Encala (36 page)

“
Oh that’s it!” she yelled,
and flew past the guards into the small store room in the stable.
She came out with a long metal stick.

Kyle frowned, he couldn’t imagine her having
one, let alone using it. The training was unexpectedly halted as
they all watched Emily. She stormed to the Arabian and stared him
in the eyes.

“
You want to mess with me?”
she asked him, gritting her teeth.

The stallion reared back again, but dropped
and whinnied loudly when Emily stuck the stick against his chest
for a split second.

“
Try again, Boy, I dare
you,” she hissed.

The Arabian shied away from her, obviously
not happy. She walked back to the new recruits a little calmer.

“
Hold this,” she said,
handing the stick to one of them and went into the storage room
again.

She turned suddenly when she heard a loud
thud, and saw the recruit lying flat on the ground. She walked over
to him and knelt down, immediately breaking the no touching rule,
and took his face in her hands.

“
Are you ok?” she asked
him.

He scrambled nervously to his feet, “Yes,
Ma’am.”

“
What happened?” she asked,
picking the stick up off of the ground.

Emily turned when she heard Kyle laughing
behind her, “Electricity, Emily… he wanted to know what the stick
did.”

She turned, “The cattle prod dropped
you?”

He nodded, embarrassed.

“
This?” she asked, touching
it to her leg. She didn’t even wince as she was shocked
slightly.

He nodded again, even more embarrassed.

The recruit standing beside him was laughing
hysterically. Emily walked to him and touched the cattle prod to
his bare arm, then watched as he hit the ground.

“
Hmmm,” she said, looking
at him.

He got to his feet slowly, no longer
laughing.

“
I have to try this on
Damon,” Emily said, running for the palace. She was lifted off the
ground as Kyle wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up,
taking the cattle prod out of her hand.

He carried her back to the stable, “Let’s
not.”

The recruits were watching, eyes wide. They
knew the orders were that no heku was to touch the Elder’s wife,
yet Kyle not only touched her, but picked her up and took something
from her.

Kyle set her down and put the cattle prod on
a high ledge.

“
Damon better hope I don’t
find him when I have that,” she said, smiling sweetly, and then she
turned to the recruits.

“
Hello, I’m Emily,” she
said, and reached her hand out for the first in line. He looked at
her, nervously, and then glanced at Kyle and nodded to
Emily.

“
Good to meet you,
Ma’am.”

Emily went to Frank, “Did you get the no
touching lecture?”

He nodded and smiled.

“
I’ll bet you dinner, that
half of you will break that rule by the time training is over,” she
said, putting her hands on her hips.

The recruits gasped and nervously stepped
back.

“
Not me!” she said, rolling
her eyes. “I’ll find you donors… geesh.”

Kyle leaned against the stable shaking his
head.

“
Deal?” she asked
Frank.

“
Deal,” he said,
grinning.

“
Ok, first rule, never
stand behind a horse,” she told them, pacing in front of them. “If
you want me mad, the easiest way is to mistreat your horse,
understood?”

They nodded.

“
I will issue you each a
horse based on your height. You will be responsible from here on
out for taking care of it. That means brushing, feeding, and
watering.” She went to the first recruit.

“
You first, come on,” she
said, reaching for a bridle. The bridle got stuck on the high nail
and she jumped to free it, and then lost her balance when she
landed. She felt a hand on her back, steadying her, and then a
frightened gasp.

“
That’s one,” she said,
grinning, as she walked past Kyle and into the stables.

Emily spent the next few hours assigning
horses. She went back to Kyle as they brushed their new charges and
began the bonding.

“
I’m up two,” she said,
grinning.

“
We try to get them to
obey, and you just can’t stand that can you?” Kyle
laughed.

“
It’s a stupid rule. It’s
not like they are grabbing my ass you know,” she said, leaning
against the wall by him.

“
You know why we have it,”
he said, chuckling.

“
Yes I do, and it’s stupid.
Hey!” she yelled, walking over to the Arabian. He was chewing on
the leather straps of his bridle.

She took the sides of his bridle and pulled
him hard to face her, “What are you doing?”

The Arabian snorted right into her face, and
she dropped the reins and stepped back, wiping her face off on her
sleeve, “That’s disgusting.”

Kyle watched and grinned.

“
Guess you get to stay
there all night, how’s that?” she growled at him, and walked back
to Kyle.

“
That’s showing him, Em,”
he said, laughing.

She grabbed a bale of hay, moved it to the
side of the barn, and stood on it, then jumped and grabbed her
cattle prod.

“
Oh, no you don’t,” Kyle
said, taking it from her again.

She glared at him and shouted, “Ok, bring
your horses out front. Let me have a look.”

They lined up and Emily walked past them
slowly. One of the horses was shying away from his heku. She
stopped and watched.

“
One thing I will mention,”
Kyle said to them. “Emily has a bad habit of pushing the heku out
of the way of a mad horse, and she usually gets kicked for it.
Please try to control your horses, and don’t let her take the blow
for you.”

The heku frowned. They couldn’t imagine
letting the Elder’s wife take any kind of abuse in their stead.

“
Ha-ha, very funny,” she
said.

The horse she was watching began to stomp
his feet anxiously, and pull at his reins. Emily approached him and
took the reins from the heku guard just as the horse began to rear
back. She moved between the guard and the horse as the stallion
dropped and slammed his head into her chest, knocking her back onto
the ground.

“
Like that,” Kyle said,
running to her.

Emily stood up and brushed herself off.

