Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (96 page)

“
Which part? Getting groped
by a Valle Elder? Crashing the guard party with Valle? Maybe the
fact that I change my last name or finally got a death certificate
for my illustrious ex-husband?” Emily asked.

Kyle laughed, “You do give us quite
the choices.”

Emily sat up and looked at Chevalier,
“Zohn? Seriously?”

Chevalier nodded.

“
Is he just kidding me?”
Emily asked Kyle.

“
Nope,” Kyle told
her.

“
Why did it change from
James? When I wanted you to turn down the post as Elder, you said
you weren’t allowed or some nonsense,” Emily asked.

“
He’s going into
retirement,” Chevalier explained.

“
Why not Kyle then? Why did
it have to be Zohn?”

Kyle coughed and then
laughed.

“
What?”

“
You’re the only one I know
that would dare question the decision of an Elder,” Kyle
said.

“
Hmm,” Emily sighed, and
leaned back against Chevalier, grasping her ribs to support them.
“Can you both take tomorrow off?”

“
No, we have a full day
tomorrow,” Chevalier told her, and kissed her head. The second his
lips touched her, another blurry image filled his mind. He listened
carefully, but could only hear soft, distant voices. The images
were too distorted to make out but he saw something move and could
make out Emily’s angry tone.

“
Elder?” Kyle asked, seeing
the faraway look in Chevalier’s eyes.

Chevalier shook his head slightly and
looked over, “Sorry, what was that?”

“
What just
happened?”

“
It’s only happened a few
times before… but it’s almost like I’m on the verge of seeing what
Em is thinking, but I can’t clear it up.”

Emily frowned, “Well don’t… it’s
private.

“
What would cause that?”
Kyle asked.

The memory of Chevalier forcing Emily
to drink his blood flooded his mind before he shrugged, “No
idea.”

“
Gah,” Emily said, and sat
up, scratching her shoulders. “It’s itchy.”

Chevalier leaned her
forward and ran his hand softly across her neck and shoulders,
“Rash.”

Emily grimaced and stood up, “Ok, go
back to your party.”

“
We aren’t going to leave
you,” Kyle told her.

“
Just go. I’m going to go
find some tape and some baking soda, and then I’m going to take a
bath and go to bed,” Emily said, and headed out the
door.

Chevalier shrugged at Kyle and then
they both headed downstairs to the reception.

The Council all gathered
early the next morning to start the day’s trials. They had a full
day ahead of them, and none of them were looking forward to it.
Zohn was sitting in Maleth’s seat, and the Chief Interrogator’s
chair sat empty.

“
How is Emily this
morning?” Quinn asked, thumbing through the docket for the
day.

“
Sore, but not too bad I
would imagine. She left early this morning and refused her guards,”
Chevalier said, and turned toward Quinn.

“
So are we going to go save
her now or wait until we’ve gone through a few cases?” Zohn
asked.

“
Zohn… please,” Quinn said
after Chevalier glared at him.

“
Derrick, get this
started,” Kyle called out, trying to keep the Elders from turning
on each other.

Derrick came in, obviously bored,
“Today’s first case is a housing dispute.”

“
Seriously?” Quinn asked,
and rolled his eyes.

“
Great, my first day as an
Elder and we get housing issues,” Zohn sighed.

“
Bring them in,” Chevalier
said. “Let’s get this over with.”

“
I said you could have it
over my dead body,” the woman screamed.

The man came in and looked
desperately at the Council, “She didn’t, and she said I could have
it.”

Derrick grinned and shut the doors
behind him.

“
It’s all yours, Zohn,”
Quinn said, and leaned back in his chair, staring at the
ceiling.

Chevalier grabbed a staffing roster
and started looking through it.

Zohn settled four domestic
disputes and three feeding disputes before noon. Derrick stepped in
again and Zohn looked at him and sighed, “What now?”

“
There’s… a… small…”
Derrick looked behind him nervously and then back to the Elders.
“Sorry, a large… terrifying, kidnapping issue.”

Quinn finally looked down from the
ceiling, “Do what?”

“
Someone got kidnapped?”
Zohn asked.

“
It’s pretty much in
progress,” Derrick said, and gave a crooked grin.

Chevalier looked from Quinn to Zohn
and then to Derrick, “Who exactly is getting kidnapped?”

Derrick jerked back away
from something and then stepped away from the door. Mark appeared
with his hands handcuffed behind his back and walked into the
council chambers.

“
I tried to stop…” Mark was
cut off with a smack to the back of his head.

A tiny figure stepped out
from behind him. She was in all black with a black ski mask pulled
down over her face, and a cattle prod in her hand.

Emily forced Mark to his
knees and walked around him toward the Council, the cattle prod
pointed toward them.

“
What’s going on?”
Chevalier asked her.

“
Ssssh,” she said, and put
her finger to the lips of the ski mask.

“
We’re very busy and don’t
have time for your games,” Zohn said, and watched Emily walk up
behind the Council. She didn’t say a word, but stepped behind Kyle
and pulled him up to standing.

“
Am I getting kidnapped?”
Kyle asked her, as she pulled his hands behind his back and
handcuffed them.

“
Don’t waste your breath,
she won’t talk,” Mark said, watching them.

Emily pushed Kyle ahead of
her and stopped at Chevalier. She pointed the cattle prod at him
and motioned for him to stand. He grinned and stood up. She pulled
his hands behind his back and handcuffed them.

“
This is stupid, nothing
but child’s play,” Zohn said, and stood up to turn toward
Emily.

Emily touched the cattle
prod to his arm, and he fell suddenly to the floor.

