Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (76 page)

“
Who?” Chevalier
hissed.

Emily shrugged, “I don’t know. They
were torn to pieces before I could figure that out.”

“
They?” Quinn
asked.

Emily sighed, “Yes, four of
them.”

“
We’ll handle that later,
please return to your place,” Maleth said. Emily nodded and stood
up, wincing slightly. She walked back down and stood by the Thukil
guards again.

“
Commander, we were told
you were the only witness to the impending attack,” Quinn said to
her. Chevalier had to fight from grinning. Emily was over 18 inches
shorter than the heku around her, and Kyle’s comment about her
looking like a child flooded back to him.

Emily stepped forward, “Yes, I
was.”

“
What exactly did you
see?”

“
I was out in the woods…
lost…” Emily ignored the way Chevalier sighed, “I heard voices, and
when I got closer, I saw hundreds of Encala lined up. William,
Koly, and Vaughn were giving them orders.”

“
Please, tell us what was
said, verbatim,” Quinn requested.

Emily looked at Chevalier with wide
eyes. He smiled and turned to the Elders for a moment before
turning back to the trial area.

“
I apologize, please tell
us what was said,” Quinn said, and smiled at her. He noticed how
she tensed when he spoke to her, and it concerned him that she
still viewed him as a threat.

“
They were saying that
because I was on the Island, they were going to attack Thukil
first, and then move on to Council City. Valle’s Ingram and what’s
his nuts were supposed…” Emily stopped when Maleth held up his
hand.

“
What’s his nuts?” Maleth
asked, confused.

Kyle had to turn his chair around, so
the Encala didn’t see him laughing.

Koly turned and glared at
her, “His name is
Selhman.”

Emily was still watching
Maleth, “Ingram and Selhman, were supposed to be in either Council
City or Thukil, so they were just going to stick with those two
cities.”

“
She’s lying!” William
scowled. “We were running a training exercise, nothing
more.”

“
I am not lying.” Emily
turned and glared at him.

“
Emily!” Chevalier said
sternly, when he saw her begin to concentrate on
William.

William looked at her with
wide eyes when she sighed and turned back to the
Council.

“
Zohn… impressions?” Quinn
asked.

“
The Encala is lying. I
believe the Commander,” Zohn said, using her official title for the
trial.

“
We demand that you release
the Valle prisoners immediately,” Koly said angrily.

Quinn ignored the Encala,
“Lieutenants, what is your part of this?”

One of the Thukil Lieutenants stepped
forward, “After we found the Commander in the woods, we set out in
a search pattern. The three of us found a clearing in the trees
with piles of ashes and scattered clothing from an Encala
Army.”

“
Was a count made?” Maleth
asked.

“
Yes, Sir, there were 718
individual piles of ash, all lined up in formation, and three more
off from the others. They turned out to be the Elders,” he
said.

“
Have any of the Encala’s
Army been revived?” Maleth asked.

The Lieutenant grinned, “No, Sir, they
have all been banished per the Elder’s orders.”

“
Very well, so we have the
Commander’s word against those of the Encala Elders,” Quinn
said.

Emily’s eyes narrowed
slightly.

“
She’s not a Commander!
She’s just a mortal,” Koly said angrily.

“
She is my Commander,” one
of the Thukils said, glaring at him.

“
Mine too,” the other two
said together.

“
As far as this court is
concerned, she is a Commander with the Thukil Cavalry and will be
addressed and respected as such,” Maleth said to the
Encala.

“
She is nothing but a girl.
A power hungry child that should be punished for her crimes against
the heku. If she ever falls into the Encala hands again, she will
be, and it will be a pleasure to teach her submission and respect,”
Koly growled.

The three Lieutenants crouched
slightly toward him and ducked away just as Emily put a .45 into
each of the Encala, clean shots to the head.

“
Damn that felt good,”
Emily said, grinning.

“
Commander, please stop
shooting the defendants,” Quinn chuckled.

The Lieutenants laughed and stood back
up, watching the Elders heal and enjoying the pain the bullets
caused.

Emily holstered her gun, “Sorry, won’t
happen again.”

“
Guards, take them to
cells,” Quinn said, and as soon as the Encala could stand, they
were escorted out of the trial area.

“
Mark,” Chevalier said, and
the Captain came into the trial area.

“
Yes, Elder?” Mark asked,
stepping up by Emily. His shirt was still covered in
blood.

“
Now… what happened to
Emily in the 5 minutes that I was away from her?” Chevalier
frowned.

“
The entire
5
^th
floor guard staff attacked her,” Mark said, obviously angry
still.

Maleth hissed, “The entire fifth-floor
guard staff?”

“
Yes, Sir,” Mark told
him.

“
She would be safer in
Thukil,” one of the Lieutenants said.

“
I’ll be safer when I get
back to the island,” Emily told him. “So let’s end this and I’ll be
on my way.”

Quinn nodded, “Very well, leave us
while we decide on the Encala.”

Chevalier watched as Emily, the
Thukil, and Mark left the trial area, “Damnit, there goes that
idea.”

“
Why did they have to do
this now? I was sure we could get her to stay,” Maleth
sighed.

“
We’ll just have to let her
go back to the island and try later,” Zohn said.

Kyle nodded, “I can stay with her
there. Maybe I can talk her into it.”

“
Yes, do that, we’ll see
after things calm down,” Chevalier said.

“
Impressive that she’s now
a medaled Commander,” Quinn said, smiling.

Kyle chuckled, “We should have done
that. I didn’t even think about it.”

