Encala : Book 3 of the Heku Series Read online

  “Do I get to keep training the Cavalry?” She was worried about that.

  “Yes, it’s the safest place for you, actually. You’ll be with at least thirteen heku.”

  “I see, and I’m guessing they will be touchy.”

  He nodded, “We have to have them watching carefully.”

  “I know what you’re going to ask and yes… I will be good,” she said, smiling.

  “We understand it’s hard for you to be under so much protection, but we can’t risk them getting to you,” he said, and kissed her softly.

  “I’ll behave, I promise.”

  “There’s one other thing,” Chevalier said, hesitating.

  Emily looked at him suspiciously, “What is that?”

  Chevalier rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, “It’s something… rather personal. I told them no, but I had to promise I’d ask.”

  She frowned, “Just spill it.”

  “The Council wants us to consider having another baby,” he said, grinning sheepishly.

  Emily laughed, “They didn’t.”

  He nodded.

  “Why do they care?”

  “The Winchester powers only go through the female blood line.”

  “Oh I see, and when I die, the ability to ash leaves with me,” she said, understanding.

  Chevalier nodded, surprised she was finding this amusing.

  “So that’s what the Council wants… what do you want?” she asked, crawling onto his lap and facing him.

  “I want what you want,” he said, and pressed his lips against hers.

  She pulled back, “That’s a cop out. What do you want?”

  He sighed and brushed the hair off of her shoulder, “I wouldn’t mind another.”

  “Wouldn’t mind?”

  “What do you want me to say? Yes… I’d like to have another baby.” He grinned, knowing she’d won that.

  Emily smiled, “I’ve been thinking about it anyway, Allen is 3 and he needs a sibling.”

  Chevalier looked at her shocked, “So that’s a yes?”

  She nodded, “They do realize, though, it could be a boy.”

  “I told them that. I can’t believe you said yes.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You were so adamant about not having another.”

  She shrugged, “Yeah well, things change. Understand, though, that I wasn’t even supposed to have one baby. It may not matter what we do, there may not be any more Winchesters.”

  Chapter 3 - Play Time

  “I’m calling a day off,” Emily said, as they gathered for cavalry training. She’d had her cast off for a few weeks, and it was time to have some fun. They all looked at her questioningly as she was in her black sports bra and a pair of cut-off sweat pants that were rolled down at the top to fit against her hips.

  “You are?” Kyle asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes, can I do that?”

  “Sure”

  “Good… then line up,” she said, and watched as the recruits lined up on the left and the Cavalry lined up on the right. Kyle went and stood by her.

  “Ok… you,” she said, pointing to the first new recruit. “Take your shirt off.”

  He frowned slightly and then did as he was told.

  “Ok, Mark,” she said, turning to the second cavalry member, “Shirt off.”

  Kyle looked at her, oddly, not sure what she was up to.

  Emily went through the two lines and every other heku removed their shirt.

  “Kyle, your turn.” She grinned.

  He shook his head and took his shirt off, “Now what?”

  Emily disappeared into the tack room and came back with a football, “Time to play.”

  The gathered heku all grinned and divided up automatically, shirts against skins.

  “I’ll be quarterback for the shirts… obviously.” She couldn’t help but blush some, “Kyle will be quarterback for the skins. When we aren’t playing offense, we’ll help with defense. The end zones are already marked with my shoes.”

  The heku looked at both ends of the lawn and saw shoes on each side. Emily pulled out a quarter and turned to the skins team, “Call it.”

  She tossed the quarter into the air as they called heads. She caught it in her hand and looked, skins were going first.

  “There’s just one tiny problem,” Kyle said as they lined up.

  “What’s that?” Emily asked.

  “We can’t tackle the quarterback… that’s kind of cheating.” He grinned.

  “Oh right, well…” She tried to come up with a solution, “Then tackle me, I’m tougher than I look.”

  Kyle shook his head, “The Elder would kill us for that.”

  She frowned, “He won’t even know.”

  “Ok then… don’t hit her full force, though,” Kyle said, turning to his team, and they all agreed.

  Emily lined up behind one of her teammates and put her hands out to him. He hiked the ball and she backed up, looking for someone who was free. Her linemen were doing a good job keeping the opposing team off of her, and she finally saw a guard off to the side with his hands up. She threw the ball as hard as she could and he caught it nimbly, then blurred to the end zone.

  “Touchdown!” Emily shouted, doing a victory dance.

  They re-lined up on what was somewhere near the center of the field and this time, Emily was one of the lineman. She grinned at the shirtless guard across from her. Emily glanced to the sidelines when she saw movement and laughed, there was a crowd gathering.

