Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (45 page)

“Camber, no!” Silas yelled
when Camber continued on and blurred to Emily’s side.

“Beautiful horse,” he
said, and smiled.

Emily’s horse immediately
reared back violently and sent Emily flying. She didn’t see Camber
approaching, and wasn’t ready for the sudden shift. The horse
stumbled backwards and fell directly onto Emily and then got to her
feet. Kralen rushed forward and took the horse’s reins and
struggled to get her way from where Emily fell.

“Damnit!” Emily
groaned.

“Oh, so sorry,” Camber said, watching her
intently.

Silas dismounted his horse
and knelt down beside her, “Get back,” he said to Camber when he
smelled fresh blood.

Camber took a few steps back, seemingly
amused by the entire incident.

“Lay down,” Silas said,
and held Emily down on the ground. She put her forearm over her
eyes and winced slightly, not sure where the blood was coming from
that was covering her shirt. She was having a hard time catching
her breath, and was furious at the intrusion on her horse’s
therapy.

“What happened?” Dr. Cook asked, kneeling
down beside her.

“Wh…” Emily started to
say, but gasped when it hurt to talk.

“Bucked off a horse and it
fell on her,” Silas said, and angrily glared at Camber.

“Look at me, Child,” Dr.
Cook said, and moved her forearm. Emily looked up at him, still
short of breath, and hurting too badly to fight back.

Silas watched carefully as
the doctor looked her over, and Kralen returned their horses to the
stables, and then stood by Camber, making sure he didn’t do
anything stupid.

“Mmmm, that blood,” Camber
said, and shut his eyes.

Kralen put a hand on his shoulder, “Watch
it…”

“Hold her down,” the
doctor whispered. Silas leaned over her gently, trapping her body
under his, and held her hands to the ground.

“Emily, this is going to
hurt,” Dr. Cook said. He grabbed her right thigh between his hands,
took a deep breath, and then jerked it. Emily screamed as a
crunching sound was heard across the hills. Silas was amazed at her
strength, but was able to hold her down.

“What was that?” Kralen growled.

Dr. Cook sat back, “Her
hip was displaced. I put it back in.”

Silas sat up and studied
her. She was sweating from the pain and breathing in short
gasps.

“What else?” Kralen asked.

“Concussion, broken
clavicle, and I want to watch her for internal bleeding… we have to
get her back to the palace though.”

Silas glanced at the doctor, “Any way to do
that without pain?”

Dr. Cook glanced back at his bag,
“Well…”

“Do it,” Silas said. “I’ll
take the heat.”

“What?” Emily asked, out of breath.

“Emily,” she heard a
familiar voice call to her. She glanced up and gasped when she saw
Maleth standing beside her. “Let them help you, Child.”

“Maleth… you’re back,” she
said, and smiled weakly.

Silas glanced in the
direction she was looking, and then back to Kralen. Kralen shrugged
and watched the doctor give her an injection of pain
medications.

“Don’t go,” she whispered
when Maleth began to walk away. She felt her eyelids growing heavy
as the pain began to back off.

“She’s out,” Dr. Cook said
when Emily’s body fell silent.

Silas gently picked her up
and looked again to where she was watching when she fell asleep,
but saw nothing. Kralen had already filled Chevalier in by the time
Silas blurred into the palace. He tried to take Emily from the
Captain, but Dr. Cook stopped him.

“I don’t want to move her again, let him put
her to bed,” the doctor said.

Chevalier nodded and followed them up the
stairs. Silas laid her down, grimacing when she moaned
slightly.

“I want to see her hip,”
Dr. Cook said, and tore her jeans from her waist down to her knees.
Her hip was black and blue and swollen, “That’s going to take some
time to heal… four weeks on crutches, and she’ll have a limp for
quite a while.”

“What else?” Chevalier asked, sitting down
beside her.

“She has a concussion,
that’s nothing new to us. She broke her clavicle though, so she’ll
need a sling for a while. I want to watch for internal bleeding
over the next 24 hours. If I find any signs of that, we’ll need to
take her in to a hospital.”

