Encala (55 page)

“
For right now.”

Chevalier studied the curves and contours of
her body while she bathed in the sun.

“
You’re staring,” she said,
not opening her eyes.

“
Yes I am.”

“
Did you want
something?”

“
You have no idea,” he
said, grinning.

Emily looked up at him, “You’re in my
sun.”

Chevalier moved off to the side and Emily
closed her eyes again.

“
Marry me,” he said,
amused.

“
I did that already,” she
reminded him.

“
Yes but then I became an…”
He thought.

“
Ass?” she
suggested.

Chevalier laughed, “Ok, an ass, and I’m
asking you again.”

Emily’s phone rang and she grabbed it from
the ground by her chair.

“
Hi, Exavior,” she said,
smiling.

“
Mostly,” she said, looking
up at Chevalier.

Emily smiled widely, “Yes I will,
thanks.”

“
Yes I know how many days
are left, good-bye.”

“
I said good-bye,” she
said, and then hung up the phone.

Chevalier couldn’t help but ask, “So… how
many days are left?”

“
Until the bond is gone,”
she said. “He’s worse than you are at reminding me.”

Emily laid back down in the sun.

“
Oh, he’s encouraging you
to put it on?” Chevalier asked, surprised.

“
Yeah, go figure,” she
said.

“
Ok, I give up. I’ll let
you suffer morning sickness alone if you’ll put it back on,” he
said, handing it to her.

“
I’ll think about it,” she
told him. He slipped the ring back into his pocket.

“
There’s something I’ve
been meaning to tell you, but you need to keep it from Exavior.
It’s important,” he said, seriously.

Emily pulled down her sunglasses and looked
at him, “What?”

“
Leonid is retiring,” he
said, watching her for a reaction.

She frowned “Like, moving to Florida for the
next thousand years?”

“
No, he’ll go into stasis
in the ground.”

She sat up, “He’ll what?”

“
He’ll be buried, Em, with
honors.”

“
Wait, like you did to
Selest? You’re going to let them take out Leonid?” she started to
panic.

“
No, this is entirely
different. This was his choice.”

“
How long will he be in the
ground?”

“
He’s asked for 500 years.
After that, it’s up to him when he emerges.”

“
No!” Emily said, standing
up. She ran into the palace. Chevalier watched her go and then
looked out over the palace grounds.

“
Enter,” Emily heard after
she knocked. She walked into Leonid’s office and ignored the
nervous way he looked at her.

“
Why are you leaving?” she
asked, kneeling down by him and taking his hand.

“
I’m tired. It is my time
for a rest.” He smiled at her.

“
You can’t just
go.”

“
I can, in two days.” He
felt pangs of guilt. He didn’t realize how this would affect Emily.
The heku all understood and supported his decision.

“
You’ll be hungry, and what
if you change your mind in a week?” she asked.

“
I won’t be hungry, I will
be asleep. I won’t change my mind either. I’ve been thinking of
this for almost a hundred years,” he explained.

Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes, “Is it
because of the trouble I’m causing? I can stop, I can behave, I
promise.”

Leonid was touched and wiped a tear off of
her cheek, “No, it is not you, Emily. You are the reason I’ve
stayed for as long as I have. I never really cared much for
mortals; pesky, whiney species at best. You, though, are a
fascinating creature and I have enjoyed spending my last years in
your presence.”

“
Please stay, I can’t lose
you,” she said, and laid her head against his leg
crying.

“
You have to think of it,
not as a death, I will not be dead. You need to consider it just a
long sleep. I won’t even be aware as time passes.” He touched the
back of her head, lightly.

“
I can’t stay here without
you,” she said, and his robes became wet with her tears.

“
Look at me, Emily,” he
said, and peered deep into her eyes. “If you take one thing from
me, let it be this. Listen to Chevalier, he loves you and has only
your best interest at heart. Let the heku do what they are trained
to do, to protect you. You have no idea how precious you are to
us.”

“
Stay and I will, I
promise. I’ll let the guards back. I’ll stop sneaking out…” She
stopped talking when he shook his head.

“
My decision is
made.”

Emily sat down and leaned her head against
his leg. She thought about the palace without him and worked
herself back into a cry. Leonid rested his hand gently against her
shoulder as he went about making the final preparations.

“
Chevalier,” Leonid
whispered a few hours later, when he realized Emily was asleep at
his side. He wasn’t sure how long she had been. He was engrossed in
making arrangements for his absence.

There was a light knock at the door, and
Leonid whispered, “Come in.”

“
You called for me?”
Chevalier asked.

Leonid motioned the other Elder around the
desk. Chevalier walked around the large mahogany desk and sighed
when she saw Emily.

“
I’m sorry,” Chevalier
said, picking her up and cradling her in his arms.

“
Don’t be,” Leonid
whispered. “It’s touching that I will be missed.”

Chevalier nodded and carried Emily up to her
room. He tucked her into bed and turned the lights out, and then
sat in the chair and watched her sleep. He’d been staying in Kyle’s
room for a while, and he missed the way she moved in her sleep, and
the soft way she sometimes talked.

Just after midnight, Emily began to clench
her hands in her sleep. Chevalier moved closer to her.

“
Don’t,” she said softly.
Her voice was sad and desperate.

Chevalier frowned.

“
Don’t be buried,” she
whispered.

Chevalier sighed. He didn’t realized how
deeply affected she would be by Leonid’s rest. It was so common to
the heku, that it was readily accepted. He could see though, how in
the mortal realm, it would be considered a death. When Leonid wakes
up, Emily will have been gone for hundreds of years. The thought
sent a chill up his spine. The thought of Emily dying someday was
something he avoided thinking about.

