies off the bed again.”

  “Yes, Elder,” both said as they stood around Emily’s bed.

  Chevalier watched her for a moment while she slept, and then reached out and grasped her wrist tightly. He was hoping he might be able to hold her on the bed if Salazar tried to throw her against the wall again.

  “Get out!” Salazar screamed as he looked in Chevalier’s direction.

  Chevalier attempted to move or speak, but couldn’t.

  Salazar turned back to Emily, “You… I heard a small noise. You will learn to be quiet when I tell you to.”

  Emily was panting as she stood up against the wall. She leaned her forehead on the stone and readied herself for more pain. Her back was exposed and deep burns were visible on her back and neck.

  “I told you to get out,” Salazar said, glaring at Chevalier. Chevalier tried to answer, but no sound came out.

  Suddenly, Salazar smiled, “Come, Child…”

  Emily turned toward him, covering her chest with her arms. He reached a hand out to her, but she pulled back.

  “You will obey me!” Salazar screamed. He roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her into an adjacent room, “I’m tired of these games… and you will pay for your Elder ignoring my commands.”

  Emily started to struggle when Salazar pulled her toward a bathtub filled with ice water. She started to scream, but Salazar let go of her arm and punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

  “This is for defying me,” he said, and grabbed a handful of hair.

  As Chevalier watched, horrified, Salazar dunked Emily’s head into the ice water and then looked over at Chevalier. Emily’s body struggled to get to the surface, but the Valle held her down.

  Salazar finally lifted her head and she gasped for breath as she clawed at his hands.

  “I’m done,” he whispered menacingly, and then pushed her head beneath the water again.

  Chevalier opened his eyes and shook her, “Wake up, Em.”

  “What’s going on?” Silas asked. He’d heard Emily’s heart rate pick up, but her breathing stopped.

  “Emily!” Chevalier yelled.

  “Get help in here!” Silas called out. He watched as Emily’s lips began to turn blue.

  “Wake up!” Chevalier said as she shook her.

  Dr. Edwards, Dr. Alona, and Lori all appeared in the room as Chevalier began to pull Emily off of the bed.

  Dr. Edwards put a hand on his arm, “Be gentle…”

  Silas immediately fell to his knees and began CPR on Emily when her heart stopped.

  Lori gasped, “What’s going on?”

  Chevalier’s voice sounded ominously through the room, “He’s killing her.”

  Dr. Edwards dropped down and began helping Silas with CPR. Slowly, Emily’s eyes opened and stared fixed on the ceiling, unmoving.

  Lori watched breathlessly and took the baby from Kyle when he appeared. Kyle froze in the bedroom and watched the heku as they fought to get life back into Emily.

  “Come on, damnit!” Silas growled before giving her another breath.

  The heku watched helplessly as Dr. Edwards and Silas continued CPR, fighting to save her life, and suddenly, her heart began to beat slowly.

  “She’s back,” Lori whispered, and knelt down beside him.

  Silas looked up at her, and then over to Dr. Edwards. He nodded, “Keep breathing for her, let me intubate.”

  Within ten minutes, Dr. Edwards had Emily hooked up to a respirator that breathed slowly for her. The heku watched as she breathed in sync with the machine.

  “She’s sedated,” Dr. Edwards said to Chevalier. “We’ll keep her sedated until I know she’ll breathe on her own.”

  Chevalier nodded and then ordered everyone to leave. He turned when Zohn and Quinn reappeared.

  Zohn calmed down and then pulled a chair toward the bed, “We want to talk about what to do when she wakes.”

  Chevalier sat on the bed beside her, “I wonder if the assaults will stop now that he’s almost killed her once.”

  “They may.”

  “Or they may not,” Quinn said. “We suggest letting Mitch have a try.”

  “I can’t believe Lori spoke to him about my wife,” Chevalier growled. “As a member of the Council, she had no right to break that privacy.”

  “We’ll talk to her about that later. Right now we need to decide how to handle it if the assaults continue.”

  Chevalier thought for a moment as he watched Emily, “If the assaults continue, then I’ll control her and see if I can erase it.”

  “She’ll allow that?”

  “I suspect that after this… she may.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then if that doesn’t work, we’ll allow Mitch to hypnotize her, but I will be there.”

  Zohn sighed, “I wonder how long she’ll have to pay for what that sadistic Sonofabitch did.”

  Quinn smiled slightly, “Lori said that the baby won’t calm down.”

