Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (14 page)

“So if I tell you what happened, will that
fix it?”

“Yes, as long as it’s resolved by the time
they get back… which includes you in the palace where they left
you.”

“Fine… then punish them
for hitting on me, but I’m not coming back.”

“Em, you’d never ash
someone for hitting on you,” Kyle said, and took a pen away from
Dain.

“That’s all you’re getting.”

“Let’s just call it a
sexual assault then, and punish them accordingly,” Zohn
suggested.

Emily cringed, “Let’s not.”

“Then tell us,” Kyle said,
sitting down on a chair beside her. “Let us do our
jobs.”

She shook her head and
went to get the door when someone knocked. She took the tray and
shut the door behind the delivery boy.

Zohn sighed and answered his phone when it
rang, “Zohn here.”

Emily put the pancakes down and took a small
bite, watching Zohn carefully.

Zohn frowned, “I figured he would
eventually.”

The room was silent as
Zohn’s face changed, a shadow passed over his features and his eyes
darkened, “No… don’t kill them. I want them.”

Emily jumped slightly when Zohn slammed his
phone shut.

“Sir?” Kyle asked, tensing.

“Why are you embarrassed
about that? You did nothing wrong!” Zohn hissed.

Emily shrugged, afraid to speak when he was
so angry.

“What happened?” Kyle asked.

“Zohn, please… no,” Emily begged.

“The others have returned,
and Richard was able to get information from Anthony,” Zohn said,
heading for the door. “He wants us all to return
immediately.”

“Let’s go,” Kyle said, putting a hand
out.

Emily shook her head, “I don’t want to see
him right now.”

“Chevalier?”

She nodded.

“Why not?”

“He’s going to be… really… mad.”

Zohn nodded, “That’s putting it
lightly.”

“I’ll go check out,” Kyle
said, heading for the door with the card key.

Emily turned to Zohn when
Kyle left, and his features softened some.

“I wish you would trust
us,” Zohn told her. “What they did was uncalled for and
inappropriate. You did nothing wrong, nothing to be ashamed or
embarrassed about.”

“It keeps happening to
me,” she whispered, and started throwing her things in a
bag.

She stopped when Zohn put
a hand on her shoulder, “No one’s blaming you.”

“I don’t want to see them.”

“We need you to testify.”

She shook her head,
“No.”

“I’ll talk to Chevalier.
See if I can get him to let you miss this trial.”

Zohn grabbed her bag while
she picked up Dain, and they headed out to meet up with
Kyle.

She sat in her Aero in the
palace garage and watched Kyle and Zohn get out of Kyle’s Ferrari.
They turned to wait for her. She sat back until Zohn came to the
Aero and opened the door.

“Do you want me to send Chevalier out?”

“No,” she said, watching the door.

“Come in with Kyle, then.
I’ll go talk to him first.”

Emily nodded and watched him blur into the
palace. Kyle walked over and got Dain out of his seat.

Emily finally relented and
followed them into the palace. They quietly walked up the stairs,
and Kyle handed the baby off to Silas and disappeared into the back
of the council chambers. He started to fuss, so the heku blurred
away with the baby and left Emily by the trial room
doors.

“Going in?” Derrick asked.

“Are the heku in there…
the ones on trial?”

“Not yet. The Elders want
briefed by the Chief Interrogator first.”

“Is that what they’re doing now?”

“No, they are waiting for you to begin.”

Emily glanced down the stairs, “Tell them I
didn’t come in.”

Derrick grinned, “They already know you’re
out here.”

“I’ll give you $500,000 to blur me
away.”

Derrick responded by opening the door to the
trial area, “I don’t need $500,000.”

Emily sighed and headed
in, and stood on the floor beneath the Council while they all
looked down at her. She risked a glance at Chevalier, and he looked
confused, yet on the verge of being angry.

“Lady Emily, we appreciate
you returning,” Quinn said. “Elder Zohn made it perfectly clear
that you do not wish to be here at this trial.”

“So I can go?”

