Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (91 page)

“
Damned phone,” Kyle
hissed.

“
Yeah, damned phone,”
Alexis said, and frowned.

“
Nice, Kyle,” Chevalier
chuckled.

“
Sorry.” Kyle laughed and
sat back to wait for Emily to return.

Emily came back in a while
later, her hair caked with snow. She bent over and shook her hair
out and then sat down by the fire with her feet toward the heat.
Finally, she leaned against a chair and lost the fight to stay
awake.

The heku watched her sleep
for a few minutes before Kyle risked picking her up after he took
the phone out of her pocket. She mumbled something to him and he
froze, but then went into the bedroom when she’d settled back down.
He came out a short time later and shut her door
silently.

The Elders were getting
dressed in the bathroom when Kyle came back out. Zohn was sitting
on the couch, talking to Allen. Kyle disappeared into the hallway
to take care of the Elder’s body.

Quinn came out first and
sat down on the couch. Zohn glanced at him and he grinned, “Still
kind of tired.”

Chevalier came out and was
instantly face-to-face with Alexis. She looked up at him and
pointed angrily, “No, no, down.”

Chevalier grinned, “I’m not taking
orders from you.”

Alexis stomped her foot and
put her hands on her waist, “Down, Daddy.”

He smiled at her and stepped around
her to sit down on a chair by the fire, “Damn, I hate being this
weak.”

Zohn stood up and headed for the
hallway, “I’ll go help with Elder Maleth.”

“
She’s not going to take
that well,” Chevalier said to Quinn.

Quinn nodded, “No, she’s
not. She worked so hard to keep us alive and I can see how she’s
going to blame herself. She did nothing wrong.”

Chevalier sighed, “I’ve
seen this once before. The illness wiped out an entire family, 5
total, and not one survived. They had six heku taking care of them,
yet no one made it.”

“
This is the third time
I’ve seen it, and only once did I see anyone survive it,” Quinn
said. “Kyle and Zohn did a lot to help us, but I’m still amazed at
what Emily went through to do it. I don’t recall her complaining
once.”

Chevalier thought for a
moment, “Maybe we need to re-think the Elder evacuation plan. It’s
not safe for us all to go to the same place.”

“
I was thinking that also,”
Quinn said, and glanced down as Alexis started to play with her
doll.

“
I don’t know how to lessen
this,” Chevalier said, mostly to himself.

Kyle and Zohn both came in and sat by
the Elders.

“
He’s in the cargo hold of
the helicopter,” Kyle said. “That way we can bury him by the
palace.”

“
There’s a lot of damage to
the floor in the hallway, and the ceiling underneath. The melted
snow flooded that part of the house,” Zohn told Quinn.

Quinn smiled, “It’s ok, it was worth
it.”

“
You two don’t have to
worry about Emily being mad at you. I lied to her, and she’ll blame
me,” Kyle said, smiling slightly.

“
You lied to her?”
Chevalier frowned.

“
I couldn’t tell her that
99% of the time the illness is fatal. I told her everyone was going
to be ok.”

Chevalier sighed, “She’s not going to
see that one loss is amazing for this. It should have been all four
of us.”

“
I wish I’d told her the
lie. She already dislikes me,” Zohn said, watching the
fire.

“
Did you find who was
killing in the palace?” Quinn asked after a long
silence.

“
Oh, yes we did,” Kyle
said. “We were able to flush out six Valle that were working in the
palace. One of them has been with us for twenty two years
even.”

“
They were killing anyone
who got in their way to get Emily out of the palace, so they could
rescue the prisoners,” Zohn explained. “I think we have them all
now. The leader gave us a list as soon as he saw the
rack.”

Kyle grinned, “They were
pretty brave.”

“
I suggest we go with the
plan of getting rid of anyone who hasn’t been in the palace for
fifty years and replacing them,” Zohn said.

“
Quinn and I need to find a
new Elder, too,” Chevalier said.

