Encala (24 page)

“
Let’s go, Emily,” the
Encala said, touching her arm.

Chevalier tensed and Mark took a step in her
direction.

“
Get back,” she said to
Mark, and he froze.

Emily suddenly dropped to her knees with a
scream and grabbed the sides of her head with her hands. The Encala
took a shocked step backwards as the Equites heku descended on her.
Chevalier scooped her up and laid her in bed as she writhed in
pain. Mark took the Encala by the arm and held him in place. The
Encala watched Emily carefully.

“
Stop them,” Emily
screamed.

“
Who?” Chevalier asked, and
then yelled for the doctor.

Emily fell silent, and her hands dropped to
the bed as her body relaxed into sleep.

“
What did you do?” Mark
scowled at the Encala.

“
I just touched her arm, I
swear,” he said, nervously.

“
Why were you even with
her?”

“
Just to talk to her…
nothing more,” he said, looking around at the angry
Equites.

“
Put him in prison for now.
Stop by the interrogation chamber, see what you can find out,”
Chevalier ordered.

Mark pulled the Encala out of the bedroom.
Chevalier put his arm under Emily’s shoulders and sat her up.

“
Emily,” he said, touching
her face lightly.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, “My
head.”

“
I know, you need to
drink.” He put the glass to her lips, but she pushed it
away.

“
Drink,” he said, a little
sterner, and she took a sip.

“
Stop them,” she said
again, shutting her eyes. She leaned her head against the crook of
his neck.

“
Stop who?” he asked, and
pulled her into his lap. He looked down at her face and she was
asleep.

Emily didn’t wake up until late that night.
Chevalier was still holding her, and the doctor and Kyle were in
the room sitting quietly.

She opened her eyes and reached out for the
glass. He handed it to her and she took a long drink.

“
How’s the headache?” the
doctor asked her.

“
Peachy,” she snapped, and
sat the glass back down.

Emily crawled out of Chevalier’s lap and
stumbled to the bathroom. They watched her and sat back down when
they heard the shower turn on.

“
Who is, ‘them’?” Chevalier
looked at Kyle.

“
Maybe the Valle, the ones
that had her before?” Kyle asked, shrugging.

Servants delivered a steaming pile of
pancakes just before Emily came back out. She was dressed again and
her hair hung down loosely. She grabbed a pancake and took a bite,
then headed for the door.

“
Em?” Kyle asked
her.

She turned to him.

“
Where are you
going?”

“
None of your business,”
she said, and turned around.

“
You should stay here,” the
doctor told her.

“
Yeah? Well make me,” she
snapped, and disappeared out the door.

Emily went immediately down into the prison.
The guards bowed to her and stepped back out of the way when she
entered.

“
Where’s the Encala they
just brought down?”

“
Third row, middle of the
cell’s on the left,” one of them said politely.

Emily followed his directions and came
face-to-face with the Encala again. He stood up and smiled at
her.

“
I’m glad to see you’re
ok,” he said.

“
I’m fine,” Emily said, and
then watched as he turned to ash.

She walked out of the cell area, calling
over her shoulder, “Clean-up on aisle three.”

She entered the bedroom and grabbed her
suitcase.

“
Can you give us just a few
weeks?” Chevalier asked, putting his hand gently on her
arm.

“
No”

“
Are you leaving with the
Encala then?” He fought to keep his voice calm.

“
No, I ashed him,” she
said, disappearing into the bathroom.

“
You… you ashed
him?”

Emily started throwing things into her
suitcase, “Just now.”

Kyle’s eyes were wide, “You just walked down
to the prison and ashed him?”

“
Yes”

Chevalier grinned and shrugged at Kyle.

“
Em?” Chevalier said. He
stopped her, mid-packing, and made her look at him.

“
When you say ‘stop them’,
who do you mean?” Chevalier asked her.

She frowned, “What do you mean?”

“
During the headaches… you
say ‘stop them’.”

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about.” She pulled away from him and went into the
closet.

Chevalier frowned, “Emily, the
headaches.”

“
What about them?” she
asked, coming out with an armful of t-shirts.

“
You scream to ‘stop them’.
Is it the headache you want stopped?”

Emily sighed and turned to him, “I’ve had a
headache since you threw me up against the wall, and not once have
I ever asked you to stop them.”

He winced and looked angrily at the
floor.

“
Not those headaches. The
really bad ones, the ones that you scream during,” Kyle said to
break the silence.

Emily shook her head, “I need to get out of
here. You are all delusional.”

“
He’s not kidding. You
scream and grab your head, and beg for someone to ‘stop them’,”
Chevalier said, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from
moving.

“
Emily, please, just stay
until the headaches go away,” Kyle asked, pleading.

“
I don’t think it’s going
away. I’ve had headaches for weeks.” She looked up at Chevalier.
Her deep green eyes filling with tears, “I have to go…
now.”

“
Why?”

Emily looked at the heku in the room, “Go
away.”

“
We can’t leave,” Kyle
said.

“
Get out, now,” she said to
them again.

“
They can’t go. I won’t
risk hurting you again,” he said, touching the tear that fell down
her cheek.

Emily turned to Kyle and the doctor, “Ashing
in three… two…”

They looked nervously at Chevalier and when
he nodded, they blurred out of the room.

“
One…” She turned to
Chevalier and softened her voice. “If I don’t go now, I won’t be
able to leave.”

“
If it’s so hard then
don’t.” He pulled her close to him.

