Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (13 page)

“And the
Cavalry.”

“With their
horses?”

“No, we’re taking the transport
helicopter.”

Emily sighed and nodded slightly.

“Don’t worry, just stay
away from Zohn, and he’ll stay away from you… if you need anything,
Kyle will be here,” Chevalier said.

“Easy enough, I’ll be outside most of the
day anyway.”

Emily grabbed her leather
gloves and headed out of the room. She turned to look at the
strange guards that fell in behind her.

“Who are you?”

“Your guards, Ma’am,” one of them told
her.

“I don’t need guards, go away.”

“Elder’s orders.”

Emily glanced back in the bedroom.

“Just let them for today, please,” Chevalier
asked, coming out of the bathroom dressed.

“Fine,” Emily growled, and
headed down the stairs.

Chevalier chuckled and headed out to the
waiting helicopter.

Emily looked up as the
large Boeing Chinook Helicopter took off from the palace’s east
lawn. She went into the stables and turned at the storage
room.

“Guards stay outside, I’m
going to be busy,” she said, and then went inside the storage
room.

The guards moved to the
doors of the stables and scanned the area. They were trying to get
appointed to the Cavalry, and one of the new steps was a certain
amount of hours guarding Emily, though they were also told not to
tell her that.

Emily took the necessary tools out of
storage and grabbed four shoes out of a box by the door. She headed
deeper into the stables and stopped when she heard someone whisper
her name. She looked over and saw one of the city guards motion her
into the abandoned overseers room.

“Come… come on,” he
whispered softly, and went into the room.

Emily frowned and followed
him in. Another heku city guard shut the door behind
them.

“You need something?”
Emily asked, suddenly feeling nervous when they both stepped
between her and the door.

The guard smiled at her, “Yes, we do.”

“Ok, what then?”

The second guard grinned and ran his eyes
down her body, “We heard you step out from the Elder once in a
while.”

Emily’s eyes grew wide, “Do what!?”

“We figured you might want
to try to take on two heku this time… you know… I can be the Elder,
and Anthony here can be the Chief Enforcer… a little game of
role-play,” he said, and stepped closer to her.

“I suggest you walk your
asses out of my stables,” she growled, and headed for the
door.

“So you want to play the
unwilling adulterous?” the closest heku asked, and quickly grabbed
her into an embrace. He pressed his lips against hers while his
hands fell onto her butt and squeezed painfully. She tried to push
away from him, but he wouldn’t let go. The second heku pressed
against her back, and then tore her shirt so he could kiss her neck
and shoulder.

Emily screamed angrily and
the two heku turned to ash, their clothes scattering across the
wooden floor of the small room.

Wanting to avoid the
guards, Emily left the room and headed up into the loft. From
there, she climbed out the window and onto the roof, then jumped
down into a large pile of hay and within minutes, was in her room,
guardless. She packed a small bag quickly and grabbed Dain from his
heku tender without a word, then ran down the stairs to the
kitchen.

After grabbing a cooler
full of blood, she buckled Dain into his car seat in the Aero, and
was soon speeding through the city.

“Damnit!” Zohn growled to
the Council. “Why the hell is she running now?”

“Well,” Dustin said,
thinking. “As I don’t see that she got into an argument with you…
that would leave personal violations, at least from what I gather
from previous incidents.”

“Yeah… but what kind of
personal violation?”

“Do you want me to find out?” the Chief
Investigator asked.

Kyle turned to Zohn, “It might help
relations if you fixed whatever she’s mad at.”

Zohn sighed, “Fine… go
find out why the Princess ran, and I’ll ride up on my white horse
and punish the heku who accidentally made her mad.”

Kyle turned away from him,
and angrily started looking through the papers in front of
him.

The Chief Investigator stood up, “I guess
I’ll be right back, then.”

The two guards stood at
attention when the Chief Investigator walked up. He shook his head,
“Why did she leave?”

“Who, Sir?” the closest one asked.

“Lady Emily… your charge… just took off in
her car.”

The other guard frowned and looked into the
stables, “She was just inside doing something with the horses.”

“Return to your barracks,” he sighed.

As Chief Investigator, he
was able to instantly take in an entire room down to the minute
details. The only thing he noticed was a set of tools and horse
shoes sitting in front of one of the stalls. He followed Emily’s
scent past the new renovations of the stables and into the
overseer’s room. He gasped when he saw the ash on the floor among
scattered city guard uniforms.

“Kyle,” he called out, and
then bent down to pick up one of the stark white shirts. He inhaled
and caught both heku and Emily on it.

“Yes? Oh…” Kyle said, frowning as he walked
into the little room.

“What would city guards be
doing in the stables?” the Chief Investigator asked, rifling
through the uniforms.

“They aren’t allowed to be
in here,” Kyle said, grabbing the dagger. “So one way to find
out.”

The Chief Investigator
moved out of the way while Kyle revived the two sets of ashes. They
both dressed as soon as they could move, and then looked up at the
two members of the Council.

“Wanna spill it?” Kyle asked, crossing his
arms.

The closest guard looked
at the other nervously.

“Lady Emily came into the
barracks. We tried to get her out, and she turned us to ash and
must have dumped us in here,” he explained.

“I may not be the Interrogator, but I sure
as hell can tell when I’m being fed a line of bullshit,” the Chief
Investigator said, irritated.

“Let’s try this again…
Lady Emily ran off, which usually indicates someone overstepped… we
find you two in her stables…” Kyle said, glaring at
them.

“He told the truth. We
didn’t do anything but try to stop her from going into the
barracks,” the other guard said.

“He just said she was
already in the barracks,” Kyle reminded him. He grabbed the closest
guard by the collar, and hauled him toward the palace, followed by
the Chief Investigator with the other guard.

