Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (74 page)

The amount of blood
covering every surface in the interrogation room shocked Zohn. He
moved into the room quietly and stood back along the wall with Dain
and Mark as Chevalier and Kyle methodically began to skin Frederick
as his screams again filled the palace. Small shreds of his skin
fell to the floor of the interrogation room, and Dain took a step
back to avoid being close to it.

Mark watched for the enemy
Elder to go unconscious, and would tell Chevalier and Kyle. They
would stop and wait for him to come fully around before continuing.
Zohn hadn’t seen this done before and was stunned at the sheer
brutality of it. He fought against his instincts to join in and
cause even more pain, but understood that it was his responsibility
to stay calm for the faction, in case a decision was
needed.

After a few hours, when
the novelty of it wore off, Frederick was hung in the shackles to
heal.

“It’s quiet,” Chevalier said as he
watched Frederick.

“We’ve cleared out the
palace,” Zohn explained.

“Where’s Alex?” Dain asked.

“She’s fine… she went back up the
stairs.”

“Did you tell her she can’t come down
here?”

“No, I did not. She didn’t
wish to join in.”

Dain shrugged and turned back to his
Dad, “Now what?”

“Now we start an eternity of
suffering,” he said, still watching Frederick.

Zohn frowned, “What do you have in
mind?”

Chevalier let Frederick down from the
shackles and the Encala looked over at him with wide
eyes.

“Kyle… put out the dagger,” Chevalier
whispered, and grasped Frederick’s shoulder.

Without a word, Kyle pulled the Chief
Enforcer’s dagger from his pocket and held it out.

“Touch it,” Chevalier
growled.

Zohn gasped and Frederick jerked away
from it, “No.”

“Chevalier…” Zohn
whispered.

“Do it,” Chevalier ordered.

“Chevalier… it’s not
right.”

“I said touch it!”

Frederick looked down at the dagger
and shook his head, “No, I won’t do it.”

Quinn appeared in the room and stood
to the side of Frederick, “Chevalier, we must hold with
tradition.”

“Touch it,” he said again
through clenched teeth.

Kyle took a step forward
and Frederick pressed hard against the rock wall behind him, “The
Elder said to touch it.”

Zohn put his hands out, “Please,
Elder… we can’t force him to touch the Equites dagger.”

Dain frowned slightly,
“Why?”

“It causes an eternity of
pain, hunger, and torment,” Zohn explained. “It’s never been forced
on anyone because once it’s done, it cannot be undone.”

With speed known only to
an ‘old one,’ Chevalier took the dagger from Kyle and plunged it
into Frederick’s chest, sinking it deep within his heart. When he
stepped back, it was the first the heku had even seen him
move.

Kyle tore his dagger from
Frederick’s chest as the Encala screamed inhumanly and fell to his
knees. The strong burning scent filled the interrogation room and
Zohn and Quinn moved back against the wall. Four minutes later,
Frederick’s screams stopped as he fell to a pile of ash at the feet
of Chevalier.

“That’s…” Quinn started, but couldn’t
speak of it.

“No one must know,” Zohn
whispered.

Dain snarled, “So he’ll
never be out of the pain?”

“Never,” Kyle said, wiping the dagger
off on Frederick’s shirt.

Chevalier looked down at him, “It’s
still only a fraction of the pain he caused.”

“We have to bury him immediately,”
Zohn said, and started forward.

“No,” Chevalier growled.
“He deserves the punishment Emily preferred…”

“You’re going to scatter
him?”

Chevalier nodded and reached down to
grab a handful of ashes.

“He’s already in eternal
pain,” Quinn said. “What more can you do?”

“We’ll just have to see,”
Chevalier told him, and headed up the stairs. He stepped out into
the silent night and threw the Encala’s ashes into the strong
breeze. When he turned around, Kyle handed him a small leather bag
with the rest of Frederick’s ashes.

Chevalier took the bag and
tucked it into his pocket. When they went back into the palace,
Alexis was at the foot of the long staircase and looked up at them.
She avoided looking at her Dad, but turned suddenly and went back
up the stairs.

He watched her go and felt the
familiar ache.

“She’ll be ok,” Zohn said
softly. “It’s just going to take some time.”

“Would you like me to go and talk to
her?” Quinn asked.

“No,” Chevalier told him,
and started up the stairs. “I’m ready to give a full report to the
Council.”

Dain blurred up the stairs
after Alexis as the heku went into the Council Chambers. The room
was dark and empty, but the Elders took their places, and waited as
the Cavalry joined them down in the trial area.

Zohn sighed before speaking, “Very
well… are there any Encala left?”

Chevalier smiled slightly, “By last
count there are less than 40, and that includes those in our
prison.”

“Did we lose any?”

“No”

***

“You can’t be down here,” the prison
guard said to Alexis when she walked down the stairs.

“You let Mom down here.”

“You’re not Emily.”

“Fine… if you want to face
my Dad, go tattle-tale,” she said, and walked past the guards and
down to the last row of cells. The guards quickly spoke and decided
they weren’t ready to address Chevalier with anything.

When Alexis found the cell with
William in it, she sat down across from him and leaned back against
the wall.

William looked up at her and his eyes
were full of pain.

“Mom wouldn’t want you in here,”
Alexis said.

“I know.”

“They killed Frederick.”

“I heard.”

“Did you know what he was
doing?”

William sighed and shook his head,
“No, or we would have stopped it.”

“She considered you a
friend.”

He sunk his head into his hands, “She
was mine also.”

