Encala : Book 3 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “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 horse 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 morta
ls 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.”

  “Get it off,” she said, panicked.

  “Don’t worry, Em. The few of us that have seen it won’t tell, and we know it’s not valid,” he said, trying to calm her down.

  “Burn it off,” she said, sticking a poker into the fire.

  Chevalier removed it, “I’m not going to burn it off of you.”

  “I should have killed them slower.”

  “We’ll get it off.”

  Emily leaned back and looked into the fire.

  “Do you want to talk about the bag?” Chevalier asked. He had wanted to ask her about it.

  “It’s him,” she whispered, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

  “I thought so.” He watched her closely.

  “All of him and parts of the Council,” she said, and turned her face toward Chevalier.

  He nodded, “What do you want to do with it?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, softly.

  He smiled, “You made it so they can’t revive the Encala Council. All of the ashes need to be there to perform the ritual.”

  She nodded, “I hoped so.”

  “That’s never been done before. Thousands of years and no one has ever taken part of the remains of a heku as a… well… trophy,” he said, and chuckled.

  “Never?”

  “Never, it’s considered incredibly rude. Only the Chief Enforcer has the power to ash a heku, and once that is done, the punishment has been dealt. There is no reason for further retribution.”

  “What if I don’t care that it was rude?” she asked.

  He grinned, “Then keep your bag.”

  Emily turned back to the fire.

  “The Valle think you have given us your ability to ash,” he said, amused.

  “Why?”

  “Winchesters were heavily studied. Historically, they could only kill 10, maybe 15,” he said, watching her.

  “I don’t know how many I killed,” she shrugged.

  “Just over 1,800,” he said, and immediately wondered if he should have told her.

  “1,800?”

  He nodded.

  “So this mere mortal couldn’t have done that… I must have bestowed my gifts on the Equites?”

  “Exactly,” he said, smiling. “We didn’t feel like starting a mass panic, so we went along with it.”

  “I won’t do it again,” she told him.

  “I hope not. There for a while we weren’t sure you would survive.”

  “I’m tougher than I look,” she said, smiling slightly.

  “I’m aware of that.” He knelt by her chair and kissed her.

  Chapter 11 - Deal

  “I won!” Emily said, doing a small victory dance.

  Kyle shook his head, “Had to do it, didn’t you?” he asked the fearful heku.

  “I’m sorry, it was so fast,” he tried to explain.

  Emily smiled and went to Frank, “You can pick two guards… we’ll go to dinner tonight.”

  He grinned and nodded, “A deal’s a deal.”

  Kyle was irritated that Frank seemed pleased at the outcome of the bet. He made sure to keep an extra close eye on the heku. He also wasn’t sure how the Elder was going to react to the prize in the bet. Chevalier was a lot better at hiding his jealousy lately, but this was pushing even his control.

  “Put the horses up. I’ll meet you three at the Durango in an hour,” she said, and ran into the palace to get ready.

  Emily took a hot shower, excited at the thought she was going to go out and have some fun. The palace was dull at times, and she missed going out on the town. She dressed casually in a blue halter top and jeans. She hoped the coiled snakes weren’t too outlandish for mortals, but it was getting too warm to wear long sleeves. She ran a brush through her hair and went to the bedroom to find her shoes.

  “Going out?” Chevalier asked from the edge of the bed.

  “Yes, I won a bet, so I get to go out to dinner,” she said, looking around.

  “Oh?”

  Emily was impressed, as he wasn’t yelling yet.

  “It’s just dinner, a fun bet with Frank,” she said, slipping on her cowboy boots.

  “What was the bet?”

  Emily went to the bed and sat on Chevalier’s lap with her knees at his sides, so she could face him. She kissed him softly.

  “Honestly, do you really want to know?” she asked.

  “When you say it like that, I wonder if it’s best if I don’t know,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

  She smiled, “I thought so.”

  Chevalier fell back against the bed, pulling her with him and looked up into her eyes. She leaned down and kissed his neck, lightly running her lips across his jaw and pressing them against his.

  “Have fun,” he said, smiling up at her.

  “We have time,” she said, kissing him again.

  He pushed her gently away from him, “Go to dinner, Em.”

  She rolled off of him and grabbed her purse.

  Chevalier watched as she walked out of the bedroom. He laid back on the bed, seething. He growled, jealously, and slammed his fists against the bed. He debated trailing them secretly, and then was able to pull the jealousy back and he opted to take Allen to the game room instead.

  Emily saw Frank and two other heku waiting by her Durango. She was pleased to see them in jeans and t-shirts. She crawled in and started up the car when everyone was ready.

  “Where shall we go?” she asked, smiling.

  Frank was grinning broadly from the seat by her, “As you are the only one eating, I say ladies choice.”

  Emily turned to the two in the backseat, “Do you two talk?”

  “Yes we do.”

  “Yup, Ma’am.”

  “What are your names?”

  “I’m Silas, and this is Nelson.”

  She nodded, “Nice to get a name finally. I don’t think Kyle likes us to get too close during training, so most of the time I don’t really know names.”

  The three of them nodded in agreement.

  “Do you dance?” she smiled.

  All three of the heku nodded again, and Emily pulled the Durango out of the garage. She turned up the Toby Keith CD and sat back to enjoy the ride. The heku visited about people she didn’t know, but then turned to their horses, in which she was much more interested. Not long after dark, they pulled up to a small bar that promised the best steak in town. Emily cut the engine, and they all looked to the doors as someone was pushed out. He landed against the cement, stood up, and walked away.

  “Ready?” Emily asked, smiling.

  She was glad to see the heku were anxious to be out of the palace, too. The bar was noisy and overcrowded, but the four found a table finally. The table was sticky and stained with bottle rings. Emily ordered a medium-well steak and fries, while the heku each ordered a shot of Jack Daniels and a beer. Emily grinned and ordered a shot for herself.

  Emily frowned, “You drink?”

  Frank laughed, “You mean more than blood?”

  Emily nodded, it was hard to hear over the noise from the dance floor.