She buried her face in his chest, “I don’t
have a choice.”

“
Yes, you do.”

Emily put her hands on the side of
Chevalier’s face and kissed him passionately. He picked her up and
laid her gently in bed, then turned his head to the side and
yelled, “Scram.”

A previously unnoticed heku guard blurred
from the room.

***

“
Stay, please, just until
we figure out the headaches,” Chevalier asked, as he looked deep
into her eyes.

“
They aren’t that bad,” she
said, kissing his shoulder lightly.

“
You aren’t remembering the
worst of them. You scream and then sleep when it’s over.” He pulled
her close to him under the covers.

“
If I don’t go now, I’ll
never be able to,” she said, tracing the contours of his chest with
her finger.

“
I love you.”

“
I know, but there are so
many lies, so much deceit and control.”

“
No more, I promise.” He
began to kiss her again.

“
Is it true? Am I an
Encala?” she asked, seriously.

“
No, it’s not true.
Factioning isn’t born in you, it’s a choice.”

“
But everything else he
said is true?”

Chevalier nodded.

“
Why didn’t you tell me?”
she asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

“
I couldn’t stand to see
the pain in your eyes when I told you. You love Allen. Nothing will
take that away, and I saw no reason to even shadow
that.”

She nodded.

“
So tell me why you didn’t
tell me about the baby.”

Emily gave a crooked smile, “That’s obvious
isn’t it?”

“
What can I do to get you
to stay?”

“
Nothing”

“
You’re driving me insane,
you know that? I can’t handle being away from you, not knowing if
you’re safe.” He kissed her lightly.

“
I can’t stay.” She sat up,
but his strong hands pulled her back into bed.

“
Something’s going on. The
headaches aren’t from the concussion… you need to believe me and
stay until we figure them out.”

“
I told you, if I don’t
leave now, then I won’t be able to leave.”

“
Why?” he asked, brushing
her hair away from her shoulder.

“
Because I love you, and
I’m afraid to be away from you. It scares me to face the mortal
world again, to raise Allen by myself. It scares me to not know
where you are or if you’re safe,” she whispered.

Chevalier smiled, softly, “That doesn’t make
sense.”

“
It does because it’s
better for Allen, and it’s better for the Equites, if I
go.”

“
How do you
figure?”

“
Allen doesn’t know
anything but the heku way of life. He needs kindergarten and trips
to the park. He will have no chance at a normal life if we
stay.”

“
Why can’t the heku way of
life be his normal life?” Chevalier asked.

“
He’s mortal.”

“
So? He’s mine, he can stay
with me.”

“
And find a heku wife? Have
heku friends that are hundreds of years older than he is?” She
couldn’t make him understand. She could tell by the look in his
eyes.

“
Why not? Is that so bad? I
don’t see why normal can’t be my world.”

“
Because he’s
mortal.”

“
So are you.”

“
No, I’m somewhere trapped
in the middle.”

“
So Allen aside, why is it
better for the Equites if you leave?” This was his most pressing
question. He hated when she tried to protect the heku.

“
You know why. The Valle
and the Encala aren’t going to stop. How long before they form an
alliance and come wipe out the Equites, all because of
me?”

“
Stop it,” he said,
sternly.

“
What?”

“
Stop trying to protect us.
If they didn’t invade over you, it would be something else. We’ve
been at war for thousands of years. You leaving won’t change
anything.”

“
It will. It will change
the fact that I won’t be to blame, and maybe that invasion will be
later rather than sooner.”

“
You leaving will cause it
to be sooner. They will keep looking for you, and when they find
you, I will come and get you. Me and the entire Equites faction,”
he said, and kissed her forehead.

“
Which is why I need to go
now… so you can get over me before that happens.”

He chuckled, “I don’t think it’ll be that
easy.”

“
I don’t want to go,” she
said, slipping out of the bed and wrapping a blanket around
herself.

“
Damnit, Emily, then
don’t,” he said, frustrated. He watched her disappear into the
bathroom.

Emily came out a few minutes later, dressed.
She looked over at Chevalier sitting on the edge of the bed, and
then the heku in the corner.

“
I can make you stay,” he
whispered.

Emily smiled, “But you won’t.”

Emily groaned, put her hand over her
stomach, and ran back into the bathroom, slamming the door.

“
Should I get the doctor?”
the strange heku said from the corner.

“
Nope, just more Sprite and
crackers,” Chevalier told him, taking what was left of the crackers
to the bathroom door. He knocked quietly.

He waited a few minutes and then opened the
door without permission. Emily was sitting on the floor by the
toilet, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed.

He sat down beside her and took her
hand.

“
Do you think marching
naked into a Valle City would get me killed? That’d stop the
morning sickness,” Emily asked with a slight smile.

“
Hell, Em, that’d get you
killed here,” he chuckled.

“
Two weeks… then you’ll
stop asking me to stay,” she said, her eyes still
closed.

“
Just give me two weeks,”
he promised.

“
And you’ll buy me my own
car?”

“
Anything you want.” He
smiled, two weeks gave him enough time.

“
I shouldn’t have ashed
him,” she said, before grabbing a cracker from him and taking a
bite.

Chevalier laughed, “I can’t believe you did
it.”

“
I think I let my hormones
get the best of me. He was irritating me,” she said, sitting
cross-legged on the floor.

“
Remind me never to
irritate you.” He laughed.

“
You sure you don’t want to
just kill me now? I bet I taste good,” she said, leaning her cheek
against the cool wall.