Quinn turned away, hiding a
grin, and Emily pushed Kyle and Chevalier forward. They went with
her, not sure what she was trying to do. Mark stood up as they
passed and she pushed him towards the rest.

Zohn was scowling as she
led them out of the council chambers and shut the door.

“
What was that?” the Chief
Investigator asked Quinn.

“
I do believe, they are
taking the day off,” he said, and laughed.

“
This is absurd! This isn’t
some game she can come and disrupt,” Zohn said angrily.

“
Get over it, Zohn, we’re
free for the day,” Quinn said, and left.

Emily pushed the three heku
out past the door guards, threatening them with the cattle prod
when they asked any questions. They did what she asked, and she
walked them out to the stables, where four horses were waiting,
saddled and ready.

Emily pulled off the black ski mask,
laughing, “Now you have the day off.”

The heku broke the
handcuffs off and walked over to their horses.

“
Unorthodox, but ok,” Mark
said, and mounted.

Chevalier saw Emily
struggle to get on Patra and lifted her up. She gripped her side
and settled into the saddle.

“
Zohn’s pissed,” Kyle said,
and mounted his horse.

“
He’ll live,” Chevalier
said. “It was so boring in there today!”

“
Do try to keep up,” Emily
said, and kicked Patra into a gallop through the city.

She heard the hoof beats
from behind her, but kept her lead as they ran through the streets
of Council City. Cavalry waved as they passed and watched them fly
out of the city. Emily led the way and was soon out to the east on
the hills and heading for the trees. She didn’t slow down but
disappeared into the dense trees, weaving Patra in and out of the
woods.

The three heku fought to
keep up with her and tried to keep from knocking themselves out on
low tree branches. Still at a gallop, Emily emerged from the trees
and ran Patra across the rocky slope down toward the small stream.
The others followed her as quickly as their horses would go, and
enjoyed the feeling of ditching work.

Emily lowered her head,
still clutching her painful side, and pulled Patra into a jump over
the water. The mare landed smoothly and she crossed the field
toward the broken fence. The others followed suit and jumped the
stream, finally catching up to Emily when she stopped Patra
alongside two black Suburbans and the three red sports that were
abandoned on the road.

Kyle slid off of his mare
and ran his hand along one of the cars, “Do you know what these
are? Lamborghini Reventons. Only 20 of these are out
there.”

Mark followed him and peered inside,
“They have 640 horsepower v12 engines that can go from 0 to 60 in
3.3 seconds and can get up to 211 miles per hour.”

“
Some reason why we’re
here?” Chevalier asked, admiring the three cars.

He looked back at Emily and
she was holding three keys in her hand. Kyle and Mark turned to her
also, and their jaws dropped.

“
What? Where did you get
these?” Chevalier asked suspiciously.

“
They belong to the Valle,”
Emily explained. “This is what they were chasing me in. Now the
owners are dead.”

Mark grinned, “Where’d you get the
keys?”

“
I went through the Valle
goo this morning and found them.” Emily dangled the keys
again.

“
Can we have these?” Kyle
asked the Elder.

Chevalier shrugged, “The owners are
dead?”

Mark nodded, “If they are owned by the
Valle chasing Emily, then yes, they are dead.”

“
Do we still have a
document forger?” Kyle asked, opening the door on one of the cars
and looking inside.

“
Yes, we do.” Chevalier
grinned and slid off of his stallion. He reached up and took the
keys from Emily’s hand and tossed a key to each of them.

Emily laughed at the look
on their faces, like seemed like little boys looking at the holy
grail of cars. She watched as they each found the car that went
with their key and adjusted the seats to fit them
comfortably.

Chevalier was the first to
peel out and take off at a dangerous speed down the narrow winding
road. Kyle soon followed, and then Mark after grinning broadly at
Emily.

Emily gathered the reins
and headed back through the trees, leading the three extra horses
behind her. It was easier to keep the right course during the day,
and there was enough damage done to the trees and brush from the
twenty Valle running after her that she had a trail to follow. She
steered clear of the carnage that still cluttered part of the
forest floor. She had already spent a considerable part of the
morning going through bloody clothing looking for the
keys.

When Emily cleared the
trees, she saw three heku blurring towards her and she stopped and
waited for them.

Chevalier, Mark, and Kyle
stopped at her and they were still laughing about
something.

“
I figured you’d all drive
to Denver and back before I’d see you again,” Emily said, and
handed them the reins.

“
Those are some amazing
cars,” Mark said, beaming.

“
Did you see the look on
Zohn’s face? That’s his dream car,” Kyle laughed.

Emily cringed, one more thing he would
hate her for.

“
So now that we’ve been
kidnapped for the day, what do you say we go have a look at the
Durango?” Chevalier asked, and mounted his pesky
Arabian.

Mark and Kyle both slid
onto their horses easily, and Emily nodded, “Sure, but it’s not
going to be pretty.”

They headed back into the woods,
slower this time.

“
Zohn said that Quinn
canceled the rest of today for the entire Council,” Kyle told
Chevalier.

“
I figured, I’ve never seen
such a boring lineup. When did we become the civil police?”
Chevalier sighed.

“
Why don’t you let the
Cavalry handle those issues, leave the important things for the
Council? That would give the Council more time off, and they could
focus on the big things and not the little city stuff,” Emily said.
She turned around when the other three stopped, “What?”

Chevalier looked at Mark,
“Could your Cavalry do that?”

Mark nodded, “Yes, I know
about the house dispute between Gerty and Sid. Stuff like that
would be easy to handle on the spot.”