Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series (41 page)

“You aren’t dying!” Megara said, and then
disappeared.

“Take Dain!” Alexis tried to yell, but fell
back onto the ground as she started to cough blood.

Alexis could feel the life draining out of
her. She knew she couldn’t heal fast enough and was afraid that
Megara wouldn’t return to get Dain, leaving him to reappear in only
10 short years. She was able to look up at the forest’s canopy and
wished she could see the stars before she died.

She was just starting to wonder if she might
make it through the night when she heard someone talking from far
away. The voices grew nearer, and she realized that Megara had
returned with Niccolo, though his voice was muffled.

Niccolo appeared beside her and looked her
over, “You’re starting to heal.”

“Allen,” Alexis managed to whisper.

“He’s alive,” Niccolo said. “I’m going to
take you back to the car, and then I’ll get Allen.”

“Dain…”

“Megara is gathering up his ashes.” Niccolo
gently picked Alexis up and then blurred through the trees. She
held onto him, not quite sure how to deal with the emotions going
on inside of her. Dain was banished, taken care of, but she and
Allen were hurt badly, and she still had to tell her Mom and face
the Council and Garrett over leaving.

When Alexis was lying down in the rental car,
Niccolo went back after Allen and returned helping him walk with
Megara following them. It wasn’t more than an hour later that
Niccolo was doing flight checks while Alexis and Allen recovered in
the back of the airplane.

Once they were at cruising altitude, Niccolo
put the airplane on auto pilot and went to check on the others. He
knew he was in enough trouble as it was without bringing back dead
Winchesters.

“How is she?” he asked, sitting down beside
Alexis where Megara was watching over her.

“I think she’s asleep. The bleeding
stopped.”

“I see her arm’s broken.”

“If I had to guess, arm, cheek, hip, and
maybe her leg. It’s pretty swollen, but I’m not sure if it’s
broken.”

“And you?” he asked, looking over at
Allen.

Allen was still in a great deal of pain but
was at least sort of propped up, “Still healing. Mostly bites.”

“Those take the longest to heal,” Niccolo
said. “Allen… we need to radio the Council.”

“We have to deal with Dain first.”

“Deal with him? He’s already ash.”

“He has to be properly banished, or he’ll be
back in 10 years.”

“Right, which the Council can do.”

“No, we have to leave the Equites out of
this,” Allen told him. “If they get involved, then what we did
means nothing.”

Niccolo’s eyes narrowed, “What are you
suggesting then?”

Megara turned to him, “We’re taking him to
the Valle to be banished, and then buried where Mom can’t find
him.”

“I realize that you all belong to an Elder
and the Winchester, but I’m just a heku, and you’re going to get me
banished.”

“You don’t have to go to the Valle then,”
Megara said. “I’m not injured, and I can walk in there and get the
job done while you wait in the car.”

“I can’t let you go in there alone!”

“Why not? Mom does it all the time.”

“If I let you walk in there alone and they
keep you… I’m responsible,” Niccolo told her.

“If you walk in there, then they will keep
us!” Megara said angrily. “If I walk in there, they have to let me
go.”

“No they don’t. This isn’t happening. I’m the
pilot, and we’re going back to Council City to face the Equites
over this.”

“Niccolo?” Alexis whispered.

He looked down at her and took her hand, “How
are you feeling?”

She swallowed hard and a tear fell from her
eye, “We have to take Dain to the Valle.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Please”

“You and Allen are in no shape to face the
Valle. They would kill me, and Megara’s too young.”

“They won’t touch her. We have to finish
this,” she said weakly.

Allen smiled slightly when he saw Niccolo’s
resolve fading. Finally, the heku nodded and then stood up and went
back into the cock pit.

“We’re going to get him banished,” Megara
said when Niccolo was gone.

“No, we’re not,” Allen told her. “We’re going
to tell the Council we threatened him.”

“How?”

“We’re going to say that we forced him out of
prison, and Alexis threatened to turn him to ash if he didn’t
follow our instructions.”

“Does he know we’re going to say that?”

“He’ll have to follow along to stay above
ground.”

