Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (59 page)

Emily peeked over the
blankets, “Telling me what it is will get you banished?”

“Saying the word will get
me banished.”

“It’s a word.”

“It’s…
dangerous.”

“Chevalier bit me,” she
told him accusingly.

“I know. He did that so
Sotomar could get a lock on you.”

She shivered under the
covers, “Everyone was yelling and screaming, and all I did was ask
a question.”

“It was shocking, to say
the least, to hear that word come out of your mouth,” Kyle told
her, and added another blanket onto the pile.

“Then Chev drew me a bath like you would a
toddler and slammed the bathroom door.”

“He’s most upset by how stubborn you are…
you would freeze to death out there before coming in here to face
us.”

“Everyone was yelling!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You all keep telling me
how violent and hostile the heku are. Yet when you all blow up at
me and scream, you think I should stand there and take
it.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“I’m out in the woods, no
car, no coat, nothing… I don’t even have shoes on, and the closest
place to go is filled with these volatile beings that I’m supposed
to be afraid of… and to be honest, I am.”

Kyle nodded, “We just didn’t think of it
like that. All we saw was you freezing to death in a dead log.”

“I’m not going back in
there, just to be treated like some child… Next thing you know,
I’ll be getting a spanking.”

Kyle stifled a chuckle,
“He wouldn’t do that. Now come inside and get warm. No one’s going
to yell at you, I swear.”

“Can I use your
shower?”

Kyle stood up and put his
hand out, “Yes.”

Emily crawled out of the blankets and pulled
the Valle’s cape close around her as they walked back to the
palace. She bypassed the front doors and went around to the
side.

“I can get you a green cape,” he said,
frowning at her in the enemy colors.

“As soon as I get warm I’ll take it off,”
she said. “Plus, I don’t want to run around in my nightgown.”

As soon as they went up
the back stairs to Kyle’s room, he sat down in a chair by the fire
and she disappeared into his bathroom.

“Come in,” Kyle said when
he heard a knock.

Quinn and Zohn came in, “She came in
here?”

“Yes, she wants to take a
shower, and if I know Em, she’ll sleep in here tonight,” Kyle
explained.

Zohn nodded and sat down, “Did she say
anything?”

“No, other than making
sense of hiding in a log. I think we forget how terrifying we can
be at times, and she had the entire Council screaming at
her.”

“That is true,” Zohn said,
and looked at Quinn.

Kyle glanced at the door and then whispered,
“Did Chevalier find out where she learned the word?”

“He said she hears it in
dreams, and then tonight someone said it in the council
chambers.”

“Tonight?” he asked, shocked.

“No one else heard it, but
she said it under control, so she honestly believes
that.”

“If it’s in her dreams,
then she must have heard it at some point in her life.”

“She started to tell
Sotomar something about three… but she broke the gaze, so we don’t
know if it was 3 days ago, 3 weeks ago, or what.”

Kyle nodded, “And the ceremonial room with
the painted ceiling?”

“She’s seen it both in
dreams and maybe for real,” Quinn told him. They all turned when
Emily came out of the bathroom.

Zohn smiled, “Feel better?”

“Warmer,” she said, and
walked over to crawl into Kyle’s bed, still freezing.

“In the morning, can we talk?” Zohn asked,
moving to stand by the bed.

“Depends, are you going to yell?”

“No,” he said, and grinned
slightly.

“Accuse?”

“No”

“Raise your voice even a little?”

Zohn chuckled, “No, just talk… Quinn and
I.”

“Ok”

“Are you going to stay here tonight
then?”

“I don’t know.”

He nodded, “Ok, well, get warm…we’ll have
some dinner brought up.”

Quinn and Zohn quietly left and shut the
door behind them.

Kyle grinned, “It makes them nervous that
you might stay in here.”

“Why?” she asked, pulling up another
blanket.

“They are afraid of what
Chevalier will think.”

“He knows us better than that.”

“I know,” Kyle said, and
stoked the fire.

“If I were heku, would
they have killed me tonight?” She looked over at him.

“Yes”

“What if I didn’t know what it means?”

“They still would have.”

“Is it in a book?”

“Not that I know of.”

“How do you know about the
word then, if no one’s allowed to talk about it?”

Kyle grinned, “I’m not telling you
that.”

He got up and answered the
door, then took the tray from the servant and put it in bed next to
Emily. She sat up and pulled the dome off and grabbed the plate of
spaghetti.

“Looks disgusting,” Kyle said, remembering
the taste.

She took a bite and then thought, “How long
have you known what Yisolatara means?”

“Damnit, stop saying it,” Kyle said,
frowning.

“Sorry, how long?” she
asked, and took another bite.

“A long time.”

“Is it a bad ritual?”

“Em…”

“Fine,” she sighed, and
finished eating in silence. She put the tray on the bedside table
and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around
them.

“Do you think you’ll ever stop running at
confrontation?” Kyle asked after a few minutes of silence.

Emily shrugged, “I don’t
know. When I’m cornered, I just feel like I need to
leave.”

“Do you know how much easier life would be
if you wouldn’t?”

“No, I don’t actually.”

He grinned, “It would, trust me.”

“Where’s the irate
Elder?”

“In his office.”

She yawned into her hand and watched the
fire.

“Get some sleep,” Kyle
said, and started for the door.

“Where are you going though?”

“To my office, I have paperwork to do.”

“Kyle?”

“Yeah?” he turned to face her.

“Thank you.”

He smiled and left the
room, shutting the door behind him. Emily nestled down in the warm
blankets and soon fell asleep. She woke up late in the morning and
looked around the room. She was alone, and the fire was still
going, so she slipped out of bed and looked out the window at the
thin blanket of snow. She hated this weather, just the day before
she’d been in a summer dress because of the heat, and one cold
front later, it was snowing.

