Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (124 page)

“
I don’t know, Sir. After
that she turned and walked off.”

“
Did you catch a
scent?”

“
We all did, it’s similar
to Lady Emily, but not exact.”

“
Very well, you may go,”
Quinn said. When the guards left, he turned to the others, “This is
insane. This Winchester already knows about Councils and had the
nerve to threaten us.”

“
Capture her then. If she
wants to threaten us, then I believe we have the right to see her
face-to-face,” Chevalier suggested.

“
I concur,” Zohn said, and
turned to Quinn.

Quinn nodded and gave orders to Mark that
any guard seeing the woman should bring her before the Council.

“
Have you given more
thought to our experiment?” Zohn asked Chevalier.

“
I have, and as much as I
don’t like it, I don’t see any harm in it, but we need Emily’s
permission. I won’t trick her into it.”

“
Derrick, ask Lady Emily in
please,” Zohn said. They waited while the heku retrieved Emily from
the Cavalry training.

She came in wiping dust off the back of her
pants, “What’d I do now?”

“
Where is Dain?” Chevalier
asked, noticing the silence in the palace.

“
Outside with Silas,” Emily
said. “Did you call me in here to ask where the baby
is?”

“
No, we have an idea,” Kyle
said. “Something you may find useful and may be curious
about.”

“
Ok… what?”

“
We want to run an
experiment to see if heku are more drawn to your scent than just to
feed,” Quinn said.

Emily frowned, “Do what?”

“
You might as well just
tell her,” Zohn said. “We want to see if your scent is a turn on to
heku.”

Emily blushed and her eyes grew wide,
“Excuse me?”

“
Zohn…” Chevalier
hissed.

“
Well, that is what this
experiment is about,” Zohn told them, and sat back in his
chair.

“
What exactly are you
proposing?” Emily asked, her blush deepening.

“
We want to put you into a
room with some more disciplined heku guards, and see if we see a
change in their behavior when you come into the room,” Quinn
explained.

“
And if they are… erm…
attracted to my scent, then what?”

“
Then we know… it’s curious
to us how heku will do anything to get near you, it’s not just to
feed. The heku last week knew he would get killed, but had the
sudden desire to touch you,” Zohn said.

Emily frowned, “I don’t know.”

“
We want to make sure it’s
not your looks that they are attracted to…” Zohn said, and shut up
when Chevalier growled.

Emily frowned and wrapped her arms around
herself and spun to leave.

“
Em?” Chevalier
sighed.

She turned back around.

“
Are you
bleeding?”

“
Probably”

“
You’re with 36 heku
guards, and 7 new recruits. What could you possibly be injured
doing?”

Emily turned around, irritated, and left
after saying “None of your business.”

Chevalier grinned, “After so many thousands
of years. I’ll never get used to being told no.”

“
Well I don’t like being
told no,” Zohn said. “You asked her a direct question, and she
should have answered.”

Chevalier went out to where Emily was
assigning horses to the new members of the Cavalry. He walked up to
Silas, who had sleeping Dain in his arms.

“
How’s it going?” Chevalier
asked.

“
Different,” Silas
answered, smiling.

“
How so?”

“
These guards are from
Powan. They aren’t falling for Emily’s charm, and she’s getting
frustrated that they won’t break procedure.”

Chevalier grinned, “Nice.”

***

“
Hey,” the guard said,
approaching the Winchester slowly. It was just after 2am and she
was out walking through a dark park. She turned to him and put her
hand up for him to stop.

“
Get back,” she
whispered.

“
You threatened my
Council,” another guard said, taking a step forward. “We don’t take
kindly to that.”

“
You’ll burn if you don’t
stop,” she whispered.

The first guard stopped, “We don’t want to
hurt you. Just talk to us for a minute.”

She lowered her hand and the heku tried to
see her face under the black hood of her cape.

“
Are you a Winchester?” he
asked.

“
Tell your beloved Council
that revenge is a dish, best served cold,” she whispered and took a
step back.

“
Meaning?” he
asked.

“
They deserve no
explanation,” she hissed, and turned to walk away.

“
Stop,” the third guard
said, blurring to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, “You need to
come with us.”

The three fell to their knees as their
chests burned, and when the pain stopped, they looked up and she
was gone.

“
Great, let’s go tell the
Captain,” the first guard said, and they all blurred back to the
palace. Mark immediately led them in to the Council.

“
What’s up?” Zohn asked,
looking up.

“
They encountered the
Winchester,” Mark said. “Tell them.”

The first guard relayed what happened,
word-for-word, ending with the burning pain.

Chevalier sighed, “Revenge? For what?”

Quinn shrugged, “I’m guessing the attacks on
her.”

“
Damn, to be that close,”
Zohn growled. “This is getting to be too much. She’s been seen
twenty four times in the last month, and we’re no closer to finding
out who she is.”

“
Keep trying, see if you
can reason with her to come without violence,” Quinn said, and the
guards all bowed and left.

Emily appeared in the trial area and walked
forward.

“
Why are you up so late?”
Chevalier asked, concerned.

“
Dain is hungry,” Emily
said, and walked up to the council platform. She handed him over to
Chevalier and looked around, “What’s up? You all look
mad.”

“
The Winchester slipped
through our fingers again,” Chevalier told her, and ordered a
bottle for the baby.

Emily smiled, “The little mortal got away
from you again?”

“
Yes, you find that
amusing?” Zohn asked, irritated.

“
Well you know what the
Klingon’s say?”

“
The what?”

Emily sighed, “Seriously, a little pop
culture never hurt anyone.”

