“I’ll think about it,” she told him. He slipped the ring back into his pocket.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but you need to keep it from Exavior. It’s important,” he said, seriously.
Emily pulled down her sunglasses and looked at him, “What?”
“Leonid is retiring,” he said, watching her for a reaction.
She frowned “Like, moving to Florida for the next thousand years?”
“No, he’ll go into stasis in the ground.”
She sat up, “He’ll what?”
“He’ll be buried, Em, with honors.”
“Wait, like you did to Selest? You’re going to let them take out Leonid?” she started to panic.
“No, this is entirely different. This was his choice.”
“How long will he be in the ground?”
“He’s asked for 500 years. After that, it’s up to him when he emerges.”
“No!” Emily said, standing up. She ran into the palace. Chevalier watched her go and then looked out over the palace grounds.
“Enter,” Emily heard after she knocked. She walked into Leonid’s office and ignored the nervous way he looked at her.
“Why are you leaving?” she asked, kneeling down by him and taking his hand.
“I’m tired. It is my time for a rest.” He smiled at her.
“You can’t just go.”
“I can, in two days.” He felt pangs of guilt. He didn’t realize how this would affect Emily. The heku all understood and supported his decision.
“You’ll be hungry, and what if you change your mind in a week?” she asked.
“I won’t be hungry, I will be asleep. I won’t change my mind either. I’ve been thinking of this for almost a hundred years,” he explained.
Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes, “Is it because of the trouble I’m causing? I can stop, I can behave, I promise.”
Leonid was touched and wiped a tear off of her cheek, “No, it is not you, Emily. You are the reason I’ve stayed for as long as I have. I never really cared much for mortals; pesky, whiney species at best. You, though, are a fascinating creature and I have enjoyed spending my last years in your presence.”
“Please stay, I can’t lose you,” she said, and laid her head against his leg crying.
“You have to think of it, not as a death, I will not be dead. You need to consider it just a long sleep. I won’t even be aware as time passes.” He touched the back of her head, lightly.
“I can’t stay here without you,” she said, and his robes became wet with her tears.
“Look at me, Emily,” he said, and peered deep into her eyes. “If you take one thing from me, let it be this. Listen to Chevalier, he loves you and has only your best interest at heart. Let the heku do what they are trained to do, to protect you. You have no idea how precious you are to us.”
“Stay and I will, I promise. I’ll let the guards back. I’ll stop sneaking out…” She stopped talking when he shook his head.
“My decision is made.”
Emily sat down and leaned her head against his leg. She thought about the palace without him and worked herself back into a cry. Leonid rested his hand gently against her shoulder as he went about making the final preparations.
“Chevalier,” Leonid whispered a few hours later, when he realized Emily was asleep at his side. He wasn’t sure how long she had been. He was engrossed in making arrangements for his absence.
There was a light knock at the door, and Leonid whispered, “Come in.”
“You called for me?” Chevalier asked.
Leonid motioned the other Elder around the desk. Chevalier walked around the large mahogany desk and sighed when she saw Emily.
“I’m sorry,” Chevalier said, picking her up and cradling her in his arms.
“Don’t be,” Leonid whispered. “It’s touching that I will be missed.”
Chevalier nodded and carried Emily up to her room. He tucked her into bed and turned the lights out, and then sat in the chair and watched her sleep. He’d been staying in Kyle’s room for a while, and he missed the way she moved in her sleep, and the soft way she sometimes talked.
Just after midnight, Emily began to clench her hands in her sleep. Chevalier moved closer to her.
“Don’t,” she said softly. Her voice was sad and desperate.
Chevalier frowned.
“Don’t be buried,” she whispered.
Chevalier sighed. He didn’t realized how deeply affected she would be by Leonid’s rest. It was so common to the heku, that it was readily accepted. He could see though, how in the mortal realm, it would be considered a death. When Leonid wakes up, Emily will have been gone for hundreds of years. The thought sent a chill up his spine. The thought of Emily dying someday was something he avoided thinking about.
“Please,” she cried, “Chev, don’t.”
Chevalier moved closer to her, concerned.
“Don’t leave me,” she said, upset.
Emily relaxed back into a deeper sleep and Chevalier sat back to ponder what would happen when she did die. He would still have children alive, and they would have children. The Winchester line was now his line. Would he become like Ulrich and be obsessed with their protection? Would he grow angry and unfeeling when his heart ached for a mortal that had been gone for too long?
Chevalier watched her sleep and felt empty inside without her emotions running through him. He missed her scattered thoughts when she slept, and the vast range of emotions different situations caused to run through her in a day.
