Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (33 page)

“It does too. Why do you
think I keep you down there? My plans are going
perfectly.”

“What plans might that be?”

“To rid the Equites of the Winchester,
of course.”

“What did you do?” Chevalier
yelled.

Frederick smiled, “She’s
gone… no one can find her. It’s beautiful.”

Chevalier’s features turned dark,
“What did you do?”

“It’s time to get you out
of the hole. We’re sending down a rope. First the wolf, then the
Records Keeper, followed by the Chief Enforcer, and then the now
single Elder,” he told them, and disappeared from the
top.

A rope was lowered and
Dustin looked at the others before taking it. Within ten minutes,
the Equites were above ground and saw that they were in an old well
located in the Encala’s palace. Encala guards surrounded them as
they were escorted to the prison and locked in separate
cells.

“Are we even going to get a trial?”
Dustin asked the Encala guard.

“Nope, Elder Frederick just said
you’re in custody.”

***

“We’re trying. So far…
nothing,” Mark whispered as he sat in Quinn’s office with Quinn and
Zohn.

“It’s been 5 months. She
could be anywhere,” Zohn said, and sighed.

“Do we keep looking?”

“Yes, I regret letting him
throw her out… she was sick, and it was horrific and
vile.”

Mark nodded, “I
know.”

“Keep up with what we’ve
told Chevalier about your absence. Go back out and keep
looking.”

“Yes, Elder,” he
said.

“Have you tried all of Kyle’s houses?”
Zohn asked, smiling slightly.

“Why would she go there?” Quinn asked
him.

“She went there when she ran from the
Ancient.”

“Yes, and he found her. She won’t make
that mistake again.”

“Did we keep a record of the location
of all of Exavior’s old houses?”

“Yes, and we’ve tried those,” Mark
said. “Most of them actually belong to other Equites
now.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware she gave some
away.”

“She did, all of them but the one
close to here actually.”

“Keep looking then,” Zohn
sighed.

Mark bowed slightly and then
left.

“Now… about Kyle,” Quinn
said, and turned toward Zohn.

“He murdered that entire
village when he was supposed to banish them.”

“I know, which is a direct violation
of the order.”

“He said that Chevalier
overrode our orders and had them killed.”

“Since when do we allow
one Elder to outweigh the other two though?” Quinn asked, deep in
thought.

“Never, he’s overstepped
again.”

“He keeps overstepping.
That’s very much unlike Chevalier.”

Zohn sighed, “Do we do it
then?”

“Let’s decide who should
replace him first. We will probably need to do something about Kyle
too. I don’t think Kyle will banish Chevalier.”

“What about Dustin?”

“He’s always been an ass,
but between the three, he’s the least of our problems.”

“He may fight us, though.
Those three are inseparable and back each other up.”

Quinn pulled out a file,
“Li is my first choice for Elder. He’s been with the Council for
2,150 years as Chief of Defense.”

Zohn nodded, “I agree… and
Kyle?”

“My first instinct is
Mark.”

“We’ve never had to
replace two members of the Council at the same time.”

“I know it’s going to be
difficult, but I don’t see how we can just replace one of
them.”

“Agreed… let’s just wait first, see if
Chevalier and Kyle come around.”

***

The Encala guard opened
Kyle’s cell first, “Go.”

“Where to now?” Kyle
asked, and stepped out. He frowned slightly when he noticed no
other guards were there.

“Elder’s orders, you’re
free,” he said, and opened Dustin’s Cell.

The Coven Liaison Officer
stepped out and joined Kyle, “Just like that? We’re
free?”

The guard opened Jerry’s
door next and the Records Keeper walked out and waited for
Chevalier, “Our Elder, too?”

“Yes, all of you,” he told
them, and opened the cell door. “Now get out of this
palace.”

They glanced once at each
other and blurred from the enemy city. Once far away, they slowed
and then stopped so they could decide what to do.

“Why would they just let
us go?” Kyle asked, looking around the strange area.

“I suspect that they were
afraid of keeping us. It broke too many laws,” Chevalier
replied.

“Now what?” Jerry asked.

“Now we find a ride back
to Council City. Isn’t there a coven around here?”

“Yes, Kralen’s, actually…
Okanogan Coven,” Kyle said, and blurred toward it, followed by the
others. An hour later, they walked up to the gate.

“Elder?” the guard gasped,
and moved aside.

Without speaking,
Chevalier walked in with the other members of the
Council.

“Elder Chevalier, good to see you,”
Lord Dexter said when he met up with them.

“We need a car.”

“Right away,” he said, and
then gasped when he saw Jerry.

“What?” Jerry asked,
frowning.

“You… you were banished.”

“I most certainly was
not!”

“I… I saw your banishment
site.”

A low growl sounded from the Records
Keeper.

“You were… you were
replaced on the Council. How did you get out?”

Chevalier looked at Lord Dexter,
“We’ve been in an Encala prison for 5 months.”

“No, no I saw you last
month when they replaced the Records Keeper on the
Council.”

“How?” Kyle asked,
frowning. “We just got out.”

“I saw you there. All of
you… except for the Records Keeper, of course,” Lord Dexter said,
confused.

“So no one was looking for us?” Jerry
asked.

“No, why would we? You weren’t
gone.”

Chevalier sighed, “And you saw us
when?”

“Last month, Elder, and then I was
called to help handle Thukil.”

“What happened to Thukil?”

“When… well… when the
Lady… when she disappeared… Thukil raised a big raucous and the
Council threatened to remove them from the Equites.”

“Thukil did??”

