Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (31 page)

Kralen grinned, “I know I
was.”

“Hey,” Emily gasped, and
he walked out and shut the door. She could hear him laughing in the
hallway.

She sat in the bay window and looked
out over the city, wondering what happened to Chevalier.

***

“Kyle?” Dustin whispered,
and shook him as Jerry watched.

Kyle opened his eyes and sat up
quickly, “Where are we?”

They all looked around the
deep hole they were in. It was a cylindrical room of dirt and the
only light came from over fifty feet above them.

“I don’t know,” Dustin
said, and turned to look at the walls.

“Where’s the
Elder?”

“I haven’t seen him
either, course… you just showed up. I’ve been here for 3
days.”

“Down here?”

“Yes”

Kyle sighed, “I was being interrogated
by the Encala.”

“I figured,” Jerry said,
and looked up. “I assume the Elder is being interrogated also. What
were they asking about?”

“Mostly about some of our big covens,
strengths, numbers, outposts, that sort of thing.”

“Nothing about Emily?” Dustin asked,
shocked.

“Nope, though I can’t help
but think this is in retaliation for her taking
Frederick.”

***

“Em?” Kralen said after knocking on
the door.

“Come in,” she called out.
Kralen came in and found her sitting in the bay widow again. She
hadn’t eaten since Chevalier disappeared and spent most of her time
sitting in the window looking out. Alexis was back in school, and
Dain was attending his classes with two guards to watch him. In the
last couple of days, he’d locked Alexis’ gaze four times and twice
attempted to lock Emily’s.

“He’s back,” Kralen told her and
smiled.

Emily gasped and stood up, “He
is?”

“Yes, he’s in the garage.”

She ran past him and
headed quickly down the stairs, taking two at a time in bare feet.
Her four guards ran behind her, also glad to see the four missing
council members back safely. When she saw him, she ran to him and
put her arms around him.

“I don’t think so, just a
random unfactioned I think,” Chevalier said to Zohn. Zohn was
surprised that Chevalier didn’t react to Emily’s hug.

“Are they dead?”

“Yeah, we killed them
all,” Kyle said, and started inside.

Emily looked up at Chevalier, “Are you
ok?”

“I’m heku,” he said, and
pulled away from her to walk after Kyle and Jerry. Dustin followed
him in and Emily glanced back at Kralen, and they went into the
palace.

They all walked into the
council chambers and when Chevalier sat in his chair and turned
toward Quinn, Emily sat down beside him.

“Good to have you back,”
Quinn said, and smiled.

“It’s those unfactioned,
not Ferus, but unfactioned… They wanted information on the palace,”
Chevalier told him.

Emily sat quietly behind
him and watched how Kyle, Jerry, and Dustin were whispering in the
corner.

“It was stupid for them to think they
would get information from you,” Zohn said.

“It was, but we handled
them. What is going on here?” Chevalier asked.

“It’s been quiet. We’ve
spent most of our resources looking for you four.”

Emily reached down under
the desk to take Chevalier’s hand, but he pulled his out of hers
and opened up the log book for the last few days. She frowned
slightly and then quietly stood up and left.

“Dain’s been… controlling Alexis a lot
lately,” the Chief Interrogator told him.

Chevalier shrugged, “He’s heku, it’s
his right.”

Quinn frowned, “It
is?”

“Yes… why has J.R. been
put on suspension?”

“He snuck out again to meet up with a
donor,” Zohn told him.

“Kill him, that’s my
suggestion then. Suspension is too lenient.”

“We considered it, but he’s very
young,” Quinn said.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Zohn started to say
something, but stopped. Chevalier usually gave young heku one
chance before banishment, but this heku had been in no trouble
until now.

“What else?” Chevalier
asked, and looked up.

Quinn cleared his throat, “We’re ready
for the Madden trial.”

“Good, let’s get it over
with.”

“Don’t you want to rest? It could take
weeks.”

“No, let’s do it,” Chevalier told
him.

“You don’t want time with the family
first?”

“Oh right, yes, just an
hour or so,” he said, then stood up and blurred away.

Emily looked over from the bay window
when Chevalier walked in and she set her book down, “I’m glad
you’re back.”

“Yes, I would imagine,” he
said, and sat down on a chair by the fire. “Come, we must
talk.”

“Ok,” she said, and sat
her book down before moving to a chair beside him.

“I’ve had a lot of time to
think over the last few days, and I’m not sure our current
arrangement is working.”

“Arrangement?”

“Yes, by keeping
Frederick, you proved to me that you may not be ready to run free
with the heku, and I think it’s time to rein you in,” he told her,
and sat back in the chair.

Emily frowned, “What do you
mean?”

“What I mean is… no more
running around the palace. If you need to go somewhere, then you’ll
need to have your guards ask permission.”

“What?” she whispered.

“You have to see how
Frederick’s capture put a strain on our marriage, and right now,
I’m not sure it’s working out.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well it did. I don’t feel
as close to you, and I don’t feel as though I can trust you… It’s
going to take a while to get that back.”

The cold way he spoke sent chills up
her spine, “Chev…”

“We’ll try the new way.
See if I can learn to trust you again or if you are too loose of a
cannon for this to work. I took a big risk bringing a human into
the palace, and I see now that may have been a mistake.”

“I don’t understand what…”

“Alexis has the same rules you
do.”

