Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (101 page)

Exavior tossed a dress to her, “Put
that on.”

“
No thanks, I’m good,” she
said, and started to toss the pink dress out the window. Exavior
blurred to the window and caught it.

“
That wasn’t a suggestion,
put it on,” he said, and shoved it back into her hands.

Emily glared at him and
walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She changed
quickly, aware that he could break the lock easily. She held up the
dress and sighed. It was a low cut, floor-length, pink a-line with
thin spaghetti straps and diamonds embroidered into the fitted
body. She cringed as she walked past the mirror and then emerged
into the bedroom.

“
Beautiful,” Exavior said,
and walked around her, smiling.

“
Not really my style,” she
told him, and glared at him.

“
Sit, someone’s coming to
do your hair,” Exavior said, and pulled up a chair.

“
Why are you doing
this?”

“
You will see,” he said,
and took her hand, kissing it softly.

“
Good, I hope my hair
matches the bruise you put on my arm,” Emily said, and sat
down.

She sat, impatiently, while
a heku worked frantically on her hair. When she was finished, she
got approval from Exavior and left the room, locking the door after
her.

“
Go and look,” Exavior
said, and offered her his hand. She stood up without help and
glanced in the mirror, her eyes growing wide.

“
What the hell?” she asked.
Her hair had been twisted onto the top of her head and was used to
secure a diamond tiara.

“
Now, this… is how a
Winchester should be dressed,” Exavior smiled.

Emily tried to take off the
delicate diamond crown, but her hair held it tightly in
place.

“
Come, we’re attending a
ball,” he said, and held his hand out. “I would suggest you behave
tonight too, or we may have to punish your cell mates.”

Emily frowned and took his
hand. He led them down several corridors and staircases, and then
through a set of double doors into a large banquet hall filled with
heku. They all turned to look at her and she felt her skin crawl.
She was very much mindful that everyone looking at her was a Valle.
She flexed her hands as they began to tingle. She was suddenly
aware that wherever Chevalier was, they were using electricity on
him.

Sotomar came up to them and
kissed her hand as Exavior smiled, “You look lovely, Dear. So glad
you decided to join us.”

Emily smiled politely and
kept repeating to herself that she was protecting Chevalier and
Kyle. She politely nodded to each of the dignitaries that Exavior
led her to, and stood silently as they commented about her beauty,
or mentioned how helpful it would be to have her abilities in their
faction.

“
Emily, I’m Elder Ryan, so
good to finally meet you,” a heku said, and kissed her
hand.

Emily nodded and smiled, afraid her
voice might give her irritation away.

The banquet hall fell quiet
when the building began to shake. The sound of landing helicopters
filled the palace and Emily couldn’t help but smile. She felt the
tension building within the banquet hall as Valle guards streamed
into it and Exavior pulled Emily into the protective circle with
the Council. She crossed her arms, excited to see who was causing
so much tension in the Valle ranks.

Emily felt her heart leap
when she saw the green uniforms of the Thukil Cavalry. They were
followed by a massive Council City Army. Darren spotted her almost
immediately, and he grinned and headed the Thukil Cavalry towards
her. Exavior let go of Emily and began to fight one of the Equites
guards. Emily stepped back away from the fighting and ran out into
the hallway. The corridor was deserted. All available hands were
fighting in the banquet hall.

Emily pulled up the long
hem of her dress and started to search frantically for the prison.
She remembered landmarks from inside the palace and tried to follow
them from memory. When she found her stateroom, she knew she was on
the right track.

She opened a door and came
face-to-face with the long corridor full of cells. She began to
search for electrical controls. Emily found the control room and
started flipping all of the switches. The menacing sound of pulsing
electricity faded, and she looked around for the control keys. She
was able to reach them after climbing on a chair and then she
quickly ran back to the corridor.

Emily opened each door. If
they were Equites, she told them of the fight in the banquet hall,
if they were Encala, she told them they had 5 minutes to get out of
the Valle city. Emily turned around when she’d opened the last cell
and glanced down, all of the doors were opened, but she hadn’t
found Chevalier or Kyle.

One of the Encala turned around on his
way out of the corridor, “What’s wrong? Get out of
here.”

“
I can’t, I don’t see the
ones I came with,” she said, and looked at him
frantically.

The Encala turned around
toward the exit, and then ran back to her, “There may be more cells
down here, come.”

Emily followed him through
an adjacent corridor and they emerged in another row of cells. The
Encala quickly shut off the electricity and Emily used the keys to
go through each cell.

“
You’re Emily, aren’t you?”
the Encala asked, and she felt a panic rising.

She nodded at him.

“
Ok, go check for them,” he
said, and she repeated what she had done with the previous hallway.
The Encala took off quickly while the Equites headed deeper into
the palace.

“
Nothing, still,” Emily
said to the Encala.

He sighed, “Come on, let’s keep
looking.”

Emily nervously headed down
a dark stairway, following what she realized was an enemy, but she
was desperate to find Kyle and Chevalier. The Encala opened a door
and crouched, hissing angrily.

She ran up behind him and
saw four Valle guards crouched to attack him. They fell to ash
instantly, and the Encala stood up and looked at her, shocked. She
pushed past him and started to turn off the electrical current. It
wasn’t until she got into the corridor that she saw there were no
cells here, just heku shackled to the walls in various stages of
starvation.

“
Emily, no,” the Encala
said when she moved to one of them. “He’s starving. He won’t be
able to resist your scent.”

Emily frowned and looked at
the one she was about to release. His eyes were fixed on the
throbbing vein in her neck, “I can’t leave them.”

“
Go get the ones that
aren’t this bad off. I’ll move these ones,” he told her.

