Encala

by T. M. Nielsen

  “What’s that?”

  “Something else I will explain later. We’re still working on getting it off.”

  “It won’t wash off?”

  “No.” He pulled her nightgown back down. He felt fury rising in him at the sight of it.

  “I hate that I can’t remember anything after… the…” she said, and sighed.

  “It may come back to you later. I’m not sure,” the doctor said to her, and then bowed with a smile and left the room.

  “Can I get you something? Anything you want, just ask,” he said smiling.

  “I want on your lap,” she said, turning toward him. He lifted her gently and sat her on his lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she leaned against his shoulder, and he smiled.

  ***

  “I don’t like it,” Chevalier said. “She’s only been awake for four days.”

  “Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Emily said, scowling. “I’m doing it.”

  “I’ll be there,” Kyle said.

  “I said I wanted Emily at the interviews so you could get a feel of how they handle her,” he said angrily.

  “She wasn’t available. I interviewed them… it will be ok,” Kyle assured him.

  “Get this off of me,” Emily growled, pulling hard at the bands on her upper arm.

  “You can’t pull them off. I told you that,” Chevalier said.

  “Why not? You keep saying you’ll tell me later… it’s later…” she looked at him.

  “Tonight, ok? I promise.” He smiled at her. Chevalier had been dreading when he would have to tell Emily about the runes. The arm bands, he wasn’t so worried about. He knew they would come off, but so far, no one could figure out how to remove the runes.

  “Sure,” she said, and whistled. Ford came running out of Allen’s room and Emily turned to leave.

  “Just… be careful,” Chevalier called after her and Kyle as they headed down the stairs.

  The first thing Emily did when she got to the stables, was to check on Patra. She stepped into the stall and wrapped her arms around the mare’s neck, “I missed you.”

  She smiled and kissed Patra on the nose, and then slipped a bridle on her.

  “There have been some changes,” Kyle said, looking to see if the recruits were coming.

  Emily stepped out of the stall, leaving Patra inside and shut the door.

  “What kind of changes?” Emily asked, walking slowly down the long row of stalls.

  Kyle moved with her, “First of all, you no longer have a personal guard.”

  “Really?”

  Kyle shook his head, “Nope.”

  “Ok… what else?” Emily stopped and looked at him.

  “So the thirteen current cavalry members won’t be here, they will be on normal duty,” Kyle explained.

  “Stop it,” Emily said, batting behind her as she felt a horse smell her hair.

  Kyle grinned, “This will be our last round of recruits for now, seven of them. I hand-picked these ones, except for one.”

  “Stop it,” Emily said again, and swatted the nose of the horse that was nibbling on her hair.

  Kyle had to fight to keep from laughing.

  “Which one?” she asked.

  “Frank is going to be team lead on this one.”

  Emily smiled, “Good, at least one of them won’t be afraid of me… Excuse me!”

  Emily spun as the horse kept picking at her hair. She put her hands on her hips when she saw it was Chevalier’s pesky Arabian.

  “When did he get here?” she asked, irritated.

  “Two weeks ago,” Kyle said, laughing.

  “And Damnit?”

  “Two stalls down.”

  Emily heard the recruits coming up to the stables, “Go do your thing. I have business with this horse.”

  Kyle chuckled and walked out of the stables to start the training.

  Emily could hear him greeting the heku, and she grabbed a bridle and went into the stall with the huge Arabian Stallion.

  “Line up,” Kyle said, and watched as they followed his order.

  “I want to go over a couple of rules again… first is, of course, you listen to Emily. I don’t want to hear any ‘she’s a mortal’ crap. She’s in charge of these horses, and you will listen to her and obey what she says,” Kyle said sternly.

  The recruits all looked nervously into the stables when they heard a loud crash followed by Emily’s, “Damnit.”

  “Eyes back here. She knows what she’s doing,” Kyle said, fighting not to laugh.

  “No touching. That rule applies even in situations where you may find it polite to do so. Nothing will get you killed faster than laying a finger on her. Understand?” Kyle continued.

  The new recruits all nodded.

  “You sonofabitch,” they heard Emily scream, followed by another loud crash.

  Everyone looked into the stables again when they heard a stall door slam open. Emily was leading the Arabian out of the stall. He was bridled and saddled. The stallion yanked his head back quickly, and she almost fell into him, but caught herself. She used all of her body weight to pull back, and the stallion finally followed her.

  The heku cringed when they smelled a trace of fresh blood, and Kyle turned to them quickly and glared, not saying a word. The new recruits all fell back into formation, eyes on Kyle. He turned to look at Emily and shook his head. She had blood on her right arm that was dripping down to her elbow.

  “You ok?” he asked.

  “Manners… that’s what he needs,” she hissed, and walked past them. They watched as she tethered the Arabian to a post. He reared back and she dodged just as he tried to kick her.

  “Oh that’s it!” she yelled, and flew past the guards into the small store room in the stable. She came out with a long metal stick.

  Kyle frowned, he couldn’t imagine her having one, let alone using it. The training was unexpectedly halted as they all watched Emily. She stormed to the Arabian and stared him in the eyes.