“Yes, Elder,” Lord Dexter
said, and shook his head. “But you were there…”

“What do you mean when the Lady
disappeared?” Chevalier asked.

“Lady Emily… she took off
with the two youngest children almost 5 months ago, and hasn’t been
seen.”

Chevalier glanced at the
others, “Call the Council on your cell phone, and use the
speakerphone so we can hear… ask for me.”

Lord Dexter nodded and
then hesitated before calling.

“Council,” Zohn said, obviously
mad.

“Can I speak to Elder
Chevalier?”

“I’m here.” The voice was exactly like
Chevalier’s and he glanced at the other heku, shocked.

“Umm… never mind,” Lord
Dexter said, and went to hang up.

“Who is this?” they heard
Kyle’s voice yell. The true Kyle gasped and looked over at
Dustin.

Chevalier took Lord Dexter’s phone and
hung it up, “Do you have a helicopter?”

“Yes, Elder.”

“We need a ride… We’ll
land outside of Council City and go in in secret.”

Lord Dexter nodded and led
them to the helicopter. Dustin climbed into the pilot’s seat and
began preparations for take-off. Soon they were flying toward
Council City.

“Why would they banish me?” Jerry
asked, breaking almost an hour of silence.

“There’s no telling what
we’ve done… or… what our… others… have done,” Kyle said, somewhat
confused.

“She’s not answering,”
Chevalier said, and shut the cell phone.

“Whatever happened… we can
fix,” Kyle told him. “I’m sure she was afraid of something and ran
off. We’ll get her back.”

Chevalier nodded.

“Landing in 20 minutes, we’ll have to
run the last 10 miles,” Dustin called back.

“That’s fine.”

“What’s our plan?” Kyle asked, looking
over at Chevalier.

“We storm the palace and
kill those that usurped our places on the Council.”

“Easy enough.”

“We have to make sure the Encala
didn’t keep any more doppelgangers when we killed them off,”
Chevalier said, watching out the window.

“Why do you suppose they didn’t use
doppelgangers when they tried to deceive Emily out in the wood?”
Dustin asked. “The time it took to find Mark and Silas look-alikes
and then the surgery…”

“Not sure, unless they didn’t want to
give away the fact that they broke laws and kept some,” Chevalier
suggested.

Dustin set the plane down
by the Equites airplane hangar and all of them got out. The four
heku surveyed the area quickly before blurring toward Council
City.

“Elder,” the gate guard
said, though he looked somewhat confused. Jerry was hidden beneath
a robe to keep their path to the palace easier. They were afraid if
the banished Records Keeper was seen, they could be seen as the
fakes.

Chevalier smiled slightly
and walked through the gates. The city people peeked out at them
from dark windows and then disappeared back inside their houses.
Their behavior was abnormal, but nothing was said as they
approached the palace.

Derrick frowned when he
saw the Elder walk up the stairs, “Oh, Elder, I thought you were
inside.”

“Gather the Cavalry,” Kyle
whispered.

“Into the palace?” Derrick asked,
confused.

“Immediately”

Derrick nodded and blurred
from the hallway.

Chevalier listened to the
door and heard his voice proclaiming that whoever was on trial was
to be beheaded immediately.

“We attack on 3,”
Chevalier whispered, and got nods from the others. Jerry slipped
off his robe and all crouched. On the count of 3, they all
instantly appeared in the trial room, crouched toward their chairs
and ready for blood.

“What the hell!?” Quinn
yelled and stood up. He looked over at the doppelganger
Chevalier.

The fake Chevalier, Kyle,
and Dustin blurred to their look-alikes and a fight broke out, each
fighting the one they looked like.

Jerry looked up at Quinn, “Where is
mine?”

Zohn was shocked and stood slowly,
“He… who are you?”

The Records Keeper walked
up to the Council area, “We’ve been in an Encala prison for 5
months. Where is my doppelganger?”

Chevalier’s opponent
seemed to block every hit, and miss each attack on the true Elder.
Their fighting was evenly matched and too fast for most heku eyes
to even see.

The true Elder finally
felt flesh beneath his hands and he threw his doppelganger at the
stone wall, shattering it as the fake fell to the ground. Just as
he approached his counterpart, the fake Elder lunged from the floor
and sunk his teeth into Chevalier’s arm. Four strong hands pulled
him away from his target and he fought against them until he
realized that it was Mark and Kralen holding him.

“Stop!” Quinn shouted, and
the trial area fell quiet. The Cavalry had all 7 heku restrained
and they turned to the Council.

Zohn stood up, “Until we ascertain
what’s going on here, you will remain restrained.”

“Where is Emily?” the
doppelganger Chevalier asked, looking up at the Council.

“Shut up!” Chevalier
growled at him, and tried to attack, but was held back.

“Stop it,” Quinn hissed.
“No more until we can figure this out.”

Dustin growled and then
his image shimmered and he became a wolf. After only a few seconds,
his illusion faded and he looked over at his doppelganger, “Try
that.”

The fake Dustin screamed, “You don’t
know what you’re messing with!”

“Let him go,” Quinn told
the guards restraining the true Dustin. He spun suddenly and
removed the head from the one that looked like him. Once done,
Dustin straightened his shirt and walked up by the true
Chevalier.

“That was easy,” Zohn
said, and turned to the fake Kyle. “Turn the other Kyle to
ash.”

“I don’t have to prove
myself!” he yelled at the Elder.

“Ask me,” the real Kyle
hissed, and stared at the doppelganger.

“Do it,” Zohn
ordered.

The Cavalry let Kyle go
and he reached into his pocket and pulled out the little
dagger.