Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (55 page)

“I swear to you… I didn’t take her
there.”

“Didn’t take who where?”
Chevalier asked as he and Quinn entered the council
chambers.

“Lady Emily, I would never take her into the
ceremonial room!”

“I would hope not,”
Chevalier said as he raised his eyebrows. “What exactly did we
miss?”

“He was found as a pile of
ash just before the stone door into the ceremonial room,” Kyle
explained again. “Kralen and Silas found him after Emily ran from
the hallway.”

“What were you hoping to
accomplish?” Chevalier asked the servant angrily.

“I didn’t take her down there!”

“He’s not lying,” the Chief Interrogator
told them.

“Derrick, bring in Lady Emily,” Quinn called
out.

A few minutes later,
Derrick came in, “She’s in her office but won’t talk… I can hear
her breathing, but she won’t answer.”

Chevalier sighed and
walked out to her office. He knocked, “Em, can you come to the
door?”

Slowly, the door opened and she peeked
out.

“Before we banish a
servant… were you taken to the ceremonial room, or did you go there
on your own?”

She looked at the ground, “I went
there.”

“You’re not lying to me to protect him?”

She shook her head.

“Why would you go there?”

Emily shrugged.

“Come tell the Council,
please.”

“No,” she whispered.

“You’re not in trouble for
going there. We just want to make sure you weren’t
taken.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Then why did you turn him to ash?”

“He scared me.”

Chevalier watched her, and
then shook his head, “Ok… the Cavalry is waiting for you
though.”

“Ok,” she said, and
watched him.

He watched her for a
second, and then returned to the council chambers and sat down,
“She says she walked there by herself and he scared her… Let him
go.”

Kralen and Silas nodded
and let the servant go. He bowed slightly and made a hasty
exit.

“She’s heading out to the
Cavalry training. See if she’ll talk to you,” Chevalier
said.

They both bowed slightly and
disappeared.

“Why would she go in there? She’s terrified
of that room,” Zohn said.

“I don’t know. I’m
guessing she won’t tell anyone.”

Emily finally went out to
the stables and threw a saddle and bridle on her stallion, then
hoisted up onto him, and walked him out to where the Cavalry was
going over how to tackle a heku from horseback. She rode up and
stopped beside Kralen and Silas.

“Welcome back,” Silas
said, and smiled.

“Thanks”

Emily turned and looked at
the trees to their back when she felt eyes on her. She scanned the
forest carefully and then turned back around, noticing both Silas
and Kralen were also looking toward the trees, but turned around
when she did.

“Got it,” Emily said as a
horse took off running in a panic when the heku rider dove off. She
kicked her stallion into a gallop and leaned forward with the lasso
in her hand. She was out beyond the trees when she got control of
the frantic mare, then spun suddenly in the saddle and looked
around. She could no longer see the Cavalry and was completely
surrounded by trees.

She could feel the hair on
the back of her neck stand up as she heard the wind blowing through
the tree leaves, sending a soft whisper down through the forest.
Emily kicked her horse again into a gallop and tore through the
trees, emerging onto the green lawn quickly. She took a deep breath
and walked the mare back to its rider before returning to Kralen
and Silas.

“You ok?” Silas asked, frowning. He could
hear her heart pounding rapidly in her chest.

She nodded, and then
turned to look at the trees behind her again. She couldn’t shake
the feeling that she was being watched. Out of the corner of her
eye she saw a shadow dart behind the corner of the palace. She
gasped, and crawled down off her horse and put her back to the
wall, inching along it toward the corner.

Emily wasn’t aware she was
being watched by the entire Cavalry as she crouched low to the
ground when she reached the corner, and carefully peeked around the
brick building, keeping as low as she could.

“What’s wrong?” Silas asked from directly
behind her.

Emily screamed briefly and
stood up to face him. When she saw who it was, she calmed some,
“Nothing.”

“Then why so jumpy?”

“I’m not.”

Silas stepped to the
corner and looked across the lawn carefully, but didn’t see
anything out of the ordinary. When he turned back, Emily was
already mounting her stallion and Mark had called the Cavalry back
to training.

He shrugged and remounted
his horse and began watching the new recruits.

Emily turned suddenly and
looked behind her toward the trees again. This time she was certain
someone was watching her. She strained to see who it was, but saw
nothing but the forest.

“Would you stop that? You’re making me feel
like I need to go kill something,” Kralen said to her. When she
didn’t turn around, Mark noticed.

“Em?”

Mark, Silas, and Kralen
watched her scan the trees. She was breathing shallowly.

“Emily!” Mark said,
louder.

She jumped and turned around to face him,
“What?”

“What are you looking for?” Mark asked.

“Nothing”

He sighed, “If you were in trouble, you’d
tell us, right?”

“Probably”

“Gah, I hate that word… yes or no?”

“Probably,” she said again.

“Are you?”

“No”

“Training’s almost over, let’s go get some
pizza,” Silas suggested.

“Great idea,” Mark said,
and called for the new recruits to get their horses put
away.

Emily tried to calm her voice, “No
thanks.”

“Steak?”

“No, really, I just want to stay in
tonight.”

“Dancing?”

“Really…”

“Something’s wrong,” Mark
said, and narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like it.”

“I’m fine,” she said, and
slid off of her horse and headed him into the stables.

When his horse was put
away, Silas turned to talk to Emily, and saw her standing at the
stable door with Mark and Kralen off in the shadows watching her.
She leaned forward and looked around the area, and then took off
running for the palace entrance.

Mark growled, “She’s not telling us
something.”

“Agreed, maybe we should
keep her guards at Commander and above for now,” Kralen
suggested.

