Valle : Book 2 of the Heku Series (30 page)

“Didn’t we have the crypt sealed?”

“Not yet, I wanted to go check it out first, but I haven’t had the time.”

Kyle thought for a moment, “Well let’s go now.”

“Good idea. I just want to make sure nothing else is hiding in there,” Chevalier said, turning for the back door.

“As for Colorado, I’m sure that would work if you can get her to go. This one’s important, all three Elders are coming for it,” Kyle reminded him.

“I know, and I’m sure she’ll help in any way she can.”

As the two heku walked past the barn, Kyle pointed to the corral, “Patra’s missing.”

Chevalier turned to look, “She wouldn’t go into the crypt alone, would she?”

Kyle shrugged, “With Emily… no one knows.”

Chevalier growled slightly, and then blurred toward the crypt, stopping at Patra.

“Well, what have we here?” Kyle asked, patting Patra’s nose and picking up the backpack.

“You know, my life would be easier if I’d just kill her myself,” Chevalier hissed.

Kyle smiled, “But how boring that’d be.”

Chevalier couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah it would be. Well let’s go see what trouble she’s found now.”

***

“What makes you think the Elders from the other three factions are going to let you get away with this?” Emily asked as she looked up at him from the ground.

“They won’t have a choice, will they? Not with one of the fabled Winchesters. If they fight, then you will turn them to ash.” He had it all worked out and his confidence was evident.

“That’s assuming I will do as you say… which would be a mistake.”

“You will, Child. That I promise you.” He grinned and leaned against the wall.

“Oh… don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Chevalier said from behind them.

Emily looked up and grinned as Kyle and Chevalier came into the light. Larsen turned and crouched, hissing.

Kyle met his crouch, his hands balling into fists.

“Are you ok, Em?” Chevalier asked, giving her a hand.

“Sure,” she told him, and stood up before brushing herself off.

Chevalier turned back to Larsen, “Fancy meeting you down here.”

“He lives here,” Emily explained.

Chevalier raised an eyebrow, “I see.”

“He raised the Ancient, and then they came up with the plan to replace me in the castle. These tunnels go under the castle and from there, they listened to us over the past year. That’s how they were able to find out so much about me,” she explained, watching as Kyle moved to Larsen and grabbed his shoulders.

“That’s not right… she’s lying!” Larsen yelled, glaring at Emily.

Emily gasped, “So much for our combined effort to start a new, superior faction.”

Larsen’s eyes darted from Emily to Chevalier.

“Your idea was it? Were you down here with her?” Chevalier asked, his eyes furious.

“No… no I would have helped her,” Larsen said quickly.

“Hmm, thought you said it was you in the tomb with me and not the Ancient,” Emily said, cringing back as Chevalier jumped at Larsen and pinned him against the wall, his hand firmly around the former Elder’s neck.

The smaller heku tried to push Chevalier away, but he couldn’t get enough strength. He watched, with wide eyes, as Kyle took Emily’s arm and began leading her down the hallway away from them.

“Come on, let’s go,” Kyle said to her.

Emily watched for as long as she could, and then turned her flashlight toward where she and Kyle were walking. As soon as she saw the light filtering down from the staircase, she heard the screams begin. The sudden noise made her jump, and she dropped her flashlight.

“Come on, keep going,” Kyle said, helping her up the stairs.

Emily shielded her eyes against the strong sunlight and moved quickly to Patra. She grabbed her backpack from the ground and turned to look at Kyle.

“So, how mad is he?” she asked softly.

Kyle laughed, “I’m not sure he’ll be mad when he comes back up.”

“Are you kidding? He was livid.”

“Was… he’s getting some much needed… erm… aggression therapy,” Kyle said, grinning.

Emily released the reins from the branch and hoisted herself up onto Patra, “Well I hope he gets it all out. I’m not in the mood for a fight.”

“Why were you down there?” Kyle asked, frowning.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to see.”

“You didn’t think it might be dangerous?”

“No. You know, I don’t walk around looking for trouble. I don’t purposely get myself into odd situations that could be potentially fatal,” she snapped.

“You seem to find them a lot, though,” he mused.

Emily leaned over and put her hands under her head on Patra’s back and hooked her feet together on Patra’s rump.