Quinn nodded, “I suggest we wait a
week or so, and hold an official mourning for Maleth.”

Chevalier looked at him, confused,
“You do?”

“
Why would we do that?”
Zohn asked.

Quinn chuckled, “Something Emily said
to me while it wasn’t supposed to be remembered.”

“
I wish I could hear
everything she said,” Chevalier told him.

“
She’s an interesting
creature, completely selfless and insecure,” Quinn said, thinking
back on what she told him.

“
Insecure?” Kyle
asked.

“
Which reminds me, we need
to find out who smells her as she walks down the hallway in the
palace. Apparently, it’s often enough she said it’s
annoying.”

Kyle frowned, “I didn’t know that was
happening.”

“
None of us did,” Quinn
said. “I think she didn’t want us to know.”

“
What other little tidbits
of information did she tell you?” Chevalier asked
curiously.

Quinn smiled, “The rest, I do believe,
I’ll keep to myself.”

Chevalier and Quinn spoke
among themselves for the rest of the day about the new Elder while
Kyle and Zohn kept themselves busy by cleaning up the flood in the
basement. Allen hadn’t recovered as much as the others, and stayed
in bed, reading. Alexis busied herself with her dolls and stuck
close to the warmth of the fire.

By nightfall, snow started
to fall again and Kyle and Zohn had replenished the wood and coal
supply. Chevalier made a quick dinner for Alexis, though she barely
ate it and said it didn’t taste like what Emily made. She finally
fell asleep in Chevalier’s arms as he rested by the fire. The wind
began to blow harder as the night drew on and was soon whistling
through the eaves in the attic. The heku had all gathered in the
living room again and sat silently, each in their own
thoughts.

Kyle and Zohn both stood up when they
heard Emily running down the stairs, cursing under her breath. She
passed them in the living room and stopped in the empty
hallway.

“
Em,” Kyle said softly from
behind her.

She spun, livid, “Where is
he?”

“
He’s gone,” Kyle told her,
and tried to touch her arm, but she backed away.

“
Where is his body?” she
asked, glaring at him.

“
I put him in the
helicopter, so we can bury him in Council City,” Zohn said,
appearing behind Kyle.

Emily pushed past them, and
ran through the living room. The heku heard bare footsteps as she
ran up the stairs. Kyle gasped when he heard the roof door open,
and blurred up to the helicopter. The wind was blowing snow across
the roof and he could barely see Emily when she reached the
helicopter. She pulled on the latch to open the cargo hold, but
couldn’t get it open.

“
Emily, you are going to
freeze out here,” Kyle said, taking her arm.

“
No! You can’t leave him
out here! When he wakes up he’ll freeze,” she said, and pulled
harder on the latch.

Kyle forced her inside and
shut the door against the cold and pulled her against his chest,
wrapping his arms around her, “You did an incredible job taking
care of them, but Maleth didn’t make it.”

Emily hit him on the chest
and backed away from him, “He’s not dead. You told me if I kept
them cold, they would all be ok. He’s stayed cold.”

Kyle sighed, “I lied”

Emily glared at him,
“What?”

“
I lied, ok? This illness
usually kills everyone, but I didn’t want you to have to deal with
that alone. I had no idea that you would somehow manage to pull
three of them through it, and I just hoped that we could get here
before they died,” Kyle said softly. “We’re all very proud of you
and, quite frankly, astonished at how this turned out.”

“
Get him out of the
helicopter,” Emily said, gritting her teeth.

“
No,” Zohn said as he
appeared between her and the door. “He’s gone.”

Emily’s body tensed and she
looked from Kyle to Zohn, “One of you did this, didn’t you? You
want to be Elder.”

Kyle frowned, “Emily… that’s not
true.”

“
We wouldn’t do that,” Zohn
said, sounding partially insulted.

“
He’s not dead,” Emily
whispered, and slunk down against the wall.

