Eternity of Vengeance (Extended Edition) : Book 7 of the Heku Series Page 17

  “Good, Miri and I are just working on the house.”

  “Not staying in the castle?”

  “Naw, that’s Dad’s house. We got one in the city.”

  “I see… I have a question though,” Emily said, and hesitated.

  She could tell Allen was grinning, “What now?”

  “Have you heard where Kralen is?”

  “Well, no, haven’t heard anything. Is he missing?”

  “Yes, and they just keep telling me he’s either on vacation or on a mission.”

  “You don’t believe them?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  Allen thought for a moment, “My guess is that he’s on a big mission. Maybe undercover or infiltrating another faction. That can take hundreds of years to accomplish.”

  “What!?”

  “It’s not easy for another faction to think a heku jumped ship and joined them because of fights with the Equites. If Kralen’s on a mission to be trusted by the Valle or the Encala, then it will take centuries.”

  “How can I find out?” she asked, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.

  “Not sure on that one. No one that knows will tell you, it could break his cover.”

  Emily sighed, “I’m worried about him.”

  “You’d be better off letting him do whatever it is he left to do,” Allen told her.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “Please, Mom, don’t go after him. If you break his cover, he could be killed.”

  “I won’t, talk to you later,” she said, and hung the phone up. She got up and headed for the stairs when she heard Alexis out of her classroom.

  “Wait,” Emily said, and went down the stairs. “What’s up?”

  Alexis looked up and smiled, “Hi, Mom. We’re going out to your leech pond to get a water sample.”

  “Ew, why?”

  “I need a fresh slide of protozoa.”

  “Don’t go in,” Emily said, and glanced behind her at Alexis’ guard, Gabe. He was carefully scanning the foyer.

  “No way, though I doubt they’d like me,” Alexis said, and blushed when she glanced at Gabe.

  Emily grinned and watched them all move off down the stairs. She sat down on the top step of the fourth-floor stairs and looked around, somewhat bored, and still trying to figure out how to find Kralen’s location.

  “Lady Emily?” she heard someone say from behind her. Emily stood up and turned to face the new palace Staff Supervisor.

  “Yeah?” She was a little irritated that she was replaced with a heku after being at the job for so long. The Elders told her they felt it unbefitting of an Elder’s wife to work in the palace, and all of her arguments didn’t sway their decision.

  “I need to check on something. May I get the keys for the palace please?” he asked pleasantly.

  “Oh sure. I need to go grab something and I’ll bring them to your office.”

  “Very well,” he said with a bow, and then left.

  Emily smiled. She hadn’t considered before, but with the Staff Supervisor keys, she could get in any door in the palace except the Elder’s Offices. She quickly ran down to the third-floor and checked around before going in to the Records Keeper’s office. The room was pristinely clean with neatly stacked files and rows of file cabinets.

  ***

  “Very well. We will consider the move and let you know within the week,” Zohn said, and nodded to the Records Keeper.

  “Thank you, Elder,” the heku in the trial area said, and left with a bow.

  The Records Keeper frowned slightly and stood up, “Excuse me for a moment.”

  He walked calmly out of the council chambers. Once out of sight of the Council, he almost immediately appeared at the door to his office and stood in front of it for a moment, listening inside. He heard soft footsteps and knew immediately who set off his alarm.

  “Good afternoon, Emily,” he said, stepping inside.

  Emily turned quickly and looked at him with wide eyes. She was glad she’d just shut the file door before he came in, “Hello.”

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “I was… checking to see if the cleaning crew did a good job.”

  “I see… and is that not the job of the new Staff Supervisor?” he asked, and sat down behind his desk.

  “It was cleaned yesterday. I was still in charge.”

  “And which file did you wish to see?”

  Emily frowned slightly, “Excuse me?”

  “Dear, the files are too important to leave without an alarm.”

  “Oh, no, I opened them to check dust along the top of the shelf.”

  He smiled, “If you’ll tell me what you want to know, I may just tell you.”

  Emily sighed and her shoulders dropped some, “I want the files on the Winchesters.”

  “Oh?” he asked, sitting back in his chair as he pressed his fingertips together.

  “The Valle can’t be the only ones keeping tabs on my family.”

  “No, they were not.”

  “So what do the Equites have on it?”

  “Let’s see,” the Records Keeper said, and stood up slowly. He walked over and began going through one of the top drawers in the file cabinet. “What part of Winchester history do you want?”

  “What do you have?” she asked, getting on her tiptoes to try to see, but it was still too high.

  “I have death records from Equites they killed, and arrest records for heku imprisoned by them. I have possible whereabouts, genealogical files, home locations, any 1800’s attack locations…”

  “Wow, well…” Emily thought, “What about information like… personalities, temperaments, likes, dislikes…”

  He smiled at her, “No, we did not care enough about that to record it.”

  “I thought you recorded everything.”

  “Only the important things. What is it you seek?”

  She shrugged, “I don’t know, anything interesting.”

  “Then I suggest you consult Camber. He would be the one to ask.”

  “He’s a… well… I don’t like him.”

  “He wrote a book on the Winchesters, maybe that might help.”