“No, we need you to tell
us if what we were told by the two city guards is correct. The
Chief Interrogator was able to get them to talk, but still feels
like something is left out.”

“What did they tell you?”

“We need you to tell us in your own words
what happened,” the Chief Interrogator said.

Emily looked at Zohn, and
he smiled, “It’s ok, tell us.”

“No, you ask them, and if
they are telling the truth, I’ll let you know.”

“That won’t help if they are leaving parts
out,” Quinn said.

Zohn stood up, “Come with me, for a
moment.”

Emily nodded, glanced at
Chevalier, and then followed Zohn out the back of the council
chambers and into a private conference room.

“She just left with Zohn?” Quinn asked, wide
eyed.

Chevalier was still staring at the door,
“Without a fight, even.”

“Bring them in here, Derrick. At least let
us make them squirm while we wait,” Quinn said.

“I don’t understand why
you won’t tell us,” Zohn said, sitting down in a chair. “Is it
because you’ve done something wrong and are afraid of getting into
trouble?”

Emily shook her head, “No.”

“Are you afraid of the two guards?”

“No”

“Can you help me understand?”

Emily sighed, “It’s
humiliating how the heku think of me.”

“There’s more…”

“Yes”

“Please, tell me.”

“Kyle and Chevalier… they get… really
mad.”

“Yes, they do, but not at you.”

“This was pretty bad.”

“And you don’t want to see
how the Council reacts.”

Emily nodded.

“Will you tell us if we
swear not to get angry?” Zohn asked softly.

“Can I just tell you?”

Zohn grinned slightly, “We need a first
person to testify. How will it be easier for you?”

“Have the heku tell their
story, and I’ll tell you if they are correct.”

“Will you tell us if they are leaving
something out?”

She thought about it and nodded.

Zohn smiled, “Ok… let’s go back in.”

The Council all watched,
shocked, when Emily came in holding Zohn’s arm. She sat down
between him and Chevalier, and tensed when she saw the heku on the
ground. They both looked at the ground when she
appeared.

“We will be doing this a
little differently. Please question the city guards, and Emily will
tell us if they are correct and if anything is left out,” Zohn told
the others. They all nodded and turned to the trial
area.

Richard, the Chief
Interrogator, stood up, “This trial is against Anthony and
John-Paul. They are city guards who were discovered yesterday
afternoon. They were in the stables and had been turned to
ash.”

“Upon interrogation,
Anthony admitted that they went to the stables to find Lady Emily,
and to clear up some rumors they heard about her. When they
confronted her about the rumors, she became upset and turned them
to ash.”

Emily leaned over and whispered softly into
Zohn’s ear.

Zohn sighed, “So far it’s
all wrong. They aren’t exactly lying, though.”

Richard turned to the
heku, frowning, “What’s it going to take to get a straight answer
out of you two?”

She reached over and whispered to Zohn
again.

“Ok,” Zohn said. “Start
when you caught her attention in the stables, and motioned her into
the overseer’s room. You shut the door behind her and…”

“We thought the rumors were true,” Anthony
said, still watching the ground.

“Shut up,” John-Paul growled at him.

“What rumors might that be?” Richard asked
him.

“That… she… you know.”

“No, we don’t know.”

“That she sometimes cheats on the
Elder.”

Chevalier growled softly.

Zohn nodded, “So… what?
You decided to proposition her to get in line?”

Emily frowned and looked
at Zohn, but he was glaring at the guards.

Anthony nodded,
“Yes.”

“I thought we stopped
those rumors,” Kyle yelled angrily.

Zohn glanced at Emily, “Was that all? They
asked to… you know…”

Emily shook her head.

“We… we wanted… you know… both of us… at
once…”

Emily cringed when the
Council erupted in angry talking, until Zohn cleared his throat and
they all calmed down.

“Was that the end of it?” Richard
questioned.

“Yes, Sir,” Anthony said.

She looked down at her hands and whispered,
“No, it wasn’t.”

“This really would go
faster if you would just tell us,” Richard said bluntly. He was
silenced by a glare from Zohn.

