Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (19 page)

Chevalier and Damon turned around to
the three remaining coven members.

“
Why are you doing this?”
the tallest man asked nervously.

“
To keep you from joining
the Encala, of course,” Damon said, grinning.

“
We wouldn’t have! She was…
out of line speaking for the rest of us,” he said,
panicked.

Chevalier took a step forward and
leaned his elbow on the taller man’s shoulder. Chevalier was still
a good six inches taller than him, “Damon?”

“
Why… yes
Elder?”

“
Do you believe him?”
Chevalier asked, grinning at the man.

“
Nope,” Damon said, just as
Chevalier ripped the man’s head off and tossed it with the other
two in the fire.

There were two coven members left, and
they were cowering in the corner.

“
Please, let us go,” the
elder man begged.

“
There’s two of them…”
Damon said to Chevalier.

Chevalier grinned, ominously, “One for
each of us.”

“
Where’s Emily though? She
can’t see us go,” Damon said, and smiled reassuringly down at the
two heku.

Chevalier shut his eyes for no more
than a second and opened them, “No idea where she is, but wherever
she is, she’s embarrassed.”

“
Embarrassed? Damn, and I’m
missing it,” Damon chuckled.

“
Send guards down there to
make sure she’s not around,” Chevalier said. He took the larger of
the remaining coven member by the arm and began to drag him to the
palace.

“
We’re clear to go down,
but Ron thinks we need to leave our toys in a cell and come in
immediately,” Damon said, frowning.

“
Why’s that?” Chevalier
asked, towing the screaming heku. He started to listen for more
information from the guards. He normally ignored what they said, as
it didn’t pertain to him, but this piqued his interest.

“
He won’t say, sounds
nervous,” Damon said.

Chevalier and Damon pushed their heku
into a cell and watched as Ron headed for the interrogation
room.

“
What’s going on?”
Chevalier asked as Ron stammered and accidentally ran into a
wall.

“
It’s… it’s…” Ron said, and
stopped. Chevalier stood to face him as Damon went on to the
interrogation chamber.

“
Speak now or I’ll throw
you in there myself,” Chevalier said, annoyed that this guard was
as nervous as he was.

“
Umm… Elder?” Damon called
from the doorway.

“
What?” Chevalier
scowled.

“
You gotta see this,” Damon
said, and Chevalier couldn’t help but notice he was
laughing.

“
What is up with…”
Chevalier stopped suddenly at the door. He gasped when he saw Emily
lying on the floor, her feet hooked into the stockade. She had one
hand covering her eyes and he grew furious immediately.

“
Em, are you ok?” he asked,
and easily lifted the foot restraints.

She sat up and looked at the wooden
post, “How did you do that? I’ve been trying to open those for
hours.”

Chevalier growled, “Who put you in
those?”

Emily glanced at Damon, then back to
Chevalier, “Well… I… sort of did.”

Damon stepped out of the room quickly.
He knew his laughing would make the Elder mad.

“
You put yourself in the
restraints?” he asked skeptically.

“
Yeah… kind of,” she said,
embarrassed. Chevalier looked around at the roaring fire, the
dropped guillotine, and the cat-o-nine tails lying out of
place.

Chevalier chuckled, “How’d you get
in?”

“
I waited until someone
left and snuck in. Then… I didn’t think it out very well, so I
couldn’t get out,” she said, and shrugged, watching closely to see
if he was mad.

“
You shoulda kept her in
them,” Damon said, grinning from the doorway.

Emily was too embarrassed to even
respond, she just blushed.

“
Are you mad?” Emily asked.
She couldn’t read him, but his eyes were confused and
worried.

Chevalier grinned, “No, I’m not mad.
I’m a little worried that you got yourself stuck
though.”

Emily watched as Damon returned the
whip to its spot and raised the blade on the guillotine.

“
That was… pretty heavy,”
she said, watching him.

“
I’m assuming you didn’t
lose any fingers,” Damon said, turning to her.

“
I blame you for this,” she
said to him.

“
Me? How can this be my
fault?” he asked, surprised.

“
If you had shown me, when
I asked, then I wouldn’t have had to sneak in.”

“
Fine, but you can’t blame
me for getting yourself stuck in the foot restraints.”

“
How did you open those
anyway?” Emily asked Chevalier.

He shook his head, “You can’t open
them while you’re in them, that would defeat the
purpose.”

Chevalier and Damon both watched her
closely, not sure if she was going to start screaming about their
room, or if the embarrassment hid her anger for now.

“
What’s the pig?” she
asked, nodding toward the fire.

Chevalier looked at Damon who
shrugged.

“
Oh come on. I’m not naïve
enough to think you all don’t torture prisoners when you
interrogate them. Just tell me what the pig is for,” she said,
rolling her eyes.

Chevalier felt some relief when he
realized that she didn’t know they sometimes tortured prisoners for
the fun of it. She seemed perfectly fine with torture to elicit a
confession, and he left her thoughts to believe that.

“
It’s… well,” Chevalier
said nervously to Damon.

“
Cooks the heku inside,”
Damon said bluntly, and grinned when Emily winced.

“
That’s awful,” she
gasped.

“
Yeah and the rest of this
just tickles,” Damon said, and shook his head, grinning.

“
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to
be in those feet restraints,” Emily said, and he realized that she
would actually know about that.

“
It’s not the restraints,
it’s what we’re holding them down to do,” Damon said, and shut his
mouth quickly when Chevalier glared at him.

Emily looked down at the restraints,
“Like what?”