  “Oh, good idea, I’ll Google it.”

  “Excuse me?” he asked, shutting the drawer.

  “Never mind, thanks for your help,” Emily said, and left his room quickly. She hurried upstairs and gave the new Staff Supervisor the keys, and then quickly ran up to her helicopter to think.

  The Records Keeper relocked his office and returned to the council chambers.

  “Everything ok?” Kyle asked, watching him.

  “Emily was going through some of my files,” he said, and sat down.

  “Did she say why?”

  “Yes, but it was a lie.”

  “Do you think she’s looking for Kralen?” Kyle asked, looking over at the Elders.

  “I don’t think so,” Chevalier said. “I’d think she would ask me first… course, it’s Em, so who knows.”

  “How did she get into your office?” Dustin asked.

  The Records Keeper smiled, “She just hadn’t turned her keys over to the new Staff Supervisor, but she has now.”

  Dustin glared at the others, “I suppose you’re going to let her get away with breaking into one of our offices?”

  Quinn looked over at the Records Keeper, “Jerry, did you want to press charges?”

  “No, I do not.”

  “Then, we aren’t doing anything,” Quinn said to Dustin. Dustin slammed his chair back and stormed out of the room.

  ***

  Emily nodded off in the helicopter as she contemplated who to ask about Kralen. Before falling asleep, she’d decided that none of the Council would tell her, and she already knew the Cavalry wasn’t going to either. She woke up when Equites 2 landed, and then she headed inside.

  At the top of the eighth-floor stairs, she heard the front door to the palace slam shut and then heard crying. She quickly ran down the stairs, t
wo at a time, knowing there was only one person in the palace, other than herself, that would cry.

  She met Alexis on the fifth-floor as she was running to her room. When the 13-year-old saw her Mom, she ran into her arms, still crying. Her two guards were with her, but said nothing.

  “What happened, Alex?” Emily asked, and held her.

  She was crying too hard to speak and just pulled closer to her Mom.

  “What happened?” she asked the guards.

  “Not quite sure, Ma’am. Miss Alexis was collecting a plant for a science project, Stu and I were just visiting… then she ran up here,” Gabe told her.

  “Get into the council chambers, now,” Emily hissed at them. They both bowed slightly and disappeared down the stairs. She watched them go and then led Alexis into the bedroom. They both sat down and Emily waited while Alexis calmed down before taking her hand, “What happened?”

  Through sobs, Alexis finally managed to whisper, “He… he… he has a… girlfriend.”

  That brought new sobs and Emily held her while she cried through it, “I’m sorry, Alex.”

  “He never said anything before,” Alexis mumbled, and grabbed a tissue.

  “Guards don’t like to get too close to us,” Emily told her.

  “Yours do.”

  “Yeah, well, they aren’t supposed to, but they’ve been guarding me forever.”

  “M… maybe… maybe he’ll leave his girlfriend.”

  “Honey, you can’t bank on that.”

  Alexis broke down in tears again while Emily held her. Once she calmed down, Emily leaned back in her chair and took Alexis’ hand.

  “He thinks I’m a kid,” Alexis whispered.

  “You are, Alex,” Emily said, and then sighed when Alexis glared at her. “You’re 13… these heku think I’m a kid and I’m way older than you are.”

  “So that’s all I’ll ever be to him?”

  Emily shrugged, “I don’t know, there’s no way to tell.”

  “Allen didn’t have this problem.”

  “Allen was never a kid. He shot from 5-years-old to adult overnight it seems like.”

  “I can do more than a heku can though, I can have kids…”

  “We don’t know that, I told you,” Emily said, and then sat back when Alexis began to cry again.

  “I hate it here,” Alexis said after a few more minutes.

  “I know it’s hard. We aren’t heku, but we aren’t human.”

  “How do you deal with it?”

  “I don’t have a choice. I love your Dad and I put up with a lot to stay with him.”

  “What if I don’t want to stay here?” Alexis asked.

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “To the island, to live with Allen.”

  “Alex… he’s newly married… maybe later.”

  Emily looked up when there was a knock at the door, “Come in.”

  Derrick poked his head in, “The Council wants to know what they are supposed to do with Miss Alexis’ guards.”

  “I’ll be right down,” she said, and made sure he shut the door behind him.

  “I don’t want to see Gabe again.”

  “Ok, I’ll have him replaced.”

  Alexis nodded, “I’m going to go study.”

  Emily nodded and watched her leave. She took a deep breath and went down to the council chambers. Derrick opened the trial door to let her in. She walked in and saw Alexis’ two guards standing with Mark and Silas. They all looked over at her when she walked in.

  “They will not tell us what brought them here,” Quinn told her.

  She walked up to stand beside them, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had them come here. I should have met them elsewhere, this isn’t a Council matter.”

  “Well they are here and I want to know what they did,” Kyle said.

  Emily turned to Mark, “Replace them as Alexis’ guards.”

  “What did they do?”

  “Just… do it,” she said, and started for the door.

  “Em…” Chevalier said, and she turned to him. “What happened?”

  “Nothing, just… do it ok?”

  “No, I want to know what they did to Alexis.”

