Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (71 page)

Quinn shrugged, “You went to
think…”

“
Yeah, about whether to get
rid of Sam or not. Damn, you all seriously doubt my loyalty to the
Equites don’t you?” Emily asked, irritated.

She turned and took the gun from Mark,
and then grumbled as she left the chambers, “I need to learn to how
punch with breaking my own damned hand.”

Mark couldn’t help but grin when the
door shut, and he turned back to the Council.

“
I guess we’re done
interrogating him,” Zohn said, irritated, as he looked at Sam’s
body.

Mark looked up and stepped out of the
trial area, shutting the door behind him.

“
We shouldn’t be surprised.
She’s always been very loyal to this faction,” Maleth
said.

“
True,” Quinn replied, deep
in thought.

“
He needed to go. Emily
hasn’t trusted him since he kept Allen’s secret from us,” Chevalier
said, and then he looked up when Mark came returned.

“
Lord and Lady Thukil would
like a moment,” Mark told them.

Quinn nodded, “That’s fine, show them
in.”

A short, squat heku walked in, dressed
in elaborately decorated velvet green clothing that was puffed
around the legs and thighs. Beside him walked an older stout woman
in a velvet green dress that always reminded the Equites Council of
the southern belles before the civil war. The two of them were
always smiling and warm. They had the second largest coven in the
Equites, just a few hundred heku short of Chevalier’s
island.

“
Good to see you again.”
Quinn smiled at them.

“
Always good to come to
Council City,” Lord Thukil said.

Maleth smiled, “What can we do for
you?”

“
Well,” Lord Thukil said,
rubbing the back of his neck. “We’ve come to talk to Lady Emily,
actually. We wanted to offer her our coven for a week, to see if
she would mind coming for a visit.”

Chevalier chuckled, “That’s
different.”

Lord Thukil’s belly shook when he
laughed, “Yes, yes it is a bit unorthodox. You see… our elite
guards, our Cavalry, were on the front lines of the battle with the
Valle. A lot of them were hurt and were shipped to Island Coven to
recover.”

Chevalier nodded and turned to the
Council, “Emily wouldn’t leave the injured alone. She spent hours
out there holding their hands and helping as she could.”

Maleth frowned, “There’s no way to
help a heku recover.”

“
She highly impressed our
most choice guards,” Lord Thukil explained. “They said they’ve
never before seen such compassion from human or heku. They said
that every time she touched them, they felt a little more comforted
and that it helped in the healing process… helped the pain lessen,
if you will.”

“
We had reports though that
she killed some of them,” Zohn said, still irritated at the
thought.

“
Yes, we heard that also…
but do you know she asked them first? If they were in pain and
weren’t able to heal, she gave them the option of helping them out
of their pain,” Lord Thukil said. “It’s almost embarrassing. We
leave our injured alone to heal, that’s just our way. That child
broke tradition and somehow managed to work her way into the hearts
of some of our most aggressive guards.”

Kyle laughed, “She does have a way of
doing that.”

“
Our guards have asked if
she can visit. They want to show their appreciation,” Lady Thukil
said, her voice was high pitched and rather squeaky.

Chevalier grinned slightly, “I’ve
actually been afraid of her going to Thukil Coven.”

Lord Thukil’s smile faltered and he
frowned, “Why is that?”

“
She may never leave,”
Chevalier chuckled.

Lord Thukil grinned, “I’m sure we
could accommodate her.”

“
I see no problem with Lady
Emily going to Thukil Coven for a week,” Quinn said, and glanced at
the Council. “Anyone opposed?”

None of the Council opposed the
idea.

“
Emily would need to bring
Alexis,” Chevalier told them. “She doesn’t like to be away from the
baby.”

Lady Thukil squealed, “Oh! That would
be wonderful!”

“
Mark, please ask Emily to
come,” Chevalier said.

Mark nodded and blurred from the room
as two heku came in and hauled Sam’s body away. He came back in and
shut the door.

“
It’s going to be a bit,
while she… gets… bandaged up,” Mark said, and grinned
slightly.

Lady Thukil gasped, “Is she
injured?”

“
She… umm…” Mark looked up
at Chevalier. “She injured her hand.”

Chevalier added, “Again.”

Emily came in a short time later with
her hand in a black brace. She blushed when everyone looked at her,
and then walked up to the Council, skirting around the
Thukils.

“
What’d I do now?” Emily
asked, and glanced back when the Thukils laughed.

“
Emily, this is Lord and
Lady Thukil. They have the other coven that was attacked by the
Valle,” Chevalier explained.

Emily smiled and turned to them, “I
owe three of your heku some thanks. They jumped into the water with
me, and then killed the Valle just after I threatened to ash
them.”

Lord Thukil laughed heartily, “They
neglected to mention the threat.”

Emily blushed again, “Well, thank them
for me, please.”

“
We were hoping you could
thank them yourself,” Lord Thukil said with a smile.

Emily watched him curiously, “Are they
here?”

“
The Lady and I are
actually here to ask if you would come to our coven for a week…
call it a vacation.”

Emily smiled, “Really?”

Lady Thukil nodded, “Yes, the guards
are very anxious to see you again. A lot of them, you nursed on the
grass of Island Coven.”

“
Thukil Coven,” Chevalier
explained, “Is an... agricultural coven.”

Emily’s face lit up, “There’s an
agricultural coven?”

Lord Thukil nodded, “Yes, one of the
few.”

“
And I can
come?”

Lord Thukil chuckled, “Yes,
Child.”

“
Now?”

“
Yes, you can come
now.”

“
Alexis?”

“
Bring the baby,” Lady
Thukil said, smiling.

