Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (50 page)

“
A skull fracture?”
Chevalier growled, and the other heku all looked at him, shocked at
the anger that was shadowing his features.

“
Yes, we have all six of
the guards incarcerated, but we knew you would want to be here,”
Aaron said. “The tower is advised you will be arriving by
helicopter.”

“
I will be there in two
hours,” Chevalier said, and slammed his phone shut. “The guards got
into a fight and gave Emily a skull fracture.”

“
What?” Zohn gasped. “Our
guards?”

“
All six of them,”
Chevalier told him, furious. “Kyle, meet me at the
helicopter.”

“
We’ll take care of the
children,” Quinn said.

“
If my guards were
involved, then I want to go also,” Sotomar said.

“
I should, too,” Exavior
told them, and all six Elders glared at him.

“
Sotomar may go, Exavior…
not a chance,” Chevalier said, and stood up.

The Equites helicopter carrying Chevalier,
Zohn, Kyle, and Sotomar circled and then landed on the helipad for
the Encala Palace. Only a few guards met the helicopter, a sign of
peace, and escorted them directly to the bedroom where Emily
was.

Chevalier stepped angrily into the room. He
saw the three Encala Elders and a strange heku sitting beside
Emily’s bed. The room was warm and dark as Emily lie motionless on
the bed, covered in warm, soft blankets.

The doctor moved aside and let Chevalier sit
down at Emily’s side. He touched her cheek softly and took her
hand.

“
What’s this?” he asked,
touching the black marks under her eyes.

“
It’s a sign of the basal
skull fracture. She also has them behind her ears,” Bachman
explained.

Chevalier pushed her hair aside and looked
for himself, “Has she woken up?”

“
Not yet, it could be a few
more hours.”

“
I want to see the Equites
guards,” Kyle said, livid.

“
I want to see the Valle,”
Sotomar said.

“
Follow me. I want to have
a chat with the Encala guards,” Aaron said, and led the enemy
Elders down into their prison.

“
What happened?” Chevalier
asked William.

“
There was a ball, and the
guards were drinking and got into a fight while Emily slept. Aaron
said she tried to break them up, and one of them threw her against
the wall,” William explained.

Emily sighed softly and her eyes fluttered
open. She looked at Chevalier, and then her eyes moved to the
doctor and shut again as she fell back asleep.

“
That was hopeful,” Bachman
said, smiling.

Chevalier looked at him, unimpressed.

Kyle came in an hour later, obviously
furious. He whispered to Chevalier, “They were drinking… they
stayed at the ball while she came here to bed and they drank.”

Chevalier frowned, “Wait… they left her here
alone while they drank?”

“
Yes,” Kyle growled. “I’m
tempted to leave them here.”

Chevalier shook his head, “Oh, no, I want
them where we can punish them ourselves.”

“
Sotomar’s guards aren’t
going to make it back to the Valle,” Kyle said, grinning slightly.
“He found out that they were drinking while in an enemy’s palace to
protect the Winchester and… well… he’s letting them have it right
now.”

“
My head,” Emily whispered
softly, her eyes still shut. The heku all looked at her when she
spoke.

“
Em?” Chevalier said,
touching her arm softly.

“
It hurts,” she
whispered.

Bachman was suddenly at her side with a
syringe, “Pain medication.”

Chevalier nodded and watched as the doctor
gave her an injection and she settled back down to sleep.

“
Can we move her?”
Chevalier asked the doctor.

“
No, not until she wakes up
fully, so we know how bad it is,” Bachman told him.

The heku gathered chairs around and watched
Emily sleep motionlessly through the evening and night. When the
sun began to show through breaks in the curtain, Emily started to
stir slightly and Chevalier took her hand.

Emily opened her eyes and blinked a few
times before focusing on Chevalier. She pulled her hand away from
him and frowned slightly.

“
How are you?” Chevalier
asked softly.

Emily sat up suddenly in bed and grabbed her
head, groaning.

“
Lay down,” Bachman told
her, and pushed softly against her shoulders.

“
Don’t touch me,” Emily
whispered, her head still buried in her hands.

“
I’m sorry,” the doctor
said, and stood back up.

Emily slowly looked around at the watching
heku and pulled the blanket higher against her. She seemed confused
and concerned about something, so Bachman stepped forward.

“
Do you know where you
are?” he asked her.

Emily nodded.

“
Where, Child?”

“
In my house?” Emily asked,
frowning again and looking around the room.

“
Who is this?” Bachman
asked, touching Chevalier’s shoulder.

“
He’s… your brother? I’m
not dressed.”

Bachman smiled, “It’s ok, you’re covered.
Does anyone here look familiar?”

Emily looked into each of the heku’s faces
and then turned back to the doctor, “No.”

“
What’s going on?”
Chevalier whispered, too softly for her to hear.

“
Amnesia, it’s more than
likely temporary,” Bachman whispered back.

“
My head hurts so badly,”
Emily said, and put her face into her hands again.

Bachman dug in his bag and brought out a
vial and a syringe. He jumped slightly when Emily screamed and
scrambled out of bed. Kyle caught her as she headed for the door,
and she turned around to face the doctor.

“
It’s just a pain
medication,” he told her.

“
Get away from me with that
thing,” Emily said angrily, and fought to get loose from Kyle’s
restraining hands.

“
Ok, ok, I’ll put it away,”
Bachman said. “But you need to lie back down. You hurt your
head.”

Emily watched him step away from the bed,
and she felt Kyle’s hands let her go when she moved back toward it.
She saw her bag out of the corner of her eye and grabbed it before
sitting down on the bed.

“
Are you going to shoot
us?” Chevalier asked, already knowing what her bag held.

Emily nodded, “If you come at me with a
needle.”

“
No needles, I promise,”
the doctor said. “Will you take pills? For the
headache?”