  “They didn’t do anything,” Emily said, and glanced at her guards. “Just get her new ones.”

  “No, I want to know if they need punished,” Mark told her.

  “They don’t.”

  “Then why are we removing them?”

  Emily sighed and glanced around the room before looking back at Mark, “When’s the last time you were a 13-year-old girl?”

  Mark frowned, “Excuse me?”

  “When?”

  “Never”

  “Then you wouldn’t understand… replace them,” she said, and left the room.

  “What the hell kind of question was that?” Mark asked, looking over at Chevalier.

  He shrugged, “I have no idea. Just do it.”

  “Very well, you two, back to the barracks,” Mark said, and followed the guards out of the council chambers.

  Emily stopped at the fifth-floor foyer and a smile crossed her face when she had an idea. She quickly ran up to the roof and into the control room, which she found unlocked. She sat down by the two-way radio and began looking through the flight logs for the previous few years. She thought hard and then began looking through all flight logs from 5 years prior.

  She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the names of eight covens down on it. The eight covens the Equites flew to during the time-frame she was studying. After noting the mileage logs from the airplanes, she folded the paper up, and slipped it into her back pocket and headed inside for dinner.

  “These are going to be Lexi’s new guards,” Silas said when he met up with Emily on the stairs. She looked up at two young, handsome heku with bright, fresh faces and an eagerness to be assigned to the palace.

  “No, they aren’t,” Emily said, and started down the stairs. “Let’s go, I’ll pick some out.”

  “Em, what’s wrong with these two?” Silas asked, following her.

  Emily smiled at the two guards, “Nothing, feel free to guard me… but I’m picking out Alexis’ guards.”

  “You are?” Silas asked, confused. “You quit the Cavalry.”

  “Mother’s prerogative,” she said, and started walking for the barracks.

  “What are you doing?” Mark asked, joining them.

  “She’s going to the barracks to pick out Lexi’s new guards,” Silas explained.

  “What’s wrong with Kevin and Lonny?” he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from walking.

  Emily looked up at him, “They’re just wrong for the position, let me help.”

  “Nothing’s wrong with them, they’re good.”

  “I have no doubt they are good, however, no.”

  “Em…” Chevalier said, blurring up. “What’s wrong with these two?”

  She sighed, “Nothing is wrong! Put them as my guards if you want, but I need to pick out Alex’s.”

  “They can’t guard you!” Silas said, shocked. “They’re not Cavalry.”

  “Then make them Cavalry,” she said, and walked toward the barracks.

  “You can’t go in there,” Mark said, stepping between her and the door.

  Emily rolled her eyes, “Like anyone’s going to attack me with Chev watching.”

  “That is true,” Chevalier said, eyeing the door.

  “I just don’t understand what’s wrong with the last four guards,” Silas said, irritated.

  Emily stepped inside the barracks and the entire building suddenly fell quiet. They all turned and saw the mortal in their barracks with members of the Cavalry and the Elder. She looked briefly in the room and then smiled.

  “What’s your name?” she asked an older looking heku with a deep scar running lengthwise down his face, tattoos across both arms, and a scowling expression.

  “Vance,” he said, not sounding happy about talking to her.

&nbs
p; “Perfect… and you… what’s your name?” she asked another guard. This one had long black hair and a black goatee that hid his face. He had dark, menacing eyes and no neck.

  “Hudd,” he said, looking over at the Elder curiously.

  Emily turned to Mark, “Hudd and Vance then.”

  “What? How did you pick them?” Mark asked, looking over at them.

  “I just did.”

  “It takes a long time for us to pick who is capable to guard one of you.”

  “These two are prefect,” she said, and left after taking Chevalier’s hand.

  “What is it you’re up to?” he asked, following her back to the palace.

  She looked over at him, “What do you mean?”

  “Why are you picking Alexis’ guards?”

  “I’m her Mom. I know what she needs.”

  “So you picked two of the meaner ones in the group? Is someone after her?”

  “No, Chev, just trust me on this one.”

  “Fine, but Mark will need to decide first if he agrees.”

  She thought for a bit and then nodded, “Ok, but if they don’t work, I pick the next ones too.”

  “Fine, though that’s just odd,” he said, and grinned slightly. He knew nothing Emily did ever made full sense and most went against any heku tradition.

  ***

  Emily looked around the empty bedroom. She woke up long enough to see Chevalier off for trials and then went back to bed for a couple of hours. She woke up with a plan and immediately grabbed her phone.

  “Valle Council,” a strange voice said.

  “Good morning,” Emily said, and smiled. “Is Sotomar there?”

  “I am, Emily.”

  “Do you have a book with the location of all Equites Covens?”

  There was silence on the line, but Emily had a feeling they were talking. Finally, Sotomar spoke again, “No.”

  She smiled, “So you do… I need a favor.”

  “I just said we do not.”

  “Yes, but you had to discuss it with the Council first. Now I’m not going to tell the Equites, but I need a favor.”

  “What, exactly, would that favor be?” Valle Elder Ryan asked.

  “If I give you the name of eight covens, will you tell me their locations?”

  “Why don’t you ask the Equites? Coven locations aren’t exactly secret within the Council.”