Alexis watched the Encala Elder for a
few moments, studying how the anguish in his face expressed the
pain he felt at the loss of Emily.

“If you leave here, what will you
do?”

“They’ll never let me out,” William
whispered.

“Still… if they do…”

“I would try to rebuild the
Encala.”

“From what I’ve heard, there’s nothing
left of your faction.”

“It would be my duty to
rebuild.”

“Are you afraid of what will happen to
the heku with only two factions?” Alexis asked him.

“Yes, I am.”

“What can I do to help
you?”

William looked up at her,
“Nothing, Child. You need to forget me down here.”

“Why? Mom wouldn’t.”

“Your Mom was…”

“Stronger, I know.”

“No… she knew the heku better, knew
how to work the Council to get what she wanted.”

“I feel like I need to stand up for
what my Mom would have wanted and let you free.”

“When Chevalier is done
with the other Encala Council… I fully expect to die.”

“But you didn’t kill Mom.”

“He doesn’t care. He will
kill anyone who might be involved, no matter how
remotely.”

“I could go to the Valle and ask for
help,” Alexis suggested.

William smiled, “You’re more like
Emily than you admit to.”

“No I’m not, or I would already be on
my way to the Valle.”

“Alexis?” Chevalier said
from down the hallway. She stood up and turned suddenly toward him
as William stood and watched Chevalier.

“You’re not going to hurt him,” Alexis
yelled.

“This is none of your concern… get
back upstairs,” Chevalier growled, then tightened his hands into
fists.

“No!” Alexis said. “Mom
wouldn’t want William dead and I’m the only one that can stand up
for what she wanted.”

“You don’t know anything!”
Chevalier yelled. “It’s his faction that killed her and they will
all pay for that.”

“He didn’t do it.”

“Alexis… I’m not going to tell you
again, get upstairs.”

“I hate you,” Alexis
whispered harshly.

“I know.”

“Hurt William, and I’m
joining the Valle.”

“Alexis, don’t do this,”
William whispered. “Don’t put yourself in danger for
me.”

“Don’t speak to her!” Chevalier
roared.

Alexis moved a step closer to the
Encala Elder’s cell, “Come near him and you’ll have me to deal
with.”

Silas appeared in the hallway and
moved up to Alexis, “Come on, Lexi… let’s go.”

“Back off, Silas,” Alexis said to him,
and pushed him away from her.

Silas thought for only a
second before grabbing Alexis and blurring her up the stairs. He
was glad she had to catch the eye of a heku to turn them to ash,
had she been Emily, he would already be.

“Put me down!” Alexis
screamed. Silas gently set her down in her bedroom and blocked the
door.

“You need to let your Dad handle
this.”

“You mean I need to let my dad turn
into a tyrant and slaughter innocent heku all because he couldn’t
protect my Mom?”

Silas growled slightly, “Don’t say
that.”

“It’s true! If he had done as he
promised, and protected her, she’d be here right now to defend
William herself.”

“He did all he could.”

“Get out of my room,” she
snapped at him, and turned to look out the window. Silas nodded and
left, but stood outside of her door with three other members of the
Cavalry.

“Mom…” Alexis whispered,
and leaned her head against the cold window. “I can’t do this
alone… You can’t leave me here.”

She finally cried herself
to sleep late into the night. After a lot of talking from Quinn,
Chevalier decided to hold off killing William for the time being,
but instead finished killing the rest of the Encala Council and any
prisoner associated with the Encala faction.

By the following morning,
the palace was once again full and the Equites Council was gathered
in the council chambers. Chevalier and Kyle were the only ones
absent, but the screams coming from the prison let the Council know
to leave them be. As an ‘old one,’ Chevalier could easily win a
fight against any of them and no one wanted to risk getting on his
bad side.

Quinn and Zohn filled the
Council in on the talk they’d had with Alexis, and some of their
thoughts on keeping her and Dain safe. The Encala weren’t brought
up as a threat any longer. The few left were so deeply in hiding
they suspected they would either never be found, or would
eventually give in and join the Valle.

Derrick stepped into the trial area
and addressed the two Elders, “There’s a Valle representative here
to speak to the Council.”

“Very well…” Zohn started,
but turned quickly when the back door opened. Chevalier came into
the room covered in blood with anger in his eyes.

“Let them in,” Chevalier ordered, and
sat down in his chair.

“You sure you want to be here for
this?” Quinn asked.

“Yes, I do.”

The room fell silent as
they waited for the Valle to appear. Derrick brought in four
Imperial Guards and the Valle’s Faction Liaison Officer. The
enemies stood before the Council and avoided looking directly at
Chevalier.

“Why have you come?” Zohn asked
them.

“We came to ask that the
rest of the Encala be released and allowed to rebuild,” the Valle
said.

“No,” Chevalier told him,
and then looked at Derrick. “Show them out.”

“Wait!” he shouted. “You
have to hear us out.”

“No I don’t.”

“Please… you’ve hurt them
enough it will take centuries for them to reestablish. We need to
let them be so we can resume our everyday lives.”

“No”

“There can’t be two
factions.”

“There is right now,” Chevalier
reminded him.

“You’ve avenged Emily,” he
whispered.

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “No I
haven’t… after an eternity of vengeance, I’ll only have scratched
the surface of making them pay.”

“She was our friend too,
and she wouldn’t have wanted this.”

He glared at them.

“We realize that you were
affected also,” Zohn said. “However, we’ve never before denied
vengeance to one of our own.”