Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (4 page)

“Release me!” Frederick
growled at her from behind the iron bars.

“No, you deserve a
lifetime of pain for killing my friends.”

Frederick smiled, “I’ll
kill more of them when I reform.”

“You won’t get the chance.
I’ll just ash you again,” Emily told him.

Suddenly, Frederick broke
free of the bars and flew at her.

Emily jerked and sat up suddenly in
bed when she felt a hand on her arm.

“It’s just me,” Mark
whispered, and sat down on the bed beside her. “It was a nightmare,
go back to sleep.”

She nodded, not fully
awake, and laid back down, “Stay.”

“I will,” Mark told her,
and watched as she fell back to sleep. The Cavalry took turns
sitting with her while she slept until the Elder came. Chevalier
spent days in the palace and the last four weeks in Emily’s house
at night.

“That’s four,” Silas whispered from
the door.

Mark nodded and whispered, “They are
getting worse.”

Silas went to meet Chevalier when he
came in that night.

“Any nightmares?” Chevalier asked,
kicking off his snowy boots.

“Yes, 4 tonight,” Silas told
him.

“Frederick?”

“Two of them she screamed
his name, but the other two she didn’t talk.”

Chevalier sighed and
headed up the stairs. Mark left her room when the Elder came in,
and then shut the door behind them. Chevalier looked carefully
around the room. He hated the house and the fact that Exavior was
here and had plans for Emily. She had redecorated a good part of it
already, and it was slowly starting to fade from a Valle home to an
Equites one, now that the front foyer was painted in deep greens
and had an Equites banner above the door.

He crawled into bed and
wrapped his arms around her. As suggested by the Council, he’d
begun delving deeper into her dreams and studied them, trying to
find the source of the nightly terror.

Emily wandered slowly
through Chevalier’s Colorado mansion. She was nonchalantly looking
at the art and opening random doors. Some doors opened up to
offices belonging to the Cavalry, while others were small
interrogation rooms.

She opened up one door and
saw Kyle inside the room. He had Frederick on the rack and
Frederick was screaming in pain.

“Oh, sorry,” Emily said,
and started to shut the door.

Kyle looked up, “Come on
in, it’s ok.”

She looked behind her and
then back to Kyle, “Chev wouldn’t want me in there.”

Kyle grinned, “You can
help. Come here, I’ll show you.”

“You’ll show
me?”

“Sure, why
not?”

Emily walked in and looked
down as Frederick screamed in pain, “Why are you doing
this?”

“It’s fun, you’ll like
it,” Kyle told her.

“You’re not interrogating
him?”

“No,” Kyle said, and moved
to the side a bit. “Take this lever here and pull it toward
you.”

She reached out and took
the lever, but didn’t move it, “What will it do?”

“It’ll tear him apart.
It’s great!”

She looked down into
Fredericks eyes, “He’s already in pain… just kill him.”

“Why? He deserves pain for
what he did to Jaron.”

“Yes, I guess he
does.”

“Do it, pull the lever,”
Kyle urged.

“I can’t,” she whispered,
and took her hand off of the lever.

Frederick grinned up at
her, “You’re mine.”

Emily gasped when he
lunged from the restraints, and she sat up in bed.

“Another dream,” Chevalier
whispered.

Emily looked over at him
and nodded. She glanced around the room and watched the
fire.

Chevalier sat up beside her, “Not
going back to bed?”

“No,” she said, and got
out of bed and threw on a robe. “I’m just going to go get some
coffee.”

“Sit and talk first,” he
said, and patted the bed beside him. She crawled back into the bed
and sat cross-legged beside him.

“About what?”

“Are you going to stay in this house
permanently?”

“No, as soon as I get it
fixed up, I’ll stay in the palace.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” he said,
surprised.

“It’s easier to fix if I stay
here.”

“Mark said you’ve been asking a lot of
questions lately about heku banishment.”

She shrugged, “Some, I guess, though
he won’t answer them.”

Chevalier smiled, “I think he’s making
sure he doesn’t say too much.”

“So will you answer my
questions?”

“Try me.”

“Are the heku aware when they are
ash?”

“Not at first, no.”

“How long do they have to be ash
before the pain and suffering starts?”

“Usually about a year.
Why?” he asked her, and brushed her hair away from her
face.

Emily shrugged slightly,
“I was just curious. Then… how long before they reform and come
back to life?”

“That takes around 10 years before
they are formed enough to be sentient.”

“Is it different if they are banished
in the ground as opposed to those that aren’t?”

Chevalier sighed, “Tell me what’s
going on, please.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why the questions and the
nightmares? Why is Frederick all of a sudden haunting
you?”

She looked up at him.

“You’re using your poker
face, Em,” he said, and sighed. “Just tell me.”

“Curiosity is all the questions
are.”

“And the nightmares?”

“I don’t know about those,” she said,
and looked away from him.

“It would really help if you’d tell
me.”

A loud crash sounded from
down the stairs and Chevalier blurred out the door. Emily ran for
the stairs and stopped at the top of them, watching wide-eyed as
Chevalier joined in a massive blur of fighting. She sat down on the
top step, ready to ash anyone who wasn’t an Equites that might head
her direction.

The fight was short. It
only lasted a few minutes, and then she was able to see what was
going on. When the fighting stopped, Mark, Kralen, and two other
members of the Cavalry had four Encala knelt down before Chevalier,
who was panting and crouched as if to attack.

