Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (69 page)

“Thank you,” Mark told
her, and grinned. “Don’t outrun them.”

Emily glanced at the four
members of the Cavalry, “I don’t know, they are pretty
small.”

“Small?” the largest one asked,
chuckling.

“I won’t ditch them…
promise.”

“I’m holding you to it,
they’re all we have right now,” Mark said. He eyed the Cavalry with
her and it made him nervous that they were all rather new to the
position and hadn’t yet been assigned to Emily without a seasoned
member with them.

“Why’s that?”

“The rest of us are heading out on a
mission.”

Emily looked at her guards, “You don’t
want to go?”

Again the taller one spoke, “We have
duties here.”

“So babysitting me instead of going
out on a killing rampage? How fun.”

He grinned, “What makes
you think they’re going out on a killing rampage?”

Emily put her hands on her
hips and looked at Mark, “I can just tell. He’s either going out
killing or he’s going to rough someone up.”

“You can’t read me that well,” Mark
told her.

“Oh yeah? So what are you going to
do?”

“Confidential heku stuff.”

“Killing”

“No, now enjoy your run and don’t
ditch them.”

Emily shrugged and started
down the stairs with her four guards following behind. Just as she
ran past the palace’s front lawn, the helicopters took off from the
roof above. She turned up her iPod and headed for the front gates
of the city.

She tried to ignore the
peeking heku as she passed, how the curtains pulled slightly to the
side or the doors opened just an inch. Things felt better when she
passed through the front gates and headed down the side of the
road.

Emily was deep in her own
thoughts, and when one of her guards appeared ahead of her and
stopped, she slammed into his back and fell to the
ground.

“What was that?” she
mumbled, and stood up slowly. She pulled the earphones from her
ears and peeked around the line of four guards who were blocking
her from something.

“Make it easier for you,
Son. Hand her over,” Frederick said to the highest ranking of the
Cavalry.

Emily sighed and tried to step in
front of them, but they blocked her.

“You have no business
here,” the Cavalry Commander told him.

She could barely see
Frederick from between the guards and he was grinning, “You can’t
protect her forever… then she’ll be mine.”

In an instant, Frederick
disappeared and the four members of the Cavalry took off after him.
Emily wasn’t even sure which way they went, but they disappeared
from the road. Unsure exactly what to do, she headed back into the
city. She was within sight of the gate guards when a strong
headache hit and she stumbled slightly and braced herself against a
tree.

***

Kyle grinned down at the heku in the
trial area, “I just don’t see why any of this matters.”

“It matters because I
would be next in line for Elder,” the heku told him. His white
shirt was dingy and gray and his red cape hung threadbare at his
back.

“Says who?” Quinn asked.

“It’s well known that as
soon as Frederick returns, he was to be banished and I was to take
his place.”

Chevalier shrugged, “Not
important now. I’m tired of the Encala and I’m ready to do away
with the entire faction.”

“It is though!” he yelled.
“There has never been only 2 factions. The consequences could be
astronomical.”

“That’s stretching a bit, isn’t
it?”

“We wouldn’t know.”

Kyle glanced at Chevalier, “What’s
your vote? It’s still tied.”

“I see no reason why we need to keep
any Encala alive,” Zohn said to Chevalier.

“We really don’t know though… what
would happen to the balance of power with only two factions,” Quinn
said.

Chevalier leaned forward and looked at
the proud Encala, “Hmmm… well…”

“I beg you, think about what you’re
doing,” the Encala said to him.

“I may wait and see… I did promise
Emily I wouldn’t punish you.”

“You already punished us! Elder Aaron
was one of our finest Elders ever.”

“I didn’t kill him. We
told you that.”

“You’d do more good if you’d stop
holding the Encala responsible for everything Frederick’s done, and
start helping us hunt him down.”

“Really?” Chevalier asked, slightly
amused.

“Yes… he’s gone rogue.
Elder William told you that.”

“I can do both. I don’t
need the Encala’s help to do away with Freddy.”

The Encala sighed, “Emily
is our friend… has been for a while. We wouldn’t have allowed any
of this to happen if we had known.”

Chevalier’s face grew furious, “You
have no right talking about her.”

The Council turned to
Kyle’s chair when he disappeared from the room.

“What luck… I can’t banish
you this exact second,” Chevalier told him. “You’d be wise to hold
your tongue and not to talk about Emily.”

The Encala lowered his voice, “She’s
our friend.”

Quinn’s fists slammed into the desk in
front of him, “Get him out of my sight!”

Derrick appeared and
hauled the Encala out of the courtroom.

Zohn sighed, “We should decide soon
whether we want to get rid of the Encala all together or just
lessen their numbers.”

“I’ll make a decision
soon,” Chevalier told him. “I promised Emily I wouldn’t punish them
though, and I’m not ready to break that.”

“Does she even know they are
imprisoned?” the Chief of Defense asked.

Zohn grinned, “He’s not that
brave.”

“I’ll tell her… when she’s feeling
better,” Chevalier said, and chuckled.

“So she’s getting better?” the Court
Reporter asked.

“Yes, every day she gets a little
stronger.”

“Maybe Frederick has backed
off.”

He shrugged, “Hopefully,
but the doctor said there can be residual strokes that can’t be
predicted or prevented.”

“But we’ve not seen any of
those?”

“No”

Derrick hesitated in the doorway and
then walked up to Chevalier, “The Chief Enforcer is requesting your
presence at Luke and Tracy’s house in the city.”

