Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (5 page)

Sotomar sighed, “So here’s the deal. We’re
going to only feed Dain when you eat, so if you decide to starve
yourself, you are also starving your son.”

Emily looked over at him and glared.

“I want you to know, also,
that we will not allow Exavior to punish you. That’s a
promise.”

Sotomar waited for Emily
to respond, and when she didn’t, he stood up and looked around the
room, “I’ll have another tray brought up. Dain should be hungry
soon, so I suggest you eat.”

Emily watched him leave
and then turned back to the ceiling. When a tray of food was
brought up, she waited until the servant left before crawling up
from the floor to eat. Her mind was busy with thoughts of how to
escape, but any option she had would leave the baby alone with the
Valle, alone with Exavior.

“She ate some,” the
Imperial Guard told the Valle Council.

“Some?” Sotomar asked.

“Yes, some.”

Ryan sighed, “Very well, let her be at that
for now. We need to decide on an Encala target.”

“It’ll be harder. They
aren’t going to let her walk in,” Exavior said, studying a book of
known Encala covens.

“How close does she need to be?” the Chief
Enforcer asked.

“Not very. She was able to
ash our entire city from inside of this room,” Sotomar
explained.

“Call Rasmussen, we will
do it tonight. I suggest the Encala’s District Coven. It’s not far
away, but has over 400 heku,” Exavior said, still studying the
book.

“Maybe we should wait a week or so, make
sure she’s feeling ok,” Sotomar said.

“Don’t coddle her,”
Exavior growled. “She’s to do as we ask and without
question.”

Sotomar nodded, “I guess you’re right.”

***

Emily squeezed her eyes
shut. Her headache was much worse and the light from outside was
shining into her eyes. Someone moved in the room and shut the heavy
curtains, dropping them back into darkness.

“How are you?” Sotomar asked.

Emily finally opened her eyes, “Stop making
me do that, please.”

“You didn’t answer me. How
are you?”

“Like you care.”

“I do though. We don’t
want to put you through unnecessary pain, and it seems to me as if
your head hurts.”

“Go away,” she said, and
rolled onto her side away from him.

Emily heard Sotomar leave
her room. She glanced around quickly to make sure she was alone,
and then crawled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. She ran
a hot shower and got in, fighting to get the image of the screaming
Encala out of her mind.

Sotomar returned to the
Council, “She is not well.”

“She’ll survive. Do we hit
the Equites Thukil Coven next?” Exavior asked.

“No, did you hear me? This
is wearing on her. We need to back off.”

“She is faking to get her
way. We need to keep with the assault until the other factions
realize that we are in control.”

“I disagree,” Sotomar
said. “If this is wearing on her body, then we need to give her a
break.”

“Let’s get the Encala out
of the way and we’ll continue,” the Chief Enforcer said. “Bring
them in.”

The Valle Council sat back while Encala
Elder William and four guards came into the trial room.

“Why have you asked to see us?” Exavior
asked.

“Why the hell do you
think? Why did you use Emily to attack an Encala coven?” William
asked angrily.

“It is within our power, then why not?” Ryan
asked.

“First you revive Exavior,
and then you attack us? Consider our alliance null and
void.”

“Strong words for someone who should fear
us.”

“I’m not afraid of you.
I’m afraid for you… you may think you’re in control, but soon,
Emily will be out of your hands and we will retaliate for
this.”

Exavior smiled, “I doubt that.”

“When we helped you get
Emily, it was understood that we both stood against the Equites…
Now we see that the Valle cannot be trusted.”

“You should have always
known that. Just because we were forced into an alliance, doesn’t
mean we agreed to stand by it forever… I’m done with you,” Exavior
said, and grabbed a book from the table.

William’s eyes narrowed,
and then he turned and stormed out.

“Send her to Thukil,” Exavior said, turning
to Sotomar.

“No, if we have to send
her out, then pick something smaller. She’s tired and
sick.”

“Fine… have her take out
the Avent Coven then. It’s only 300 or so.”

Sotomar nodded, “Rasmussen, do it.”

“How are you, Dear?”
Sotomar asked. He walked into the bathroom where Emily was sitting
beside the toilet, then glanced over her quickly. She was pale and
drawn, and her hands shook.

“Go away,” she whispered,
and pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes.

“I’m trying to convince
the Council to stop sending you out. To do this, I need to know the
toll it’s taking on your body,” Sotomar explained. “Twelve covens
in 7 days may be too many for you.”

“You have your weapon. Now
go away while I suffer in peace,” she whispered.

Sotomar knelt down beside
her, “I’m on your side. I want the attacks to stop, but the Council
doubts that you are really ill.”

“If you’re on my side,
Damon, then let us go.”

Sotomar frowned, “That, I
cannot do. We can’t risk putting you back into the hands of the
Equites.”

“Then, as I said, you get
your ashing. All I ask is that you let me endure the aftermath
alone.”

Sotomar stood up and
sighed before leaving. He blurred into the council chambers, “She’s
very ill, we need to stop. She doesn’t know where she is or who we
are.”

“Why stop now? The other
factions are running scared,” the Chief Investigator said
proudly.

“We stop because she’s ill.”

“I agree with Exavior.
She’s looking for sympathy… There’s nothing wrong with her, and I
fully plan on sending her out to Potomac Coven this
evening.”

“That young child is
suffering. We need to stop.”

“I say keep going,”
Exavior told them, and turned to Ryan. “Your vote?”

Ryan sighed and nodded,
“Hit Potomac tonight. See what happens.”

Four hours later, Emily
stumbled into the Potomac Coven, home to 377 Encala. She braced
against the wall, too weak to stand on her own. One heku stood
behind her, and ordered her to move further into the coven. She
moved without question, and without thought, until she stood in the
center of the compound.