“
I’m not comfortable with
this,” Chevalier said. He stood up and helped Emily to her
feet.

“
Fine, then you go, and
I’ll talk to Damon,” she said.

“
Nope, I’m done,” Damon
said, with one look from Chevalier.

Chevalier turned around to hide his
laughter. He had the image in his mind of Emily, embarrassed and
stuck in the foot restraints. Damon turned also. He hadn’t fully
stopped laughing from the first sight of her, and it was getting
worse.

Emily hopped up on a table and sat,
watching them, “I’m so glad you both find this funny.”

“
It’s... just…” Chevalier
said, and couldn’t finish the sentence.

“
I wouldn’t sit there if I
were you,” Quinn said, joining them in the room. He looked
suspiciously from Chevalier to Damon.

Emily hopped down, “Why
not?”

“
It’s electrified. One push
of a button and it would kill you,” he said bluntly.

Emily turned and looked at the table,
wide eyed.

“
What’s so funny?” Quinn
asked.

Neither Chevalier nor Damon could
answer.

“
Fine… I snuck in here and
couldn’t get out. Then I tried those foot things and got myself
stuck in them,” Emily said casually.

Quinn chuckled, “They found you still
in them?”

Emily nodded, embarrassed.

“
Are you ok?” he asked
her.

Emily nodded again.

“
Are you upset about the
room?”

“
No, I can’t believe it was
this huge secret. I know that some prisoners would need tortured to
give up information,” she told him.

“
I see,” Quinn said, and
looked around the room. “How long were you in here?”

“
What time is it?” she
asked.

“
7pm”

“
So… well… eight hours,”
Emily grimaced.

Quinn coughed, “Come, let’s get you
something to eat.”

Emily nodded and followed him out. She
heard laughing and whispers coming from Damon and Chevalier in the
room.

“
Don’t believe them, Emily!
They don’t just torture for confessions… they torture for fun!” she
heard someone yell from the prison.

Emily stopped and walked toward the
voice. Damon and Chevalier appeared in the hallway, suddenly
serious.

“
Come, Emily,” Quinn said,
and took her arm. She pulled away from him and went toward the
screaming voice.

Emily came face-to-face with a heku
she didn’t know. The moment he saw her, he inhaled and touched his
tongue to his lips.

“
What did you say?” Emily
asked him.

“
Torture… they do it for
fun,” he said, grinning.

“
Who does?”

“
The Elder and his Council…
more fun than interrogation, that I promise,” the heku prisoner
said, and then eyed Quinn carefully.

“
Exavior, is that true?”
she asked into the air.

She got no answer, so she walked over
to Exavior’s cell, followed by Quinn, Damon, and
Chevalier.

“
Did you hear me?” she
asked him.

Exavior nodded, “Yes, I
did.”

“
So what’s the
answer?”

“
It’s not my place to
answer,” he said, not moving from the bed.

“
Tell me!” she yelled, and
hit the bars.

Exavior didn’t respond.

“
Do you?” Emily asked,
turning to Chevalier.

“
We use it for
interrogating,” Chevalier said, watching her eyes.

“
Do you?” she asked
Damon.

“
Tiny, I do whatever I
want,” he said seriously.

“
So you do… torture these
prisoners for fun,” Emily glared at him.

“
If I want to.”

“
You disgust
me.”

“
You… will get over
it.”

“
Do you?” she turned to
Quinn. He looked surprised that she brought him into this
conversation.

“
I…” Quinn sighed.
“Yes.”

Emily eyed Chevalier suspiciously and
walked up the stairs to the foyer.

Damon turned to the heku that told
Emily about the fun torture.

“
You get to see it
firsthand,” Damon said, and drug him from the cell.

“
This is not going to be
good,” Chevalier said to Quinn.

“
Just keep her believing
you don’t do it, or we risk her running off again,” Quinn
said.

“
I hate to lie to
her.”

“
Just let the rest of us
take the heat for it.”

Chevalier nodded and followed Emily up
the stairs. He heard Emily yelling at someone as he opened the
door.

“
Do you?” she
yelled.

“
I… I don’t know how to
answer that,” Kyle said, panicked.

“
You don’t have to answer,”
Chevalier said, coming up behind Emily.

“
Do you?” she asked
again.

“
No,” he said, and winced
when Chevalier sighed.

“
Emily, are you going to
ask everyone?” Chevalier asked.

“
Yes, and don’t think I’m
done with you two,” she said, and walked up the stairs.

“
Get the word out. No one
else is to answer that question,” Chevalier said, and followed her
up. He could hear voices through the palace sending on his
orders.

Chevalier followed Emily up the stairs
and into the room. She was just sitting down with Allen at the
table. Allen pushed food around his plate, and Emily talked about
his day and sat curled up on the chair. Chevalier watched, sitting
on the edge of the bed. After they ate, Emily and Allen curled up
on the couch to watch TV together as Chevalier watched
them.

“
I want Daddy to,” Allen
said, when Emily started to put him to bed.

Emily nodded, and Chevalier picked
Allen up and airplaned him into the room. She slipped into the
bathroom and ran herself a hot tub. She was still cold from the
prison and her back was aching from lying on the ground.

Emily crawled into the hot tub and
turned on the jets, relaxing as they pounded against her back. She
pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes, trying to stop her
head from throbbing. Between the headache, the backache, and the
near constant burning on her thigh, she was starting to get
frustrated with everything around her. If the time in the
interrogation room had done anything, it gave her enough time to
consider what was going on in her life. The problem was, she hadn’t
found a solution.