“They wanted to role-play,” Emily whispered
softly.

“No… no we didn’t,”
John-Paul said, glaring at Emily. “She’s lying.”

“Seems to me like you are,” Richard told
him.

Emily leaned over and
whispered quickly to Zohn, trying to make her voice low enough the
others couldn’t hear. When she was done, she turned in her chair
and ran out of the council chambers. She heard Zohn hiss as she
shut the door, and she called for Silas to bring the baby to her,
then took Dain and disappeared into the game room.

Once she and the baby were
settled onto a large fluffy pillow, she started a movie and cuddled
with him while he napped. Two movies later, she looked up when
Chevalier, Kyle, Quinn, and Zohn walked in. She was gently running
her fingers through Dain’s thick black hair as she watched them
come in.

The heku all sat around
her and she muted the T.V.

“We have one question,
something not explained,” Kyle said, and smiled slightly. She could
tell he was still fighting to control his rage.

“Ok,” she said.

“Who bit you?”

Emily frowned, “No one bit me.”

“How did you get a puncture wound on your
shoulder?”

She smiled slightly, “I
have another on my side, and one on my leg… I jumped off the stable
roof into a pile of hay and jabbed myself.”

Quinn grinned, “Explains that, no one would
bite you on your shoulder.”

“Did you kill them?”

Zohn glanced at Chevalier,
so Emily also looked at him.

“Not yet, I want to talk to them first,”
Chevalier explained.

“So can I go back to the island now?”

“They aren’t done yet, Storm will call when
they are,” Kyle told her.

“How can we get you to stay here?” Zohn
asked.

“You can’t,” she told them.

“We would all feel better if you’d stay,”
Quinn said.

“No, not after this last thing… I’m going
back to the island.”

“Ma’am?” Jaron asked from the doorway. All
of them in the game room looked over at him, “There’s been some…
deliveries for you.”

Emily frowned, “From whom?”

“I didn’t look at the
cards. Should we bring them in here?”

She shrugged,
“Ok.”

Emily sat up quickly when
one member of the Cavalry came in carrying a squirming puppy,
followed by another member of the Cavalry with another. The Cavalry
set them down on the game room floor, and the puppies immediately
began to wrestle.

She frowned, “Who would send me
puppies?”

Jaron walked over and handed her two cards
before bowing and leaving. When the largest puppy started to chew
on a pillow, Kyle picked him up and Chevalier grabbed the
other.

“Dearest Emily,” she read
from the first card. “We heard that the Encala killed your precious
dog, we do hope this will help. He’s a giant Malamute and should be
a good companion. From the Valle.”

Emily shook her head and opened the other
card, “My Dear, We were sorry to hear that our gift of horses
injured your dog. Please accept this puppy in hopes he will fill
the shoes of your lost one. Love, the Encala.”

“Ok, this is going too
far,” Quinn said, watching the Malamute chew on Kyle’s
cape.

“What is this?” Chevalier asked, pulling his
finger away from the puppy’s mouth.

“I think it’s a lab,”
Emily said, and smiled. “They are kind of cute.”

“I’m not sure the palace is ready for two
puppies,” Quinn said, frowning slightly.

“Well… they won’t be here.
I’ll have them on the island with me.”

“At least stay for the
promotion ceremony,” Kyle suggested. “Mark is making General, Silas
and Kralen are being promoted to Captains, and Jaron and Horace
will be made Commanders.”

Emily frowned, “No, after
yesterday, I won’t be seen in front of a crowd of heku.”

“As part of the Council,
we need you to be there,” Zohn told her.

“I can’t do it,” she said,
and picked Dain up when he started to crawl for the door. “Have
Allen take my place.”

“It’s not the same,”
Chevalier said, handing the Labrador puppy to Emily. The dog
immediately burrowed his nose into her hair and started to nibble
on her ear. She pulled him away from her some, and headed up the
stairs, with Dain in one arm and the lab in the other. Kyle glanced
at the Council and then followed her, pulling his cape out of the
Malamute’s mouth again.