“Turn them all to ash,” the heku
whispered.

Emily nodded and turned to
the heku as they ran away from her. She saw a swarm of red caped
heku blur toward her as she began the assault. Soft hands gripped
her as a cloth was held over her nose. Blackness engulfed her and
she welcomed it.

***

“Emily?” William asked
softly, and then touched her forehead. She was still running a high
fever, “Shouldn’t she be awake?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen this,” the
Encala doctor said, watching her. He took her blood pressure and
checked her eyes again, “Unless we call the Equites, we’ll have to
guess. Right now my instinct is to wait and see if her eyes clear
up.”

“We can’t call the
Equites. They don’t know we have her,” Encala Elder Aaron
explained.

The doctor nodded, “You said she’s taken out
how many of our covens in the past week?”

“Six, entirely wiped out.
So if we factor in the same numbers for the Equites… then she’s
turned no less than 3,000 heku to ash this week alone… that’s if
the Equites suffered the same losses we have,” William
said.

“If we notify the Equites
and return her,” Elder Reese said, deep in thought, “We could
realign ourselves with them and combine our efforts to pay the
Valle back.”

“I’m not ready to side
ourselves with the Equites just yet. Think how powerful we can be
with the Winchester under our command,” William said. “However, we
don’t know why she didn’t turn the Valle to ash, so we also run the
risk of her wiping out our city.”

“There is a way to make us
immune to her abilities. I just don’t know what it is,” Aaron told
them.

“Let’s watch her until she
wakes up and see how it goes,” William suggested. “Make sure she
doesn’t leave her room without guards, and have her checked on
every 15 minutes. I want to know if she wakes up.”

“Yes, Elder,” one of the
guards said, and headed off to give orders.

The Encala watched over Emily for five days
before she finally began to wake up. The Elders were summoned early
in the morning to her bedside when the guards heard her stir.

“Emily?” William asked, sitting down on the
bed beside her.

Emily frowned, her eyes were still shut,
“William?”

He smiled, “Yes, you’re with the Encala
now.”

“Did Keith join the Encala?” she asked, her
words slurred.

“I don’t know a Keith,
Dear,” William said, and glanced at the doctor. “Do you know where
you are?”

Emily looked up at him,
and he was shocked to see the whites of her eyes were still
blood-red, “Yes, I’m with the Ferus.”

“No, Child, you are with the Encala… how is
your head?”

She pressed her palms into her eyes, “I
can’t think.”

William nodded to the
doctor. He quickly gave her an injection of pain medication and she
settled back down in bed.

“Those monsters,” Reese
growled. “They used her like a mindless weapon and almost killed
her doing it.”

“Leave it to the Valle,”
William said angrily. “I still can’t believe they revived Exavior
after what he did.”

“They don’t care. They
will do whatever they can to get their way.”

“Well they won’t get
Emily. She’s ours now, and I plan on keeping her safe,” William
said, and took her hand.

“How do you plan on
keeping us safe though?” Frederick asked. The Chief Enforcer had
just walked into her room.

“I’m thinking on that. I
wonder what the Valle did.”

“Ask her,” Frederick
suggested. “While she’s drugged up.”

“Emily?” William said, and
touched her shoulder.

She opened her eyes slightly.

“Child… why did you not turn the Valle to
ash?”

“The Valle?” she whispered.

“Look at me,” William said. He was surprised
when he was able to immediately lock her eyes, “Why didn’t you turn
the Valle to ash?”

Emily could hear him, his
voice was far off, but soft and flowing, “They have
Dain.”

William frowned, “Did you see him?”

“No”

“Sleep, Child…” he said,
and turned back to the other Elders when she fell asleep. “Do you
think they still have the baby?”

“It seems strange that the
Equites didn’t tell us the baby was missing also,” Aaron said.
“They yelled at us for the Valle having Emily, but said nothing
about the baby.”

“So… maybe they lied to keep her from
turning them to ash?”

“Perhaps”

“Do we stoop to that level?” Reese
asked.

“What are our other
options?” William asked, looking at the Council gathered in Emily’s
room.

“None that I can see. We
can’t risk her turning the city to ash again.”

William nodded and turned
back to her, “Let her sleep for now. Maybe when she wakes up,
she’ll be more alert.”

***

“It’s disconcerting,” Kyle
said. “Over the first 7 days she was missing, there were 7 attacks,
one a day… now nothing?”

“The Valle aren’t
answering, and I’m not picking anything up from Emily at all,”
Chevalier said, his eyes furious.

“Seven attacks in 7 days…
if they attacked the Encala also, then the number could be a lot
higher,” Quinn said. “Maybe they overdid it and she’s
asleep?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“At the very least, let’s
send the baby to the Valle also,” Zohn said, irritated.

Quinn glared at him, “He’s a baby and he
misses his mother.”

“So send him over!”

“No… we cannot send a heku baby to the
Valle.”

Chevalier sighed, “I’ve
tried to get him to stop screaming. He won’t do it.”

“Then take him to the island, let them
listen to it for a while.”

“Stop it, Zohn! You aren’t
helping things,” Quinn hissed.

“I can’t concentrate. It
hasn’t been quiet for two weeks.”

“Deal with it. He’s a
baby.”

“Dad?” Allen asked when he
opened the door behind the Council.

Chevalier turned and sighed, “Let me have
him.”

Allen hurried up the stairs and handed Dain
over to Chevalier. The baby looked into his Dad’s eyes and started
crying again. Kyle blurred away and returned with a bottle. The
entire palace fell silent when the 8-month-old began to eat.

“Just keep a bottle in his mouth,” Zohn
growled.

***