Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (54 page)

“Can we say 19 then?” Sotomar asked.

“19 is too young,” Emily said.

“You were 17 though, were
you not?”

Emily glared at him, “I
was, and it was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

“19 sounds reasonable to me,” Sotomar told
them.

“Fine,” she yelled.

“That means we can get engaged when?” Allen
asked.

“17?” Sotomar turned to
Emily.

“Whatever”

“That is acceptable to
both of you then? Engagement at 17 and bonding at 19?”

“I guess,” Allen said.

“Yes,” Emily finally told
them, after a few minutes of silence. “But you keep it in your
pants until 19.”

Allen sighed, “Mom…”

“No exceptions.”

“What’s it hurting? You do realize you
didn’t catch us the first time…”

Emily glared at him,
“No.”

Sotomar smiled, “Maybe it would be best if
he discussed this with his father.”

“No way, Chevalier’s fine if he wants to
screw the entire faction.”

“I love her,” Allen growled.

“You’re too young to know what love is.”

“I am not! I’ve been with
Miri for 8 months, and every moment I spend with her, I fall that
much more in love with her.”

“So you think!”

“Calm…” Sotomar reminded
them. “Just hold off on anything more than kissing until things
calm down a bit, and then bring it up with your Mother and Father
together.”

Allen sighed and nodded, “Yeah, ok.”

“You two have got to learn some control,”
Sotomar told them. “You are both aware that at any moment you can
kill the other… especially you, Allen.”

Allen nodded and looked down at his hands,
“I know.”

“I need to get back to the
Valle Palace. Shall I take Allen to Council City on my
way?”

Emily looked up at Allen, “You want to go
back?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Fine, then you can go… but don’t tell
anyone where this place is.”

“I won’t. I know how
important it is to you,” Allen promised her.

Allen walked up to get his
things, and Emily turned to Sotomar, “Thank you.”

Sotomar smiled, “My pleasure, Child. I wish
we could be friends again.”

She shrugged, “I do too, but after what you
and William did, I just don’t know.”

“Maybe, someday.”

“Yes, maybe.”

“I’m ready,” Allen said.

***

“Elder,” Derrick said,
walking into the council chambers. “Valle Elder Sotomar is at the
front gates with Allen, but the guards won’t let him.”

Zohn gasped, “Sotomar has Allen?”

“Let Allen in and bring him here,” Chevalier
said.

“Yes, Elder,” Derrick
said, and disappeared. Only a few minutes later, Allen came in with
a bag over his shoulder.

“I just need to get back to the island,”
Allen explained.

“First off, where is your mother’s house?”
Chevalier asked.

“I won’t tell you that. I
promised her.”

“It’s not safe, and it’s
negligent of you to keep that from us.”

“Nevertheless, I am.”

Chevalier growled, “You are looking for a
lot of trouble.”

“I am either way I answer
that. Right now, Mom and I are on shaky enough ground without
adding this.”

“It’s not safe.”

“It is safe. I checked it
out myself, and we even went to a community event and I saw no
heku.”

“Still…”

“If there is an emergency,
then I will reconsider, but for now, she’s safe.”

“What did Sotomar do?” Quinn asked.

“He negotiated something that both Mom and I
can live with for now,” Allen explained.

“Very well, we’ll have you taken back to the
island.”

Allen nodded and headed for the door.

“We can reconsider letting you stay in
Council City,” Chevalier told him.

Allen turned at the door,
“I prefer the island. Both Miri and I like it there.”

Chevalier nodded and Allen bowed slightly
and left.

“Sotomar is slowly weaseling his way into
Emily’s life,” Zohn said, irritated.

“Yes he is, and I wish I
knew his intentions,” Chevalier told him.

“It may be a ploy to get us to side with the
Valle in exterminating the Encala.”

“Maybe… let’s get on with
this land dispute. I’m tired of being in here.”

Quinn grinned, “I second that.”

***

“There’s no use fighting.
You can’t get away,” the heku in black said as he shut the door to
the ceremonial room. This one was different. The runes on the
ceiling were painted instead of etched.

“Don’t do this,” Emily warned.

“Why not? There are no
guards. Not even your son is around,” he said, and
grinned.

Emily looked around at the
12 heku in blue as they began to sway slightly.

“No!”

“It’s all too perfect. No
one knows where you are… you’ll simply disappear, and you’ll be one
of us,” another heku told her, a tall woman with fierce black eyes.
“Yisolatara.”

Emily sat up suddenly in bed and flipped on
the light.

The voice rang through her
mind, clear as a bell, a harsh whisper, “Run.”

Emily scrambled out of
bed. She could feel eyes on her. She was being watched from the
shadows of the room and from the dark window. Everywhere she
turned, there were eyes on her. She grabbed Dain out of bed and
rushed to Alexis’ room.

“Shhh, Alexis, be very
quiet,” Emily whispered as she picked the young girl up from her
bed.

“What’s wrong?” Alexis
whispered. Emily didn’t answer, but carried them quickly down the
stairs. She ran across the yard, still in her nightgown, and sat
Alexis down in the back of the truck, then put Dain into his car
seat. Emily glanced back one more time and then spun out and left
the plantation.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Emily
whispered, and glanced nervously in her rear view
mirror.

“Then why are we leaving in the middle of
the night? You don’t even have shoes on.”

“We just are.”

Alexis looked back behind
them, “No one’s back there… you’re afraid of something. What’s
wrong?”

“Just go to sleep, Alex.”

Alexis crossed her arms
and watched her Mom driving quickly, swerving in and out of any
traffic they came to. Emily didn’t speak, and when she stopped for
fuel, she paid at the pump and quickly left.

Two days later, they
arrived at Council City and Emily sped through the front gates and
pulled up into the garage. She leaned her head on the steering
wheel and wrapped her arms around herself.

