Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (11 page)

“So he did.”

“I’m not telling you.”

Silas grinned, “What if I
promise not to tell the Elder?”

“Then I wouldn’t believe
you,” she said, and smiled slightly.

“Gee, thanks.”

“Heku rules… you have to tell him, don’t
think I don’t know that.”

“I didn’t tell him about Truth or Dare.”

Emily grinned, “Because he never asked
you.”

Silas nodded, “Yeah, that’s true.”

“Coming up on the island,”
Kralen said over the speaker after a few hours.

Emily looked out as the castle came into
view. She picked Dain up off of the floor and he immediately
started to chew on her finger.

“I thought the Elder told you not to let him
do that,” Silas said, watching him.

“Chev can’t tell me what
to do,” Emily told him, and grabbed Dain’s bag.

“Oh yeah,” Silas chuckled.
“Not sure I’ll ever get used to that.”

***

“Ew!” Emily yelled, and
pulled a worm off of her shoulder. “Behave.”

Kralen chuckled, “Was just seeing if you
were afraid of worms too.”

“I’m not afraid of mice, geesh.”

“Sure you aren’t,” Silas
said, and moved over to the next row.

“Are you sure you’re not
pulling the vegetables?” she asked, looking over at
them.

“I’m pretty sure… well…
actually no,” he said, and grinned.

“I don’t recall weeding a
garden to be part of the guard or Cavalry training,” Kralen said,
tossing another weed into the pile.

“I told you that you don’t
have to be out here,” she reminded him.

“Yes, well, I can only imagine how much
trouble you could get into out here by yourself.”

“Oh yes, I might kill myself on a
dandelion.”

“When’s the Elder coming?” Silas asked,
glancing toward the city.

“Tomorrow,” Emily said,
and then looked over at Ford. He was suddenly holding very still
and looking toward the city. She turned to look too, but didn’t see
anything.

“Em, take Dain… get in the
barn,” Kralen said, and she noticed he was also watching the
city.

“What’s wrong?” she asked,
standing up and grabbing Dain. She again looked toward the city,
but didn’t see anything.

“Just get in the barn,”
Silas said, and Emily shrugged and started for the barn. She turned
suddenly when she heard the sound of hooves against cobblestone.
She froze and looked toward the city.

“Go!” Kralen yelled, and
Emily took off running for the barn. A dozen horses were stampeding
through the town, headed straight for them. Her feet left the
ground as Silas grabbed her and blurred her into the barn, just as
the horses flew past them.

“What the hell!” Emily
yelled, and handed Dain off to Anna, who was waiting in the barn
for them. She quickly bridled her stallion and grabbed a lasso off
of the wall.

“Em, no,” Silas said as
she took off after the horses. He bridled his mare and took the
other lasso, and followed them out while Ford took off after
Emily.

Ford headed instinctively
to the front of the stampeded and started trying to head them back
toward Emily. She easily caught up to the first horse and lassoed
him quickly, then wrapped the rope around her arm and slowed him to
a walk. She led him back to the corral and turned to see where Ford
was. She saw him off to the right and rode after him, re-setting
the lasso.

Silas on horseback, and
Kralen on foot, were on the opposite end of the field, rounding up
the few horses that headed away from the others. Two hours later,
Emily led the last horse into the corral and Kralen shut the
gate.

She leaned her head
against the neck of her stallion, panting to catch her breath,
“What the hell was that?”

Kralen grinned slightly,
“The pier guards said the ferry arrived with a dozen horses on it.
They thought they could just lead them up here, but the horses
panicked and took off through the island.”

“Who puts horses on a ferry?” Emily asked,
looking over at them.

“And what kind of horse
runs like that?” Silas asked. “That was weird.”

“They’re Tennessee Walking
Horses… they have a unique walk that’s born into them. You can’t
teach it,” she explained.

“So back to your question…
who puts horses on a ferry?” Kralen growled, remembering how close
Emily came to getting trampled.