Emily had a plan on
finding out what the word meant. She needed to start in her office,
one of the only places in the entire palace with an Internet
connection. Still in her nightgown, she quickly ran to her office
and shut the door.

She turned and looked at
her office, with its soft beige walls, and maroon trim. There were
books lining one wall and three computers sitting under the desk
with six monitors attached to them. She had a phone, fax, and
copier, anything she needed to do whatever she might find
useful.

She turned when there was a knock on her
door.

“Who is it?” she called out.

“Breakfast, Ma’am,” a
timid voice replied.

Emily opened her door just
enough for the servant to hand her a tray, and then shut it
quickly, latching all of the locks.

She flipped on her
computers and grabbed an English muffin while she waited. Soon, she
had all 6 screens up with different search engines on each of them.
She typed in the word ‘Yisolatara’ and let them go to
work.

She frowned when they all
came back with no search records, not even a close hit. She
narrowed it down to Yiso and found that to be a popular search
engine in China. Expanding to Yisol only came back with a lot more
names.

Emily grabbed a cup of coffee and thought
before typing ‘aratalosiy’ into a search engine. She growled
slightly when it came back with no hits either. Aside from more
Japanese names and a sushi restaurant, there was nothing
helpful.

Deciding to try a Latin to
English site, she entered the entire word, the word backwards, and
parts of the word, with no luck. After a few hours of trying
everything she could think of, she decided to get dressed and head
out to the stables. Four members of the Cavalry were now at her
door, but looked away from her when she stepped out, and she
thought they looked nervous and on edge.

Shrugging it off, she
headed up to her room and quickly got dressed. Before heading out,
she wanted to ask one last heku what the word meant and she thought
of one that might actually tell her.

When she opened the door
to the prison, she turned to her guards, “You might want to stay
here.”

“No, Ma’am,” the highest ranking said.

“Is there another way out of the
prison?”

“No”

“Then wait here. I’ll be
back.”

He frowned slightly and then shrugged,
“Fine.”

Emily ran down into the
prison. She hadn’t been down there in a long time, but knew exactly
where she was headed. She rounded the corner and walked to the end
of the row of cells.

“Greg?” she asked
softly.

The insane heku turned to her and grinned,
“She came to me… she came by herself.”

“Greg, come here,” Emily
whispered, and moved closer to the cell.

“Greg wants to feed,” he
said, and moved closer.

“I’ll let you feed if you’ll tell me one
little thing.”

“Anything for my daughter.”

Emily glanced around and then whispered,
“What is Yisolatara?”

“Bad, very, very bad,”
Greg whispered, and watched the vein in her neck. “Bad ceremony it
is, no longer done…”

“Hey!” Emily screamed when
someone grabbed her arm.

“Up you go,” one of the
prison door guards said, and roughly pulled her up the stairs.
“Elder’s orders, stay out.”

“Let her go!” Jaron growled at the guard. He
let go of Emily quickly, bowed, and headed back down the
stairs.

Emily rubbed her arm and walked toward the
doors.

“Did he hurt you?” Jaron asked angrily.

“No,” she told him, and
the guards followed her out to the stables.

Emily walked up and untied
her horse from the hitching post and slid onto him. She rode over
to where Silas and Jaron were talking.

“Em, if you don’t want another screaming
uproar in the castle, stop asking about it,” Silas whispered.

“I would stop asking if someone would tell
me what it means.”

“No one is going to.”

“Greg almost did, if that guard wouldn’t
have stopped him.”

“He was doing you a favor,” Jaron whispered
to her.

Emily shrugged and watched
the Cavalry train on lassoing. She usually found this part amusing,
watching them try to lasso something stationary, and missing enough
they began to growl and hiss. Today, she was too preoccupied with
the mysterious ‘Yisolatara’ to enjoy it.

“Lady Emily?” someone said from behind
her.

Emily turned to the strange heku.

“You aren’t to speak to her!” Silas
growled.

“There… the… is… someone…”

“Spit it out, what?” Emily asked.

“Package at the farmhouse,
Ma’am. They won’t let anyone sign for it but you,” he said, and
then glanced at Silas and blurred away.

Emily slid down off her horse and tied him
up to the hitching post.

“Take guards,” Silas reminded her.

“I don’t need guards to go
get a package at the farmhouse,” she said, and started for the
city.

“Jaron…” Silas said.

Jaron and three other
members of the Cavalry caught up with her and followed behind her.
They followed her silently until she turned at the back of the
farmhouse and smiled.

“Are you afraid I’ll say it?” she asked,
grinning.

“Yes, Ma’am, I am,” Jaron
said sternly.

“I’ll be good,” she told
him, and opened the door. The casually dressed heku in the
farmhouse stood full at attention when the Commanders came
in.

“He’s at the door,” was all the heku
said.

She nodded and opened the door, “Yes?”

“Package for Emily
Winchester,” the delivery man said, and handed over a clipboard for
her to sign. She signed and then took the package.

When she shut the door,
Jaron’s eyes grew wide, and he grabbed the large box from her, “Get
her out of here!”

Everything happened fast,
Jaron threw the box toward the far wall, as three heku guards dove
at her and knocked her to the floor. The explosion sent flames and
shrapnel through the house, and Jaron was the last to throw himself
on top of Emily. He braced as the roof caved in, slamming into the
guard’s backs, and as the floor gave way, they all tumbled to the
dirt basement floor with Emily at the bottom of the
pile.

Smoke filled the room and
the crashing of falling debris sounded endlessly. The fire grew
hotter around them as the wood from the structure started to cave
in and fall into the flames. Emily ducked her face toward the
ground where the air was fresher but had a hard time breathing. The
four heku were still lying on top of her, unmoving, and she felt
pain shoot down her back and through her legs.