  Chevalier called out for Lori, and then took the baby when she came in. The infant instantly calmed in her Dad�
��s arms and he gently rocked her against his shoulder.

  Zohn smiled and bent down to look at her, “Amazingly like Emily.”

  Chevalier nodded and watched Emily’s motionless body as he silently willed it to take a breath.

  “I know she’s healing, it’s just disturbing,” Quinn said as he looked out the window.

  “I know. Now how to feed you…” Chevalier said when the baby started to kick. He lifted her so he was looking into her innocent green eyes. She saw him and her bottom lip started to quiver, moments before her cries filled the palace.

  “Now what?” Zohn asked, standing up.

  Chevalier ordered a bottle and then tried in vain to get her to eat, “This is going to be a long process if she won’t eat.”

  “Let me try,” Quinn said, and held his hands out. Chevalier shrugged and handed her over. Quinn tried to get her to take the bottle, but she seemed even more upset to be out of Chevalier’s arms.

  “Try Alexis?” Zohn suggested.

  “She’s tried.”

  ***

  “Em?” Chevalier whispered as he sat on the bed beside her. The Elders had sat vigil over her bed for three days as the respirator breathed for her. Dr. Edwards finally consented to remove the breathing tube, and she immediately began breathing without it.

  Emily moved slightly, but her eyes remained shut and her breathing was uneven and strained.

  “Get the doctor in here,” Chevalier said.

  Zohn called for him and Dr. Edwards came in, “Did she wake up?”

  Chevalier nodded.

  Dr. Edwards listened to her heart and lungs, and then sat back, “She has pneumonia.”

  “Great,” Chevalier sighed.

  “At least she’s breathing.”

  “So now what?” Quinn asked.

  “Anti-biotics,” he replied, and dug in his bag. He quickly gave her an anti-biotic injection before she fully woke up. He smiled when she groaned as the needle punctured her skin.

  “Bring the baby,” Chevalier whispered. Because of her incessant screaming and refusal to eat from a bottle, she was kept away from Emily’s bed.

  Lori came in a few minutes later with the baby, who was beat red from screaming and covered in sweat. She angrily kicked as Lori handed her over.

  “Out,” Chevalier said.

  The other heku stepped out of the room and met up with Alexis.

  “Did she wake up?” Alexis asked, worried.

  Zohn nodded, “She’s sort of awake. She has pneumonia, but she’s breathing.”

  Suddenly, an eerie silence filled the palace, and Alexis smiled, “Finally.”

  “She has to be starving.”

  Within just a couple of hours, Emily’s guards reported to the Council that she was talking with Chevalier now, and awake enough to make sense.

  Chevalier sat down with the baby, “It’s all we can come up with right now.”

  Emily’s voice was dry and cracked, “I don’t want to be hypnotized.”

  “I know, but he’s dead… how else can we stop this? He tried to kill you.”

  She nodded and watched the baby.

  “Do you want to hold her?”

  “No”

  “Do you want to name her at least? We can’t keep calling her ‘the baby’.”

  “You name her, I don’t really care.”

  “How can you not care?”

  “Let Alexis and Garrett have her. They can name her.”

  Chevalier sighed and gently rocked the infant, “I still feel like you’ll change your mind in time.”

  Emily’s coughing stopped the argument that was about to start, and when she stopped coughing, she laid down in bed and shut her eyes.

  Chevalier watched her sleep, but called for Alexis to take the baby when dark purple welts began to appear on Emily’s arms and legs.

  Watching more bruises form, Chevalier called for Kyle.

  “What now?” Kyle asked, examining the bruises.

  “We have to let Mitch try.”

  “She agreed to that?”

  “No, but do we have a choice?”

  “Not really,” Kyle whispered. He turned when Lori and Mitch came in, followed by Mark, Zohn, and Quinn.

  Chevalier looked at Mitch, “You can try it, without her permission, but if we tell you to stop… you end it. If the assaults get worse we’ll have to think of another way.”

  Mitch nodded and tensed when a gash appeared on Emily’s cheek and began to bleed.

  “Damnit,” Kyle hissed, and pressed a clean cloth against the wound.

  “Do it now, before he kills her,” Chevalier ordered. He asked that all stay and watch for signs of duress.

  Mitch sat down, glanced nervously at the Elder, and then called Emily.

  Emily sighed softly in her sleep, but the second she opened her eyes, Mitch locked her gaze. Listening closely to everything he said, the heku in the room watched Mitch take her from heku control, over to hypnosis.

  “Emily, can you hear me?” Mitch asked.

