Encala (5 page)

Emily finally made it to the stables and
watched as the six remaining recruits brought their bridled horses
out to stand in line with them. Emily smiled when one of her guards
brought out Patra.

Emily moved to her mare’s left side and
looked at the stirrup. She thought for a moment, trying to figure
out how to mount the horse, when she felt hands on her waist lift
her up. Once in the saddle, she turned and smiled at Kyle.

“
Thanks”

He nodded at her and then turned to the new
guards. “There are a few new rules. None of you six are to be alone
with Lady Emily at any time.”

Emily cringed, but the guards nodded.

“
I’m also reinforcing the
no touch policy. Any infraction will be dealt with directly by the
Chief Enforcer, Damon. That doesn’t apply to the seven cavalry
members. They have their own rules, and they may assist Lady Emily
if she gives permission.”

Again they nodded, and she couldn’t help but
blush.

“
I’m watching you
carefully,” he growled, staring them down. “Listen to her, do what
she says, and don’t give her any lip.”

He turned and winked at her, and then fell
back behind her.

The training followed the same pattern as
the previous one, as it seemed to have worked out well. The only
difference was that this time, Emily remembered to tell them not to
stand behind a horse and she was confined to horseback.

After the training with the paint ball guns,
Emily headed back into the castle. She was more adept at her
crutches now and didn’t need carried up and down the stairs. As she
stepped into the palace, she felt tension in the air and an eerie
silence.

“
What’s going on?” she
asked her guard.

“
Valle and Encala Elders
are here,” he told her, looking around the silent
entryway.

“
Why?”

“
I don’t know, Ma’am,” he
said.

Emily headed for the council chambers
instead of up to her room.

“
I don’t know if you’re
supposed to be in there,” a guard said to her.

“
I’m going anyway,” she
said, matter-of-factly, and her guards followed her
nervously.

When the door to the council chambers
opened, all eyes fell on her. The Valle and Encala Elders and their
escorts hissed and moved as far from her as they could. Emily made
her way to the stand with the Equites Council, and shuffled up the
stairs. The heku sitting to Chevalier’s left stood and offered her
his chair. She sat down and blushed when she noticed they were all
still staring at her.

“
What are you doing here?”
Chevalier whispered to her.

“
Keeping the peace,” she
said, and smiled.

“
Is this a threat?” one of
the Valle Elders said.

Chevalier just smiled at the Valle, “She’s
not here to threaten you. She’s here to make sure we all remain
civil.”

“
This is unacceptable! With
her in the room, you have an advantage,” one of the Encala
snapped.

“
So it was ok when you
outnumbered us two to one, but now that we have a slight advantage,
it’s unacceptable?” Damon hissed.

The Valle and Encala Elders looked at one
another nervously and then turned back to the Equites,
“Proceed.”

“
It’s good that Lady Emily
has joined us anyway, as this concerns her,” Maleth said, smiling
at her.

Emily frowned and looked at Chevalier, but
he didn’t turn toward her.

“
The proposition stands.
Either you share the Winchester blood or we attack the Equites and
wipe the faction off this planet,” the Encala Elder said, looking
at Emily.

“
Excuse me? What do you
mean share the Winchester blood?” she asked.

Chevalier leaned toward her and whispered,
“They each want a baby girl from you.”

Her eyes grew wide, “No.”

Chevalier turned back to the opposing elders
and smiled, “You heard her.”

“
I don’t see as though we
should be giving her a choice,” the Valle Elder said.

Emily stood up and put her fists on the
table, “You do realize I can ash all of you at once, right?”

The Elders and their faction members all
shrank back some. Normally, Chevalier would calm Emily down, but he
was enjoying the look on their faces.

“
Just calm, Child. We can
discuss this,” the tallest Encala Elder said.

“
Start discussing,” she
snapped.

“
We can pay you, anything
you would like, for a female infant,” he said, smiling.

Emily laughed some, “No.”

“
Consider it, Child. It
would bring peace back to the factions.”

“
Call me child again and
you won’t get another breath.”

He stepped back behind his guard, “No
offense.”

“
If it’s peace you want,
then why would I give you a weapon?” she asked him.

“
To even things
up.”

“
It’s out of the question.
As it stands, the Equites have me and I am in control of my
abilities, which makes me the peace keeper.”

“
Still unfair,” the Valle
Elder said.

“
I’m pregnant now… which of
you gets the baby?” she asked, and sat back in the large
chair.

Chevalier looked at her oddly and secretly
smelled her. Her smell was not off, it was normal, and he turned
back to them and grinned.

“
Is that true?” the Encala
asked Chevalier.

He nodded, “Yes.”

Emily watched as the Encala and Valle Elders
began to bicker. Soon, their arguments turned into pushing and then
a fight erupted with the Equites Council watching.

“
Enough!” Maleth yelled,
and the fighting heku looked at him. “Lady Emily is not with child,
but she has proven to us that you do not have the ability to
control one of the Winchesters, as you can’t even control
yourselves.”

“
It is only fair that we
have equal powers to you!” the Valle yelled.

“
We will get a Winchester…
even if it causes another war,” the Encala said,
sternly.

“
Over my dead body,” Emily
yelled, watching them.

“
That is all we will say
about it. You haven’t proven to us that you can handle a Winchester
in your faction,” Leonid said. He then stood and exited out the
back door, followed by Maleth and most of the Council.

Chevalier and Emily sat and watched as the
opposing factions scowled and left the room, bumping shoulders
angrily with Emily’s guards.

“
They are going to try to
get me aren’t they?” Emily asked, looking over at Chevalier. She
saw her guards move in closer to them.

