Encala : Book 3 of the Heku Series Page 27

  “She’s not making sense,” he whispered, too softly for Emily to hear. “She’s confused, almost in a daze. The original Winchester died by killing too many heku at one time and Emily has her record beat,”

  The doctor nodded and whispered back, “This will be easier if we can sedate her.”

  Maleth and Leonid walked in and ordered all of the extra heku out of the room. They looked at Emily and forced a smile.

  “How are you, Emily?” Leonid asked her.

  “I won’t join you. I’m an Equites,” she hissed at him. “How could you join the Encala?”

  The doctor was quickly preparing a strong injection.

  Leonid frowned.

  “I don’t care what you say. I won’t marry Vaughn,” she said, trying to get up, but Chevalier held her down.

  Emily screamed when she felt the pinch of the needle, but jerked away too slowly. The doctor was able to administer the full amount.

  “How could you?” she asked. Her words were soft and garbled.

  As soon as she was sedated, Chevalier pulled her skirt away from her thigh and bent down to look at the runes. The other Elders hissed when they saw it and grew furious.

  “My God,” the doctor said, taking a step back.

  “I think it’s ink. I don’t think they were able to tattoo it yet,” Chevalier said. He brushed it with his finger, but it didn’t come off.

  “It may have to wear off over time,” Kyle said, bending down to look.

  “Arm bands, too,” Maleth said, touching the coiled serpent around Emily’s upper arms.

  Chevalier nodded, “That’s easy enough to get rid of.”

  He reached over and slipped the leather pouch off of her wrist and opened it, “It’s full of ashes.”

  Kyle frowned, “That’s it? Ashes?”

  Chevalier nodded, “It’s important to her. I’m guessing it’s the Ancient.”

  The doctor stood up after he examined her, “There’s no physical damage. No one knows enough about the Winchester powers to know what affect this will have on her in the long-term.”

  Chevalier sighed, “So we wait, see if she dies?”

  The doctor nodded, “I’m sorry, that’s all I can say. We can’t take her to the hospital.”

  “I know,” Chevalier said, taking her hand. “Ulrich’s first daughter, Elizabeth, died by killing a few hundred heku. There had to have been close to a thousand in that one room, then the servants and guards.”

  Kyle nodded, “The entire palace was turned to ash.”

  “The reports have come down. Emily also wiped out over half of the city,” Maleth said, softly.

  “Leave us. I have to get her out of these clothes, they disgust me,” Chevalier said, picking her up. He cradled her limp body in his arms and carried her into the bathroom.

  With one hand, he filled the tub and gently took the red velvet off of her. He tried to avoid looking at the ancient runes on her thigh as he sat her down in the water.

  Supporting her with one hand, Chevalier began to gently wash the blood and ash off of her. He had to change the water four times before he was able to clean it all off. After he washed the blood from her hair, he pulled her from the water and dried her off on the bed. He looked around and found a simple white nightgown and slipped it on her. Once the covers were pulled up over her, he sat down by her side.

  “You can come back,” he whispered. Kyle, Maleth, and Leonid came back into the room.

  Kyle smiled, “That’s more like it.”

  Chevalier ran his fingers over the golden snakes curling up her arms.

  “Did it come off?” Maleth asked, and Chevalier shook his head.

  The doctor came back carrying an I.V. set up, “I have an idea.”

  Chevalier looked over at him, “She won’t keep it in.”

  “She won’t have a choice,” he said, putting the supplies down. “My suggestion is a medically induced coma.”

  Kyle frowned, “For how long?”

  “I say two weeks. Though when the blood is gone from her eyes, we can try earlier,” he said, looking at Chevalier for permission.

  “She won’t wake up at all for two weeks?”

  “No,” the doctor said, and when Chevalier nodded, he inserted the I.V. catheter and started the slow drip.

  “Get the word out. Find out how to remove an ink signum qualitas off of a mortal,” Chevalier said.

  “I’m on it,” Kyle said, blurring from the room.

  “The Valle are requesting an audience with us,” Maleth said, watching Emily sleeping peacefully.

  “Now?” Chevalier growled.

  “They will be here in a few days.”

  “In the meantime,” Leonid said. “We would like to know what happened in the palace.”

  “Everyone was killed. Emily is the only one left that would know,” he said, watching her sleep.

  “I do hope she remembers that we are Equites when she wakes up.” Maleth said softly.

  Chevalier nodded and smiled, “It wasn’t just you two. We were all traitors, and she made sure and let us know that she’s an Equites.”

  “I never really thought she considered herself one of us,” Leonid said.