  “Yes,” she said, almost dreamily.

  “You are hypnotized,” Mitch whispered. “This state you are in now, have you been there before?”

  “Yes”

  “When was that?”

  Her body tensed and her breath caught.

  “No one here will hurt you. Do you believe that?”

  “Yes,” she said, but her voice was somewhat strained.

  “Now take a deep breath.”

  She complied slowly.

  “Tell me when you have been in this state before.”

  “He did it,” she said, almost silently.

  “Salazar did?”

  “Yes”

  “When did he do that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How often?”

  It was obvious that she was starting to panic as her heart rate rose quickly.

  “Emily, calm down, ok? Salazar can’t hurt you now,” Mitch said calmly. He softly placed a hand on hers and she settled some, “How often?”

  “Buried,” she whispered.

  He frowned slightly and kept focused on Emily while Chevalier explained the burials.

  Mitch finally nodded, “Did Salazar hypnotize you while you were buried?”

  “After…”

  “When he hypnotized you, what did he say?”

  She frowned, “He wanted a baby.”

  “Right… so in the hypnosis he tried to get you to agree?”

  “Yes”

  “But you didn’t.”

  She slowly inhaled, “I’ll be punished.”

  “Salazar is dead, he can’t punish you.”

  “He will.”

  “When will he do it?”

  “If I ever give another heku a baby.”

  “So if you ever get pregnant, he’ll punish you?”

  “Yes”

  “He’ll start the punishment by saying what?”

  “I don’t know what it means.”

  Mitch smiled, “I know, but what were the words.”

  “Salve infans,” Emily whispered.

  “What were the words that would make him stop?”

  “Words?”

  “Yes, what words will he say to stop the punishments?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He didn’t give any?”

  “No”

  Mitch looked at Chevalier and frowned, then turned back to Emily.

  The heku were surprised that the hypnosis lasted through the night and most of the next morning. Emily laid out detailed and orderly plans explaining the punishments down to the minute detail. Each punishment was then erased by Mitch’s soft voice and continual reassurance.

  Any time it became too tense, Mitch walked Emily through relaxing imagery with scenes of her out on her horse, or walking among herds of cattle that grazed in lush fields. When she felt comfortable again, he would continue undoing what Salazar had planted.

  Toward noon, when Mitch couldn’t find any more hidden punishm
ents planted by hypnosis, he asked one final question for Chevalier, “Emily, you’re still doing really well. Can we ask one more question?”

  “Yes,” she said. She was lying perfectly still and relaxed as the heku watched.

  “Salazar had a punishment that involved your forearms.”

  He paused when her breath caught.

  “Do you know which one I mean?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, and a tear streamed down her face.

  “Can you tell me what the punishment entails?”

  She inhaled sharply as her back arched and she groaned loudly.

  “End this!” Chevalier growled when he realized that in her hypnotic state, she was reliving the torture.

  “Emily, we’re going to come out now,” Mitch whispered. He ignored the way the muscles in her forearms began to bubble and bulge as she broke out in a sweat.

  “Now!” Dr. Edwards yelled.

  “He has to bring her out slowly,” Lori explained. “Too fast and what he did may not hold.”

  “You won’t remember what we’ve gone over,” Mitch said, almost chanting. “The punishments by Salazar will stop. You will fall asleep when we’re done and rest peacefully.”

  Emily screamed when her forearms began to turn red.

  “End this or I’ll stop it myself,” Chevalier hissed.

  “On the count of three you’ll wake up,” Mitch said louder, so she could hear above the painful cries.

  When Mitch reached 1, Emily relaxed on the bed, opened her eyes, and then rolled over and was almost immediately asleep.

  Mitch stood up and looked at the Elder, “Now we wait.”

  Dr. Edwards knelt by the bed and looked over Emily’s forearms, “Damnit, what does this?”

  Chevalier bent over to look, “I still want to know. It’s bad enough that even Sotomar won’t tell us.”

  “Then I suggest we find Equites that have been held by the Valle and ask them,” Quinn suggested.

  Zohn nodded, “I’ll go ask the Valle prisoners. Someone has to know.”

  Mitch frowned, “I’ve never had anyone under hypnosis react like that.”

  “Let her sleep,” Dr. Edwards said. “We’ll talk to her when she wakes up.”

  “I’m staying. I want her guards in here and silent,” Chevalier ordered. “If there’s any sign of injury, I want to know.”

  “Elder?” Lori said from the doorway. When he turned, she sighed, “Alexis can’t get the baby calmed down.”