  From up on the third floor, Chevalier paced his office, thinking. He stopped for a quick glance out the window, and looked down to see what was going on below. He smiled and shook his head as he saw the Cavalry and the new recruits gathered playing football. Chevalier laughed when he saw Emily lined up defensively against one of the larger recruits. She looked miniscule in comparison to him.

  As the ball was hiked, Emily lunged at the new recruit and he turned just as she jumped. She slammed into his back and wrapped her arms and legs around him. He took off down the field as Emily struggled to make him fall. She finally hooked her elbow around his neck and threw herself backwards. The heku fell back and landed to the side of her.

  Chevalier decided he’d worked enough for one day, and headed down to join the growing crowd that was watching. He arrived just as the skins team made a touchdown. The scoring heku was high-fiving his teammate.

  “Move to the front, Elder,” one of the heku in the crowd offered.

  “No, I’ll stay back out of sight.” He was afraid their game would end if they knew he was watching. They were seriously breaking the ‘no touching’ rule, but he knew that the entire idea had to be Emily’s, and he was enjoying watching her have fun.

  Emily lined up again behind a heku and put her hands out. As soon as the ball was hiked, one of the skins broke away and tackled Emily. She felt herself being hit and then somehow gently set against the ground. Chevalier started to jump toward them, but saw that the heku who tackled her was being extremely careful.

  She stood up and got back in position. Chevalier looked around, there had to be at least two hundred heku gathered to watch.

  “What’s going on?” Maleth asked, standing by Chevalier.

  “Emily has the Cavalry playing football,” he explained.

  “Interesting.” Maleth turned back to the game.

  The heku playing center hiked the ball to Emily and she fell back, looking for an open guard member. Her eyes fell on a hole, and she tucked the ball under her arm and ran as fast as she could. She heard her team surround her and knock out the opposing team as they tried to get to her. Emily suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as strong arms grabbed her around the waist, and blurred her to the end zone.

  The Cavalry member set her down and she spiked the ball and did a victory dance. She high-fived the guard that had carried her into the end zone, just as Kyle held up a hand.

  “I don’t think that’s legal,” he said, retu
rning to the front line.

  “What’s not?” Emily asked, and walked back to her position.

  “Nowhere in the rule books does it say someone can carry the quarterback into the end zone,” he said, laughing.

  “Nowhere in the rule books does it say they can’t,” she said, and pushed him playfully.

  Emily lined up facing one of her guards again, and looked him in the eyes. The skins team hiked the ball and Emily dodged around her guard and ran for Kyle as he looked around for someone to throw to. She dove and landed hard against his legs, wrapping her arms around both of his ankles. He swayed slightly and then passed the ball to a member of his team, who then blurred into the end zone.

  The shirts team had the ball again, and Emily lined up for the hike. Once she grabbed the ball, she ran back a few steps and then turned when she saw Kyle break free from his opposing guard and run at her. She screamed and ran back toward the wrong end zone and suddenly found herself flat on her stomach. Kyle pinned her, but was holding most of his weight. He took the ball and stood up, then helped Emily up.

  The next goal was for the shirts. As Emily handed off to a guard, he broke through numerous tackles and blurred again into the end zone. She began to think the game wasn’t fair, anyone who got the ball, scored.

  Emily lined up again and crouched down with one hand on the grass as she met Kyle’s eye. He winked and yelled for the hike. Her guard broke off and tackled the heku by her, again giving her a straight line for Kyle. This time she tucked her head and rammed into his stomach with her shoulder. The shoulder butt caught him off guard, and he fell backwards and she fell with him, landing squarely on top of him.

  “Are you ok?” he asked, a little panicked, but then she laughed and crawled off of him.

  “Quarterback sack by the mortal!” Emily yelled, doing her own small victory dance. The crowd whistled and applauded and she blushed profusely.

  “I’m honestly surprised you’re allowing this,” Leonid said. Chevalier was so engrossed in the game, that he hadn’t noticed the Elder standing beside him.

  Chevalier just shook his head and shrugged, “I promised her I’d give her some freedom and so far, I don’t see anything wrong with it.” He turned back to the game.

  Emily crouched down again and put her hands out. When the ball was hiked, she backed up and looked for someone to throw to. An opposing heku got free of his guard and ran at her. She tried to dodge him, but she felt his hands on her waist as he picked her up and ran her toward his end zone.

  “No!” she screamed, laughing as he set her down.

  “Safety!” he yelled, and ran to his cheering teammates.

  “I am pretty sure that’s against the rules,” she said with her hands on her hips.