  “Neither did I,” Chevalier told him, and kissed her forehead softly.

  Chapter 10 - Peace

  The Council was seated in the council chambers as they waited for the Valle to arrive. Emily was four days into her two week sleep, and everyone was anxious for her to wake up and fill in a lot of blanks from the Encala attack.

  As the door opened, the Council looked toward the arriving Valle. All three of the Valle Elders walked in quietly with their entourage, and stood before the Equites.

  Maleth stood, “We’ll skip the pleasantries and ask right out, why have you summoned us?”

  The tallest Valle Elder stepped forward, “Thank you for honoring us with your presence.”

  Damon looked at Chevalier, and he shrugged.

  “We have come to your beautiful home to ask for a treaty of peace,” the Valle said.

  “Don’t we need to be at war to require a peace treaty?” Maleth asked.

  “No, no, we don’t. We just want to ensure that what happened to the Encala… won’t be in the plans for the Valle,” he said, smiling.

  “We did not attack first,” Maleth said, his eyes narrowing.

  “Oh of course not. We know you would never do that,” the Valle said quickly.

  “Unless you are planning an attack, then there’s no reason for you to fear us,” Damon said, not standing.

  “We cannot help but fear you. The rumors from the Encala are terrifying… to any heku.”

  “Rumors?” Maleth asked.

  “Yes… we have heard what your army did to the Encala palace. We don’t know the reasoning, but would like to see that kind of destruction avoided,” another Valle Elder said.

  “Our army?” Leonid asked, smiling.

  “Their path of annihilation was horrific, and the Encala are in ruins. We are not here to judge your actions, but to try to negotiate a treaty that will ensure that we are not next,” he said, nervously.

  “We have no plans on attacking the Valle… at this time,” Damon said, watching them carefully.

  “Will you not sign a treaty then? Promise us that, in the future, we will handle things civilly, and not with wanton destruction?”

  “We are a civilized faction,” Leonid said, irritated.

  “I am so sorry. I was not implying that you are not,” the Valle Elder said, fidgeting nervously.

  “I’m getting the impression that you are in a panic over something you’ve done, though I can’t quite figure out what,” Chevalier leaned forward.

  “N... Nothing… we assure you.”

  “Have you been to the Encala palace?” Damon asked.

  The Valle Elders glanced at each other uneasily.

  “What... did you… do?” he asked them, and stood up.

  “We... we just wanted to help,” the tallest Va
lle Elder said.

  “Explain yourself,” Leonid growled.

  “With that kind of mass death, it left them without any leadership, without even one heku among them that could revive any of those that were killed.”

  “Let me guess, so you decided to do it for them,” Damon scowled.

  “We had no choice!” he said, taking a step back. “We cannot have only two factions. It’s never been done.”

  “How many did you return?” Chevalier asked, angrily.

  “We were only able to revive one of the leaders, the rest were… well… not complete enough to do.”

  Chevalier smiled as he thought of Emily’s little leather pouch.

  When the Equites did not respond, he continued, “We… we were… worried. The Encala were left with no leadership, no laws, or anyone to enforce them. The only reason we helped was to keep the Encala from turning feral.”

  “Oh yes, I’m sure that’s the only reason you did it,” Damon growled.

  “Who did you revive?” Maleth asked them, frowning.

  “It was their Chief Enforcer, that’s all,” the Valle answered.

  “Oh, so the one heku that could revive more,” Damon snapped.

  “We didn’t know who it was… we just saw one untouched… shall we say… set of remains, and revived him.”

  “What other assistance have you given them?” Damon asked.

  “That is all, we swear! They are still an opposing faction, after all.”

  “I find it unacceptable that you went behind our backs, after our attack, and revived one of their leaders,” Chevalier said angrily.

  “We don’t see it as going behind your backs. What were we supposed to do? Allow the Encala faction to fall into ruins and leave all of their heku without any kind of direction?” the Valle Elder pulled at his collar nervously.

  “Yes, that is exactly what you should have done,” Damon said, leaning toward them.

  “You act as if the attack was unprovoked and out of line,” Chevalier hissed.

  “I stress that we do not think that… we know you would never attack without reason. However…” the Valle said, glancing at the other Elders quickly.

  “Yes?” Damon said.

  “It seemed a bit... harsh, shall we say. The Encala are claiming over 1,800 deaths in their city. We do not judge, but that is the largest attack of our kind, ever.”

  “Again, warranted,” Chevalier said to them.

  “Then to… take…” the Valle Elder shuddered, “parts of them, so they could not be revived. We do not feel that was the proper thing to do.”