“
Please,” she cried, “Chev,
don’t.”

Chevalier moved closer to her,
concerned.

“
Don’t leave me,” she said,
upset.

Emily relaxed back into a deeper sleep and
Chevalier sat back to ponder what would happen when she did die. He
would still have children alive, and they would have children. The
Winchester line was now his line. Would he become like Ulrich and
be obsessed with their protection? Would he grow angry and
unfeeling when his heart ached for a mortal that had been gone for
too long?

Chevalier watched her sleep and felt empty
inside without her emotions running through him. He missed her
scattered thoughts when she slept, and the vast range of emotions
different situations caused to run through her in a day.

“
I’ll be good,” she
promised in whispers in her sleep.

Chevalier watched her, intrigued.

“
Chev, don’t do it,” her
voice was soft and tender.

Chevalier moved closer to her. She was
crying in her sleep and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“
Bury me with you,” she
whispered.

Chevalier took the risk and crawled into bed
with her. She pulled against him in her sleep and snuggled her face
into his neck. He wrapped his arms around her.

Emily woke up in the morning, confused. She
thought she was curled up next to someone, but when she opened her
eyes, she was alone. Her bedroom was cold and empty. Her nightmares
were drifting into her morning. She felt alone and things seemed
hopeless.

She opened the curtains and watched the rain
splash against the side of the palace. That would mean there would
be no cavalry training today. The guards would be training indoors
and Sam would take care of the horses. She wondered what she would
do for the day as a dark cloud of depression filled her mind like a
haze.

Emily slipped into a simple black sun-dress
and walked slowly down the stairs. The guards smiled at her, but
got no emotion in return. She couldn’t understand how everyone
could be acting so normal when one of their beloved Elders was
about to be buried alive. Stepping out into the light rain, she
walked barefoot toward the stables and then looked around the
palace grounds. The gray clouds put a dull shell over everything.
It looked like the world had been drawn into a void.

“
Emily? What are you doing
out in the rain?” Frank asked, and she turned slowly toward him. He
frowned at the lost look on her face.

“
Leonid is going away,” she
said to him softly, blinking her eyes as the rain hit her
lashes.

Frank nodded, “I know, he’s going for a
rest.”

“
No one cares,” she
whispered.

Frank frowned at her, “Come out of the
rain.”

She shook her head, “Why doesn’t anyone
care?”

“
It’s not bad. He’s just
going to rest for a while,” Frank explained.

“
He’s going to be in the
cold ground, hungry, alone, unable to escape,” she said, watching
the scene play out in the rain.

“
We’re all happy for him,”
Frank watched her.

Emily looked up at him and her eyes were
full of pain, “You’re happy he’s leaving?”

“
Not happy he’s leaving,
but happy for him. He’s chosen to take a break, get some much
needed rest,” Frank said.

Emily turned back toward the stables and
wrapped her arms around herself. She watched the horses through the
rain. Tears filled her eyes again as she thought of saying good-bye
to him.

Frank whispered something, too softly for
her to hear, and then watched her closely.

She walked slowly over to the horse corral
and leaned up against the wooden posts, watching the rain splash
onto the mud.

“
Em?” Chevalier said from
behind her.

She didn’t turn around, “You’re just going
to let him go.”

“
It’s not my decision,” he
said, leaning against the fence beside her.

“
Have you tried to talk him
out of it?” she asked.

“
No,” he said to her. “This
is a decision a heku makes in his life. Leonid thought a lot about
this, and we support him.”

She shook her head, “I’ll stop him.”

“
You can’t stop him,”
Chevalier said, and held his hand out. “Come out of the
rain.”

She turned around and leaned her arms
against the posts, “Then what? Maleth next month?”

“
Maleth hasn’t even
considered it, last I heard.”

“
Have you?” she asked, not
looking at him.

“
No,” he lied. She didn’t
need to know he planned on a retirement after her death.

“
Come inside,” he said,
again.

“
No, I need to think,” she
said, watching the water deepen in the corral.

“
Child?” she heard Leonid
say from behind her. She turned and saw him smiling at her as the
rain drenched his green robe.

Emily ran to him and wrapped her arms around
him, “Please don’t go.”

“
Look at me,” he said, and
she pulled away from him and looked into his ancient eyes. He
smiled, “This is what I want. I am ready for it.”

She shook her head, “You can’t be ready for
this.”

“
I can, it’s something I
have thought about for thousands of years. Thousands of tiring
years. I’ve been through wars and plagues and disasters. It wears
on a heku to watch loved ones die and enemies fall. It’s my time
for peace,” he said, brushing her wet hair away from her
face.

“
Peace?” she asked,
frowning.

“
Yes, peace. I think I’ve
earned it,” he said to her.

Emily hugged him again and pressed her face
into the robes on his chest, “Nothing I can do will make you
stay?”

“
No, Dear.” He touched the
back of her head, gently. Leonid nodded at Chevalier and turned
Emily around. She went into Chevalier’s arms and cried against his
chest. He picked her up and carried her into the palace as she
cried in his arms.

Emily spent the rest of the day curled up in
bed. Chevalier felt helpless as he watched her struggle with the
pain of the impending loss. She saw Leonid’s stasis as a death and
nothing anyone could say would change that. Chevalier had only seen
her in such a low place once before, and it scared him to see her
fierce passion gone. The fire in her eyes was drenched with tears,
and she looked at the world coldly.

Chevalier curled up with her again once
she’d gone to sleep. He kept her close to him until he heard the
ceremony starting. Emily was still asleep and he slipped out of her
room. Kyle was waiting by the door with his long blue robe. He put
it on, looked back at Emily’s door, and then made his way down the
stairs.