***

Derrick stepped into the council chambers,
“Sir? The airplane is back in U.S. air space.”

“Where?” Chevalier asked.

“It came in from Mexico and is flying toward
the north east.”

“So they’re heading back to Island
Coven.”

“No, Sir. It looks like they’re on a direct
course to the Valle.”

“Which means they have Dain.”

Kyle looked over at Chevalier, “We can’t let
them walk into the Valle Council.”

“If they have managed to turn Dain to ash,
then they are correct, and the Valle would be the safest place for
him to be sentenced and buried.”

“Em…”

“I’ll have to deal with Emily. Keep a trace
on that airplane, and when they leave the Valle, I want to
know.”

“Do you want us to contact them?”

“No, let’s see what they do.”

***

“Sir?” The Valle’s Door Guard stepped into
the Council Chambers.

Valle Elder Ryan looked up at him, “We said
we aren’t to be disturbed for the next 48 hours.”

“I know, Sir. However, the Winchester
children are here.”

He sat back and frowned, “You’re
certain?”

“Yes, three of them at least.”

“Is Chevalier with them?”

“No, Sir. It’s just the children.”

“See them in,” Elder Randall said, leaning
forward onto the desk.

Allen came in first, with Alexis leaned up
against him. He was mostly healed but was grasping his side with
one arm and supporting Alexis with the other. Megara came in after
them and had a small leather bag clutched tightly in her hand.

“Why are you injured?” Ryan asked, seeing the
damage to the eldest two.

Megara stepped forward and held up the bag,
“We have Dain.”

“Dain did this?”

“Yes”

Randall looked down at the bag, “Dain is
there?”

“Yes”

“Why have you brought him to the Valle?”

She looked nervously at Allen before turning
to the enemy elder, “We want the Valle to sentence him, and then
bury him where Mom can’t find him.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Randall
said. “The Equites are fully capable of doing that.”

“We’re trying to keep the Equites out of
this,” Alexis said, trying to stand up straight. “It’s for the
benefit of all heku if we keep Mom and the Equites on good
terms.”

“So it’s ok to turn her against the Valle?”
Ryan asked.

“No. She won’t turn against the Valle. She’ll
turn against us,” Allen explained.

“The Valle holding Dain will surely cause
Emily to become furious with us. We won’t do anything that could
cause her to attack.”

“She won’t,” Allen said. “She’s not going to
know you did it. If we didn’t need to sentence him, then we would
have buried him where we found him. However, we don’t want him
above ground in 10 years, so we need help for that.”

“So we sentence him and you bury him?” the
Valle’s Chief Interrogator asked.

“We want you to bury him also. It will be
easier if we don’t know where he is.”

“This seems too dangerous.”

Alexis was on the verge of tears, “Please,
help us. We can’t go to the Encala, because they would tell Mom
where he is. We have to have the Equites free from blame. The Valle
are all we have left.”

“We have nothing to gain by banishing Dain,”
Ryan told her. “It’s not that we don’t want to help…, but we see no
benefit in doing this and only see what could happen if Emily
retaliates.”

“She won’t though.”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“I’m begging,” Alexis said softly.

The three Valle Elders turned their chairs
and held a brief conversation in private while the other Valle
Council members watched the Winchester children.

When they turned, Randall addressed them, “We
have agreed that we will sentence Dain to 800 years… but we will
not bury him, nor will we hide him from your Mother.”

“800?” Megara asked, frowning. “That’s too
long.”

“Not for his infractions.”

“400”

“This isn’t up for negotiations.”

“800 is too long! He’s still young,” Alexis
said.

“800 years, or we don’t do it,” Randall told
her.

Allen held his hand out to stop his sisters
and then sighed, “If that’s your final answer…”

“It is.”

Megara handed Dain up to the Chief Enforcer
and then stepped back. Alexis buried her face in Allen’s shoulder
and cried as their brother was sentenced to 800 years in suffering
for his crimes. Megara watched and then lowered her eyes as tears
escaped. He trusted her, and she’d betrayed him for the good of the
family and the heku as a whole.

