Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (58 page)

“Emily!” Kyle yelled after her.

Emily didn’t stop. She
started toward the garage, but Jaron stepped out, “Why are you
running?”

She stopped and took a few steps
backwards.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking a step
towards her.

She spun and ran for the
stables, relieved when Jaron didn’t follow her.

“Emily, what’s wrong?”
Mark asked when she flew past him and dug around in the storage
shed. She came out with a cell phone and her Taser, and pointed it
at where Mark, Silas, and Kralen were talking.

“Whoa… what’s up?” Kralen
asked, taking a step back.

Emily grabbed a bridle and slid it onto her
racing stallion, keeping a close eye on the heku.

Silas suddenly moved
toward her, “You can’t leave. The Council wants to talk to
you.”

“Get back, Silas,” Emily
said, and inched her horse forward.

“No,” Kralen said, and
stood beside him. “The Council wants you to stay here.”

Emily took aim and shot
Mark in the chest with the Taser. The sound of electricity filled
the stables and he writhed in agony on the floor. Silas started
toward her, but he and Kralen both turned into ash. She kicked her
horse and jumped Mark as she headed toward the trees. The Council
stepped out of the palace as she disappeared into the
city.

“Mark!” Kyle yelled, and
ran up to him. He removed the Taser electrodes when Mark stood up,
shaky and still in pain.

When Emily was deep into
the trees, she opened the cell and quickly dialed
William.

“Good afternoon, Emily,” William said,
sounding pleased to hear from her.

“Help me,” she whispered,
and kept the horse steadily running toward the west.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m in trouble. I don’t
know what to do… I ashed Exavior and Chevalier, and a few guards, I
Tasered the General…”

William spoke quickly to someone else and
then came back to the phone, “Calm down and tell me what
happened.”

“I need one thing… tell me
what Yisolatara is.”

William growled, “Where
did you hear that?!”

“Just tell me damnit! What is it?”

“Did the Valle say that to
you?”

“Tell me!” she screamed.

“No… can you get to Encala
City?” William asked hurriedly. She began to weave a pattern
through the trees, crisscrossing and doubling back to confuse
anyone tracking her.

“I doubt it,” she told
him, and stopped when she got to the old log she found a few years
ago. She slid off the horse and hit him on the rump, sending him
flying back toward the palace.

Emily slid easily into the hollowed out log,
making sure her feet were hidden deep inside.

“Please,” William asked
calmly. “Tell me where you heard that word.”

“I can’t… why can’t you
just tell me what it means and why when I asked the Council, they
turned on me.”

“It’s unspeakable. No
one’s spoken that word in thousands of years.”

“Why?”

“Even the reason isn’t
spoken, Child. It’s too… well it just isn’t.”

Emily whispered, “They’re coming to get
me.”

“Go to them, they won’t
hurt you. I would imagine you just surprised them,” William told
her.

Emily hurried and turned
off the phone, and then shut her eyes to control her breathing. She
was ready to turn as many of them to ash as she had to, to get
away.

“Emily?” Chevalier called
out. “We know you’re around here… I’m sorry I yelled, and I’m not
mad.”

She could hear her own
heart pounding and prayed the heku didn’t.

“You know we won’t hurt
you,” Zohn said.

Emily almost cried out when someone jumped
up to stand on the log above her.

“Damnit, her scent is all
over here,” Mark said. “I can’t narrow down a specific
location.”

“The rain’s coming, so
we’re about to lose it all,” Kralen told him.

“Yes, but we have a cold
front coming and it’s going to dip below freezing, so we have to
find her.”

Emily shut her eyes tightly when pieces of
rotted log began to fall in on her when another heku stood on the
log.

“Did they tell you what happened?” Kralen
asked.

“No, all they said is they
aren’t mad, but they really need to talk to her,” Mark
explained.

“Quinn here,” she heard from somewhere near
the log.

Quinn sighed, “Yes we are looking for
her.”

There was a long pause.

“We did not use that word near her!” Quinn
growled.

Emily jumped slightly when thunder crashed
and the sky grew dark. She heard the first taps of raindrops
hitting the forest floor as Quinn slammed his phone shut.

She listened as footsteps came closer.

“She called William and asked about it,”
Quinn said.

“I figured she would,”
Chevalier sighed. “Head back in. She’ll just turn us all to ash if
she sees us anyway.”

“But it’s going to be freezing tonight,”
Silas told him.

“I know… and maybe she’ll
come in, but it won’t do us any good to stand out here
looking.”

“Yes, Elder,” Mark said,
and Emily heard him step off the log and then the woods grew
perfectly silent.

Chevalier and Sotomar
stood at each side of the log and waited for her to come out. They
would have very limited time to do what they needed to to calm her
down, and as it took an ‘old one,’ they had only one try before
they risked being turned to ash.

Emily strained to hear
anything. All she could hear was the crash of thunder and the
raindrops falling against the trees. She was trapped, didn’t know
where to go. She couldn’t get away without a car, and she was too
afraid to hitchhike as she’d done in the past. All three factions
now seemed mad that she knew the odd word, and she wondered how one
word could cause that kind of a reaction.

Emily’s mind ran through
what happened when she said the word, and the fierceness it brought
out in the heku. The feel of Chevalier’s hand grabbing her arm
roughly while his eyes blazed kept coming back to her. It wasn’t
often that she feared the heku, but in that moment, their anger
sent a panic through her.

As the rain picked up and
the night started, she began to get cold and to shiver. The log was
no longer protecting her from the elements, and she was soaking wet
inside of it. Late into the night she stayed in the log, unsure
where to go or what to do. She was shivering uncontrollably and her
teeth were chattering. Her wet hair was now frozen to hear head,
and she could see her breath.