“
Well, what do they say?”
Kyle asked, confused.

“
Google Klingon
sayings.”

“
What?”

“
Pop culture…” she said,
and walked out of the room and headed upstairs to bed.

“
What the hell does that
mean?” Quinn asked.

“
I don’t know,” Chevalier
said.

“
Oh well, we’ll try to
catch the elusive Winchester tomorrow night,” Zohn said.

***

“
Look, there she is,” Mark
said, pointing off to the north of them.

Kralen squinted, “Yep, sure is.”

Kralen, Silas, and Mark blurred and
surrounded her.

“
Enough running,” Mark
said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She spun out from under his hand and
whispered, “Leave me alone.”

“
No such luck, come with
us,” Silas said, and took her arm.

She tried to get out from his grasp, but he
held her tightly. Suddenly, she started to laugh.

Mark glanced at Kralen, and back to the
Winchester.

“
Damn, had to be you
three,” Emily said, and dropped her hood, still
laughing.

Silas gasped and let go of her arm, “But…
what… Em?”

“
You’ve been doing this for
two months?” Mark asked, shocked.

“
Yes… as I said, revenge is
a dish best served cold.”

“
Revenge for what?” Kralen
asked, still surprised.

Emily shook her head, “I thought you all had
perfect memory.”

“
The Council’s going to
love this,” Mark said, and threw Emily over his
shoulder.

“
Put me down!” Emily
yelled, still laughing. She felt the wind fly past her as Mark
blurred her back toward the palace.

“
They brought the
Winchester,” Derrick said hesitantly.

“
Bring her in,” Zohn said,
sitting up straight.

Mark came in with Emily thrown over his
shoulder. The Council couldn’t see her face yet.

“
Mark! Put her down,” Quinn
said.

Mark shrugged and set Emily on her feet. The
cloak covered her face, and she stumbled a bit on the platform
shoes before moving closer to the Council.

Zohn looked down at her, “How dare you
threaten us.”

Mark stepped forward, “Elder…”

“
Be silent, Mark,” Zohn
said angrily. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“
Sir,” Silas said, but was
hushed by Chevalier.

“
The scent is very close to
Emily,” Kyle said. “Though… not exact.”

Emily started to laugh, no longer able to
contain herself. She saw the confused looks on the faces of the
Council and pulled her hood back, and then removed her wig, “You
all need to study up on your Klingon.”

“
Em!” Chevalier said,
shocked.

“
Was… you’ve done this?”
Zohn asked.

“
Revenge is a dish best
served cold… an old Klingon proverb,” she said,
grinning.

“
Actually, in 1782 a
Frenchman said it, La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid,”
Quinn corrected.

Emily shrugged, “The meaning still
stands.”

“
What, exactly are you
seeking revenge for?” Chevalier asked, still not sure what was
going on.

Emily crossed her arms, “Clark Coven ring a
bell?”

Kyle gasped, “You did all this to get back
at us for that?”

“
I did,” Emily said. “Don’t
play pranks if you can’t mess with the big boys.”

They watched as she slipped her finger under
the strap on her 6 inch platform shoes and pulled them off, and
then removed her blue contacts.

“
I… I can’t believe you did
this,” Zohn said, eyes wide.

“
She did vow to get us for
that,” Richard, the Chief Interrogator, reminded them.

“
Still, that was months
ago,” Kyle said, shaking his head.

“
Thus the saying,” Emily
said, smiling.

“
Ok, now we can discuss her
punishment,” Chevalier said, turning his chair.

Emily’s eyes grew wide and she took a step
back, “No.”

“
We do need to prove to her
that we’re the superior species,” Quinn said, smiling.

Emily held her finger up and took another
step back, “No… we’re even now.”

Emily spun when Chevalier appeared behind
her and spoke, “Our prank lasted only a few minutes… you’ve had us
chasing ghosts for two months.”

She backed up from him, “It’s not my fault
if my pranks are better.”

“
Better?” Kyle asked when
she ran into him as she backed up. He put his hands on her
shoulders.

“
Yes, better. It just means
I’m smarter than you are,” she said, smiling broadly.

“
Digging it deeper, are
we?” Richard said from beside her.

“
I personally don’t think
it’s funny. She’s wasted countless of our hours,” Zohn said,
irritated.

“
Re vera, cara mea, mea nil
refert,” Emily told him, and turned back to Chevalier when he took
a step towards her.

“
Well aren’t we full of
surprises today,” Chevalier said, looking down at her. “When did
you learn how to quote Gone with the Wind, in Latin?”

“
One might be surprised at
what you can Google,” Emily told him, and gasped when Chevalier
threw her over his shoulder and started out of the palace, followed
by Kyle, Richard, Mark, Silas, and Kralen.

“
Put me down! We’re even,”
Emily yelled, and fought to get out of his grasp as he walked into
the stables.

“
String it up,” Chevalier
said, and Kyle chuckled and disappeared from Emily’s
view.

“
Wait… what are you doing?”
she asked, trying to see. Her feet were tied together and suddenly
she was hanging upside down from the rafters, while the heku moved
back.

“
Now… let’s see…” Chevalier
said, and looked around.

Emily slipped off the long black dress so
she was just in jeans and a t-shirt, “Let me down!”

The stables filled with the Cavalry, who all
looked from Emily to the Council nervously, and then backed out and
shut the doors after them.

“
Some guards you are!”
Emily yelled at them.

“
Oh, I know,” Kyle said,
and opened up a stall door.

“
No!” Emily screamed, and
tried to untie her feet.

Chevalier’s Arabian walked out and
immediately began sniffing at her hair.