“The pier guards want us to come over,”
Silas told her.

Emily put a hand down for
Kralen, and he jumped onto the stallion behind her. She kicked the
horse into a canter and headed for the pier. They all slid off of
the horses and tied them to a post, and then walked onto the
pier.

“Ma’am,” one of the pier
guards said. “There’s a package on the ferry for you.”

Emily frowned and walked onto the ferry
toward a box wrapped in pink paper that was sitting off to the side
of the bridge.

“Wait, Em,” Kralen said,
and blurred to it. He picked it up and looked it over and then
shrugged, “Has your name on it, but no sender.”

Emily took the package and
opened it. She pulled out a maroon, diamond and ruby encrusted
bridle and a note, “Dearest Emily, Please accept this small gift as
a token of our enduring friendship. From, the Encala
Council.”

“What!?” Silas growled.

Emily sighed, “Great… what
am I going to do with 12 more horses?”

“Nice that they almost
killed you with a gift,” Kralen said angrily.

Emily glanced around, “Have you seen
Ford?”

“Last I saw him, he was
rounding up the last few horses,” Silas said, and glanced around.
Ford was always at Emily’s heels when she was on
horseback.

“I’ll go find him,” Kralen
said. “I want to get as many of those horses as we can into the
barn, there’s a storm coming.”

Emily looked over as Silas
spoke to the Captain of the ferry. She walked over to
listen.

“They were mortals, said
there was a horse delivery to the island,” the Captain explained.
“I don’t ask. I just run the boat.”

Silas sighed, “No name?”

“No, Sir”

Silas turned to Emily, “We’ll fill the Elder
in later, let’s go get the horses put up.”

Emily nodded, and soon
they were both back on horses heading toward the barn. She looked
over and saw Silas grinning.

“What?”

“Just seems like a divorced couple, fighting
for the love of a child.”

“What does?”

“The Encala and the Valle… one buys you a
helicopter so the other buys you horses,” Silas chuckled.

Emily sighed, “I need to put a stop to it
before someone gets hurt.”

“Or something…” Silas
said, and glanced off into the distance.

Emily followed his gaze and saw Kralen
carrying Ford in his arms. Emily gasped and kicked her horse into a
gallop, heading for them. Before the horse even completely stopped,
Emily jumped off and ran to Kralen.

“What happened?” she asked, looking over the
limp dog.

“I’m guessing he was
kicked by a horse,” Kralen said. His shirt was covered in
blood.

“We need to get him to the vet,” Emily told
him, her eyes filling with tears.

Kralen glanced at Silas and the heku touched
her arm, “Em, it’s too late.”

She rested her hand
against the Border collie’s chest and waited for it to rise, but it
didn’t. Emily took the dog from Kralen and started off across the
field.

“Leave me alone,” she
whispered when she realized the heku were following her. Both
Kralen and Silas backed off to the barn and let her be.

“We should notify the
Elder,” Silas said, turning back toward the barn.

“Let’s finish up in here
and see if she comes back,” Kralen said. “We only have four open
stalls though, that’s going to leave 8 of the horses out in the
snowstorm that’s coming.”

“Can we double any of them up?”

“I don’t think so… let’s get with Kyle,
he’ll know what to do.”

“Good idea,” Silas said,
and headed inside the house. They went into Kyle’s office and
called Kyle’s desk in Council City, but didn’t get an answer. Next,
they tried the Council.

“Equites Council,” Zohn said, sounding
irritated.

“It’s Kralen, we’re looking for Chevalier
and Kyle,” Kralen told them.

“We’re both here,”
Chevalier said. “What’s wrong?”

“A few things… first off,
the Encala sent 12 horses on the ferry, which caused a stampede
through town, and almost trampled Emily,” Kralen said. “We finally
rounded them up, but Ford got stepped on and didn’t make
it.”

A low growl sounded over the phone and Kyle
finally spoke, “How is she?”