“I’ll be good,” she promised in whispers in her sleep.
Chevalier watched her, intrigued.
“Chev, don’t do it,” her voice was soft and tender.
Chevalier moved closer to her. She was crying in her sleep and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
“Bury me with you,” she whispered.
Chevalier took the risk and crawled into bed with her. She pulled against him in her sleep and snuggled her face into his neck. He wrapped his arms around her.
Emily woke up in the morning, confused. She thought she was curled up next to someone, but when she opened her eyes, she was alone. Her bedroom was cold and empty. Her nightmares were drifting into her morning. She felt alone and things seemed hopeless.
She opened the curtains and watched the rain splash against the side of the palace. That would mean there would be no cavalry training today. The guards would be training indoors and Sam would take care of the horses. She wondered what she would do for the day as a dark cloud of depression filled her mind like a haze.
Emily slipped into a simple black sun-dress and walked slowly down the stairs. The guards smiled at her, but got no emotion in return. She couldn’t understand how everyone could be acting so normal when one of their beloved Elders was about to be buried alive. Stepping out into the light rain, she walked barefoot toward the stables and then looked around the palace grounds. The gray clouds put a dull shell over everything. It looked like the world had been drawn into a void.
“Emily? What are you doing out in the rain?” Frank asked, and she turned slowly toward him. He frowned at the lost look on her face.
“Leonid is going away,” she said to him softly, blinking her eyes as the rain hit her lashes.
Frank nodded, “I know, he’s going for a rest.”
“No one cares,” she whispered.
Frank frowned at her, “Come out of the rain.”
She shook her head, “Why doesn’t anyone care?”
“It’s not bad. He’s just going to rest for a while,” Frank explained.
“He’s going to be in the cold ground, hungry, alone, unable to escape,” she said, watching the scene play out in the rain.
“We’re all happy for him,” Frank watched her.
Emily looked up at him and her eyes were full of pain, “You’re happy he’s leaving?”
“Not happy he’s leaving, but happy for him. He’s chosen to take a br
eak, get some much needed rest,” Frank said.
Emily turned back toward the stables and wrapped her arms around herself. She watched the horses through the rain. Tears filled her eyes again as she thought of saying good-bye to him.
Frank whispered something, too softly for her to hear, and then watched her closely.
She walked slowly over to the horse corral and leaned up against the wooden posts, watching the rain splash onto the mud.
“Em?” Chevalier said from behind her.
She didn’t turn around, “You’re just going to let him go.”
“It’s not my decision,” he said, leaning against the fence beside her.
“Have you tried to talk him out of it?” she asked.
“No,” he said to her. “This is a decision a heku makes in his life. Leonid thought a lot about this, and we support him.”
She shook her head, “I’ll stop him.”
“You can’t stop him,” Chevalier said, and held his hand out. “Come out of the rain.”
She turned around and leaned her arms against the posts, “Then what? Maleth next month?”
“Maleth hasn’t even considered it, last I heard.”
“Have you?” she asked, not looking at him.
“No,” he lied. She didn’t need to know he planned on a retirement after her death.
“Come inside,” he said, again.
“No, I need to think,” she said, watching the water deepen in the corral.
“Child?” she heard Leonid say from behind her. She turned and saw him smiling at her as the rain drenched his green robe.
Emily ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, “Please don’t go.”
“Look at me,” he said, and she pulled away from him and looked into his ancient eyes. He smiled, “This is what I want. I am ready for it.”
She shook her head, “You can’t be ready for this.”
“I can, it’s something I have thought about for thousands of years. Thousands of tiring years. I’ve been through wars and plagues and disasters. It wears on a heku to watch loved ones die and enemies fall. It’s my time for peace,” he said, brushing her wet hair away from her face.
“Peace?” she asked, frowning.
“Yes, peace. I think I’ve earned it,” he said to her.
Emily hugged him again and pressed her face into the robes on his chest, “Nothing I can do will make you stay?”
“No, Dear.” He touched the back of her head, gently. Leonid nodded at Chevalier and turned Emily around. She went into Chevalier’s arms and cried against his chest. He picked her up and carried her into the palace as she cried in his arms.
Emily spent the rest of the day curled up in bed. Chevalier felt helpless as he watched her struggle with the pain of the impending loss. She saw Leonid’s stasis as a death and nothing anyone could say would change that. Chevalier had only seen her in such a low place once before, and it scared him to see her fierce passion gone. The fire in her eyes was drenched with tears, and she looked at the world coldly.