“
Let’s do it now and change
the guard’s uniforms,” Zohn laughed.

Chevalier glared at him, “Enough with
how she’s dressed.”

“
I take it no one’s opposed
to finding the Encala guilty of attacks on Thukil?” Quinn asked,
quickly changing the subject.

“
Now we need a punishment.
We can only keep one of them though,” Zohn said.

Chevalier shrugged, “Keep Koly for 150
years and let William go with a warning.”

“
It’s too bad we can’t kill
all of them for being dumb enough to attack with all three Elders
present,” Kyle said.

“
Derrick, bring them all
back,” Maleth said. The Council watched as Emily and the Thukil
came in, again the Cavalry stood so they surrounded her. The Encala
were brought in next and stood before the Council.

“
We as the Equites Council
find you both guilty of attacks on the Equites’ Thukil Coven,”
Quinn said, standing. “As per wartime etiquette, we are releasing
William as the sole Encala Elder, and sentencing Koly to 150 years
for his crimes.”

“
That’s preposterous! You
can’t take a mortal’s word over ours,” Koly screamed. “It’s
disgraceful how the Equites have fallen as strongest of the
factions.”

“
Fallen?” Chevalier asked,
raising an eyebrow.

“
Yes fallen! You have
stooped to listening to mortals and…” Koly’s eyes widened and he
gasped and clutched at his chest, falling to his knees.

The Thukil guards glanced nervously at
each other as a burning smell filled the room. Emily was looking
directly at the Council.

“
Stop her!” William yelled,
watching the suffering Elder.

Koly screamed and writhed on the floor
in agony.

“
Just don’t kill him,
Commander,” Zohn said, not actually wanting her to stop.

William growled, “I said stop
her!”

Koly fell silent as he went
unconscious. The burning smell started to dissipate, and Emily
smiled at the Thukils.

“
We won’t stand for this,”
William hissed.

“
So much control, it’s
impressive,” Quinn said to Emily.

“
I demand you do
something,” William roared.

Maleth looked at him calmly, “Do
something about what?”

“
You cannot allow her to
torture a heku.”

Emily smiled, “That wasn’t torture.
I’ve learned how to burn individual body parts.”

William’s face fell and his eyes grew
wide, “You wouldn’t.”

“
Thukil, you are free to
go,” Maleth said quickly, before Emily took the
challenge.

The Lieutenants left with Emily, and
were laughing among themselves.

“
You just let her walk out
of here?” William asked, irritated.

Maleth looked at him curiously, “Would
you rather her show us her new found talent?”

“
Do you know if she can
really do that?” Kyle asked Chevalier.

“
Not a clue,” he said,
chuckling.

Zohn laughed, “She was
lying.”

“
You may go,” Quinn said to
William, and he stormed out of the room.

Guards came and carried Koly down to
the prison as the Council began to leave the room.

“
I’ll be ready to go to the
island in 5 minutes,” Kyle said, heading into his room.

“
Give us an hour,”
Chevalier chuckled, and disappeared into the bedroom. He shut the
door behind him and watched Emily for a few moments as she packed.
He scanned the room quickly to make sure they were
alone.

“
I really like that uniform
on you.” Chevalier grinned and appeared behind her.

Emily laughed, “Don’t get too used to
it.”

“
I figured,” he said, and
unfastened her cape, then threw it onto a chair.

Emily turned around and smiled, “I’m a
Commander, so you can’t just do with me as you will.”

Chevalier began to unbutton her shirt,
“I still outrank you.”

***

Emily rested her head against
Chevalier’s neck as she laid on top of him. He trailed his fingers
lightly over her back.

“
You could stay, you know,”
Chevalier reminded her.

“
No, I need to go back to
the island.”

“
We could make you a member
of the Cavalry here.”

“
I’m already a Commander,
that’s enough.”

Chevalier kissed the top of her head,
“I really wish you would stay. Is there anything I can say to
convince you?”

“
I hate this place, Chev,”
Emily said, not looking at him. “It was proven today that some
still hate me, too. I also can’t live with Zohn and Quinn, they
drive me nuts.”

Chevalier sighed, “Zohn and Quinn are
good heku, give them a chance.”

“
Let me just see how things
go on the island.”

“
I’m afraid to even let you
try. Things were always calmer there, and you seem to like it so
much better.”

Emily smiled, “I do.”

“
What about Allen? I’m
worried about how he’ll react when you leave him again,” Chevalier
said softly.

Emily looked up at him, “It kills me
to leave him, you know that. He wants nothing to do with me
though.”

“
You need to trust me. He
just thinks you’re weak, and in a predatory environment it’s
natural for him to want to get rid of the weak link. You need to
show him you aren’t.”

“
I can’t ash my
son.”

“
Don’t ash him, just give
him a little pain.”

“
Chev! He’s only
6.”

“
His body is 6, but his
mind is fully adult,” Chevalier reminded her.

Emily sighed and rolled off of
Chevalier. She wrapped the sheet around her and went into the
bathroom.

Chevalier dressed quickly and called
to Emily before leaving, “I’ll go get Allen, let him say
good-bye.”

Emily dressed back in her jeans and
t-shirt and folded her guard uniform up to put it in the suitcase.
Silas brought Alexis in to her, and she took the baby in her arms
and kissed her softly.

“
You ready to go?” Emily
asked, and sat her down on the bed.

“
Si go,” Alexis said,
pouting.

“
Silas needs to stay here
for now.”

Silas smiled slightly, “I can come
visit, right?”

Emily nodded and smiled, “Any
time.”