“I don’t know. She told us
to leave her alone and she headed off carrying Ford,” Silas
explained.

“She’ll go after the Encala for that,” Kyle
said.

“What else, then?” Quinn asked after a few
moments of silence.

“There’s a freak snowstorm
coming, and the barn only had room for 4 more horses. That leaves 8
of them out in the corral and it’s supposed to dip well below
freezing,” Kralen said. “We weren’t sure exactly what to do. We
don’t have time to come get the trailer.”

“How big are they?” Kyle asked.

“Em called them Tennessee Walking
Horses.”

“Big ones then… you’ll
have to see if she has coats around. That’s about all we can do,”
Kyle told them.

“Who the hell puts horses
on a Ferry?” Chevalier finally asked, irritated.

“The Encala. They sent her
a new bridle in a box with a card,” Silas said
hesitantly.

“When’s the storm supposed to hit?”

“I can already smell it, it’s right on
us.”

“So I won’t be able to make it before…
you’re going to have to take care of Emily. Kyle’s right, she’ll go
after the Encala for Ford.”

“We’ve already stopped the
ferry because of the storm. We’ll lock up the yacht, so there won’t
be any way off of the island,” Kralen said.

“We better get going and get those horses
covered,” Silas suggested.

“Keep in touch and have
Emily call me,” Chevalier said, and disconnected the
line.

Kralen and Silas headed
back out to the barn and started going through the storage room.
They finally found a dozen heavy horse blankets and were covering
the last of them when Emily came back to the barn.

“We moved the smaller ones
inside, and these eight we’ve covered,” Kralen said softly. He
looked out and saw the first flurry of snow.

Emily nodded and started
to shut up the barn. The heku helped her, and then they all headed
inside. She skipped dinner and went right to bed. From the bed, she
watched the late spring storm from the window and drifted off to
sleep.

She got up sometime after
dark and looked around the dark room. The fire was roaring and she
could hear the wind pounding against the castle. She quickly put on
jeans and a sweater, and tied her hair up. Fishing under the big
dresser, she found the sheet rope that she often used to get out of
the castle.

Emily quietly opened the
door to the balcony and was immediately pelted by stinging cold
wind and snow. She finally got the door shut behind her, and
started to tie the rope off to the balcony’s railing.

“Need help?” Kralen asked from the corner of
the balcony.

His voice startled her,
and she dropped the rope and turned around, “No… thank
you.”

Silas opened the balcony door and stepped
out, “Come on in, Em.”

Emily sighed and went back inside the room,
followed by Silas and Kralen.

“We’ve stopped the ferry and tied up the
yacht, there’s no way off the island right now,” Silas told
her.

She didn’t answer, but sat
down on a chair by the fire and watched the flames dance around the
stone fireplace. Silas went out to the balcony, and Kralen went
into the hallway and shut the door behind him.

Several hours later, Silas
came inside the room when he heard Emily call to him faintly.
Kralen heard also, and was coming in from the ante-chamber at the
same time. They both looked at each other when they saw the empty
room.

“Damnit, she didn’t come out the balcony,”
Silas said, looking in the bathroom.

“Well she didn’t come out
the front door either,” Kralen told him, and looked under the
bed.

“Kyle told me she has a
secret way of getting out of this room,” Silas said, and crossed
his arms. “So that means she slipped us.”

“She still can’t get off of the island.”

“No, but she can freeze to death
trying.”

Kralen growled and stormed out of the room.
Silas looked around one more time and left after him.

“Wait,” Silas said, and
frowned slightly, turning around.

Kralen came up to him, “What?”

Silas walked back into the room and looked
carefully at the floors and ceilings, “There’s no way out of here
other than the front door and the balcony.”

“Right,” Kralen said, “But I don’t see
her.”

Silas inhaled, “She’s still here.”

Kralen nodded, “Yeah… she is.”

“So she hides until the guards think she’s
missing and go looking for her… leaving her free to stroll out of
here.”