Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Like what?”

  He shrugged, “Anything… she told me Kralen hit her. She accused Zohn of taking her doll. Dain killed her once… no twice.”

  She sighed, “Enough… I get it.”

  “Out,” Chevalier said as he watched Emily. She turned just as the kids left and shut the door behind them. Her hands were shaking, so she reached over and drank another shot of Cognac and lit a fresh cigarette.

  “I wasn’t hiding,” she told him.

  “I know. I realize you thought no one wanted to even find you.”

  Nodding, she sat down in front of the dead fireplace and took another puff.

  “Cigarettes?” he asked, sitting down beside her.

  “Helps me relax.”

  “And the pills?”

  She looked over at him, “All three factions told me you were scattered.”

  “I know.”

  After flipping the spent cigarette into the fireplace, she stood up, “I need to go talk to the Encala Council.”

  “I figured, and I want to go with you.”

  She looked over at him, “You’re not going to stop me?”

  “No, you have a right to ask them why.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  He smiled, “Just no drinking and driving.”

  “I…,” she started to lie, but then reconsidered. “Fine, you drive.”

  He frowned when she grabbed the bottle of Cognac and headed out the door. They were silent for a while as Chevalier drove west toward the Encala Council. Emily dozed on and off and finally agreed to stop and grab a hamburger on the way through a larger city.

  After hours of silence, Chevalier decided to break the ice, “So who was there to tell you I was scattered?”

  “The other Equites Council, Ryan, and then the Encala’s Chief Investigator.”

  “What did they say, specifically?”

  “They told me that the Equites Council was re-banished and scattered, and to release any hold you had on the Equites your children were killed.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Well… no. They pretty much said that the factions were done with me and I wasn’t to contact any of them again or I would be…”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” she said, and grabbed a cigarette from her purse. Chevalier glanced over and saw that she was shaking so badly it was hard to light her cigarette, but she finally managed and turned to look out the window.

  “What happened to your arms?” He’d decided not to bring up the cigarettes quite yet.

  “Interrogation”

  “By who?”

  “Virgil… he’s the Chief Interrogator…”

  “We know who he is.”

  “Well then, you’ll also know what a caring soul he has.”

  Chevalier looked over at her, “Tell me what method he used.”

  “No… I’m taking care of it.”

  “I saw the pain meds.”

  “Well they work. I’ll heal, I’m sure.”

  “Ok,” he said, and then changed tactics. “Are you not sleeping well?”

  “No”

  “Do the pills help?”

  “Yes”

  “Do you always mix them with alcohol?”

  She turned in her seat and looked at him, “I’m fine.”

  “I see that.”

  “Then drop it.”

  He nodded, “What exactly do you want to do with the Encala?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’ll wing it.”

  “So you plan on ashing all of them or just the Investigator?”

  “I’m not going to ash him… that’s too easy.”

  “I don’t think the others know,” Chevalier said. “At the very least William and Andrew were in the dark.”

  “I’ll find out for sure.”

  “I won’t interfere. I just didn’t want you to go alone.”

  When she spoke, her voice cracked, “It was a long 4 months.”

  “I bet.”

  “I don’t have anyone any more if you and the kids were to disappear.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “You don’t know that. If it does, I’m alone.”

  “The pseudo-Council is dead… not banished, dead. I plan on dealing with the Valle, which I’m sure they are expecting. Once we know the Encala involvement, we can focus in on getting the Valle to back off.”

  “We?” she asked, not sure she heard right.

  “Sure, we make a good team.”

  She smiled, something she hadn’t done in a while, “Our team got our asses thrown into prison.”

  “That was my fault,” he said, suddenly serious. “I didn’t realize how deeply embedded the Valle was with the pseudo-Council.”

  “I don’t blame you.”

  “I do. I knew better than to take you there without guards.”

  “I still don’t blame you. I just want to know what they were going to accomplish by making me think you were dead.”

  “Or by turning you.”

  Emily looked over at him, “You know about that?”

  “Yes”

  She sat back in the chair, “I started to think it might work because I agreed to it.”

  “Through torture,” Chevalier said, his hands tightening on the wheel.

  “So you know all of it.”

  “I’m not sure. I know you were tortured into consenting.”

  She nodded and looked out the window when Chevalier stopped outside of the Encala’s front gates.

  “Just drive past them.”

  “They’ll set off the alarm.”

  “No they won’t.”

  Chevalier shrugged and sped past the guards just as they fell to their knees in pain.

  “You don’t want to do this by the book?” Chevalier asked.

  “No, I don’t. I don’t want them to know we’re coming.”

  “Your call. I’m just here to make sure they don’t attack you.”

  After knocking the Door and Palace Guards they came to unconscious, Emily and Chevalier made their way to the council chambers door.

  He looked at her as she stared at the door and nervously wrung her hands.

  “I’m here, it’s ok,” he said, and lightly touched her shoulder.

  Emily nodded and then opened the door and stepped in.

  “Emily!” William gasped, surprised.

  She walked in, followed by Chevalier, and Andrew smiled, “So great to see they found you.”