Chevalier nodded, “And the blood.”

“Head wound, I don’t think
it needs stitches, but… she was talking to Elder
Maleth.”

“She was?” he asked, shocked.

“Yes, not uncommon after a head injury.”

“I want that horse dead,” he growled.

“Sir… it wasn’t the horse…
it was Camber,” Silas said. “The horse was slowly getting used to
me, when Camber ignored Kralen and appeared by its
side.”

“Where is he?”

“Kralen was yelling at him in the stables,
last I saw,” Silas told him.

“Out,” Chevalier ordered,
and within seconds, he was alone with Emily. He finished tearing
off her pants and did the same with her shirt, being extra careful
not to move her injured shoulder. After he slipped her into a
nightgown and pulled the covers over her, the doctor came back
in.

“I just want to check for internal bleeding
again,” he said. Chevalier watched carefully while the doctor
lowered the sheets and pulled her nightgown up to expose her
abdomen. He pressed a few times and then pulled the covers back
down. “So far it’s looking good.”

After only a few hours,
Emily opened her eyes slowly and looked over at Chevalier, “Hurt
again.”

He smiled, “Yes, you are.
How are you feeling?”

“Like a horse landed on me.”

“Can I get you anything?”

“Camber is dangerous. I
never trusted him,” Maleth said from beside her. She looked over at
him and smiled weakly.

“I’m glad you’re back. I
missed you.”

Chevalier frowned and
followed her gaze, but saw nothing.

“You too, Dear,” Maleth
said, and stepped toward her.

“Why don’t you trust him?” she asked.

“He’s dangerous. He’s a
danger to you as a Winchester,” Maleth told her.

“Em... who are you talking to?” Chevalier
asked, concerned.

“Maleth, of course,” she
replied and turned back to Maleth. “What do you mean danger to me?
What is he doing?”

“Don’t turn your back on
him, he’s not to be trusted,” Maleth said, and then walked into her
bathroom and disappeared.

“Wait, come back,” Emily
said, and tried to sit up, but Chevalier held her down.

“Stay down,” he told her,
and called for the doctor.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Dr. Cook said.

“She’s talking to Maleth.”

Dr. Cook frowned.

“You didn’t even say hi to him,” Emily said
to Chevalier, frowning.

“Because he’s dead. He’s
not here.”

“Yes he is. He just walked
into my bathroom.”

Dr. Cook stood up and went
into her bathroom. He looked around and then came back out, “No
one’s in there.”

Chevalier turned back to
her, but she was already asleep.

“It’s the concussion, it’s
normal,” Dr. Cook said, and bowed slightly before
disappearing.

Emily slept through the night and woke up
late the next morning when the doctor was pressing on her
stomach.

Dr. Cook smiled up at her,
“No internal injuries. I wanted to check one more time.”

She nodded, “Can I get up?”

“Yes, you may, you can’t
be alone for a while though, until your concussion gets better. I
can either stay here with you, or I can put you in your wheelchair
and you can go to the council chambers.”

“Those are my only options?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Ok, council chambers it is.”

Dr. Cook helped her into
the wheelchair, and then put her left arm in a sling. He propped
the feet up on the wheelchair and laid a blanket over her,
“Ready?”

“Sure,” she said, and he
carried her, in the wheelchair, down to the council chambers and
set her down beside Chevalier.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Zohn
asked.

“Ok,” she said, and looked
down over the empty trial area. “What’s up?”

“Waiting for the
Interrogator to finish with someone before we try them.”

A servant appeared, and
handed her a cup of hot coffee and a plateful of muffins. She
sipped the coffee using her good hand, and looked around. She
smiled when the trial room door opened and Maleth came
in.

“Good morning,” she said to him.

“Good morning, Dear,” he
told her, and stopped where the prisoners normally
stood.

Chevalier sighed and motioned for the others
to just let her be.

“Will you be back on the
Council now then?”