Kyle looked at her and laughed.

“What?” she asked, irritated.

“How tall are you?” Kyle asked, grinning.

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t answer.

“Oh come on, you can’t be mad at me for that,” he chuckled.

“What’d you do to her now?” Chevalier asked, coming out of the trees. He was covered in blood and his eyes were energetic and bright.

“I just asked how tall she is,” Kyle said, smiling at Chevalier, it wasn’t often he got to see the Chief Enforcer so euphoric.

Chevalier leaned his head back and laughed.

Emily scowled at them. Slowly, she sat back up and took the reins with a glint in her eyes.

“Come on, Patra, let’s show them who runs this place,” Emily said, and kicked Patra into a gallop.

Kyle and Chevalier each blurred to her side, laughing as she ducked lower to help speed up the mare. The mare seemed to understand the challenge and lowered her head, pushing harder. Kyle was laughing at her side but holding steady as Chevalier pulled a little ahead.

The barn came into view as the three flew across the pasture. Emily fell behind Chevalier and Kyle and watched as they egged each other on. She could see their lips moving as they pushed each other and continued to pull further away from her. Chevalier made it into the barn first and turned just as Kyle ran through the door.

Emily slowed Patra when she got in, and patted the mare’s head, “It’s ok, they cheat.”

She screamed as Chevalier pulled her from the horse and tossed her over his shoulder, “Put me down!”

“What do we do to the loser?” Chevalier asked, turning to Kyle.

Kyle grinned, “Hmm, let’s see… I seem to remember something about showing who runs this place.”

Chevalier glanced around.

“We could find out exactly how tall she is,” Kyle suggested.

Emily screamed, “Don’t do it!”

“Oh, I know how tall she is,” Chevalier said, grinning.

“No you don’t!” She fought, but couldn’t get away from him. He held his hand against her back so she couldn’t fling herself backwards and get loose.

“We could weigh her,” Kyle said, and jumped back as she took a swing at him.

Chevalier laughed, “I know how much she weighs, too.”

Emily slumped against his back, “I hate you.”

“Oh I know, Dear,” Chevalier said. “I have an idea.”

Emily looked up as best as she could when Chevalier walked out toward the cow pasture.

“What? Where are we going?” she asked, panicking.

Kyle was smiling, “Good call, Boss.”

“What? Tell me!” she yelled.

Emily felt herself falling backwards moments before she was submerged in freezing cold water as he threw her into the cow’s water trough. She gasped and stood up quickly, glaring as Kyle and Chevalier laughed.

“Now we know who’s boss,” Kyle said, laughing.

Emily caught her breath, “Oh I am, and I’ll get you back for this.”

Thunder sounded from above and they all looked up.

“Let’s get inside,” Chevalier said, reaching out for Emily’s hand. She faked being mad and swatted his hand away, and then quickly jumped onto his back. He gasped as her wet shirt soaked through to him.

“You asked for that,” Kyle said, starting for the house.

Chevalier shook his head and followed Kyle back to the house with Emily on his back. Once in the castle, Kyle headed off when Storm called him, and Chevalier took Emily up to her room. She slid off of his back and went into the bathroom to change. She emerged a short time later wearing her bikini.

“Mmm,” Chevalier sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Emily put her hands on his face and kissed him softly.

“Want to go swimming with Allen and I?” she asked, pulling away from him.

“Nope,” he said as his eyes followed her perfect body from her face to her feet.

“Can you even swim?” she asked, heading toward the door.

“Yes”

“Sure you can.” She grinned and took Allen from Anna.

Chevalier just smiled and followed them down into the pool room. He held the door for her because she still wasn’t able to open it.

Emily cradled Allen as she walked down into the warm water, and then leaned back, floating on the water as Allen laid back against her stomach and kicked his feet.

Chevalier watched them in awe. He would never understand the mother/child bond, but it fascinated him. He slipped out of the pool area when he heard Storm call for him from his office.

“Emily,” Kyle said, kneeling down by the pool.

“Hiya, Kyle, coming for a swim?” Emily asked and caught Allen as he jumped off the side of the pool.

“Ky sim” Allen said, when he saw the heku.

