Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (24 page)

“I didn’t know that,” Kyle said,
surprised.

“That’s how Elder Maleth’s
wife died. The Valle tried to get to him through her.”

Chevalier tensed, “Enough.”

“Yes, Elder,” the Chief of
Defense said, turning back to Mark. “We have one more unit in Powan
as we speak. Next time we need to send over a batch for the
Cavalry, we’ll arrange something.”

Mark nodded, “Yes, Sir.
And what about Emily today?”

“She’s in her office,”
Zohn said. “Doing… whatever it is she does in there. Leave her be
as long as she stays near the palace.”

“Yes, Elder,” he said, and
left for the Cavalry training.

***

Emily sat alone in her
office, looking at the computer screen with recent V.E.S. activity.
She’d noticed a rather quick decline in their numbers, and most of
the Internet communications between V.E.S. strongholds was about
how to recruit new members and shock at how quickly members were
returning to their lives outside of the society.

As much as she tried to
focus, her mind kept going back to Kralen’s disappearance. Everyone
assured her he was fine, either on his vacation, or away on a
mission. No one seemed comfortable talking about it around her, and
she noticed nervous glances whenever she brought it up.

Emily thought for a moment and then
called Allen.

“Hi, Mom,” he said, sounding glad to
hear from her.

“How’s it going?”

“Good, Miri and I are just working on
the house.”

“Not staying in the
castle?”

“Naw, that’s Dad’s house.
We got one in the city.”

“I see… I have a question
though,” Emily said, and hesitated.

She could tell Allen was grinning,
“What now?”

“Have you heard where Kralen
is?”

“Well, no, haven’t heard
anything. Is he missing?”

“Yes, and they just keep telling me
he’s either on vacation or on a mission.”

“You don’t believe them?”

“No, I don’t.”

Allen thought for a
moment, “My guess is that he’s on a big mission. Maybe undercover
or infiltrating another faction. That can take hundreds of years to
accomplish.”

“What!?”

“It’s not easy for another
faction to think a heku jumped ship and joined them because of
fights with the Equites. If Kralen’s on a mission to be trusted by
the Valle or the Encala, then it will take centuries.”

“How can I find out?” she asked,
suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.

“Not sure on that one. No
one that knows will tell you, it could break his cover.”

Emily sighed, “I’m worried about
him.”

“You’d be better off letting him do
whatever it is he left to do,” Allen told her.

“Yeah, I guess you’re
right.”

“Please, Mom, don’t go
after him. If you break his cover, he could be killed.”

“I won’t, talk to you
later,” she said, and hung the phone up. She got up and headed for
the stairs when she heard Alexis out of her classroom.

“Wait,” Emily said, and
went down the stairs. “What’s up?”

Alexis looked up and
smiled, “Hi, Mom. We’re going out to your leech pond to get a water
sample.”

“Ew, why?”

“I need a fresh slide of
protozoa.”

“Don’t go in,” Emily said,
and glanced behind her at Alexis’ guard, Gabe. He was carefully
scanning the foyer.

“No way, though I doubt
they’d like me,” Alexis said, and blushed when she glanced at
Gabe.

Emily grinned and watched
them all move off down the stairs. She sat down on the top step of
the fourth-floor stairs and looked around, somewhat bored, and
still trying to figure out how to find Kralen’s
location.

“Lady Emily?” she heard
someone say from behind her. Emily stood up and turned to face the
new palace Staff Supervisor.

“Yeah?” She was a little
irritated that she was replaced with a heku after being at the job
for so long. The Elders told her they felt it unbefitting of an
Elder’s wife to work in the palace, and all of her arguments didn’t
sway their decision.

“I need to check on
something. May I get the keys for the palace please?” he asked
pleasantly.

“Oh sure. I need to go
grab something and I’ll bring them to your office.”

“Very well,” he said with
a bow, and then left.

Emily smiled. She hadn’t
considered before, but with the Staff Supervisor keys, she could
get in any door in the palace except the Elder’s Offices. She
quickly ran down to the third-floor and checked around before going
in to the Records Keeper’s office. The room was pristinely clean
with neatly stacked files and rows of file cabinets.

***

“Very well. We will
consider the move and let you know within the week,” Zohn said, and
nodded to the Records Keeper.

“Thank you, Elder,” the
heku in the trial area said, and left with a bow.

The Records Keeper frowned slightly
and stood up, “Excuse me for a moment.”

He walked calmly out of
the council chambers. Once out of sight of the Council, he almost
immediately appeared at the door to his office and stood in front
of it for a moment, listening inside. He heard soft footsteps and
knew immediately who set off his alarm.

“Good afternoon, Emily,” he said,
stepping inside.

Emily turned quickly and
looked at him with wide eyes. She was glad she’d just shut the file
door before he came in, “Hello.”

“Can I help you with
something?”

“I was… checking to see if the
cleaning crew did a good job.”

“I see… and is that not
the job of the new Staff Supervisor?” he asked, and sat down behind
his desk.

“It was cleaned yesterday.
I was still in charge.”

“And which file did you wish to
see?”

Emily frowned slightly, “Excuse
me?”

“Dear, the files are too important to
leave without an alarm.”

“Oh, no, I opened them to check dust
along the top of the shelf.”

He smiled, “If you’ll tell
me what you want to know, I may just tell you.”

Emily sighed and her shoulders dropped
some, “I want the files on the Winchesters.”