Alexis opened the door and ran into
Chevalier’s arms, “I missed you!”

Chevalier kissed the top
of her head, “I missed you too. What’s wrong with your
Mom?”

Alexis shrugged, “She
won’t say. We left in the middle of the night. She didn’t even let
us get dressed, and she’s been driving fast and watching everyone
around her like they were going to attack… it was
creepy.”

“Get Dain inside,” he told
her, and as she followed his request, he opened the driver’s door.
Emily looked over at him and lunged into his arms, burying her face
in his chest. He held her tightly until she calmed down, “What
happened?”

She shook her head, “I don’t want to talk
about it.”

“Come on inside,” he said,
and pulled away from her. She wrapped her arms around his arm and
let him lead her inside.

“Welcome back,” Quinn said
when they entered the main foyer.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, and
tightened her grip on Chevalier.

“We have something we need to do for about
an hour,” Chevalier told her.

“Do you have to?”

Chevalier frowned, “No, I
guess not… We can postpone it.”

“Yes, we can,” Quinn agreed. “Is there a
problem?”

“No,” Emily said
softly.

Chevalier whispered too low for her to hear,
“She won’t say.”

“Let’s meet in 2 hours?”

Chevalier looked at Emily, “Will that be
ok?”

“Actually, go now.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded,
“Yes.”

“We won’t be long. May I
bring your guards?” Quinn asked.

“Give me 30 minutes. I’ll
head out to Cavalry training to see what’s happening.”

Quinn nodded and left with
Chevalier. Emily waited until they were gone, and headed to the
secret door leading to the ceremonial room. The only time she was
in the secret room in the palace, was when she was under the
influence of an ancient, and she didn’t remember it. The only
others she’d seen were in the castle, in Exavior’s coven, and in a
remote Encala coven.

Emily checked around to
make sure no one was watching, and opened the door. As she walked,
her heart began to pound in her chest and she couldn’t hear past
the sound of it in her ears. Her breathing got faster and she felt
a sweat forming. The heavy stone door came closer. She knew it was
normally propped open, and was relieved to see it still
was.

As she got closer to it,
she got on her hands and knees and slowly inched toward the ominous
room. She fought to breathe. She had to see into the room, but it
held fear beyond her memory. When she was within arm’s reach of the
room, she stretched forward, keeping her body as far away from it
as she could, and craned her neck to see into it. She needed to see
the ceiling, needed to see if the voices were warning her of
something about to happen in Council City.

She had to wait for her
eyes to adjust, and when they did, she saw the dark etchings of the
runes on the ceiling.

“What are you doing in here?” a gruff voice
said from behind her.

Emily screamed and turned
the strange heku to ash, then hurried to her feet and ran for the
hidden door in a panic. As she barreled through the hidden door
into the palace, Silas and Kralen both froze and looked at her with
wide eyes.

“Emily, did you scream?”
Silas asked curiously.

She ran past them. Panic
had taken over, and she rushed to get as far away from the
ceremonial room as she could.

“Em?” Kralen called after
her, but she disappeared around a corner.

“Why in the world would
she be in there?” Silas asked, and walked through the secret door.
Kralen followed him toward the ceremonial room until they came to
the pile of ash on the floor.

Kralen growled and called for Kyle.

“What’s up?” Kyle asked as
he approached them in the dark passageway.

Silas moved aside and Kyle caught sight of
the ash.

His eyes narrowed, “He brought Emily down
here?”

“I suspect so. She’d never
come down here of her own volition,” Kralen said. “We were walking
down the hallway when she came running out of here like a bat out
of hell.”

“Time to talk then,” Kyle
said, and pulled out the dagger. He let a single drop of blood fall
onto the pile of ash, and screams filled the hallway as the heku
reformed. As soon as he was whole, Kralen and Silas restrained
him.

“That Bitch!” the heku
servant screamed.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Kyle
growled. “Why did you bring Lady Emily down here?”

The servant’s eyes grew
wide, “I didn’t! I heard someone in the passage and came in here.
She was here by herself.”

“I doubt that,” Kyle said,
and headed into the palace while the Captains brought the servant
with them.

“I swear, I didn’t take
her down there,” he said pleadingly.

“I wouldn’t want to be you when you have to
explain to Elder Chevalier why you took his wife into a restricted
section of the palace,” Silas said, grinning.

“I didn’t!”

“Sure you did. She’d never
go down there by herself,” Kralen yelled, and pushed the heku
harder.

Derrick opened the door
for them and they all stepped into the council chambers. Chevalier
and Quinn were the only ones missing, and the guards brought the
servant forward while Kyle took his seat.

“What’s the problem?” Zohn asked, eyeing the
servant.

“Found this guy as a pile of ash in front of
the ceremonial room,” Kyle explained.

“In front of the hidden door?”

“No, in front of the stone
door.”

Zohn’s eyes narrowed, “I take it you didn’t
turn him to ash?”

“No, Elder, I didn’t,”
Kyle said, and looked down at the servant.

“You have to believe me! I
didn’t take her in there,” the servant said, nervously glancing
along the row of council members.

“Hmm, he’s not lying,” the Chief
Interrogator said.

“If you didn’t take her, then who did?” Zohn
asked.

“She was there alone… I
heard a noise and went to see who was down there,” the servant said
hastily. “She was on her hands and knees, and was stretching to see
the ceiling… I asked what she was doing, and the next thing I knew
I was being revived.”

Zohn frowned, “No one else was there?”

“No, Elder.”

Zohn glanced at the Chief
Interrogator, and then to Kyle, “He’s not lying… why would Emily be
down there?”

“I can’t imagine her going in there
alone.”

“Neither can I.”