Mark nodded, “Good, you
two get Jaron, and I’ll meet you up at her door.”

Silas and Kralen
disappeared and came back with Jaron. They all headed inside and
were quickly told she was in her office. They met Mark at her
office door and they all turned to stand guard.

The Elders, on their way
to their own offices, saw Emily’s guards and walked over to her
door.

“Quite the high-ranks
tonight. Is there a problem?” Chevalier asked.

Mark shrugged, “We don’t
know. She won’t tell us.”

“Sounds familiar.”

“Something’s up though,”
Silas explained. “She’s jumpy, she keeps checking around corners,
and scanning areas around her.”

Chevalier frowned, “She won’t say why?”

“Nope”

Emily opened the door at that moment and
screamed, then put her hand on her chest, “Don’t do that!”

“Do what? We’re just standing here,” Zohn
told her.

“Jumpy tonight?” Quinn asked.

“No,” she replied, and
went to shut her office door.

“Wait, Em… come to my
office for a sec,” Chevalier told her, and put his hand
out.

Emily nodded and took his
hand. The others waited by her door as they walked to his office
and went inside, shutting the door. Chevalier sat down in his large
leather chair and motioned for her to sit in a chair beside him.
She stepped past the chair and sat on his lap, facing
him.

He took her face in his hands, “Tell me
what’s going on.”

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to
his as her hands started to unbutton his shirt.

***

Chevalier chuckled, “That’s not why I asked
you in here.”

Emily pulled his cape over her and leaned
back against him, “I know.”

“You’re stalling… not that
I really mind.”

“My house…”

“Yes?”

“It’s outside of Savannah, Georgia. A
plantation called Four-Winds.”

He sighed, “Why are you telling me?”

“I thought you wanted to know.”

“I do… but didn’t think you’d tell me.”

“Just don’t fill it full of guards.”

He moved her hair off of her neck and ran
his lips along it softly. She shivered and grinned.

“I won’t fill it full of
guards… Did something happen there?” he asked her, and wrapped his
arms around her.

“Not really.”

“Not really?”

“Have you ever been in a
ceremonial room where the runes were painted on the ceiling instead
of etched into the rock?” She turned to face him.

Chevalier frowned, “No… have you?”

“No,” she said, and leaned
back against him again.

“Why do you ask then?”

She shrugged and ran her nails along the
muscles in his forearms.

“Tell me,” he whispered into her ear.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“You’ll think I’m crazy,”
she said, and got up to get dressed.

“I already do.”

Emily turned around and
smiled, “More so.”

Chevalier got up and began
to get dressed, “Until you calm down, you have the highest ranking
in the Cavalry watching you.”

“I’m calm,” she said, and
waited for him to get dressed before opening the door.

“No, you’re not,” he said,
and followed her out.

“The Elders need you in
the council chambers,” Mark told him.

Chevalier nodded and blurred away.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked. There was an
air of tension in the palace.

“Not sure,” he
lied.

Four strange guards came up to them, “We’re
here, General.”

“Em we’re letting them
take over for a bit… please don’t slip them,” Mark said as they
headed off.

Emily glanced at the four
city guards and shrugged before heading down to the council
chambers.

“We can’t go in there,
Ma’am,” the Lieutenant said.

“You don’t have to. I’ll
be right out,” she said, and stepped into the ante-chamber. She
started to open the door to the council chambers, but stopped when
she heard Quinn.

“What the hell were they thinking?!”

“I don’t know, but the repercussions for
wiping out that entire city are astronomical,” Chevalier said
angrily.

“Did the Encala’s Council get away?” Zohn
asked.

A strange voice answered, “I don’t know,
Sir.”

“The entire city?”

“Mostly, they burned a lot
of the houses and the heku that survived fled.”

Emily frowned and her heart sank.

“Get them on the phone. I
want answers,” Quinn growled.

Emily glanced back at the
door her guards were at, and used the other door out the side, then
took the steps down two-at-a-time and crawled into her Aero. Before
she floored it, a strange guard jumped into the passenger seat, and
she took off as he buckled in awkwardly, unable to sit up straight
in the short car.

“Who are you?” she asked, flying past the
gate guards.

“Liam, Ma’am. I’m one of the palace
guards.”

“And why the hell did you get into my
car?”

“I’m not really sure… but
you aren’t supposed to be out alone, and I was the
closest.”

Emily sighed and slowly
took the Aero up to 6
^th
gear once she hit the
Interstate.

“Where are we going?” Liam asked.

“West”

At top speeds, she was at
the Encala Palace turnoff in just under 8 hours. She ignored her
cell phone, and when Liam tried to make a call, she took his and
tossed it out the window. Since then, he’d sat quietly in his seat
and watched.

As they passed into Encala
City, Emily frowned when there were no gate guards.

Liam gasped, “We’re in Encala City?”

“Yes”

“I can’t be here!” he yelled.

“Then you shouldn’t have
gotten into my car,” she told him. Emily gasped and watched sadly
as they passed the burnt out ruins of houses, and the lifeless city
passing them by as she headed for the palace.

She parked in front of the
palace and got out. There were no guards at the front doors, and
the double-doors stood slightly ajar.

“I can’t be here,” Liam said again.

“Shut up, Liam.”

Emily opened the doors and
her heart sunk. There were dead heku all over the main foyer, torn
to pieces as blood covered every surface. She took the stairs up
quickly, ignoring Liam behind her, and opened the door to the
council chambers.

“William?” she called out,
but no one answered. She slowly took the stairs up to the Council’s
chairs, afraid of what she might find, but the platform was
empty.