Kyle grinned, “I can’t come swim right now… Emily, the Elders are here and they want to talk to you, immediately.”

Emily frowned, “Why?”

“Not my place to ask, come on. I’ll take Allen,” Kyle said, standing up.

Emily hesitantly crawled out of the pool and handed Allen over, “Tell them I’ll be right there after I change.”

“Sorry, no time,” he explained, and handed her a towel.

She gasped, “I can’t change?”

Kyle started ushering her out of the room, “No, we need to hurry.”

Emily wrapped the towel around her as best she could and scowled all the way to the conference room. Kyle opened the door and Emily stepped in, then spun and tried to get out the door, but he blocked her. There were three heku at the table wearing dark green robes with their hoods pulled up over their heads so she couldn’t see their faces.

“Emily, sit, please,” one of the Elders said. She blushed profusely. They were in traditional Equites robes, and she was in a bikini wrapped in a towel.

“I should ash you,” Emily whispered to Kyle, but blushed worse when he laughed.

“Sit,” he said, shutting the door. Emily turned and sat down at the head of the table, a seat or two away from the others.

“Can we get you anything, Emily?” Maleth asked.

“No, thank you,” she said, and shifted uncomfortably in the seat.

“Ok, let’s get on with it then,” Chevalier said. Emily’s eyes widened. She didn’t know Chevalier was even here. She realized that that meant only two were Elders. She changed seats to sit beside him.

Maleth sighed, “It’s time, Chevalier.”

Chevalier’s hands tightened into fists, “Already?”

Emily’s body tensed. She could tell by the tone in his voice that something was wrong.

“It’s getting worse. We can’t have this,” Leonid said.

“Now though? It seems like an unstable time for such a change,” Chevalier said dryly.

“It has to be now,” Leonid said.

“Why are you telling me?” Chevalier asked.

“It’s going to be you,” Maleth said.

Emily felt Chevalier’s hands ball into tight fists and she started to panic as he growled deeply.

She cleared her throat and felt all three look at her, “What’s going to be him?”

Chevalier sighed, “They want me to take Selest’s place as an Elder.”

She frowned, “No.”

“Excuse me?” Maleth asked, shocked.

“I don’t want him to be an Elder.” Her voice was higher than usual as the panic grew.

“Emily, not now,” Chevalier hissed at her, and her eyes grew wide.

“When?” He turned and asked the others.

“Soon, things have gotten bad,” Maleth told them.

Chevalier turned to Emily, and then back to the Elders, “Why did you have Emily come?”

Leonid sighed, “We hope to avoid the nasty battle with her supporters… Emily gives us the advantage of a clean kill.”

She gasped and pushed her chair back to stand, but Chevalier’s hand shot out and held her in her chair.

“No, I can do it,” Chevalier said angrily.

“You know how many supporters Selest has. It’s more than just doing away with her. We would need to get through her protectors. If Emily could simply… turn her to ash… it would avoid any unexpected complications,” Leonid explained.

“No,” Emily whispered.

“Emily, it’s for the good of the faction,” Maleth said, and pulled his hood back so she could see his face.

She shook her head.

Leonid brought his hood down, followed by Chevalier. She looked into his eyes and could tell he wasn’t happy.

“She can’t kill an Elder. You know what the implications would be,” Chevalier said.

“No one would know what happened, that’s the beauty of it,” Maleth said excitedly. “Never have we been able to replace a member of the Council without fighting and innocent heku dying.”

“I said I can do it… alone,” Chevalier growled at them.

“That would be too messy… then we would have the years and years until the faction members all trusted you again,” Leonid reminded him.

Emily’s mind swam, she thought of Larsen and how he was ousted for being thought of as weak. Everything involved in being an Elder scared her. The Elders were above reproach and they were both hated and feared by anyone outside of the Council. She didn’t want to move off of the island. She didn’t want her husband to have endless meetings and missions.

Maleth reached out and touched her arm lightly, “We can’t order you, Emily, you aren’t a heku. So we have no right to force you to do this.”

She pulled away from his touch and looked at Chevalier, “Don’t do it.”

“I have to. They can’t order you, but once the decision is made to replace an Elder, it’s permanent,” he said to her.

“No,” she said, and turned to the Elders. “Pick someone else.”