“No, they won’t accept me back.”

“Why not?” she asked, frowning.

Some of the Council
shifted nervously as she spoke to no one.

“It’s not their way,”
Maleth told her. He looked over the Council, “Some new
faces.”

“Yes, lots of changes.”

“Leonid… he needs your help,” Maleth said,
looking at her.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s awake and starving.
He’s suffering badly.”

Emily gasped, “He is?”

“Yes, he’s screaming for someone to help
him.”

“But… you said he would be
asleep the entire time.”

Maleth shrugged, “That’s
what we thought, but we were wrong.”

Emily looked over at Chevalier, her eyes
panicked, “Do something.”

Chevalier glanced at Quinn and back to
Emily, “Em… no one’s there.”

“Didn’t you hear him? We need to dig up
Leonid.”

“We can’t dig him up, he’s retired.”

“No, didn’t you hear Maleth? He’s suffering,
screaming for someone to help him.”

“No, he’s not. If he were
screaming, we would hear him.”

“Why can’t they hear you?” Emily asked
Maleth.

“I don’t really know,”
Maleth told her, and looked over the Council.

“Jaron!” Emily yelled, and
the guard appeared before the Council. “Dig up Leonid immediately,
that’s an order.”

“Belay that,” Zohn said. “We can’t do
that.”

“It’s an order, Jaron… do it now,” Emily
yelled.

Jaron glanced nervously at
the Council.

“I outrank you, Emily,”
Zohn said softly. “We cannot dig him up.”

“But…” Emily looked back,
but Maleth was gone. “Where did he go?”

“Where did who go?” Jaron asked.

“Maleth, he was standing right beside
you.”

“I… I didn’t see him.”

“Em, calm down,” Chevalier said. “Maleth is
still dead, you just have a concussion…”

“No, he’s not, and Leonid
is suffering, we have to help him,” she told him.

“Em…”

Emily tried to stand up,
but cried out when the pain hit and sat back down in the
wheelchair, “We have to get him.”

“Take the pain medication.
We’ll help Leonid when you wake up,” Maleth said, kneeling down
beside her.

Emily looked down at the side of her
wheelchair, “What pain medication?”

Maleth smiled, “It will help.”

“Maleth, no!” Emily
screamed when he disappeared. She felt the familiar pinch in her
arm, and turned just as Dr. Cook stood up behind her. She fought it
for as long as she could, but soon slumped down in the wheelchair
and fell asleep.

“Am I digging up Elder Leonid or not?” Jaron
asked when no one spoke.

“No, you are not,” Quinn
told him, and motioned for Jaron to leave.

“That’s a little
unsettling,” Zohn said, and watched the doctor take Emily
away.

“Yes, it is,” Chevalier agreed.

“Camber has decided to
return when Emily is well,” Quinn said, after taking a brief phone
call.

“Good, we don’t need his input on this right
now,” Zohn told them.

“When the concussion is gone and she no
longer sees Elder Maleth… will she believe that Elder Leonid is
resting peacefully?” Dustin asked.

“I’m not sure,” Chevalier replied. “I
certainly hope so.”

“If all else fails, we’ll
have her talk to Camber. He’s back from retirement and can explain
to her how he wasn’t suffering,” Quinn suggested.

Chevalier nodded, and
turned when the Chief Interrogator returned with their
prisoner.

***

“Maleth, help me,” Emily
begged as she dug in the mud. The rain was pouring, and she was
soaking wet. Her hands dug at the soft mud, but every handful
removed sent more mud falling into the hole.

“You must do it, Child. I
cannot help you,” Maleth said calmly.

“I can’t do this, not fast enough.”

“You are the only one that can help
him.”

“Leonid!” Emily screamed,
and kept digging. Blood from her hands mixed with the sticky
mud.

“Keep digging, he’s dying.”

“I’m trying,” she cried out, digging
faster.

“I’ll help you,” Exavior
said. He knelt down and began to dig.

“No, he’ll kill Leonid!” Maleth yelled.