Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (57 page)

“Hmm… he seems calm,” Mark said,
bending down to get a better look.

“Wait for it,” Chevalier
whispered and then grinned then the heku began to run out of air.
“Now it gets good.”

As his body began to
thrash, he started to hit the walls of the tank and the electrical
current filled the water.

“Nice,” Kralen whispered, his eyes
wide.

“He’ll talk after this,” Chevalier
assured them.

“When did we get this
tank?” Mark asked, baffled by the violent thrashing the heku
exhibited after running out of air.

“I ordered it about a year
ago. I’ve only used it a couple of times though,” Chevalier
explained. “It’s quite effective… and entertaining.”

“Remind me never to tick you off,”
Kralen chuckled.

Chevalier was too
enthralled to respond. His predatory urge to cause pain was at its
fullest and he exhaled slowly as the heku in the tank began to
convulse violently as every cell in his body sent out waves of
pain, struggling for oxygen.

When the Encala fell
unconscious, Silas turned to the Elder, “Get him out?”

“Sure, we can always
revive him and do it again if he won’t talk,” Chevalier said and
watched the guards pull the heku’s limp body from the water. They
dropped him to the floor and watched as he began to slowly breathe
again.

When he’d healed enough to groan, Mark
poked him with the toe on his cowboy boots, “Ready to
talk?”

The heku nodded slowly and coughed up
water.

“Good, let’s start with…
Whose bright idea was it to poison my wife?” Chevalier asked,
watching him closely.

“He’ll kill me…”

“We’ll kill you,” Kralen
responded.

“You have a choice in this
though,” Chevalier told him. “You can either stay here as my play
toy… or you tell us and we kill you quickly.”

The Encala struggled to
his hands and knees, still coughing. The Equites watched him until
he finally managed to whisper, “Elder Frederick.”

“This was Frederick’s idea then?”
Silas asked him.

He nodded, “Yes, the Council didn’t
know.”

“Hmm, interesting. So
Frederick went behind the backs of the Council to torture Emily?”
Mark asked as he leaned back against the wall.

“Yes”

“Surely the other Elders
knew.”

“No… we were banned from
telling them. Elder Frederick said they would try to stop
him.”

“So, the Encala regularly
make a practice of listening to one Elder when the majority
normally rules?”

“Frederick… he’s… he can be
brutal.”

Chevalier grinned, “Not as bad as I
can be.”

“You know now… you
promised to end this,” the heku said, and looked up at the enemy
Elder.

“I lied,” Chevalier told
him, and headed up the stairs when Kyle told him Emily was waking
up.

Dr. Edwards met Chevalier
outside of his bedroom, “She’ll be awake soon.”

“Send Mark in,” he said
before stepping into his room. Kyle looked up from beside the
bed.

“What did he say?”

“He’s blaming Frederick,
but trying not to get the entire Encala Council in trouble for
it.”

Kyle shrugged, “I guess it could
be.”

Emily sighed slightly and rolled onto
her side and looked over at them, “Why the look?”

“What look?” Chevalier asked, and sat
down.

“You both look like someone
died.”

Kyle smiled, “If you’d
stop passing out, we might look more chipper.”

“Damnit, I did?”

“Yes,” Chevalier said, and
motioned for Kyle to leave. Kyle nodded and blurred from the room,
“What happened?”

“I don’t really remember,”
she told him, and leaned up onto her elbow. “I was having stomach
pains and then woke up to your gloomy self.”

“Hmm, well… enter,”
Chevalier said, and turned to the door when Mark
entered.

“You called for me, Elder?” Mark
asked.

“Find anything.”

“Again, no.”

“There has to be
something.”

“We’ve searched for ashes, we’ve
searched for bodies.”

“Keep looking.”

“Yes, Elder,” Mark said, and left
quickly.

“Be nice. He didn’t do
anything,” Emily said. She rolled out of bed, stumbled slightly,
and then headed in for a shower.

Chevalier was deep in
thought when the palace went into lockdown.

Emily appeared from the bathroom,
“What’s going on?”

“Not sure.”

“You going then?”

“No, this type of lockdown we all stay
where we are.”

“How do you know which kind it is?”
she asked, and disappeared into the wardrobe to get
dressed.

“They announced it,” he
explained.

Just as Emily came out of the
wardrobe, the door burst open and Kralen appeared,
“Now.”

Chevalier nodded and disappeared from
the room.

“What’s going on?” Emily
asked.

“You need to come too,
Commander,” Kralen told her, and disappeared.

She started to argue, but
followed him out instead. Halfway down the stairs, the palace came
out of lockdown and she saw Silas standing on the fourth floor
waiting for her.

“What’s up?” she asked him when she
got closer.

“There’s a briefing,”
Silas told her, and opened the door to the council
chambers.

Emily walked in and stood
among the entire Cavalry that was facing the Council. Mark was
standing up front, and when the door closed, he began, “We just
found Wilson, out west of the city. He’s been murdered.”

The Chief Investigator
stood up, “I have searched the area and there are subtle clues that
point to the Encala. We don’t, however, know why they killed
him.”

Emily listened carefully, and could
feel the anger rise.

“It could be in retaliation to our
attacks,” Zohn suggested.

“They wouldn’t risk that,”
Quinn said. “It’s something else and I want to know
what.”

“Put the Cavalry out there
in the trees. Keep looking for evidence,” Zohn said.

“I’ll go talk to the Encala,” Kyle
said, and stood up.

“I’ll go too,” Emily told
him.