  “Are you ok?” William asked when she walked up to stand before the Chief Investigator, ignoring the others on the Council.

  “Why did you do it?” Emily asked him angrily.

  “What’s going on?” William turned to Chevalier.

  “Let her do this,” Chevalier said, moving to stand beside her.

  The Council turned and saw the Chief Investigator shift nervously, “What do you mean?”

  “You know damn well what I mean,” Emily yelled. “Tell me why you did it!”

  “Let’s all calm down,” Encala Elder Iuna said.

  Emily’s eyes narrowed and the Chief Investigator screamed inhumanly and clutched at his chest. Chevalier crouched slightly at her side, ready for one of the Council to attack.

  Andrew sighed, “Em… stop it, please.”

  Emily let him out of pain and asked again, “Tell me why you did it.”

  “Tell us what he did,” William said.

  “Tell me!” she screamed.

  “No!” William said sternly. “You cannot lash out at someone on the Council unless we know why.”

  “Tell us,” Andrew encouraged her.

  Emily’s eyes bored into the Investigator as he got over the lingering burn.

  “Chevalier, you cannot come in here and punish him,” Encala Elder Patrick told him.

  “I’m not punishing anyone… though I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on him too,” Chevalier said. “This is Emily’s fight. I’m just here to make sure you don’t get involved.” />
  “We have to get involved,” William told him. “She’s torturing a member of our Council.”

  “I deserve an explanation,” Emily said to him. “I deserve to know why you joined the Valle and the now dead Equites Council in ostracizing me from the lives of every heku.”

  Iuna smiled, “Child, I’m sure you have things wrong.”

  “I have a right to know,” she whispered to the Investigator. “Why did you back the Valle when they told me that my kids were dead, that Chevalier was scattered, and that no heku wanted anything to do with me? Why stoop to follow the Valle?”

  William frowned at his Investigator, “Tell her it’s not true.”

  “I did what I had to to protect my faction,” he said to her.

  Andrew growled deeply, “You did those things?”

  “Then you should be a Valle,” Emily hissed.

  The Investigator hurdled the desk, but came face-to-face with Chevalier, who blocked Emily from the heku, “Don’t touch her.”

  “She deserves to know!” the Investigator yelled. “This Council is too weak to tell her the truth. I’m not afraid of her and she deserved what she got.”

  Emily moved around Chevalier and pushed the Investigator, “I’m not afraid of you either!”

  Andrew and William both appeared beside their Investigator and each took an arm.

  “Did you have the backing of the Encala Council?” Emily asked him as Chevalier moved her away from him.

  “Yes”

  “No! He did not,” William yelled. “How dare you go behind our backs and join the Valle!”

  “I didn’t join the Valle! I joined the joint factions in disposing of this thing…”

  “Thing?” Emily screamed, and ran at him. Chevalier grabbed her before she could get to him.

  “Yes, thing! You shouldn’t even be here. If you would stay dead we would have just killed you and been done with it. As it stands, when we couldn’t turn you, we had no other choice.”

  “You had no right!”

  “I have every right to protect the Encala!” the Investigator yelled as he pulled against William and Andrew.

  “Well now your entire faction can pay for your stupidity,” Emily whispered.

  Chevalier looked down at her and then over to William quickly. Andrew frowned and let go of the Investigator, “Em…”

  “No! I don’t believe that you had no idea about this. You were my friends.”

  “We didn’t know,” Andrew said. “You have to believe us.”

  “I don’t,” she said to him, and then turned to leave. Andrew gently took her arm, but she gasped and jerked away from him.

  Andrew’s eyes narrowed, “Did they do it again?”

  “Do what?” Chevalier asked him.

  Emily scanned the Encala and then nodded, “Of course.”

  Andrew spun toward the Investigator, “Did you torture her?”

  The Investigator merely glared at his fellow Encala.

  Andrew took Emily’s hand and shoved her sleeves up, revealing the thick gauze, “How bad is it?”

  She glanced at Chevalier and then whispered, “I’ll heal.”

  “Why did they do it? What information could they possibly want?”

  Emily swallowed hard, “It worked… I agreed to turn.”

  “What!?” William roared, and then turned to the Investigator. “Did you torture her until she agreed to turn?”

  Chevalier gently took Emily’s shoulder and moved her back when Andrew blurred into the Chief Investigator. She couldn’t tell what was going on, and only Chevalier’s firm grip kept her from joining in the fight.

  “Let them do this, Em,” Chevalier whispered. “He went behind the back of the Council and needs punished.”

  “I can punish him worse,” she said.

  “No you can’t. You can ash him… they can make him suffer.”

  Emily glanced at William and saw that he was carefully watching the fight. She started to understand by the anger on his face that the Encala didn’t know what their Investigator was up to.

  “Let’s go,” Emily said, taking Chevalier’s arm. He nodded and followed her out. Just before he cleared the door, he looked back and saw Andrew break the neck of the Investigator and stand up.