Unable to take it any longer, Emily slid
backwards out of the log. Before she could even see, she was shoved
against the ground and felt teeth against her neck.

Sotomar waited the few
seconds it took her to relax against Chevalier, and took her face
in his hands, “Look at me.”

Emily looked at him for a
split second, but it was long enough for the ‘old one’ to gain
control. Chevalier released her and knelt on the frozen grass while
Sotomar held her eyes.

Sotomar’s voice became
like a song, soft and flowing, “Calm down, Child. We won’t hurt
you.”

She took a deep breath,
and her body began to relax more, the shivering stopped and her
teeth no longer chattered.

“Do you know what
Yisolatara is?”

Chevalier stiffened at the word and watched
Sotomar carefully.

“No,” she whispered.

“Did you read it?”

“No”

“Have you heard it?”

“Yes”

“Who said it to you?” Sotomar asked,
controlling his voice to stay calm.

“I don’t know.”

“Where were you when you heard it?”

“In my dreams and in the
palace,” she said. Her voice was far away and soft.

“Where in the palace?”

“In the council
chambers.”

“A member of the Council
said it to you?”

Chevalier growled slightly.

“No”

“Who then?”

“I don’t know.”

Sotomar paused while he regained control,
“When did you hear it in the palace?”

“Tonight”

He frowned slightly, “While you were talking
to the Valle?”

“Yes”

“Was it when you ran from your chair to the
ante-chamber?”

“Yes”

Chevalier frowned.

“Then in your dreams you hear it?”

“Yes”

“Who says it to you?”

“The heku in black,” she whispered.

“In a ceremonial room?”

“Yes”

“With runes painted on the ceiling?”

“Yes”

“When have you been in that room
before?”

“My dreams”

“When outside of your dreams?”

“Before”

“Think back, Emily, when
was the first time you heard the word, Yisolatara?”

“Three”

“Three what?”

Emily gasped and pushed
Sotomar’s hands away. He growled and stood up. Emily scrambled to
her feet, her dress soaking and frozen, and she began to shiver
again.

“Don’t ash us,” Chevalier
said quickly. “We’re not here to hurt you, and we aren’t
mad.”

Her hand moved up to her neck, “You bit
me?”

He sighed,
“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because we needed to calm
you down and the only way to do that is if you’re weakened, and
there’s an ‘old one’,” he explained.

Emily wrapped her arms around herself and
looked around the dark forest, “I don’t know where to go.”

Sotomar slipped off his
gray cape and wrapped it around her shoulders. Chevalier began to
argue, but realized it would be warmer than his shirt.

“Come back to the palace.
No one’s mad… you just surprised us,” Chevalier told
her.

“They seemed mad.”

“I know, I’m sorry… but no one’s mad.”

“I promise you, no one’s
mad at you, other than maybe Exavior, but he had it coming,”
Sotomar said, and smiled.

Emily laughed slightly, “He won’t shut
up.”

“Yes, we have that problem often.”

“What does Yisolatara
mean?” she asked, and looked from one to the other.

“It’s…” Sotomar started,
and then paused to think.

“It’s a ritual, an old
one, and one that’s now not only restricted to perform, but even to
speak of,” Chevalier told her.

“What did the ritual do?”

He smiled slightly, “Not even I am
authorized to say that.”

“Then who is?”

“No one.”

She shivered harder and looked around when
it began to snow slightly.

“Come on back where it’s
warm,” Chevalier said, and put a hand out for her.

“Sotomar, tell me, please.”

He smiled, “I am unable to, Child.”

“Will Exavior tell me?”

“No,” Chevalier said, and
picked her up into a cradle. She wrapped the gray cape tighter
around her as they blurred back to the palace. The speed caused the
wind to lash at her skin and the sleet bit at her
painfully.

Emily looked up when she
felt warmth against her arm and Chevalier put her down in their
bathroom and began running a hot tub. She shivered and pulled the
gray cape around her. The tub filled the bathroom with steam and
Chevalier left and slammed the door behind him.

Emily’s eyes narrowed and
she stormed out of the bathroom, also slamming the door behind her.
She went over and grabbed a nightgown out of the dresser and
started for the door.

“Where are you going?” he
asked angrily.

“Away from you,” she said,
and left the room. She turned to the guards at her door, “Follow me
and pay.”

They backed away when
Chevalier ordered them to, and Emily headed down the
stairs.

“Where are you going?” Kyle asked, shocked
to see her in the cape of a Valle.

Emily yelled, “I’m headed
out to get Yisolatara tattooed across my ass!”

Kyle gasped and took a step back. She spun
and left the palace.

“Elder…” Kyle said when
Chevalier flew down the stairs in a rage. Kyle stepped in front of
him.

“Move,” the Elder growled.

“Calm down,” Kyle said,
and soon, Zohn and Quinn were at their sides.

“We heard, but she didn’t
mean it,” Zohn told him. “She doesn’t even know what it
means.”

Chevalier started around
them, but Quinn blocked his way, “Leave her alone until you both
calm down.”

“If she’s so hell bent on
acting like a child, then I’ll treat her like one,” he growled.
“It’s high time someone threw her across their knee.”

Kyle gasped, “Elder!”

Zohn grinned slightly, “While I tend to
agree… now is not the time.”

Chevalier turned angrily and blurred to his
office.

“Kyle, go make sure she’s not… I don’t know…
just go,” Quinn said.

Kyle shrugged, and
followed Emily’s scent out to the overseer’s room in the stables.
He knocked lightly and entered when no one answered. Emily was
curled up under numerous blankets, shivering.

He sat down on the side of the bed, “Do you
want to talk about it?”

“Do you want to tell me
what Yisolatara is?”

“Not really, no… I’m not in the habit of
doing things that will get me banished.”