Kyle nodded to Zohn, and he
blurred down the stairs as Kyle sat down beside her, “You did
everything you could, but he didn’t make it.”

“
Heku don’t die of
illnesses,” Emily said to him, her eyes red and full of
tears.

“
Not often, no… but once in
a while we get this illness from a donor,” he said. “Or, as in this
case, from a family of donors.”

Emily leaned her head against Kyle’s
chest and started to cry, “I tried, I mean… I put snow on him when
I did the others. Maybe he needed more and I let him…”

“
Stop, Em. You did a
wonderful job. There’s nothing you could have done differently,”
Kyle said, and touched her hair softly. “We’re all shocked that you
were able to save three of them, it’s unheard of.”

“
Oh my God,” Emily yelled,
and stood up, then ran down the hallway to the stairs. “What if
they still die?”

“
Wait, Em!” Kyle said, and
followed her down into the living room.

“
Em?” Chevalier asked when
she ran into the room. She pushed up the footstool on his chair and
threw blankets on him, “What’s going on?”

Emily ignored him and went
to where Quinn was sitting. She pushed a footstool up to him and
propped his legs up, and then covered him in blankets. She dug both
of the rocks out of the pillows and put them into the fireplace,
and then disappeared and came back with clean washcloths, which she
dipped in the steaming water on the fire. She put one against
Chevalier’s forehead, and one across Quinn’s, ignoring anything
anyone said to her.

Emily disappeared into the
guestroom hallway.

“
What’s all this?”
Chevalier asked.

Kyle sighed, “She thinks you all might
still die.”

“
Well, tell her we’re
fine,” Quinn said, and pulled the hot rag off of his
forehead.

“
I tried!” Kyle said. “She
won’t listen though… here she comes.”

Kyle watched as Quinn put
the rag back on his head. Emily came into the room with eight
pillows stacked and dropped them onto the floor. She put one under
Chevalier’s feet and one under each of his arms and then fluffed
one and put it behind his head.

“
Em, we’re not going to
die, we’re getting better,” Chevalier said, but was
shushed.

Emily did the same to Quinn
and he was soon propped up on pillows. She took the rocks out of
the fire and before long, they had yet another pillow by their
feet, one that was hot and making it sweltering under the layers of
blankets.

Quinn sighed and sat up, “You need to
li…”

He stopped talking when Emily got in
his face, “Sit down and shut up.”

Zohn turned to face the
wall to hide his grin and saw Kyle smiling beside him. The Elders
both sat back in their chairs and watched Emily work to stoke the
fire. Allen stayed quiet under his covers, afraid he might get
yelled at if he moved.

Emily disappeared into the kitchen
after the room became stiflingly hot.

“
She’s going to kill us
with heat,” Quinn said, fanning the blankets.

“
Sad thing is, she would
probably win in a fight right now. I need to get my strength back…
this is pathetic,” Chevalier whispered, and then deftly kicked the
hot rock out from under the covers.

Emily came back out and handed a
grilled cheese sandwich to Alexis. She sat down with a bowl of soup
by Allen and propped him up on some pillows.

Allen looked pleadingly at
his Dad, and then to the others, but they all gave him a
sympathetic smile as Emily spooned hot soup down him.

Emily frowned when she saw Allen gag a
bit, “Are you going to throw up? Is your stomach upset?”

Allen looked at Chevalier and then to
Emily and nodded, “That soup, it’s awful.”

Emily tasted it and then sighed, “It’s
fine.”

“
Sorry, Mom,” Allen said,
and watched when Emily disappeared into the kitchen.

She emerged a few minutes
later with a strip of towel and a knife. She sat down by Allen and
he watched her with wide eyes as she picked off the towel around
her already wounded wrist.

“
Give it back!” Emily
scowled when Zohn blurred the knife out of her hand.

“
No… a heku can’t resist
you when we’re ill, so stop cutting yourself,” Kyle told
her.