  “You want to mess with me?” she asked him, gritting her teeth.

  The stallion reared back again, but dropped and whinnied loudly when Emily stuck the stick against his chest for a split second.

  “Try again, Boy, I dare you,” she hissed.

  The Arabian shied away from her, obviously not happy. She walked back to the new recruits a little calmer.

  “Hold this,” she said, handing the stick to one of them and went into the storage room again.

  She turned suddenly when she heard a loud thud, and saw the recruit lying flat on the ground. She walked over to him and knelt down, immediately breaking the no touching rule, and took his face in her hands.

  “Are you ok?” she asked him.

  He scrambled nervously to his feet, “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “What happened?” she asked, picking the stick up off of the ground.

  Emily turned when she heard Kyle laughing behind her, “Electricity, Emily… he wanted to know what the stick did.”

  She turned, “The cattle prod dropped you?”

  He nodded, embarrassed.

  “This?” she asked, touching it to her leg. She didn’t even wince as she was shocked slightly.

  He nodded again, even more embarrassed.

  The recruit standing beside him was laughing hysterically. Emily walked to him and touched the cattle prod to his bare arm, then watched as he hit the ground.

  “Hmmm,” she said, looking at him.

  He got to his feet slowly, no longer laughing.

  “I have to try this on Damon,” Emily said, running for the palace. She was lifted off the ground as Kyle wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up, taking the cattle prod out of her hand.

  He carried her back to the stable, “Let’s not.”

  The recruits were watching, eyes wide. They knew the orders were that no heku was to touch the Elder’s wife, yet Kyle not only touched her, but picked her up and took something from her.

  Kyle set her
down and put the cattle prod on a high ledge.

  “Damon better hope I don’t find him when I have that,” she said, smiling sweetly, and then she turned to the recruits.

  “Hello, I’m Emily,” she said, and reached her hand out for the first in line. He looked at her, nervously, and then glanced at Kyle and nodded to Emily.

  “Good to meet you, Ma’am.”

  Emily went to Frank, “Did you get the no touching lecture?”

  He nodded and smiled.

  “I’ll bet you dinner, that half of you will break that rule by the time training is over,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

  The recruits gasped and nervously stepped back.

  “Not me!” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll find you donors… geesh.”

  Kyle leaned against the stable shaking his head.

  “Deal?” she asked Frank.

  “Deal,” he said, grinning.

  “Ok, first rule, never stand behind a horse,” she told them, pacing in front of them. “If you want me mad, the easiest way is to mistreat your horse, understood?”

  They nodded.

  “I will issue you each a horse based on your height. You will be responsible from here on out for taking care of it. That means brushing, feeding, and watering.” She went to the first recruit.

  “You first, come on,” she said, reaching for a bridle. The bridle got stuck on the high nail and she jumped to free it, and then lost her balance when she landed. She felt a hand on her back, steadying her, and then a frightened gasp.

  “That’s one,” she said, grinning, as she walked past Kyle and into the stables.

  Emily spent the next few hours assigning horses. She went back to Kyle as they brushed their new charges and began the bonding.

  “I’m up two,” she said, grinning.

  “We try to get them to obey, and you just can’t stand that can you?” Kyle laughed.

  “It’s a stupid rule. It’s not like they are grabbing my ass you know,” she said, leaning against the wall by him.

  “You know why we have it,” he said, chuckling.

  “Yes I do, and it’s stupid. Hey!” she yelled, walking over to the Arabian. He was chewing on the leather straps of his bridle.

  She took the sides of his bridle and pulled him hard to face her, “What are you doing?”

  The Arabian snorted right into her face, and she dropped the reins and stepped back, wiping her face off on her sleeve, “That’s disgusting.”

  Kyle watched and grinned.

  “Guess you get to stay there all night, how’s that?” she growled at him, and walked back to Kyle.

  “That’s showing him, Em,” he said, laughing.

  She grabbed a bale of hay, moved it to the side of the barn, and stood on it, then jumped and grabbed her cattle prod.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Kyle said, taking it from her again.

  She glared at him and shouted, “Ok, bring your horses out front. Let me have a look.”

  They lined up and Emily walked past them slowly. One of the horses was shying away from his heku. She stopped and watched.

  “One thing I will mention,” Kyle said to them. “Emily has a bad habit of pushing the heku out of the way of a mad horse, and she usually gets kicked for it. Please try to control your horses, and don’t let her take the blow for you.”

  The heku frowned. They couldn’t imagine letting the Elder’s wife take any kind of abuse in their stead.

  “Ha-ha, very funny,” she said.

  The horse she was watching began to stomp his feet anxiously, and pull at his reins. Emily approached him and took the reins from the heku guard just as the horse began to rear back. She moved between the guard and the horse as the stallion dropped and slammed his head into her chest, knocking her back onto the ground.

  “Like that,” Kyle said, running to her.

  Emily stood up and brushed herself off.

  “I’m so sorry,” the heku said. “I didn’t see that coming.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said, and took the reins. She led the horse a ways away from the others and talked to him calmly, while rubbing the soft velvet on his nose.