  Kyle grinned at her, “I’m pretty sure it isn’t. Now we’re two points ahead. One more play and back to work.”

  “Huddle!” Emily called, and her teammates came and put their arms around one another’s shoulders, forming a circle with Emily in the middle.

  “They’re cheating,” she said to them.

  “I say let’s form a V with Emily in the middle… we’ll knock them away from you… just run as fast as you can,” one of the recruits said.

  Emily nodded, “Deal. If we get this touchdown, we win.”

  The shirts team lined up for the hike. Emily glanced to her left, and then to her right. When everyone was on the line, she yelled for the hike.

  She dropped back a little and saw the V form ahead of her. She ran as fast as she could, and heard her team knocking the opposing team away from her. She pushed herself to keep up. She knew they were holding back, but she was falling behind. Emily jumped when she saw the end zone and slid into it. About half of the crowd began to cheer and clap, and one of her teammates picked her up and spun her around.

  It was a while before the crowd dispersed, and the first to leave were the Elders. Emily and Kyle met at center field and shook hands. They then walked toward the stables, leaving the teams and the crowd behind them.

  “They’ll have a party tonight, no doubt,” Kyle said, stepping into the barn.

  “A party?” She tossed the football back into the storage closet.

  “They are pretty hyped. That was some training,” he said, and sat on a bale of hay to watch her.

  “Hopefully it worked,” she said, sitting beside him.

  “Oh, there’s a reason for the game?”

  “Of course… so far in training it’s been cavalry vs. new recruits… now I hope we have a unified group. One group.”

  Kyle shook his head and grinned, “That’s brilliant, you know that?”

  “Of course! I thought of it.” She frowned, though, “So if they have a party, then four of them won’t be able to go, they’ll be watching me.”

  Kyle nodded, “They know that’s part of the job, and it’s 6, not 4. Allen has his guards now too.”

  “What can I do to give them the day off?”

  “You promised not to slip out,” he reminded her.

  “I know, that’s why I’m asking how I can do that officially. What if I promise not to leave my room? You can even stay in the room with me,” she suggested.

  “I guess that would be ok.”

  “Go tell them and I’ll head to my room. I need to take a shower and get changed,” she said, standing up.

  “But that would leave you alone… come with me to tell them and we’ll go up together.”

  “True… let’s go,” she said, before standing up and putting a hand out to help Kyle up. They walked out together and called the recruits and the Cavalry together.

  “Great job today guys,” she said, smiling. She loved the way they were excited and acting like friends.

  “You too, Lady Emily. Who knew you could play football?” Mark said, laughing.

  “Last bit of news… Kyle told me you will want to party tonight. So you all get the night off,” she said, smiling.

  The guard’s faces turned from excited to concerned, “Who will watch you?”

  “I have that covered. I promised to be good and stay in my room. Training is at 8am, though, so don’t do anything that’ll keep you from it.” She suddenly wondered if there was anything that could keep a heku from functioning, they didn’t drink, and they didn’t sleep.

  “You know… there is another option,” one of the recruits said.

  “Like what?” Emily questioned.

  “Like you come and party with us,” he said, and then looked nervously at Kyle for approval.

  Kyle shrugged, “Go ahead if you want, Em. Not sure you could be anywhere safer than with thirteen of your guards.”

  “Really? I can go?” she asked, but was already heading off with them.

  “I’ll tell the Elder,” he called after them.

  Kyle walked into the palace, smiling, as the last of the crowd left the lawn. He walked up to Chevalier’s office and knocked.

  “Come in,” the Elder said.

  Kyle stepped in and shut the door behind him.

  “Have a seat,” Chevalier told him.

  “I suppose you saw,” Kyle said, taking a seat.

  “I did, it was quite interesting.”

  “I thought she was just playing. Come to find out, it was her version of a team-building exercise and, well, I think it worked.”

  “Oh? Were the new recruits not getting along with the Cavalry?”

  “They weren’t fighting, but there was a definite line.”

  “I’m guessing Emily is up taking a shower then?”

  “Well, that’s what I came to tell you. Emily went to party with them.” He wasn’t sure how that would go over, so he watched for Chevalier’s temper.

  “She went to party with the guards?” he was shocked.

  “Yes, they invited her.”

  Chevalier leaned his head back and laughed, “Only Emily.”

  Kyle nodded, “I figured she can’t be any safer than that.”

  “Well, while she’s out… we need to
discuss the Mortal Ceremony we have next week,” Chevalier said, pulling a file out of a pile on his desk.

  “What were you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking about maybe sending her and Allen to the island for a week.”