“
I’m so sorry,” the heku
said. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“
Don’t worry about it,” she
said, and took the reins. She led the horse a ways away from the
others and talked to him calmly, while rubbing the soft velvet on
his nose.

“
I’m sorry,” the guard said
to Kyle, who glared at him.

“
Come here, Kyle,” Emily
asked softly, and Kyle walked up. As soon as the horse saw him, it
reared back again and kicked hard at Kyle, who dodged it
easily.

“
Go back,” she told him,
and when Kyle returned to the stables, the horse calmed
down.

“
Hrm…” she sighed, leading
the horse back into the stable. As she walked past the guards, the
stallion shook his head and whinnied loudly. Emily came out a short
time later with another horse and handed the reins to the
guard.

“
Try that one,” she said,
and went back to Kyle.

“
Last but not least, while
you are in cavalry training, you will be paired up with one of our
full cavalry guards. They will teach you the codes and rules,” he
said, and finally stepped back.

“
I’m hungry, let’s feed
them and go eat,” she said, and then shrugged, “Or I’ll go
eat.”

She pulled the cover off of the oats and
took Patra in a fresh scoop, then filled her water trough with cold
water. After checking to make sure all of the horses were fed and
watered, she headed inside.

“
I could use a steak,” she
said, smiling to Kyle.

“
I’m thinking I may go have
dinner too,” he said, looking back over his shoulder.

“
Did they find my Durango?”
Emily asked.

“
Yes, the police called
about it, so we picked it up.”

Emily stopped at the front doors, “You sure
I can’t have my cattle prod, just for an hour?”

“
Yes I’m sure,” Kyle said,
laughing as he walked away.

“
You know I’ll find it,”
she called to him, then went inside.

Emily went into the dining room and picked
Allen up when he ran to her. She kissed him and brushed his black
hair away from his face.

“
You need a haircut,” she
said, then smiled and sat him down at the table.

Emily was just sitting down when a heku
arrived with steak and potato for her, and a small pizza for Allen.
She cut into the juicy steak and started to eat, the training had
made her hungry.

“
Why do I always have to
smell blood on you?” she heard Chevalier ask as he walked into the
dining room.

“
Because I’m accident
prone,” she told him, and took a sip of wine.

She felt Chevalier kiss the top of her head,
and watched as he did the same to Allen and then sat down, “How did
it go?”

“
Fine, you should have told
me your Arabian came to torment me,” she said, taking another
bite.

“
You be nice to
him.”

“
Oh, he’s taken care of,
believe me.”

“
I like him, he has
personality.”

“
Did you know I can drop a
heku to the ground with a cattle prod?” she asked, and took another
bite.

“
Emily… you didn’t,”
Chevalier said, shaking his hand.

“
Just one,” she told him
and laughed.

“
I didn’t know it would
drop a heku, but I knew it would affect us somehow,” he
chuckled.

“
I wanted to try it out on
Damon, but Kyle took it away,” she said, adding butter to the baked
potato.

“
You need to try to be nice
to Damon.”

“
When he drops the
attitude, I’ll consider it.”

When they were done eating, Chevalier picked
Allen up and took Emily’s hand, and they walked up to their
room.

“
Are you going to hold to
your promise?” Emily asked when they stepped into the empty
room.

He nodded, he was hoping she would
forget.

Emily took Allen into the nursery and tucked
him into bed, then came back out.

“
Start with these ugly
things,” she said, removing her long sleeved shirt. The camisole
exposed the golden coiled snakes on her arms.

“
Why are you bleeding?” he
asked, as she wiped dried blood from her arm.

“
That damned horse of
yours. He and I had it out,” she said, and sat down. “Don’t change
the subject. Why won’t they come off?”

Chevalier sighed and sat down, “They are a
bonding tool.”

“
What do you mean?” she
asked, sitting down.

“
It’s similar to the
essence ring, but a lot harder to break.”

“
But it can be broken,
right?”

Chevalier grinned, “Yes it can. They can
only be removed after death or infidelity.”

“
Not
disloyalty?”

“
Nope, just infidelity or
death.”

“
Then why am I still
wearing them?” she asked, confused.

“
Doctor’s orders,” he said,
taking her hand and kissing it softly. “It wasn’t my
choice.”

“
Then let’s get them off
now,” she started pulling at them.

“
How romantic… but
no.”

“
They irritate
me.”

“
Yes, me too. It’s not easy
for me to see the mark of a bond on you, believe me. Two of them
even, it only takes one to show that a person is taken,” he said,
frowning.

“
And the itchy stuff on my
leg?” she asked.

Chevalier sighed, “That one’s more
complicated.”

“
Why won’t it come off?”
she asked.

“
That we don’t know. Those
runes are normally tattoos. Yours are just ink, so we are still
hopeful that they will come off.” He sat back in his
chair.

“
Runes? What do they mean?”
she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“
Back when the ancients
were still in charge, and the mortals were becoming more civilized,
the ancients found that some of the mortals were… well…
attractive.”

Emily frowned, no longer sure she wanted to
know about the runes.

“
They didn’t want to bond
with such lowly creatures,” Chevalier said with an apologetic
smile, “But they also wanted to be able to… have the
mortal.”

“
Have them?”

Chevalier nodded, “Have… them…”

Emily’s eyes got wide, “They wanted them for
sex?”

He nodded again and shut his eyes, “The
mortal would become a slave to the heku, and they showed that
possession with a rune.”

Emily’s voice cracked, “Am I marked as a sex
slave?”

“
Yes,” he said, softly,
“Specifically belonging to the Encala. Because they picked a mate
for you, we figure they only marked you as a humiliation
though.”

“
Get it off,” she said,
panicked.