  “I’m sorry,” the guard said to Kyle, who glared at him.

  “Come here, Kyle,” Emily asked softly, and Kyle walked up. As soon as the horse saw him, it reared back again and kicked hard at Kyle, who dodged it easily.

  “Go back,” she told him, and when Kyle returned to the stables, the horse calmed down.

  “Hrm…” she sighed, leading the horse back into the stable. As she walked past the guards, the stallion shook his head and whinnied loudly. Emily came out a short time later with another horse and handed the reins to the guard.

  “Try that one,” she said, and went back to Kyle.

  “Last but not least, while you are in cavalry training, you will be paired up with one of our full cavalry guards. They will teach you the codes and rules,” he said, and finally stepped back.

  “I’m hungry, let’s feed them and go eat,” she said, and then shrugged, “Or I’ll go eat.”

  She pulled the cover off of the oats and took Patra in a fresh scoop, then filled her water trough with cold water. After checking to make sure all of the horses were fed and watered, she headed inside.

  “I could use a steak,” she said, smiling to Kyle.

  “I’m thinking I may go have dinner too,” he said, looking back over his shoulder.

  “Did they find my Durango?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, the police called about it, so we picked it up.”

  Emily stopped at the front doors, “You sure I can’t have my cattle prod, just for an hour?”

  “Yes I’m sure,” Kyle said, laughing as he walked away.

  “You know I’ll find it,” she called to him, then went inside.

  Emily went into the dining room and picked Allen up when he ran to her. She kissed him and brushed his black hair away from his face.

  “You need a haircut,” she said, then smiled and sat him down at the table.

  Emily was just sitting down when a heku arrived with steak and potato for her, and a small pizza for Allen. She cut into the juicy steak and started to eat, the training had made her hungry.

  “Why do I always have to smell blood on you?” she heard Chevalier ask as he walked into the dining room.

  “Because I’m accident prone,” she told him, and took a sip of wine.

  She felt Chevalier kiss the top of her head, and watched as he did the same to Allen and then sat down, “How did it go?”

  “Fine, you should have told me your Arabian came to torment me,” she said, taking another bite.

  “You be nice to him.”

  “Oh, he’s taken care of, believe me.”

  “I like him, he has personality.”

  “Did you know I can drop a heku to the ground with a cattle prod?” she asked, and took another bite.

  “Emily… you didn’t,” Chevalier said, shaking his hand.

  “Just one,” she told him and laughed.

  “I didn’t know it would drop a heku, but I knew it would affect us somehow,” he chuckled.

  “I wanted to try it out on Damon, but Kyle took it away,” she said, adding butter to the baked potato.

  “You need to try to be nice to Damon.”

  “When he drops the attitude, I’ll consider it.”

  When they were done eating, Chevalier picked Allen up and took Emily’s hand, and they walked up to their room.

  “Are you going to hold to your promise?” Emily asked when they stepped into the empty room.

  He nodded, he was hoping she would forget.

  Emily took Allen into the nursery and tucked him into bed, then came back out.

  “Start with these ugly things,” she said, removing her long sleeved shirt. The camisole exposed the golden coiled snakes on her arms.

  “Why are you bleeding?” he asked, as she wiped dried blood from her arm.

  “That damned hors
e of yours. He and I had it out,” she said, and sat down. “Don’t change the subject. Why won’t they come off?”

  Chevalier sighed and sat down, “They are a bonding tool.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, sitting down.

  “It’s similar to the essence ring, but a lot harder to break.”

  “But it can be broken, right?”

  Chevalier grinned, “Yes it can. They can only be removed after death or infidelity.”

  “Not disloyalty?”

  “Nope, just infidelity or death.”

  “Then why am I still wearing them?” she asked, confused.

  “Doctor’s orders,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it softly. “It wasn’t my choice.”

  “Then let’s get them off now,” she started pulling at them.

  “How romantic… but no.”

  “They irritate me.”

  “Yes, me too. It’s not easy for me to see the mark of a bond on you, believe me. Two of them even, it only takes one to show that a person is taken,” he said, frowning.

  “And the itchy stuff on my leg?” she asked.

  Chevalier sighed, “That one’s more complicated.”

  “Why won’t it come off?” she asked.

  “That we don’t know. Those runes are normally tattoos. Yours are just ink, so we are still hopeful that they will come off.” He sat back in his chair.

  “Runes? What do they mean?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “Back when the ancients were still in charge, and the mortals were becoming more civilized, the ancients found that some of the mortals were… well… attractive.”

  Emily frowned, no longer sure she wanted to know about the runes.

  “They didn’t want to bond with such lowly creatures,” Chevalier said with an apologetic smile, “But they also wanted to be able to… have the mortal.”

  “Have them?”

  Chevalier nodded, “Have… them…”

  Emily’s eyes got wide, “They wanted them for sex?”

  He nodded again and shut his eyes, “The mortal would become a slave to the heku, and they showed that possession with a rune.”

  Emily’s voice cracked, “Am I marked as a sex slave?”

  “Yes,” he said, softly, “Specifically belonging to the Encala. Because they picked a mate for you, we figure they only marked you as a humiliation though.”