“
I’d need Silas,” Emily
said, and turned to the Council.

“
You may take any of our
Cavalry with you,” Maleth told her.

She jumped, excited, and ran for the
door “Let me go pack!”

Chevalier couldn’t help but grin. He
hadn’t seen her this excited in a while.

“
Just a word of warning,
though,” Quinn said. “Emily’s abilities interfere with the creation
process.”

“
Interesting,” Lord Thukil
said. “We have none planned, so that won’t be a
problem.”

“
I think this may be an
opportunity for us to do some ourselves,” Zohn said, pulling out a
stack of papers to go through.

Within the hour, Emily, Alexis, and
Silas were on a helicopter heading for a coven in northern Texas.
After two fuel stops, they arrived just as it started to get dark,
so Emily wasn’t able to get a good look at what the Thukil’s
called, “the Ranch”.

Emily looked out of the helicopter
doors as she held the sleeping baby in her arms. She smiled when a
path was made from the helicopter into a mansion by mounted guards
with vibrant green shirts and green capes.

“
Emily, meet our Cavalry…
we had the first in the faction,” Lord Thukil said.

Emily saw a guard appear beside her
and put an arm out to help her out of the helicopter. She jumped
down onto the grass and inhaled deeply. The Ranch smelled like her
home in Montana, and she smiled and followed the guard past the
Cavalry and into the mansion.

She looked up when she got inside. The
mansion was homey and warm. There were no hidden servants. They all
came out to greet her when she walked in. Emily handed Alexis over
to Silas, so she could shake their hands.

“
We were going to wait
until morning for this, but the Captain of the Cavalry is most
anxious to see you,” Lord Thukil said.

“
For what?” Emily asked,
shaking the hand of another servant as they bowed to her and
welcomed her to the Ranch.

“
Come, Child, we will show
you,” Lord Thukil said, and motioned her toward a door.

Emily followed his lead and gasped
when he opened the door to a large banquet hall. There were
hundreds of heku guards gathered, and they all turned toward her.
Her heart skipped a beat and she had the urge to run, but caught
the eyes of some of the guards and felt herself relaxing. Their
eyes were kind and inviting. She didn’t see any of them look at her
with hatred.

“
You ok, Em?” Silas asked
from behind her.

She nodded and then walked toward the
large heku at the end of the room. He had his hand out to her and
was smiling softly. He was close to seven feet tall with broad
shoulders and muscles that threatened to break out of his uniform.
As she got closer, she saw that he had shoulder length brown hair
and soft blue eyes.

“
My Dear, Lady Emily, thank
you for coming,” he said to her when she approached.

Emily stood back from him and smiled,
“Thank you for inviting me.”

“
I’m Darren, Captain of the
Thukil Cavalry,” he said, and took her hand. “It is my pleasure to
have you in our home.”

Emily blushed and glanced back at
Alexis. She was still asleep in Silas’s arms.

“
You may wonder why we’re
all gathered here.”

Emily nodded, “Yes, sort
of.”

Darren smiled, “We are here to induct
you into the Thukil Cavalry.”

Emily glanced at Silas and then back
to Darren, “Really? An actual member?”

Darren nodded, “Yes, never before has
anyone… human or heku, shown such kindness to this guard staff, and
we would be honored if you would join our ranks.”

Emily smiled, “I would love
that.”

Darren stepped forward and pinned a
platinum hoof on Emily’s shirt, the center was an emerald
‘T’.

“
Thank you,” Emily said,
and pulled the pin up to look at it.

“
No… thank you. We have
taken the liberty of talking to your tailor, and there’s an
official uniform in your room. Please feel free to wear it while
you are here. You are inducted at the rank of Commander,” Darren
explained.

Emily nodded, still in shock at being
a member of the guard staff.

“
Please meet, Commander
Emily,” Darren said to the gathered heku, and the entire hall
erupted in claps and cheers. Emily turned to look at them and felt
the blush return to her face.

“
Come, Child, there is some
dinner waiting for you. You must be hungry,” Darren said, putting a
hand on her back gently. Emily walked up the aisle with him and
felt like a child next to his hulking size.

“
I’m going to take Alexis
to bed,” Silas said, and when Emily nodded, he followed one of the
servants up the main staircase.

Darren led her into a large hall. She
was relieved to see there were only about thirty of the guards in
this room. Emily smiled when she recognized some of them from the
Island’s lawn. One of them ran up to her and pulled her into a hug.
Her feet dangled off of the floor and she wrapped her arms around
him.

“
Thank you… so many times,
thank you,” he said, and sat her back down.

“
It’s so good to see you
again.” Emily smiled. A servant came by with a tray of tiny finger
sandwiches and Emily grabbed one, suddenly hungry. Another came by
with glasses of champagne and Emily noticed there were five or six
of them wandering around with various foods, even though she was
the only mortal in the room.

“
Lady Emily?” she heard,
and turned toward three towering heku. She wondered briefly if this
entire coven was made of massive heku.

“
You may not recognize us…”
one of them said, but Emily ran into his arms.

“
Thank you for coming into
the water with me,” she whispered, and then turned to the next and
also hugged him.

“
You do recognize us.” He
smiled.

“
Of course! It’s not often
I threaten to ash someone who turns around and saves me two seconds
later.”

They all laughed and more guards
joined them.

Emily hugged the last one, “I can’t
thank you enough.”

“
It was our pleasure,” he
said, grinning. “It’s not often we get to stage a water
rescue.”

“
Yeah, I bet not,” she
said.

“
I see you are injured
though, are you ok?” he asked, glancing briefly at her braced
hand.