Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (69 page)

Emily heard Patra’s whine a short
distance from the stables, and she broke into a run. As she rounded
the corner into the stable, she flipped on the lights and opened
Patra’s stall. The mare was standing up, panting. Emily rubbed the
mare’s belly.

“
I’m here girl, it’s
ok.”

Emily moved down to the mare’s hind
end to see if she could see any sign of the foal. It was then that
Patra laid down, and a gush of bloody liquid flooded over
Emily.

“
Ugh, seriously, Patra?”
Emily growled, and went back to the mare’s belly. “That was
disgusting.”

Emily looked up when she heard a noise
and saw six members of the Cavalry watching her.

“
Shirt please,” she asked,
and held her hand out. When a white guard issued shirt was handed
to her, she faced the back wall, slipped off her wet and bloody
t-shirt, and then buttoned up the guard shirt, rolling the sleeves
up to her elbows.

“
May we stay? Please?” one
of the members of the Cavalry asked.

“
Yes,” she replied, and
moved back down to Patra’s hind end when she began to push. “Come
on girl, push.”

The mare rested for a moment and began
to push again with a loud bellow.

“
I see feet, come on girl,”
Emily said, watching closely.

“
No, no, no, no,” Emily
groaned, and leaned down on the straw to get a better
look.

“
What’s wrong?” one of the
Cavalry asked.

“
Breech,” Emily said, and
took a deep breath. She grabbed onto the hind feet of the colt and
as soon as Patra pushed, she began to pull.

“
Can I do that?” one of
them asked.

“
No,” Emily said,
straining. “You might pull the legs off.”

“
Oh, true,” he said,
disappointed.

Emily rested when the mare did, and
then pulled as soon as she pushed. The Cavalry watched her
nervously. She was straining and pulling hard enough that she was
sweating and her arms shook with the strain.

“
Come on, damnit,” she
groaned, and pulled on the hind legs of the foal.

Once the colt’s hocks emerged, Emily
got to her hands and knees to catch her breath. The new shirt was
soaked with sweat and drops fell from her forehead.

“
Ok, girl,” Emily panted.
“Hard part coming.”

“
That wasn’t the hard
part?” one of the guards asked nervously.

Emily shook her head, “Nope, the
foal’s breech. The hips are going to be the hard part.”

When Patra pushed again, Emily grabbed
the back legs of the colt again and pulled gently but firmly. Emily
groaned and used her entire body weight to pull.

“
What’s going…” the faction
doctor asked, but was quickly shushed by the watching Cavalry. He
joined the rest of them in the stables, watching Emily pull on the
legs of the foal.

Emily fell back on the straw when
Patra relaxed. She fought to catch her breath and rubbed her sore
arms. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead with the arm of her
shirt and then leaned back up with a groan when the mare started to
push again.

Again Emily began to pull, leaning
back with all of her strength. She slipped back and slammed into
the stall wall when the colt’s hips broke free, and the colt slid
out quickly. She ignored the frantic questions from the doctor and
crawled up to the foal.

“
It’s a colt!” she said,
and watched Patra clean off the foal after a short rest.

Emily sat down on the straw and sat
her tired arms on her knees. She looked up as the faction doctor
came over to her.

“
Are you ok?” he
asked.

Emily nodded, “Yes, why?”

“
You fell against the wall
pretty hard,” he said, and touched the back of her head.

Emily jerked away, “I’m not hurt. Stay
back away from the colt.”

The doctor nodded and moved back by
the Cavalry.

Emily’s hands were still shaking from
all of the pulling and she was covered in blood. She smiled and
watched the colt fight to get to his feet. The Cavalry watched the
foal, amazed at the new life they just witnessed.

“
Now what?” a member of the
Cavalry asked.

Emily sighed, “Now we wait to make
sure he stands up and nurses.”

“
He’s beautiful, Lady
Emily,” he said, and then smiled at her.

Emily smiled, “Yes, he is.”

“
What seems to be the
problem?” Quinn asked, joining the crowd in the stables. He peeked
over the heads of the Cavalry and saw the colt struggling to get to
his feet. He cringed when he saw Emily, but she was smiling, so he
decided not to say anything about the sweat or the
blood.

Quinn whispered briefly, and was soon
joined by Zohn, Kyle, Maleth, and Chevalier. Chevalier grinned and
stepped through the Cavalry to sit by Emily on the hay.

Emily smiled at him, “It’s a
colt.”

Emily got quickly to her feet when
Patra stood up and the umbilical cord broke. She checked quickly
for bleeding, but then sat back on the straw when everything seemed
normal.

“
Hmm,” Chevalier said,
frowning at Emily.

“
What?”

“
When I left you, you were
in a gorgeous green number… now you’re in a guard’s shirt that’s
about 8 times too big for you, and you’re covered in blood, straw,
and goo,” he chuckled.

“
Teach you to leave me
alone.” She laughed, and turned back to the colt.

Within a few minutes, the colt managed
to get unsteadily to his feet and began to nurse.

“
That was much faster,”
Chevalier said. He remembered the length of time it took Patra’s
first foal to nurse.

Emily laid down on the straw and
yawned into her hand. The Cavalry slowly began to return to their
quarters, followed by the rest of the heku. Kyle stayed behind and
watched the colt and mare together.

Chevalier chuckled and picked up
Emily’s wet and bloody t-shirt, “You really should stop stripping
in front of the guards.”

Emily kicked at him playfully, “She
slimed me.”

Allen appeared by Kyle and looked into
the stall, unimpressed, “I see she finally popped it
out.”

Emily looked up at him. She was
hopeful he would take the colt as his own, “Yes, a pretty
colt.”

Allen shrugged, “Yeah I guess. Kyle,
you promised me a copy of War and Peace.”