Chevalier curled up with her again once she’d gone to sleep. He kept her close to him until he heard the ceremony starting. Emily was still asleep and he slipped out of her room. Kyle was waiting by the door with his long blue robe. He put it on, looked back at Emily’s door, and then made his way down the stairs.
Leonid chose to spend his rest in the Council City underground. He was talking happily to the gathered heku when Chevalier arrived at his side. Maleth soon joined them. The coffin was set out for everyone to see, its golden inlaid runes shone brightly in the morning sun. The inside was dark green velvet and looked warm and comfortable. It was sitting on a platform above a hole in the ground.
Chevalier stepped forward and called the others into their places. Over eight hundred heku in dark blue robes lined up in rows to say good-bye to their Elder. Leonid was smiling brightly as he caught up with old friends and said good-bye to them. Once the Equites settled down, they all turned to face the coffin.
Leonid stepped toward the coffin as Maleth and Chevalier stood beside it. He crawled into the gold inlaid coffin and laid back, crossing his arms over his chest. He shut his eyes as Maleth and Chevalier placed their hands above his head and recited ancient incantations, sending his mind into rest and his body into stasis.
The two remaining Equites Elders then picked up the coffin’s lid and covered Leonid. They performed the incantation to seal the tomb for 500 years, the time Leonid chose.
Kyle turned from his place when a commotion sounded behind him. He quickly headed toward the source of the sound. Emily was pushing frantically through the robed figures, her face filled with horror. She was fighting to get to Leonid as Kyle took her arm and she spun to face him.
“Stop him, Kyle,” she yelled.
Kyle picked her up, gently, and she wrestled to get out of his grasp. He carried her back into the palace as she struggled. He knew that Leonid was already at rest, nothing she could do would bring him out. The ancient invocation sealed his fate for 500 years.
Kyle carried her to her room and by the time he arrived, she was crying angrily against his shoulder.
“Let me stop him,” she begged.
“It’s too late, Em, he’s gone,” Kyle said, holding her as her body shook.
“No,” Emily yelled, and pounded her fists into his chest, but he didn’t let go.
Kyle held her tightly as her anger turned to pain and anguish. Emily felt that she couldn’t take the pain of losing someone else. Her heart ached and shriveled in her chest, and she could hear the light chatting from down by the burial site.
Emily felt panic that it was going to be too late, they would bury him and he would be gone. She wasn’t used to being so out of control, unable to help those who needed it. Her mind began to whirl with a mixture of emotions and she found it hard to breathe. She pushed against Kyle, but he wouldn’t let go of her. The air in the room was thin and her lungs couldn’t pull in enough to sustain her. She felt darkness creeping in on her.
Kyle picked Emily up when she collapsed. He laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers over her. He watched her until the festivities were over and the crowd began to disperse.
“What happened?” Chevalier asked, stepping into the room.
“She tried to save him,” Kyle said, upset by the pain it had put her though.
“How bad was it?” Chevalier asked, as he slipped off his blue robe and sat down on the bed beside her.
“She fought me until she passed out,” Kyle said. Chevalier could hear the tense way he spoke and could only glimpse what happened.
“From her dreams, she’s afraid I’m going to do it, too,” Chevalier told him.
Kyle nodded, “I can see that.”
Chapter 16 - Coronation
“Let me see the list again,” Chevalier said, taking the papers from Maleth. He went over the names slowly.
Maleth glanced over at Emily, asleep in her bed.
“Tell me again, is she sick?” Maleth asked Chevalier.
He glanced at Emily and back to Maleth, “No. She hasn’t gotten out of bed since Leonid was put to rest.”
“Is that healthy?” Maleth frowned.
Chevalier shrugged, “I honestly don’t know. Sam said she did the same thing when her Father died.”
“But Leonid isn’t dead.”
“We know that, but to her, he is.”
“Poor child, should I talk to her?” Maleth asked, looking back across the table.
“No, Sam suggested we just let her be. I appreciate you coming in here for this though, I hesitate to leave,” Chevalier said, turning back to his files.
“What do you think?” Maleth asked as Chevalier frowned.
“I really don’t think Damon is ready. I wish I knew Torman more, I’ve only met him a few times and moving one from a coven into Eldership without a spot on the Council makes me nervous,” he said, his eyes still on the list.
“What about Quinn then? He’s been our Chief
Interrogator for close to four hundred years.”
“Right now, he’s the one that’s standing out in my mind,” Chevalier said.
Maleth nodded, “I agree, shall we make the announcement? We should swear him in as soon as possible, tomorrow night even.”
Chevalier nodded, “Yes, let’s announce it today. It’s been three days, and that’s too long.”
Encala : Book 3 of the Heku Series Page 44
