Encala (34 page)

With one hand, he filled the tub and gently
took the red velvet off of her. He tried to avoid looking at the
ancient runes on her thigh as he sat her down in the water.

Supporting her with one hand, Chevalier
began to gently wash the blood and ash off of her. He had to change
the water four times before he was able to clean it all off. After
he washed the blood from her hair, he pulled her from the water and
dried her off on the bed. He looked around and found a simple white
nightgown and slipped it on her. Once the covers were pulled up
over her, he sat down by her side.

“
You can come back,” he
whispered. Kyle, Maleth, and Leonid came back into the
room.

Kyle smiled, “That’s more like it.”

Chevalier ran his fingers over the golden
snakes curling up her arms.

“
Did it come off?” Maleth
asked, and Chevalier shook his head.

The doctor came back carrying an I.V. set
up, “I have an idea.”

Chevalier looked over at him, “She won’t
keep it in.”

“
She won’t have a choice,”
he said, putting the supplies down. “My suggestion is a medically
induced coma.”

Kyle frowned, “For how long?”

“
I say two weeks. Though
when the blood is gone from her eyes, we can try earlier,” he said,
looking at Chevalier for permission.

“
She won’t wake up at all
for two weeks?”

“
No,” the doctor said, and
when Chevalier nodded, he inserted the I.V. catheter and started
the slow drip.

“
Get the word out. Find out
how to remove an ink signum qualitas off of a mortal,” Chevalier
said.

“
I’m on it,” Kyle said,
blurring from the room.

“
The Valle are requesting
an audience with us,” Maleth said, watching Emily sleeping
peacefully.

“
Now?” Chevalier
growled.

“
They will be here in a few
days.”

“
In the meantime,” Leonid
said. “We would like to know what happened in the
palace.”

“
Everyone was killed. Emily
is the only one left that would know,” he said, watching her
sleep.

“
I do hope she remembers
that we are Equites when she wakes up.” Maleth said
softly.

Chevalier nodded and smiled, “It wasn’t just
you two. We were all traitors, and she made sure and let us know
that she’s an Equites.”

“
I never really thought she
considered herself one of us,” Leonid said.

“
Neither did I,” Chevalier
told him, and kissed her forehead softly.

The Council was seated in the council
chambers as they waited for the Valle to arrive. Emily was four
days into her two week sleep, and everyone was anxious for her to
wake up and fill in a lot of blanks from the Encala attack.

As the door opened, the Council looked
toward the arriving Valle. All three of the Valle Elders walked in
quietly with their entourage, and stood before the Equites.

Maleth stood, “We’ll skip the pleasantries
and ask right out, why have you summoned us?”

The tallest Valle Elder stepped forward,
“Thank you for honoring us with your presence.”

Damon looked at Chevalier, and he
shrugged.

“
We have come to your
beautiful home to ask for a treaty of peace,” the Valle
said.

“
Don’t we need to be at war
to require a peace treaty?” Maleth asked.

“
No, no, we don’t. We just
want to ensure that what happened to the Encala… won’t be in the
plans for the Valle,” he said, smiling.

“
We did not attack first,”
Maleth said, his eyes narrowing.

“
Oh of course not. We know
you would never do that,” the Valle said quickly.

“
Unless you are planning an
attack, then there’s no reason for you to fear us,” Damon said, not
standing.

“
We cannot help but fear
you. The rumors from the Encala are terrifying… to any
heku.”

“
Rumors?” Maleth
asked.

“
Yes… we have heard what
your army did to the Encala palace. We don’t know the reasoning,
but would like to see that kind of destruction avoided,” another
Valle Elder said.

“
Our army?” Leonid asked,
smiling.

“
Their path of annihilation
was horrific, and the Encala are in ruins. We are not here to judge
your actions, but to try to negotiate a treaty that will ensure
that we are not next,” he said, nervously.

“
We have no plans on
attacking the Valle… at this time,” Damon said, watching them
carefully.

“
Will you not sign a treaty
then? Promise us that, in the future, we will handle things
civilly, and not with wanton destruction?”

“
We are a civilized
faction,” Leonid said, irritated.

“
I am so sorry. I was not
implying that you are not,” the Valle Elder said, fidgeting
nervously.

“
I’m getting the impression
that you are in a panic over something you’ve done, though I can’t
quite figure out what,” Chevalier leaned forward.

“
N... Nothing… we assure
you.”

“
Have you been to the
Encala palace?” Damon asked.

The Valle Elders glanced at each other
uneasily.

“
What... did you… do?” he
asked them, and stood up.

“
We... we just wanted to
help,” the tallest Valle Elder said.

“
Explain yourself,” Leonid
growled.

“
With that kind of mass
death, it left them without any leadership, without even one heku
among them that could revive any of those that were
killed.”

“
Let me guess, so you
decided to do it for them,” Damon scowled.

“
We had no choice!” he
said, taking a step back. “We cannot have only two factions. It’s
never been done.”

“
How many did you return?”
Chevalier asked, angrily.

“
We were only able to
revive one of the leaders, the rest were… well… not complete enough
to do.”

Chevalier smiled as he thought of Emily’s
little leather pouch.

When the Equites did not respond, he
continued, “We… we were… worried. The Encala were left with no
leadership, no laws, or anyone to enforce them. The only reason we
helped was to keep the Encala from turning feral.”

“
Oh yes, I’m sure that’s
the only reason you did it,” Damon growled.

“
Who did you revive?”
Maleth asked them, frowning.