Kyle nodded, “Yeah sure, let’s go get
it.”

Kyle shrugged at Emily and walked off,
following Allen.

“
It’s almost 3am, why don’t
we just stay here for the night. By the time you got back to the
island, it’d be time to get up,” Chevalier said.

Emily sighed, though she desperately
wanted to get back to the island, if they stayed at the palace, she
could check on Patra and the colt first thing in the
morning.

“
Yeah, ok.”

Chevalier jumped up to his feet and
put his hand out for Emily. She took it and let him pull her to her
feet. She was exhausted. She ignored the gasps and stares she got
when she walked into the palace covered in horse blood and straw.
As soon as they got into the bedroom, she stripped and slowly
crawled into the hot shower.

“
You asleep in there?”
Chevalier asked during the long shower.

“
Shhhh, don’t wake me,” she
said, and turned off the water. Chevalier wrapped a towel around
her when she stepped out and kissed her softly.

Emily pulled on an oversized t-shirt
and crawled into bed, almost immediately falling to sleep.
Chevalier smiled and pulled the heavy curtains in the room, so the
morning sun wouldn’t shine in. He slipped off his clothes and slid
into bed beside her, then wrapped his arms around her and watched
the dreams that had already started.

Chevalier relaxed as her dreams
floated past his mind, swirls of horses and images of the ranch in
Montana. The dream was about the dogs, horses, and cattle she cared
so much about. Her emotions were soft and light. They were the
emotions he felt from her when she was out riding.

Just before Emily woke up, he ordered
some breakfast and went in to get Alexis from her room. When he
came out, Emily was pulling on jeans and a t-shirt
quickly.

“
Eat some breakfast first,”
Chevalier suggested.

“
I’ll grab something when I
get back. I want to check on the colt, and then get back to the
island,” Emily said, and ran out of the room.

Chevalier sighed and sat down with
Alexis so she could eat.

“
I thought maybe Mommy
would want to stay after Patra delivered,” Chevalier said to
Alexis.

Alexis shook her head, “No,
no.”

“
You too, eh? Do you want
to stay?”

“
Si go,” she said, taking a
bite of scrambled eggs.

“
No, Baby, Silas can’t
go.”

“
Si go.” She
frowned.

“
We’ll come back and check
on Silas, ok?” he smiled softly at her.

“
I thought they were
leaving last night,” Allen said, stepping into the room.

“
Your Mom wanted to check
on the colt first. Watch the attitude, I’d much rather have them
here,” Chevalier said angrily.

“
Yeah, whatever.” Allen
shrugged and left for his classes.

Emily let Patra and the colt out into
the corral and then she stood against the fence and watched. The
colt was bucking and kicking around while Patra grazed calmly on
the grass.

Emily turned and looked into the
stables when she heard the meow of a cat. She frowned and walked
into the stables, checking behind her to make sure she was
alone.

“
Sam?” she
whispered.

“
Come up here,” Sam
whispered from the loft.

Emily crawled up into the loft, again
checking to make sure she was alone. She stood a ways from the
familiar and eyed him suspiciously.

“
Where have you been?”
Emily asked.

“
I’ve been with the
Encala,” Sam said. “They want to talk to you.”

“
About what?”

“
They have an offer that I
really think you should take.”

“
I can’t trust that!” Emily
frowned.

“
I’m not lying to you. They
are just outside of the city waiting for you,” Sam told
her.

Emily sighed, “So what? I got out
there and get kidnapped… again.”

“
No,” Sam said. “There are
only 3 of them, enough you can handle if they decide to do
something stupid, but I assure you, their intentions are
genuine.”

“
I suppose Vaughn is one of
them?”

Sam nodded, “Yes, but he has
relinquished any claim he had on you.”

“
He never had a claim on
me,” Emily hissed.

“
Emily?” Silas called from
the stables.

Emily’s eyes grew wide, “I’m cleaning
up here, Silas. What do you need?”

“
Can we let some other
horses out into the corral with the new horse?” he called up to the
loft.

“
Yes, they’ll be fine,”
Emily said, and watched Sam hide under the straw in his cat form.
“Leave me one though. I’m going out for a bit.”

“
Ok, can I go with
you?”

Emily cringed, “No, I need to
think.”

She could hear Silas grumble as he
started to walk horses out to the corral. Emily crawled back down
and dug in the storage room until she found a large leather
satchel. She grabbed the Smith & Wesson .357 that she kept
loaded in the shed, and slipped it into the back of her jeans.
Emily then returned to the loft and put Sam inside of the bag along
with his clothes.

“
What’s that smell?” Silas
asked, wrinkling his nose.

“
Not a clue,” Emily said,
and led Kyle’s mare out into the stable. She slipped a bridle on
the horse and jumped onto it bareback.

“
Are you sure I can’t go? I
haven’t ridden in a while other than patrols,” Silas asked. He was
looking at her suspiciously and sniffed at the air
again.

“
No really, I just need to
think for a while. I’m ok.” Emily smiled and then kicked the mare
into a canter. As soon as she cleared the city gates, she laid the
bag on the ground and Sam crawled out, and returned to his human
form and got dressed.

“
Where to?” Emily asked,
looking around the area.

“
South to the trees. They
are in there a bit,” Sam said, and started to walk toward the
trees.

“
I swear, if you’re lying
to me…” Emily threatened.

Sam smiled, “I’m not. You may like
this offer.”

Emily took the mare to the trees and
slid off of her, and then tied her to a tree.

She pulled the .357 out of her jeans
and followed Sam into the dense forest. She kept a close eye out
around her. Up ahead, she saw a large blanket laid out on the
forest floor and three men sat on it. They all wore red capes and
the center heku was Vaughn.