The council members
dropped the two city guards to their knees and took their spots
with the rest of the Council.

Zohn looked down at them, “What have we
here?”

“We found their ashes in
the stables,” Kyle said. “Their stories don’t quite
match.”

Richard, the Chief
Interrogator, looked down at them, “Let me hear it
then.”

The older guard dropped
his eyes, “The Lady came into the barracks. We tried to get her
out, so she turned us to ash and dumped us in the
stables.”

“Now, let’s try the truth,” Richard said,
sitting back down.

“It’s the truth. We did
nothing wrong!”

“Lies”

Zohn sighed, “I’m left
with quite a problem… you see… I was entrusted with care of the
Winchester, and at the moment, I have no idea where she is, and I
suspect you are the cause of that.”

The guards glanced at each other.

“You aren’t even supposed
to be in the stables,” Dustin reminded them. “That’s off limits
except to the Council and the Cavalry.”

“We didn’t walk in there.
I swear… we were carried in as ashes.”

“Lies… I hate being lied to by the guard
staff,” the Chief Interrogator growled.

“Not as much as I do… tell us what happened
or we’ll have to take you into interrogation,” Zohn told them.

“You know what?” one of
them said angrily. “Yes we did walk into the stables, but you can
kill me before I’ll tell you why.”

Zohn raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”

“I didn’t! I didn’t walk
in,” the other one said, with wide eyes.

“Kyle, see if you can
locate Emily… How hard can it be to hide a purple Aero?” Zohn said,
and then turned to the others. “Who wants to find out what’s going
on?”

“I do,” the Chief
Investigator said. “I’m tired of being lied to by these
two.”

“I’m in,” Richard said,
and the Chief Investigator followed him out, while members of the
palace guards hauled the two city guards with them.

“I’m not going to be happy if Emily had a
valid reason to run,” Zohn growled.

Dustin shrugged, “It’s
starting to look like she did.”

Zohn glared at him.

“Emily… what’s up?” Kyle
asked, and the rest of the Council turned to him. They could
clearly hear Emily.

“Nothing,” she said, obviously
irritated.

“We revived the guards.”

“Ok”

“They aren’t talking yet… but we’ll know.
Why don’t you save us time and tell us why you ran.”

“No”

Kyle grinned slightly, “Then let me know
where you are so I can come talk.”

“No”

Dustin chuckled.

“Are you heading back to the island?”

“No, I can’t, they are turning a
mortal.”

“Oh, that’s right. Going to Thukil?”

“No”

“Powan?”

“No”

“Em, please tell me, if for no other reason
than the V.E.S.”

Emily sighed, “I don’t
want to be around anyone right now… just let those two guards go,
and don’t interrogate them.”

“We can’t let them go.
They broke a direct order from the Elders. City guards aren’t to be
in the stables,” Kyle reminded her.

“Then punish them, but
don’t question them.”

“We won’t question them then if you’ll tell
me where you are.”

Emily hung up the phone without another
word.

“Well, it was worth a
try,” Dustin said. “Obviously one of what Elder Quinn calls a
personal violation.”

“Damnit, why does this
always happen when I’m alone with her?” Zohn yelled. “We’ve spent
years shaping up the guard staff and have come no
further.”

“Maybe the infraction
isn’t that bad, and we can deal with it quickly, and she’ll
return,” the Court Reporter said.

***

Emily tipped the bellboy
and then shut the door behind him, locking all of the locks on the
door. She sat Dain down on the soft carpet and looked around the
elegant hotel suite. She went to the phone and ordered lunch, and
then started to skim through the TV while Dain used the wall to
walk around the room and explore.

They stayed in the hotel
room all day and into the evening. Just after dark, Emily curled up
with the baby on the bed and fell asleep with the TV on to drowned
out the normal sounds of a hotel. She didn’t wake up until she
heard a knock on the door early the next morning. It took her a few
seconds to remember where she was, and then she pulled on a robe
and peeked through the peep hole in the door.

Sighing, she opened the
door and let Zohn and Kyle in. They came in and quietly looked
around the room, the tension growing.

“So… what?” Emily asked, picking Dain up off
of the bed.

“We can’t get out of the
guards what they did,” Zohn said. “Which tells us that they would
prefer death over telling the Council.”

Emily shrugged, “Ok, doesn’t explain why
you’re here.”

“We want you to tell us,” Kyle said.

“If they want death, then
give it to them. I’m not telling either.”

Zohn looked at her, shocked, “You’d let us
kill them?”

“Do I honestly have a say in it?”

“Well… not really.”

Emily picked up the phone
and ordered pancakes and orange juice, then pulled her hair back,
ignoring how they watched her.

Kyle walked over and touched a small
puncture wound on her shoulder, “Did one of them bite you?”

“No”

“That’s an odd location for a heku bite,”
Zohn said, bending down slightly to look at her shoulder.

Emily pulled her shirt to cover it, “Stop
inspecting me.”

“Sorry,” Zohn said, and
moved to the couch to sit down.

“You don’t have to stay
here. As soon as Storm calls and tells me the ceremony is over,
I’ll head back to the island.”

“Yes, well, you were
assaulted somehow in my care, and I want to find out how,” Zohn
told her.

Emily glanced over at him,
“Like you care.”

“But I do.”

“You think I’m a pain in
the ass that is always in the way and throws hissy fits to get my
way.”

“True… however, when the
others trusted that I would take care of you, I took that
responsibility seriously, and I’m quite disturbed that I
failed.”

“You didn’t fail,” Emily
said to him. “They can’t blame you for this.”

“They will,” Kyle said.

“Well I don’t blame you,”
she said, and started digging through the cooler.

“Appreciated, however, they will,” Zohn told
her.