  “Proper?” Damon asked, sitting back down.

  “Yes, that also has never been done. Your punishment had been dealt. Something like that could take hundreds of years to recover from, but by taking what you did, it could be thousands before the Encala are stable again.”

  “I see,” Maleth said, glaring. “We do see your point, but as you do not know the reasoning behind the attack, we feel you should not say that to us.”

  “You are right, we apologize,” the Valle Elder said.

  There was an awkward silence in the council chambers as the Valle looked at one another and nervously stood before their enemies.

  “Was there something else you wanted?” Damon asked, after a few minutes of silence.

  “We…” the smallest Valle Elder stepped forward after glancing at the others, “We feel it would only be fair, you know, in keeping with the peace… if you would share your new ability with us.”

  Leonid looked at Maleth curiously.

  “We don’t know what you mean by ability, please elaborate,” Maleth said to them.

  “It is obvious to us… that the… Winchester ability has been passed to the Equites. That puts you with an unfair advantage, and we feel to keep peace in the factions, it should be given to each of us,” he said, smiling.

  “I see,” Maleth said, sitting back in his chair.

  “It would purely be used to keep equality among the factions.”

  “How would the ability to kill one another quickly, and in great amounts, be of a peaceful nature?” Damon asked, truly curious.

  “It would be similar to when the mortals discovered nuclear weapons… because each country had the same power, it was never used,” the Valle explained.

  “Oh, well of course… let’s call Emily down and have her share,” Damon said, grinning.

  The Valle turned and looked at the others and then back to the Equites, “So you understand and comply?”

  “No,” Damon said. “I just figured a dim-witted idea, warranted a dim-witted response.”

  The Valle wrung his hands nervously, “We don’t feel that this is an unintelligent request, it is fairness, for peace.”

  “Yes, I heard your excuse.”

  “Shall we vote then?” Maleth asked, looking down the row of Equites.

  The Valle watched them anxiously.

  “All in favor of sharing our new found ability, raise your hand,” Maleth said, watching the Valle instead of taking count of the Equites votes.

  “Please, think of the peace… we could all cooperate, and the ancient wars would end. Won’t more of you vote yes?” the Valle asked.

  The entire Equites Council looked over at Damon, whose hand was raised. Chevalier rolled his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, the majority vote is no,” Maleth said, ignoring Damon.

  “Please, talk to them, reason with them to see your side,” the Valle asked Damon frantically.

  “Wait… weren’t we voting to turn these heku to ash?” Damon asked, frowning.

  The Valle all nervously took steps toward the door.

  “No, you misunderstood,” Maleth said, laughing. “We were voting to share that trick with our new friends here.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Damon said, lowering his hand.

  “We see now, there is no chance of peace,” the Valle said nervously.

  “We are at peace now. We will not consider us at war until you have done something to provoke it,” Leonid said.

  “May we ask the Lady then? If she will bestow the gift on us?” the tallest Valle Elder asked.

  “No, you may not,” Leonid said, coldly.

  “You speak for her now? Does she not have the ability to answer for herself?”

  “Yes, she does… but no, you may not ask her.”

  “Very well, we will take this as an act of aggression.” He tried to threaten the Council.

  “Oh?” Chevalier asked, suddenly interested.

  “We won’t attack, but you can see how we will need to protect ourselves.”

  “By all means,” he said, grinning.

  After a few minutes of silence, the Valle filed out of the council chambers nervously.

  “That was interesting,” Damon said, leaning back in his chair.

  “1,800,” Leonid whispered, looking at Chevalier.

  “She’s paying for it, though,” he reminded them.

  “You said the original Winchester died by killing a few hundred?”

  “Yes, Sam was there.”

  Leonid frowned, “Does Emily know that?”

  “Yes”

  The realization hit for the rest of the Council. Emily went into the Encala palace, fully expecting to die.

  “How is she?” Maleth asked. The heku were all anxious to hear about her, but her room had been sealed, and Kyle wasn’t letting anyone in or answering any questions.

  “We don’t know. We won’t until she wakes up,” Chevalier said.

  “And the mark?” Leonid asked.

  “Still there, it doesn’t seem to be fading,” Chevalier answered with a hint of anger in his voice.

  “Are the bands still on her arms then?

  “Yes, which means whoever they were for is alive.”

  “Great”

  “It’s not my place, I understand that, but Chevalier… you need to feed. You are looking pale, and you have to be very thirsty,” Maleth suggested.

  “I am n
ot leaving her.”