“We need you here,” Mark
said, turning to her. “His horse won’t let us get near her. She’s
skittish and runs when she sees anyone.”

Emily sighed and looked up at Kyle,
“Fine, but you tell the Encala, from me… Deal’s off.”

Kyle glanced once at the
Elders and then nodded, “I’ll relay that.”

“I’ll go,” Dustin said,
and he and Kyle left the room.

Emily followed the Cavalry
out. They already had her horse ready and she grabbed a lasso off
of the wall before following Mark out to where Wilson’s body was
found. It was just east of the leech pond, and the grass was still
stained red. She looked around the clearing, ignoring the blood and
focused in on Wilson’s mare off in the trees. Her ears were pressed
back against her head and she jerked back when Silas entered the
clearing.

“Stop,” Emily whispered,
and took the lasso in her hand.

Silas froze and looked over at the
mare.

“You…” Emily frowned and
pointed at the heku next to her. His name was on the tip of her
tongue and she studied him while it came to her.

“Kralen,” he said, and looked over at
her.

“Yes, Kralen, blur around behind her
and see if you can scare her toward me.”

“Did you forget my name?”

“No, just do it.”

He glanced at Mark and
then disappeared. Emily edged her horse slowly forward.

“Damnit!” she yelled when
the mare jerked and ran the opposite way she was supposed to. Emily
kicked her horse hard into a gallop and raced toward the mare. Her
stallion quickly caught up with the frantic horse and she lassoed
the mare and slowed her down. When the mare walked up to her, she
reached out to pet her and suddenly brought her hand
back.

Emily slipped off her
glove and looked down at her hand. It seemed almost unattached and
when she tried to grasp the rope, nothing happened.

“Something wrong?” Mark said from
behind her.

“No,” Emily said, and
pulled her glove back on.

“We’re going to stay here
and comb the area. Do you want to stay or do you want to head
back?”

“I’ll stay. Another set of
eyes can’t hurt.”

“We’ll put you with Silas and Kralen
then.”

“Have someone take this
horse back. She needs put in her stall and a hood put on until she
calms down.”

Mark nodded and one of the
Cavalry appeared and took the mare from Emily. They walked over and
she started moving with the two Captains as they meticulously
searched the area assigned to them. Tension filled the air as they
searched for some reason to explain Wilson’s death. Nothing
infuriated the Cavalry more than when one of their own died in the
line of duty.

Before night fell, the Chief
Investigator walked up and began talking to Silas and Kralen while
Emily continued to search the ground.

“We’re heading in, Em,” Kralen told
her, and she turned toward him.

“What did they find?”

“It was the Encala. As
soon as Kyle and Dustin get back, Chevalier wants to pay them a
visit.”

She nodded and returned to
her stallion. As soon as she was mounted, she waited for the others
and then rode silently back to the city. No one spoke as they put
their horses away for the night. When Emily shut the stall to her
stallion, she turned and saw Silas and Kralen waiting for
her.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Kralen
asked.

“I’m fine, why?”

“You forgot my name and you’re not
using your left arm.”

“I didn’t forget your name, and
nothing’s wrong with me.”

“We’ll see,” Silas said,
and leaned back against the wall. “Let’s go out tonight, it’s been
a while.”

“You aren’t going to go to the Encala
with Chevalier?” Emily asked, sitting down on a bale of
hay.

“Not Kralen and I, we’re staying
here.”

“To make sure I don’t go?”

Kralen chuckled, “Yup.”

“Seems odd. Why not put
city guards as my babysitters so you can go pick on the
Encala?”

“Because you keep slipping the city
guards.”

Emily grinned, “I bet I can slip you
two.”

Kralen chuckled, “You
can’t slip me, you promised you wouldn’t.”

“True, however, I can slip
Silas.”

“Hey now…” Silas said and
crossed his arms. “Let’s not, shall we?”

“Doesn’t matter, I don’t have anywhere
to go.”

“Now let’s get down to
it,” Kralen said. “Tell us why you are acting like you don’t belong
here.”

“I don’t know what you
mean.”

“Yes you do. You used to
be confident and assured. Now you are quiet and
stand-offish.”

“I’m not either.”

“Then let the chefs make your
dinner.”

“I’m perfectly capable of cooking for
myself.”

Silas shrugged, “Before you left, you
let the chefs do their job.”

“You mean before I was kicked out?”
Emily asked.

“You used to let the
tailor do his job, the chefs do their jobs, and let housekeeping do
their thing.”

“Yeah well, maybe I don’t
plan on relying on anyone else again. I learned one thing while I
was away… one can only rely on themselves.”

Kralen frowned, “That’s not a way to
live life.”

“That’s how I survived for a
year.”

“Not sure I would call that
surviving.”

“It was.”

“It’s over though. You
need to get over what happened and get on with your life. Stop
walking around here like an outsider and stop acting like at any
moment we’re all going to turn on you and you’ll be alone again,”
Kralen said.

Emily frowned slightly.

“It’s over is all we’re
saying. If you’re going to spend an eternity with us, you’re going
to have to trust us again,” Silas told her.

“Stop acting like a martyr…” Kralen
started.

Emily stood up, “I don’t
have to take this. I did the best I could.”

“We’re not saying you
didn’t… but now it’s time to let us take over. You’re not alone
anymore,” Silas told her, and put a hand on her arm.

Emily turned suddenly and
walked out of the stables. She ignored Silas and Kralen as they
followed behind her silently. Each wondered if they’d overstepped
and what would happen if she told Chevalier. She walked up the
stairs and went into her office, slamming the door behind
her.