Emily nodded and ran down further. She
touched the face of a heku and he looked up at her,
shocked.

“
Encala or Equites?” she
asked softly.

“
Encala,” he said, and she
could tell he thought she would leave him there. She reached up and
unlatched his shackles.

“
Get out of here, do you
hear me? Run,” she said, and he blurred out of the
corridor.

Emily moved up to the next
one, and then the next one, releasing each and giving orders to
either run or join in the fight. She released the last heku and
turned to the Encala that was helping her. He had already let go
the last of the first batch.

“
Still not finding them?”
he asked her, frustrated.

Emily shook her head,
“No.”

“
I smell…” she saw him cock
his head slightly to the side and inhaled. “There’s more down
here.”

Emily frowned and
frantically looked around.

The Encala suddenly took
off, and Emily ran after him. She almost ran into him in the dark
corridor, but light appeared when he opened the door. Emily walked
in and gasped. The room was full of electrified heku, horribly in
pain, and she was sure some of them were dead.

The Encala quickly turned
off the electricity and Emily ran to Chevalier. He was lying still
on the dirt floor, “Chev?”

He opened his eyes slowly
and looked at her.

Emily turned to the side.
She took Kyle’s hand and touched his face, “Kyle?”

She turned to the Encala,
“He’s not moving.”

Chevalier frowned when a
well-known Encala murderer knelt down beside Emily and looked Kyle
over, “He’s alive. You get the other one, I’ll get him.”

“
Did you let the rest of
them go?” she asked, looking around.

“
If they are alive, yes, I
let them go,” he said, and picked Kyle up in a fireman’s
hold.

Emily nodded and tried to
get Chevalier to his feet, but he was too weak and groaned with the
pain.

“
Chev, can you stand up? We
have to get out of here,” she said, and Chevalier used the wall to
stand, but his legs buckled and he fell back to the
ground.

The Encala laid Kyle’s limp body back
on the ground. He looked at Emily, “How strong are you?”

“
Tell me what to do,” Emily
said, and glanced at Chevalier.

The Encala nodded and
pulled Chevalier to his feet, “Ok, bend slightly. I’m going to lay
him across your back. Keep moving. If you stop, it’ll be hard for
you to get going again.”

Emily nodded and bent
slightly. Chevalier tried to talk, tried to tell her not to trust
the Encala, but he wasn’t able to say anything. The Encala leaned
Chevalier against her back, wincing at how small she looked trying
to carry the hulking heku.

“
Can you do this?” he
asked.

“
If you can help me up the
stairs, yes,” Emily said, and grabbed his arms that were draped
over her shoulders. She groaned and stepped one foot forward,
slowly moving toward the door as Chevalier’s feet drug behind
her.

When she got to the stairs,
the Encala took Chevalier and ran him upstairs as Emily followed.
Once they were on the ground floor, he turned to her.

“
I have to warn you, the
Equites aren’t going to like seeing you with me,” he said, and
picked Chevalier up to lean against Emily again.

“
Why is that? I couldn’t do
this without you,” she asked as Chevalier’s weight was again put on
her back. She grabbed his arms and began to inch
forward.

“
They just won’t, if they
attack, let me be, ok?” the Encala said, and picked Kyle up fireman
style.

“
No,” Emily managed to
whisper.

“
Yes, the worst they can do
is put me in their jail, but if I can, I’ll run,” he said, and
walked slowly beside Emily. “You’re tough for a mortal, do you know
that?”

Emily just smiled slightly and groaned
with each step.

“
Why… are they…
unconscious?” Emily managed to pant.

“
It’s a torturer’s trick.
Electricity and a few special herbs, and it can incapacitate a heku
indefinitely,” he said, keeping pace with her.

“
How… long?” Emily groaned
louder as her legs began to shake.

“
Could be days,” the Encala
said, and froze. “Watch it.”

Emily looked up and saw Mark and Silas
staring at them, both of them were glaring at the
Encala.

“
Mark, help,” Emily
whispered, and Zohn appeared at his side. Mark ran to her and
picked Chevalier up. She fell to her knees, her legs unable to bear
any more weight.

“
No, Zohn!” Emily yelled,
when Kyle was ripped from the Encala’s shoulders and he stood
crouched, facing Zohn. “He helped me, let him go.”

The Encala grinned slightly, “She
doesn’t listen does she?”

“
Never,” Zohn said, and
suddenly the Encala was pinned to the floor by Equites.

“
Stop!” Emily yelled, and
tried to get to her feet, but she still couldn’t stand up. Her legs
felt like jelly.

Silas picked Emily up and
before she could complain, he blurred her to the Blackhawk
helicopter and she was lifted inside by Mark.

“
Are you hurt?” he asked,
looking her over.

“
No, Mark, listen to me,”
she said quickly. “The Encala I was with, let him go.”

“
We can’t let him go. He’s
wanted by the Equites, too,” Mark explained.

“
He helped me, without him
I wouldn’t have found them,” she told him.

“
Sorry, Em, he has to be
seen by the Council.” Mark ignored the way she glared at him and
readied the wounded for travel.

When the Thukil guards
brought the Encala out the doors, they pushed him roughly into
another helicopter. Emily jumped down from the helicopter she was
in, and ran to the other one.

“
Get me up!” she yelled,
and Zohn pulled her up by her arms.

“
Go!” Zohn yelled, and the
pilot nodded as the helicopter lifted from the ground.

Emily looked over and saw
Thukil guards holding the Encala down.

“
Be nice to him,” she
said.

“
Yes, Commander,” they
said, and loosened their grip on him a little. The Encala looked at
them, surprised they not only called her Commander, but followed
her orders.