Silas stood beside them, visibly
angry, and Emily thought he looked like he might tear the Encala to
shreds if given the approval.

“Care to explain?”
Chevalier growled, and stood up, though his hands were still balled
into tight fists.

“We don’t have to tell you
anything,” one of the Encala growled. The four enemy heku were
suddenly gripped in the fierce burning pain Emily sent at them. The
Equites watched and waited to see if they would fall to ash or if
the pain was enough to make them talk.

When Emily released them, they got to
their knees, panting and groaning with the lingering
burn.

“Try that again. Why did
you attack this house?” Mark asked, backhanding the one closest to
him.

“You can kill us. We’re
not telling you anything,” another one yelled.

“Are there cells in this house?”
Chevalier asked, looking up at Emily.

She nodded, and then
headed down the stairs. The Cavalry restrained the Encala, and they
all followed her down a staircase and into a small prison. When the
last Encala was in a cell, Silas flipped the switch that
electrified the bars.

“Are they staying in here?” she asked,
looking over at Chevalier.

“No, we’ll get prison
guards to transport them to the palace.”

“Daddy got you!” Dain
said, and then grinned from behind them. Emily turned and picked
him up, and then started out of the prison. When they got to the
main floor, Chevalier stopped her.

“I have to go back,” he told
her.

“I figured. Will you come
again tonight?”

“Of course,” he said, and
kissed her lightly. He then turned to Mark, “I’ll send help. I
don’t want them in this house.”

Mark nodded and watched
the Elder leave.

“So what’s on the agenda
for today?” Kralen asked Emily, and leaned up against the
wall.

She put Dain down on the
floor, “First up… I’m going to make popcorn.”

Mark’s nose wrinkled, “Ugh, time to
patrol outside.”

“Definitely,” Silas said,
and followed Mark, Kralen, and the three other members of the
Cavalry outside. The last one picked Dain up and shut the door
after him.

Emily smiled. She knew
that popcorn was one sure way to get heku out of the building. She
ran some quickly through the microwave to make sure they stayed
out, and then grabbed the sledgehammer from the closet and headed
down to the ceremonial room.

She stopped and looked
through the door. Trying to calm her nerves, she took a step inside
and then opened her eyes. The room was dark, but she could still
make out the runes etched into the walls, and could hear her heart
pounding. She had to fight to breathe as the room closed in around
her.

Knowing it had to be done,
she grabbed the sledgehammer and turned to the nearest rune, then
took aim and swung as hard as she could.

***

“That’ll make the Encala
talk,” one of the Cavalry said as he patrolled by one of the
kitchen windows and the smell of popcorn wafted past
him.

“We should add a microwave to the
interrogation room,” Silas joked.

“Make it stop,” Dain said,
and covered his nose. Kralen was holding him and
laughed.

“Who has popcorn for breakfast
anyway?” Silas asked.

“Emily does, I guess,” Kralen
said.

“She doesn’t have a penis,” Dain told
him.

Kralen nodded, “Hope not.”

“Why?”

Kralen looked over at Mark and then
turned back to the toddler, “Because she’s a girl.”

Dain frowned slightly, and they could
tell he was thinking about that.

“Enough… Em hates when we talk to him
about that,” Mark said, stifling a grin.

Silas glanced around and then lowered
his voice, “I’ve been thinking about Emily’s
nightmares.”

“What about them?” Mark
asked.

“About how they’re usually
about Frederick… How can she be that upset with a missing
Encala?”

“Well, they spent time in
a Ferus prison together, that could be part of it. Maybe they grew
close.”

“I just don’t think so…
what if…” Silas glanced around again. “What if she isn’t planning
on seeking revenge for the death of the Cavalry?”

“Of course she is.”

“No… what if she’s not
planning it, because she’s already in the middle of the
revenge?”

“How so?”

“So… what if she has
Frederick?”

Mark frowned, “Like… in ash
form?”

“Right, that’d be why we can’t find
any sign of him.”

“When would she have done
it?”

“While we were fighting,
out on the battlefield,” Kralen said. “I’ve been wondering also if
she has him somewhere.”

“Why would she keep him
though?” Mark asked. He found the idea intriguing.

“Revenge for Jaron and the
others,” Silas said. “We’re so worried she’s going to seek revenge,
but what if she’s already doing it?”

“She hates turning heku to
ash though,” Mark reminded him. “I can’t imagine her doing it and
then keeping it from the entire Council.”

Kralen raised an eyebrow.

Mark sighed, “Damnit, she would keep
it from the Council.”

“It’s just a thought,”
Silas whispered. “However, we don’t have the authority to ask her
about it.”

Kralen grinned and looked
over at Dain, “How are you, Boy?”

“Can I get down?” Dain
asked.

“Not right now… I want to
ask you a question. Can you be a big boy and answer it for
me?”

Dain nodded and grinned.

“Do you know what ash is?”

Dain nodded.

“What is it?” Kralen asked him,
keeping his voice light.

“It’s your bum,” Dain announced
proudly.

Silas choked and started coughing and
Mark had to turn around to keep from Dain seeing him
laugh.

Kralen chuckled, “Not ass,
ash.”

Dain shrugged, “No.”

“It’s like dirt… black
dirt.”

“Ok,” Dain said, watching Mark with
interest.

“Have you seen Mommy with any
ash?”

“No”

“Maybe in a little bag, or maybe she
buried it in the house?”