  The Door Guard stepped in front of them as they exited the Encala palace, “The Elders wish to see you.”

  “No, I’ve told them all I’m going to.”

  “They’re on their way out.”

  Emily pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and lit up just as the three Encala Elders and Andrew came out toward the car.

  “We didn’t know,” William told her, obviously angry.

  She nodded and took a deep drag.

  “Why are you smoking?” Andrew asked, confused.

  Emily opened the car door, “I’m leaving.”

  “No, tell me what’s going on,” he said, and lightly touched her upper arm.

  Without warning, Emily touched the burning end of her cigarette to his hand and he quickly jerked it back, “Don’t touch me.”

  Chevalier chuckled and crawled into the driver’s seat of the Humvee.

  “Em, talk to me,” Andrew said. “What did they do to you?”

  “It’s not worth reliving. You’re off the hook though, I believe you didn’t know.”

  “How could you think we did that?”

  She sighed and took another drag before answering in a whisper, “It’s just been a long 4 months.”

  He looked over at Chevalier before leaning closer to whisper to Emily, “You need to tell them what they did to your arms. Their doctor might be able to help.”

  “I’m fine. I have pills.”

  “Pills and cigarettes? Is that how you’re dealing? I can smell alcohol on you too.”

  “I don’t need judged by you.”

  “I’m not judging. I’m worried.”

  “Don’t be worried about me. Be worried about the Valle,” she said as she crawled into the Humvee.

  “Let me go with you to talk to them,” Andrew said.

  “No, it’s my fight.”

  “Our fight,” Chevalier said. “I’m going too.”

  She nodded and shut the door. The Gate Guards glared at her as they passed, still furious over being knocked unconscious earlier.

  Chevalier pulled out onto the Interstate and then sat back for the long drive to Council City.

  “Why won’t you tell me about the forearm torture?” he asked after a few hours of driving in silence.

  “Because you don’t need new and inventive ways to torture someone.”

  He smiled, “But it’s so much fun.”

  She looked over at him, “See? I won’t be a part of that.”

  “I can do it back to those who did it to you though.”

  “Just stick them in your water tank and leave me out of it.”

  He thought for a moment, “How do you know about the water tank?”

  “I can be very persuasive.”

  “So you bribed the guards?”

  “Bribed… threatened… it’s all a blur.”

  He chuckled, “I see.”

  “What?” Emily asked when Chevalier sighed slightly.

  “I want to talk about the self-destructive behavior.”

  “I wasn’t self-destructive.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “I wasn’t trying to kill myself. If I wanted to do that I woulda put myself into one of your guillotines. I apparently can’t die by poison, might as well separate my head from my body.”

  He frowned, “It concerns me that you’ve thought that far about it.”

  “I didn’t sign up for this long-life crap,” she explained. “And I most certainly didn’t sign up do it alone.”

  “So if I were to die you would end up killing yourself?”

  She looked out the window, “I’m surprised you didn’t keep my pills.”

  “I wanted to.”

  “They help me sleep.”

  �
��I’ve noticed.”

  “Nothing else worked. I just sat up all night feeling alone.”

  “I’m sure Dr. Edwards can give you something safer.”

  “He wasn’t there!”

  “I’m not mad, ok?” Chevalier said. “I’m more worried about what happens if I do die someday.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Why smoking?”

  “Why not?”

  “You hate the smell. It’s just odd to see you with one.”

  “I don’t know,” she mumbled, and then pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  “Dr. Edwards thinks you might be addicted to all of it.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Do you remember when you came back from being gone for a year and you finally relented and agreed to let me take care of you?”

  “Yes”

  “I want that back.”

  “No. I can take care of myself.”

  “I’m not so sure of that right now.”

  “Nothing I’m doing is out of control.”

  “Mixing alcohol and narcotics is out of control, Em.” He sighed when she unbuckled and crawled into the very back of the Humvee where Kyle had tossed in some pillows and blankets.

  ***

  Chevalier sat by the fire and watched Emily sleep. After getting into an argument with Mark and Silas over her smoking in the stables, she’d stormed up to her room and taken another handful of pills with the usual whiskey and was now sound asleep. It worried him how deeply she slept with the combination of drugs and alcohol, but he’d watched her toss and turn for nights on end, unable to sleep without it.

  Her pills were running out. She’d been back in the palace for 3 weeks and had only a few of the barbiturates left, though a lot of the pain pills. He noticed that she didn’t take them often, and only if she somehow bumped her forearms or someone touched her accidentally.

  Lori was trying to slowly get back into Emily’s life without acting too much like a psychiatrist. Silas helped, but now that she was mad at Silas and Mark, Chevalier wasn’t sure she would warm up to Lori again. Dr. Edwards monitored her drug intake closely, but no one had yet to take anything from her or stopped her from doing anything.

  The Encala sent word that their former Chief Investigator had been thoroughly punished before being banished for 800 years. They sent apologies and gifts to Emily in hopes it didn’t tarnish their relationship. The Valle knew they were next on her list, but they weren’t sure how or when she would seek revenge for her 4 months away.