“But…”

“Dain is free to roam the
palace. He’s full heku and will be treated as such,” Chevalier told
her, and then stood.

Emily just watched him.
Her heart sunk at how quickly she could lose him now.

He opened the door and then turned
around, “Pick up this room, it’s a mess.”

She nodded and he shut the
door behind her. She looked around the massive room and saw only
one pair of shoes sitting out of place. She got up and put them
away and then returned to the window to think.

***

Dustin and Kyle both moved
to the sides of their confinement space when Chevalier was thrown
down on top of them. When he landed, unconscious, they both knelt
down beside him.

“He’s burned,” Kyle
whispered.

Chevalier quickly began to
heal and after only a few moments, opened his eyes and sat
up.

“Are you ok, Elder?” Jerry
asked, and sat down on the mud beside him.

“Where is this?”

“The bottom of a well, I
think.”

He sighed, “They gave up
torturing me when I wouldn’t tell them Powan’s
information.”

Kyle nodded, “They asked me about that
also.”

“Are they going after Powan then?”
Dustin asked.

“I don’t know. When they
were done, they just electrocuted me and dropped me down here,”
Chevalier said, and stood up. He looked around the tiny dirt
tunnel.

“There’s no way out, we’ve
tried.”

“Have they mentioned any ransom
demands?”

“No, Elder.”

***

Zohn, Quinn, and Chevalier
sat in the Elder’s Conference room on the second day of Madden’s
trial.

“We’re just worried about
how you’re treating her,” Zohn said. They heard immediately about
his new plans for Emily, and then caught wind that he had other
changes in store for her. They knew she wasn’t eating and was
afraid to talk to any heku.

“Don’t worry about her.
She’ll be fine.”

“It’s just odd that you
are so cold towards her. Did something happen?”

“You mean other than
Frederick’s kidnapping? I had four days alone to think about that,
and it just makes me angry.”

“I see,” Quinn said, and
leaned back in his chair. “What else did you tell her?”

“Nothing more than making
her do more productive things. There’s no reason she can’t cook for
herself and clean up after the children. She sits around here and
does nothing all day, it’s time she works.”

Zohn frowned, “Then we should have
left her as Staff Supervisor.”

“That’s too high. She
needs to start at the bottom.”

“Why is that? I thought
you found cleaning… unbecoming of an Elder’s wife.”

“I did, but now I see that work will
help keep her busy enough to stay out of trouble… now are we going
back to Madden or not?” Chevalier growled.

“Yes, we’ll go,” Zohn
said, and they all headed back to the trial.

The Elders joined the
trial and Madden looked up angrily from the trial room
floor.

***

Mark knocked lightly on the bedroom
door, “Em?”

“Come in,” she whispered.
He came in and saw her folding laundry on the bed.

“Do you want me to check?”

“No,” she said, but didn’t
look up at him.

“Has the
Elder?”

“No”

“Then I really
should.”

“No, I can’t risk him getting
mad.”

“I think someone should
check… but I won’t force you,” he said, and left her room.
Chevalier told her guards to spend as little time with her as
possible. He felt she needed to be isolated from the day-to-day
workings of the heku environment.

Emily watched him leave
and then stood up to put the kid’s clothes away. When she was done,
she opened her door.

“Please ask if I can go
start lunch,” she asked Silas, never looking up.

He sighed and then blurred
away. Silas returned a few seconds later, “We can go.”

She nodded and started
quietly down the stairs. The heku guards watched as she made
herself some coffee, and then sat at the dining room table to
drink.

“Em,” Kralen whispered,
and looked around the room before bending over toward her. “Coffee
isn’t food.”

Emily swallowed hard,
“Chevalier said I could lose a few pounds… so I’m on a
diet.”

“What!?” Kralen whispered
harshly. They’d watched her drop a lot of weight the last week
since his return. She was refusing to eat and her clothes started
to hang off of her.

She shrugged, “I guess he’s
right.”

Kralen stood back up and
looked over at Silas. They were both inwardly angry, but knew any
outward appearance could be detrimental.

When Emily finished her
cup of coffee, they started back up the stairs. She stopped on the
fourth-floor foyer when Chevalier walked around from the back of
the council chambers and looked at her.

“You know, you could stop
dressing like a western movie reject… you look awful,” he told her,
and then went to his office.

Emily just turned and
slowly walked up the stairs. She felt a sharp stab in her stomach
and bent over slightly as she walked.

“What’s wrong?” Silas
asked, and touched her arm.

“Nothing,” she whispered,
and walked into her room, shutting the door behind her. The pain
became stronger and she fell to her knees and bent over to try to
relieve the pain. The sound caused Silas and Kralen to rush into
her room.

“Em, talk to me, what hurts?” Kralen
asked after kneeling down beside her.

She’d broken out in a sweat and her
arms shook from the pain, “Go away.”

“No, something’s wrong,”
Silas whispered, and shut the door, leaving two of the Cavalry out
in the hallway.

“Just go away,” she
whispered, and the panic in her voice was obvious.

“He’ll want to send you to a doctor,”
Kralen told her.

“No… please… don’t tell
him,” she said, and then stood up slowly and fell onto the bed.
Silas and Kralen watched until she fell asleep, and then both went
to talk to Mark.

“Enter,” Mark said when he
heard the knock on his door. He watched Silas and Kralen come in
and shut his door behind them.