“Did he say why?”

“He just asked that you come
quietly.”

Chevalier nodded and
followed Derrick out of the council chambers. By the time the Elder
got to the small house in the city, a small crowd had gathered and
Kyle was keeping them back away from the house.

“What’s going on?” Chevalier asked,
looking around the gathered heku.

“I swear… we didn’t touch her!” Luke
said frantically.

Kyle sighed and turned to him, “I told
you, you aren’t in trouble!”

Chevalier turned to look
at Luke and Tracy, the residents of the house he was standing in
front of. They were both terrified and seemed to be waiting for
Kyle to turn on them at any time.

“Do we need an audience
here?” Chevalier growled. The heku in the area all disappeared and
he smiled, “There… now what’s going on?”

Kyle turned to the door of the house,
“Go on in.”

Chevalier frowned slightly
and walked up the two steps to the door. He opened the door and
stepped into the warm house, then sighed when he saw Emily curled
up on a rocking chair in front of the fire.

“Em?” he said, stepping
closer to her.

Emily pulled a blanket tighter around
her shoulders and looked over at him and smiled, “You’re
home.”

He nodded and pulled up a chair, “Are
you injured?”

“No, why?”

Chevalier looked around
the small home with its quaint wooden fixtures and warm beige
décor, “Just asking. So… how long have you been here?”

She shrugged and turned back to the
dead fireplace, “I got home a few minutes ago.”

“Where are your guards?”

“They went after Frederick,” she told
him, and began to rock the chair slowly.

“You ran into Frederick
today?”

She nodded.

“Did he attack you?”

“No”

“And the guards went after
him?”

“Yes”

“They left you alone?”

“Yes, but I came right
home.”

Chevalier turned when Kyle
and Dr. Edwards walked into the home. Chevalier motioned for them
to sit down.

Emily smiled at Kyle when he sat
down.

“So what’s up?” Kyle asked.

“Just relaxing,” Emily told
him.

He nodded while Chevalier filled him
in quickly.

“So if we have to play along with
this, how do we get her back to the palace?” Kyle whispered to
him.

“I’m not sure… any ideas?”

“Well… we need to hurry,
whatever it is. I can’t convince Luke and Tracy that they aren’t
going to get banished for this.”

“She just walked in, didn’t
she?”

Kyle nodded, “Em?”

She looked over at him and he
instantly locked her gaze.

Chevalier watched them
closely while Kyle told Emily to return to her home in the palace.
She got up, almost as if in a dream, and walked out of the house,
followed by Chevalier and Kyle.

Once in the palace, she
walked up and into the bedroom. Kyle softly told her to lie down,
and when she was asleep, Kyle and Chevalier returned to the council
chambers, where they met with Dr. Edwards.

“He filled us in,” Zohn told
Chevalier.

“It happened then, right?” Chevalier
asked the doctor.

He nodded, “Yes, I believe
so.”

“Her guards ran off after
Frederick.”

“Have they returned?” Quinn
asked.

“Not as far as I can tell.”

“Mark will be back soon,”
Kyle said. “I say we put ranking on her again and make sure they
don’t leave her, even if Frederick appears.”

Chevalier nodded, “Agreed…
even if only one of them is left, at least to keep her from
wandering into heku homes. It wouldn’t be hard to find some that
would retaliate.”

“She’s lucky she found
Luke and Tracy,” Dustin said. “They’ve always been big mortal
supporters.”

“So she just walked into their home?”
Quinn asked.

“Yes… she thought it was hers,” Kyle
explained.

“How can that be?” Zohn
asked. “Has she ever even been in their home?”

“Not that I know of,”
Chevalier said, and turned to Dr. Edwards.

“The human brain just
works that way. Confusion is one of the main symptoms of
strokes.”

“Will she heal?” Quinn asked
him.

“She should.”

“Where is she now?”

“Kyle locked her and put
her to bed. We didn’t know how to play along and still get her back
here,” Chevalier explained.

“You locked her?” Dustin asked,
surprised.

Kyle nodded, “Yes. I’m not
sure if she allowed it or she’s weakened.”

The Chief of Defense
cocked his head to the side slightly and then turned to the Elders,
“The four members of Emily’s guard have returned… or 3 of them I
should say.”

Quinn frowned and turned to the door,
“Let them in.”

Derrick opened the door
and three of the Cavalry came in wearing torn, bloody shirts, and
all looking tired and haggard.

“What happened?” Kyle
asked.

The Commander stepped
forward, “Frederick appeared just outside the city gates. We
followed him and were ambushed in the north trees by over twenty
Encala.”

Chevalier growled softly.

“They killed Caleb, but we managed to
get away after a fight,” he said, looking at the ground.

Zohn frowned, “It’s unacceptable that
you fell into such an obvious trap.”

“We…”

“No!” Quinn shouted.
“There’s no excuse for our elite to fall into enemy hands that way.
Report to Mark as soon as he returns.”

They nodded and walked out of the
council chambers.

“If the Lady had been with them…”
Richard, the Chief Interrogator, whispered.

Chevalier nodded, obviously angry,
“It’s time we put a stop to Frederick.”

“It won’t help if we make fools of
ourselves and our so-called elite run into their hands,” Kyle said
angrily.

“How to catch him though?”
Dustin asked. “He’s obviously just toying with us.”

Quinn smiled slightly, “He wants
Emily… let’s give her to him.”