“It is done,” the Valle’s Chief Enforcer
said. He held the bag down, and Megara looked up with red eyes and
took it from him.

“May we call a doctor in to look at you?”
Ryan asked, looking over at Alexis and Allen.

“No, we have to get back and face the Equites
over this,” Allen told him.

“They don’t know?”

“I’m sure they do by now.”

“You did this without permission?”

Alexis nodded and then started for the
door.

“I wish…”

She turned to look at Ryan.

“I wish we could be friends with your mother
again.”

Allen eyed him suspiciously. He was aware
that the Valle’s new stance was wanting Emily dead. He had no
doubts that this new found act of friendship was a façade to lure
her into their grasp.

“I think she does too,” Alexis told him.

“We can’t involve ourselves in this.”

“I know,” she said, and then allowed Allen to
help her out of the enemy palace.

Niccolo was waiting by the rental car at the
Valle’s gates, and he looked tense and fidgety. Once they were all
seated, he turned to Megara, “I thought you were leaving Dain with
them.”

“They wouldn’t take him,” she said, looking
down at the bag. “They sentenced him though. We just have to figure
out how to bury him without any of us knowing where he is.”

He started to drive toward the airport, “Why
is that exactly?”

“Mom’s going to blame us for banishing him,”
Allen explained. “We don’t want her to be able to guilt us into his
location.”

“Well… I’m in enough trouble as it is.”

“You’ll bury him?” Alexis asked, shocked.

Niccolo nodded, “Yes. I’ve listened to you
three for long enough to know that this is all for the good of the
Equites. At least I can spend my years in prison knowing I did
something.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled slightly and took the bag from
Megara, “I’ll drop you off at the airplane, and then come back when
I’m done.”

Alexis turned to Allen and cried again as he
slipped an arm around her. Niccolo was worried because the three
Winchesters with him were all upset, and he was afraid that the
Council was going to make it worse.

“I have an idea,” Niccolo said as they pulled
up to the plane.

“What’s that?” Allen asked.

He sighed, “I think I should take the blame
for all of this.”

“Why?”

“I’m already going to be back in prison. I
can say that I forced Alexis into freeing me from my cell. Then I
kidnapped you all to Peru. I restrained Dain long enough to make
Alexis turn him to ash. I took him to the Valle, but they refused,
so I buried him.”

Allen frowned, “No! You aren’t going back to
prison for this.”

“I’m already going to be there. I can take
the fall.”

“They could banish you,” Megara said to
him.

Niccolo glanced at Alexis in the mirror, and
then sighed, “I’d survive. I’m heku.”

“We aren’t going to let you get blamed,”
Allen said, opening the door. “Please bury Dain, and then let’s get
this over with. I’m sure the Council is anxious to talk to us.”

Niccolo watched Allen help Alexis onto the
plane, and then he took off for the heart of Allegheny National
Forest.

***

“They’re here,” Derrick said to the
Council.

Chevalier stood angrily and stormed out
through the back door, while Derrick held the front door open for
Allen, Alexis, Megara, and Niccolo. Alexis was being supported by
Niccolo as they walked up to stand before the Elders.

“Where’s Dad?” Allen asked.

“We felt it was a conflict of interest to
have him here right now,” Zohn explained. He then looked at Alexis,
“Can we bring Dr. Edwards in to look at you?”

“No, let’s just get this over with,” she
said.

Kyle glared at Niccolo, “You have a lot of
explaining to do.”

“I know, Sir.”

“He did nothing wrong,” Allen told Kyle. “He
was forced to do everything.”

“Is that true?” Kyle asked him.

Niccolo shook his head, “No. They’re in
enough trouble right now without adding what I did into the
mix.”

“How did you get out of prison?”

“I broke him out,” Alexis answered.

“Did she threaten to turn you to ash if you
didn’t fly them?” the Chief Interrogator asked him.

“No, they did not,” Niccolo said. “Once I
heard what they were doing, I felt that it was for the good of the
Equites.”

“Even if it extended your sentence or sent
you into banishment?”

“Yes, at least then, I would be in the ground
knowing that I protected the faction.”