“Oh?” he asked, sitting back in his
chair as he pressed his fingertips together.

“The Valle can’t be the only ones
keeping tabs on my family.”

“No, they were not.”

“So what do the Equites have on
it?”

“Let’s see,” the Records
Keeper said, and stood up slowly. He walked over and began going
through one of the top drawers in the file cabinet. “What part of
Winchester history do you want?”

“What do you have?” she asked, getting
on her tiptoes to try to see, but it was still too high.

“I have death records from
Equites they killed, and arrest records for heku imprisoned by
them. I have possible whereabouts, genealogical files, home
locations, any 1800’s attack locations…”

“Wow, well…” Emily thought, “What
about information like… personalities, temperaments, likes,
dislikes…”

He smiled at her, “No, we did not care
enough about that to record it.”

“I thought you recorded
everything.”

“Only the important
things. What is it you seek?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know, anything
interesting.”

“Then I suggest you
consult Camber. He would be the one to ask.”

“He’s a… well… I don’t like
him.”

“He wrote a book on the Winchesters,
maybe that might help.”

“Oh, good idea, I’ll
Google it.”

“Excuse me?” he asked,
shutting the drawer.

“Never mind, thanks for
your help,” Emily said, and left his room quickly. She hurried
upstairs and gave the new Staff Supervisor the keys, and then
quickly ran up to her helicopter to think.

The Records Keeper
relocked his office and returned to the council
chambers.

“Everything ok?” Kyle asked, watching
him.

“Emily was going through
some of my files,” he said, and sat down.

“Did she say why?”

“Yes, but it was a lie.”

“Do you think she’s
looking for Kralen?” Kyle asked, looking over at the
Elders.

“I don’t think so,”
Chevalier said. “I’d think she would ask me first… course, it’s Em,
so who knows.”

“How did she get into your office?”
Dustin asked.

The Records Keeper smiled,
“She just hadn’t turned her keys over to the new Staff Supervisor,
but she has now.”

Dustin glared at the others, “I
suppose you’re going to let her get away with breaking into one of
our offices?”

Quinn looked over at the Records
Keeper, “Jerry, did you want to press charges?”

“No, I do not.”

“Then, we aren’t doing
anything,” Quinn said to Dustin. Dustin slammed his chair back and
stormed out of the room.

***

Emily nodded off in the
helicopter as she contemplated who to ask about Kralen. Before
falling asleep, she’d decided that none of the Council would tell
her, and she already knew the Cavalry wasn’t going to either. She
woke up when Equites 2 landed, and then she headed
inside.

At the top of the
eighth-floor stairs, she heard the front door to the palace slam
shut and then heard crying. She quickly ran down the stairs, two at
a time, knowing there was only one person in the palace, other than
herself, that would cry.

She met Alexis on the
fifth-floor as she was running to her room. When the 13-year-old
saw her Mom, she ran into her arms, still crying. Her two guards
were with her, but said nothing.

“What happened, Alex?”
Emily asked, and held her.

She was crying too hard to speak and
just pulled closer to her Mom.

“What happened?” she asked the
guards.

“Not quite sure, Ma’am.
Miss Alexis was collecting a plant for a science project, Stu and I
were just visiting… then she ran up here,” Gabe told
her.

“Get into the council
chambers, now,” Emily hissed at them. They both bowed slightly and
disappeared down the stairs. She watched them go and then led
Alexis into the bedroom. They both sat down and Emily waited while
Alexis calmed down before taking her hand, “What
happened?”

Through sobs, Alexis finally managed
to whisper, “He… he… he has a… girlfriend.”

That brought new sobs and Emily held
her while she cried through it, “I’m sorry, Alex.”

“He never said anything
before,” Alexis mumbled, and grabbed a tissue.

“Guards don’t like to get too close to
us,” Emily told her.

“Yours do.”

“Yeah, well, they aren’t
supposed to, but they’ve been guarding me forever.”

“M… maybe… maybe he’ll leave his
girlfriend.”

“Honey, you can’t bank on
that.”

Alexis broke down in tears
again while Emily held her. Once she calmed down, Emily leaned back
in her chair and took Alexis’ hand.

“He thinks I’m a kid,” Alexis
whispered.

“You are, Alex,” Emily
said, and then sighed when Alexis glared at her. “You’re 13… these
heku think I’m a kid and I’m way older than you are.”

“So that’s all I’ll ever be to
him?”

Emily shrugged, “I don’t know, there’s
no way to tell.”

“Allen didn’t have this
problem.”

“Allen was never a kid. He
shot from 5-years-old to adult overnight it seems like.”

“I can do more than a heku can though,
I can have kids…”

“We don’t know that, I
told you,” Emily said, and then sat back when Alexis began to cry
again.

“I hate it here,” Alexis said after a
few more minutes.

“I know it’s hard. We
aren’t heku, but we aren’t human.”

“How do you deal with it?”

“I don’t have a choice. I
love your Dad and I put up with a lot to stay with him.”

“What if I don’t want to stay here?”
Alexis asked.

“Where do you want to go?”

“To the island, to live with
Allen.”

“Alex… he’s newly married… maybe
later.”

Emily looked up when there was a knock
at the door, “Come in.”

Derrick poked his head in,
“The Council wants to know what they are supposed to do with Miss
Alexis’ guards.”

“I’ll be right down,” she
said, and made sure he shut the door behind him.

“I don’t want to see Gabe
again.”

“Ok, I’ll have him
replaced.”