“
It was their Chief
Enforcer, that’s all,” the Valle answered.

“
Oh, so the one heku that
could revive more,” Damon snapped.

“
We didn’t know who it was…
we just saw one untouched… shall we say… set of remains, and
revived him.”

“
What other assistance have
you given them?” Damon asked.

“
That is all, we swear!
They are still an opposing faction, after all.”

“
I find it unacceptable
that you went behind our backs, after our attack, and revived one
of their leaders,” Chevalier said angrily.

“
We don’t see it as going
behind your backs. What were we supposed to do? Allow the Encala
faction to fall into ruins and leave all of their heku without any
kind of direction?” the Valle Elder pulled at his collar
nervously.

“
Yes, that is exactly what
you should have done,” Damon said, leaning toward them.

“
You act as if the attack
was unprovoked and out of line,” Chevalier hissed.

“
I stress that we do not
think that… we know you would never attack without reason.
However…” the Valle said, glancing at the other Elders
quickly.

“
Yes?” Damon
said.

“
It seemed a bit... harsh,
shall we say. The Encala are claiming over 1,800 deaths in their
city. We do not judge, but that is the largest attack of our kind,
ever.”

“
Again, warranted,”
Chevalier said to them.

“
Then to… take…” the Valle
Elder shuddered, “parts of them, so they could not be revived. We
do not feel that was the proper thing to do.”

“
Proper?” Damon asked,
sitting back down.

“
Yes, that also has never
been done. Your punishment had been dealt. Something like that
could take hundreds of years to recover from, but by taking what
you did, it could be thousands before the Encala are stable
again.”

“
I see,” Maleth said,
glaring. “We do see your point, but as you do not know the
reasoning behind the attack, we feel you should not say that to
us.”

“
You are right, we
apologize,” the Valle Elder said.

There was an awkward silence in the council
chambers as the Valle looked at one another and nervously stood
before their enemies.

“
Was there something else
you wanted?” Damon asked, after a few minutes of
silence.

“
We…” the smallest Valle
Elder stepped forward after glancing at the others, “We feel it
would only be fair, you know, in keeping with the peace… if you
would share your new ability with us.”

Leonid looked at Maleth curiously.

“
We don’t know what you
mean by ability, please elaborate,” Maleth said to them.

“
It is obvious to us… that
the… Winchester ability has been passed to the Equites. That puts
you with an unfair advantage, and we feel to keep peace in the
factions, it should be given to each of us,” he said,
smiling.

“
I see,” Maleth said,
sitting back in his chair.

“
It would purely be used to
keep equality among the factions.”

“
How would the ability to
kill one another quickly, and in great amounts, be of a peaceful
nature?” Damon asked, truly curious.

“
It would be similar to
when the mortals discovered nuclear weapons… because each country
had the same power, it was never used,” the Valle
explained.

“
Oh, well of course… let’s
call Emily down and have her share,” Damon said,
grinning.

The Valle turned and looked at the others
and then back to the Equites, “So you understand and comply?”

“
No,” Damon said. “I just
figured a dim-witted idea, warranted a dim-witted
response.”

The Valle wrung his hands nervously, “We
don’t feel that this is an unintelligent request, it is fairness,
for peace.”

“
Yes, I heard your
excuse.”

“
Shall we vote then?”
Maleth asked, looking down the row of Equites.

The Valle watched them anxiously.

“
All in favor of sharing
our new found ability, raise your hand,” Maleth said, watching the
Valle instead of taking count of the Equites votes.

“
Please, think of the
peace… we could all cooperate, and the ancient wars would end.
Won’t more of you vote yes?” the Valle asked.

The entire Equites Council looked over at
Damon, whose hand was raised. Chevalier rolled his eyes.

“
I’m sorry, the majority
vote is no,” Maleth said, ignoring Damon.

“
Please, talk to them,
reason with them to see your side,” the Valle asked Damon
frantically.

“
Wait… weren’t we voting to
turn these heku to ash?” Damon asked, frowning.

The Valle all nervously took steps toward
the door.

“
No, you misunderstood,”
Maleth said, laughing. “We were voting to share that trick with our
new friends here.”

“
Oh, sorry,” Damon said,
lowering his hand.

“
We see now, there is no
chance of peace,” the Valle said nervously.

“
We are at peace now. We
will not consider us at war until you have done something to
provoke it,” Leonid said.

“
May we ask the Lady then?
If she will bestow the gift on us?” the tallest Valle Elder
asked.

“
No, you may not,” Leonid
said, coldly.

“
You speak for her now?
Does she not have the ability to answer for herself?”

“
Yes, she does… but no, you
may not ask her.”

“
Very well, we will take
this as an act of aggression.” He tried to threaten the
Council.

“
Oh?” Chevalier asked,
suddenly interested.

“
We won’t attack, but you
can see how we will need to protect ourselves.”

“
By all means,” he said,
grinning.

After a few minutes of silence, the Valle
filed out of the council chambers nervously.

“
That was interesting,”
Damon said, leaning back in his chair.

“
1,800,” Leonid whispered,
looking at Chevalier.

“
She’s paying for it,
though,” he reminded them.

“
You said the original
Winchester died by killing a few hundred?”

“
Yes, Sam was
there.”

Leonid frowned, “Does Emily know that?”

“
Yes”

The realization hit for the rest of the
Council. Emily went into the Encala palace, fully expecting to
die.

“
How is she?” Maleth asked.
The heku were all anxious to hear about her, but her room had been
sealed, and Kyle wasn’t letting anyone in or answering any
questions.