“
Yes,” he
scowled.

Emily looked over at her guards, “You ready
for this?”

One of them smiled, broadly, “They won’t get
past us… Wow, we really are guarding a Winchester!”

Chevalier stood up, “I need to talk to the
Council alone.”

Emily nodded and stood up with help, “That’s
fine. I’m going to take Allen down to the kitchen for some
dinner.”

Chevalier appeared in the Council’s
conference room and saw all were present before he shut the door,
“Interesting.”

“
Yes, very. Each faction
having a Winchester would cause an immediate war. Each thinking
they could obliterate the other,” Maleth said, as his fingertips
pressed together.

“
Emily was right. She is
more of a peace keeper to us… their fear of her keeps them at bay,”
Leonid said. “If they had the same ability, it would most surely
cause conflict.”

“
Not to mention, Lady Emily
made it very clear she wasn’t going to give each of them a baby,”
Damon reminded them.

“
It’s different with
mortals. They are extremely attached to their offspring. There’s no
way she would willingly give up a baby,” the Chief of Finances
explained.

Chevalier nodded, “Now, though, we need to
be ready for attacks. If the Valle and Encala team up and attack,
it is not going to be a pretty fight.”

“
How many can Emily take
care of at a time?” Damon asked.

“
I wasn’t there, but Kyle
said she took out 13 in quick succession, and over a two-hour
period, turned 83 to ash.”

“
That’s not enough to
protect us against a combined attack,” Leonid said, looking around
the Council.

“
It also begins to wear on
her. At first, as you saw previously, she could turn them to ash in
less than a second. The more she does, the longer it takes,”
Chevalier said, leaning against the table.

“
We cannot let them get a
Winchester,” Damon said, icily.

“
So what do we do? Take her
out of the palace to an undisclosed location?” Maleth
asked.

“
That’s risky,” Damon said.
“Here she is well guarded. If we send her out, she’ll have what?
The Elder and maybe 30 guards? If her location was discovered, it
would be easy for them to take her.”

“
I could take her back to
the Island. The pier is the only way in and there are a thousand
heku living there,” Chevalier said, deep in thought.

“
That’s one of the first
places they would look for her,” Damon said.

“
Is it a practiced skill?”
Leonid asked. “I mean, if she practiced would she get better at it?
Maybe able to do a hundred at a time?”

Chevalier shrugged, “I’m not sure. She won’t
do it though. The only way to practice would be to turn a heku into
ash.”

“
So we agree she’s safer
here?” Maleth asked them all.

When no one disagreed, he turned to
Chevalier, “Will she abide by strict rules?”

“
That would depend on the
rule. She’s not unreasonable, but sometimes the seriousness of the
danger eludes her,” Chevalier explained.

“
We have to consider that
they may try to take Allen as a means to lure her to them,” Damon
said.

Chevalier was surprised he hadn’t thought of
that, and was glad that Damon was made the Chief Enforcer. He was
sharp and missed nothing.

“
What rules shall we
enforce then? She has 2 guards on her at all times, and so far
hasn’t skipped out on them,” Maleth said.

“
She promised not to, for
that, she saw the need,” Chevalier said.

“
I say we up it to four and
two on Allen,” Damon suggested, and the rest of the Council
agreed.

“
No more horseback riding
through the city,” Maleth suggested.

“
Can we keep her confined
to her room then?” Leonid asked.

Chevalier grinned, “No… we cannot. She’s
mortal, they aren’t known for their patience, and when Emily gets
bored, she gets into trouble.”

“
Can we confine her to the
palace?”

He shook his head, “She’ll fight against
that.”

“
So she is unable to sit in
one location for long?” one of the council members
asked.

“
That’s common for most
mortals,” Chevalier said, smiling. He knew Emily was actually worse
than most.

“
So is there nothing we can
do more than four guards for her and two for Allen?” Maleth asked,
frowning.

“
What about the Cavalry
training? She’s not going to want to give that up,” Chevalier
said.

“
I say she keeps training.
During that time, she is with no less than thirteen guards at
once,” Leonid said, and smiled slightly.

“
Alert her guards, I don’t
care what it is, if anything suspicious happens around Emily, they
are to dispose of the culprit,” Damon said, sternly.

“
Just please, don’t let
Emily know that,” Chevalier said.

“
Will you please ask her to
be more careful about where she goes? Maybe stress the importance
of not slipping her guard, though it shocks me that a mortal can
elude two heku,” Damon said, baffled.

“
You just don’t know
Emily,” Chevalier replied.

“
There’s one more thing…”
It seemed like Maleth was hesitating.

“
Yes?” Chevalier asked, his
eyes narrowing.

“
Allen is almost 3, is he
not?”

“
Yes”

“
Were there plans for
another?”

“
No, Emily doesn’t want
more,” Chevalier told them.

Maleth gasped, “So the Winchesters will die
off with her?”

Chevalier nodded, “It’s not my place to
insist on another baby. She’s the one that has to carry it, and go
through labor, and she doesn’t want to.”

“
Those powers though, we
can’t let them disappear,” Leonid added.

“
I don’t think she cares
about the powers. She’s been attacked her entire life, including
when guarded, and she may not wish to pass that on.”

“
Ask her, please. See if
she will consider having a girl,” Maleth asked.

“
You realize we don’t get
to choose the gender.” Chevalier gave half-grin.

Maleth nodded, “Still, please try.”

“
I will ask, but I know
already what the answer will be.”

“
How is it being
prevented?” Leonid questioned.

“
Pills… mortals have made a
pill to prevent pregnancy,” Chevalier said, and then grinned. He
still thought that was funny.