“
No,” Emily told him, and
pulled the covers over herself.

Chevalier turned slightly and explained her
medical phobia to the doctor. When he turned back, Elder William
held a plate stacked high with steaming pancakes.

“
Are you hungry?” William
asked her.

Emily frowned, “Where did you just get that
from?”

“
A servant brought it to
me,” William explained, and held the plate out for her.

“
Why are you all sitting
around watching me?” Emily asked.

“
We were just leaving,”
William said. He set the plate down on the bedside table and left
with the other two Encala Elders.

Emily turned back to Chevalier, “You go,
too.”

He nodded and walked out of the room,
glancing at Kyle before shutting the door.

“
All of you, go,” Emily
said to Kyle and Bachman. They smiled slightly and left.

“
It’s just temporary,”
Bachman said to the waiting heku in the hallway. “It’ll start to
come back slowly over time.”

“
Can we take her home
then?” Chevalier asked.

Bachman nodded, “Yes, she seems stable
enough. Do you have a doctor to watch over her? In case she gets
worse?”

“
Yes, we do,” Chevalier
said. “With Emily, it’s always good to keep one on
hand.”

“
Very well, she can go,”
Bachman said.

Chevalier went back into the bedroom. Emily
was sitting in the bay window, looking out over the city.

“
Emily?” Chevalier said,
walking up to her.

She looked over at him.

“
We told you that you’ve
had a head injury. That’s why your head hurts.”

Emily didn’t answer, but just watched him
suspiciously.

“
Your memory will come
back, but we want to take you home to recover,” Chevalier told
her.

He felt uncomfortable at the way she looked
at him like he was a stranger, one to be feared. The distrust she
felt toward him was prevalent in her eyes.

“
I’ll get your bag after
you get dressed, and then we can go. It’s about a two-hour trip,”
he told her, and headed for her bag. He turned toward her when he
heard the hammer cock back on her .45. Chevalier backed up slowly,
“Or not… we can stay here.”

Emily nodded and laid the gun down in her
lap as he backed out of the room and shut the door.

“
That went well,” Kyle
said, grinning.

Chevalier smiled slightly, “Gun.”

“
We heard,” Sotomar
chuckled.

“
May we stay for a while
longer?” Chevalier asked William.

“
Yes, stay as long as she
needs,” William said.

“
I will leave and take the
guards with me. They have a date with my Chief Enforcer,” Sotomar
said.

Chevalier nodded, “We’ll have the pilot
return you to Island Coven so you…”

They all turned when Emily stepped out.
She’d changed into a light cotton summer dress, and her hair was
pulled back. The dark marks under her eyes stood out as she stepped
into the light.

Emily turned to Sotomar, “Can you take me to
the barn?”

Sotomar smiled softly, “There is no barn
here.”

“
Is this my house?” she
asked him.

“
No, it is not.”

“
Is it your
house?”

“
No, it is his,” Sotomar
said, and pointed to William. Emily frowned, moved a step away from
the Encala, and took Sotomar’s arm in her hands.

“
He’s… I don’t know him,”
Emily whispered to Sotomar.

Sotomar glanced at Chevalier briefly and
then turned back to Emily, “He won’t hurt you.”

“
I know. I have this,” she
said, and pulled the .45 out of her pocket.

Sotomar looked at her, surprised, and then
put his hand out, “May I hold that?”

Emily nodded, “Shoot him if he gets too
close.”

“
I will,” Sotomar said, and
tossed the gun behind him. Chevalier caught it and tucked it in the
back of his pants before Emily could see.

Emily leaned toward Sotomar and whispered
into his ear, “They are all staring at me.”

Sotomar looked at the others as Emily let go
of his arm and started down the stairs slowly, looking around.

“
Do we follow her?” Kyle
asked.

“
Sotomar should. She trusts
him, it seems,” Chevalier said.

“
I guess I stay,” Sotomar
said, amused, and headed down the stairs.

Emily turned and looked at a blank stone
wall. She frowned slightly and reached out to touch it.

“
Prison,” William whispered
to Sotomar.

She touched one of the stones and the wall
slid to the side.

“
Let’s not go down there,”
Sotomar said, and took her arm.

“
What’s down
there?”

“
Storage, boring place,”
Sotomar said, and shut the door to the prison. “Shall we get
something to eat?”

Emily nodded, “Ok, are your brothers
coming?”

“
Yes, is that
ok?”

Emily nodded again and Sotomar led her
through the enemy palace and into a large dining room. Kyle,
Chevalier, and the three Encala Elders were sitting already. She
blushed when she saw them all watching her and sat down.

A servant came and sat a plate down in front
of Emily.

“
Wait,” Emily called when
he started to leave.

“
Yes?” the servant asked,
turning slowly.

“
Don’t they get to eat?”
she asked, motioning toward the others.

“
Yes, bring us some also,”
William told the shocked servant. He returned with plates for all
of them and left quickly, without question.

“
How is the headache?”
Chevalier asked her. Emily looked at him and frowned.

“
You have strangely shaped
teeth,” Emily said, and started to eat.

Chevalier grinned slightly, “Family
trait.”

“
If they were longer, you
could be a vampire for Halloween,” Emily told him, and started to
eat the steak.

“
I would imagine I could,”
Chevalier chuckled, and started to push the food around on his
plate.

“
Hmm, this is good, but has
an odd flavor,” Emily said, and dug into the baked
potato.

“
Those guards are going to
wish the Encala had killed them,” Chevalier whispered, too quietly
for Emily to hear.

“
As will mine,” Sotomar
said. “I’m tempted to let Exavior have at them.”

“
Aaron has already dealt
with the Encala guards. It’s despicable how they shirked their
duties,” William whispered. “It’s embarrassing,
actually.”