Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (10 page)

“
By a mortal! I did what
you asked. I let the heku fight their own battles, and still got
punched,” Emily said angrily. “So what do you want me to
do?”

“
Elder, calm down,” Kyle
said when Chevalier took a step forward.

Emily glared at Chevalier and then shut her
eyes as her breathing slowed. The heku all frowned slightly and
then she opened them and looked at Chevalier.

“
How did I get in here?”
Chevalier asked, and looked around the room. He was standing
straight and perfectly calm.

“
Did you have to do that?”
Kyle asked, sighing.

“
Yes, I did,” Emily yelled,
and ran past the heku and down the stairs.

Chevalier frowned, “Who in the hell made her
mad, and why does she have a bruise on her face?”

Quinn sighed, “Come with me.”

Chevalier followed Quinn out of the
room.

“
Do we follow her?” Mark
asked Kyle.

“
Let’s give her an hour to
calm down. I’m pretty sure she’s going to the Durango,” Kyle said,
and sat down on a chair by the empty fireplace.

“
There was some validity to
Damon’s claim,” Zohn said, sitting down.

Kyle glared at him, “There was not.”

“
He was an idiot,” Mark
said, leaning against the fireplace.

***

Emily sat in the Durango, covered in a
blanket, and shivered from the cold. She’d cried enough it had made
her headache worse, and all she wanted to do was to feel some
warmth and go to sleep.

She jumped when the driver’s side door
opened, and watched Chevalier get inside and shut the door.

“
I’m not mad,” Chevalier
told her.

“
I didn’t do anything
wrong,” Emily said, fighting back the tears that had been falling
for the last hour. “I just went to get something to eat. I didn’t
invite them.”

“
Em,” Chevalier said, and
took her hand. “I know that. The thought of Exavior carrying you
into the palace just… it was just a little much.”

“
I didn’t ask him to. I
hate when I get carried around like a doll,” Emily
explained.

“
I think that sometimes,
we, as heku,” Chevalier sighed, “Me included… tend to think of you
like a doll, and I apologize for that.”

“
I’ve noticed, well, not
the Equites as much as the others,” Emily said, and rolled over to
face him.

“
Why are you staying in
Kyle’s room?”

Emily crawled into Chevalier’s lap and
pulled the blankets over both of them, “I’m confused.”

“
About what?” he asked, and
kissed the top of her head.

“
Everything,” Emily said,
and rested her head against his shoulder.

“
Take the time you need,
but promise you’ll tell me if there’s something I can
do.”

Emily nodded and opened the door to the
Durango and crawled out. She took his hand and jumped into the Jeep
when he opened the door. Chevalier slid into the driver’s seat and
started off for the palace.

“
Did you ever consider how
much easier your life would be if I weren’t in it?” Emily
asked.

Chevalier smiled, “Yes, and I don’t think I
would like it.”

Emily passed Kyle’s door and went into her
room. She headed in to take a shower while Chevalier waited out in
the room. She felt more secure with the dark shower curtains, and
was able to relax as the hot water flowed over her. When she got
out, she pulled a towel out of the warmer and wrapped up in it.

Emily pulled a nightgown out and quickly got
dressed.

When she got out into the bedroom, both
fires were going and the room was warm. She laid down on the bed
and pulled the down comforter up over her.

Chevalier looked at her, unsure if he was
supposed to join her, or stay in the chair.

“
We made some changes to
tomorrow,” Chevalier said. He opted to sit on the edge of the
bed.

“
Like what?” Emily asked,
propping herself up on her elbow.

“
First of all, we’ve built
another chair for you,” he explained.

“
Ok”

Chevalier chuckled slightly, “We’re also
calling a break every two hours, so you can eat, or stretch, or
whatever you need,”

Emily sighed, “Thank you.”

“
If you need anything else,
please, don’t hesitate to ask. We sometimes forget that you need
things we don’t,” he told her, and touched her cheek
lightly.

Emily nodded and shut her eyes as she
yawned.

Early the next morning, Emily woke up to the
smell of bacon and eggs. She stretched and crawled out of bed.
Alexis came out to eat and sat down beside her mother. Emily piled
food on each of their plates, and sat back with a cup of coffee to
wake up.

Alexis started to eat quickly, and when her
plate was empty, she ran back into her room to get dressed. Emily
finished her breakfast and pulled on the heavy green robe that was
hanging on the back of the chair.

“
They are ready for you,”
Silas said when Emily gave him permission to come into the
room.

“
Joy,” she mumbled, and
walked down to the council chambers. She walked in and nodded
before crawling into her chair. The new chair was propped up almost
a foot and had a built-in footstool.

Kyle chuckled when she settled in and she
glared at him before pulling her hood up.

“
Bring them in,” Zohn
commanded, and Emily watched as the two prisoners were brought in
again and knelt down before them.

“
Today we continue. The
Council has reviewed the reports of the attacks on Randolph Coven
from witnesses and documenting officers,” Zohn said. “Now is time
for each of the council members to ask any questions they may
have.”

Zohn sat down, and Quinn stood up, “What are
your ages?”

Ingram looked up at him, “I am 378 years
old, Sir.”

“
I’m 1,307 years old,”
Selhman said.

“
How long had you been
helping the Valle before the actual attack?”

Ingram gasped, “We are innocent. We didn’t
do it.”

“
There were witnesses that
place both of you at the coven gates before the time of the attack,
and one witness that puts you both at the scene of…” Quinn
hesitated. He didn’t realize how hard this was going to be in front
of Emily, “At the scene of the assault of the Lady
Randolph.”

“
Lies, I swear to you,”
Selhman said frantically.

“
Can you explain then… how
you are the sole survivors of the attack?”

“
We were lucky. We hid
outside of the city, afraid for our lives,” Ingram said.

“
So while your city was
attacked, you cowered?” Quinn growled.

“
No, no, we tried to go get
help,” Selhman said.

“
Did you hide or did you go
get help then?”

Ingram glanced at Selhman before speaking,
“We hid until it was clear, and then we went and got help.”

“
I see,” Quinn said, and
sat down. Emily had heard that tone before, and knew he didn’t
believe any of it.

The Chief Interrogator stood up to speak.
Emily hadn’t met him yet, but his face was angry and his voice
boomed with authority, “Can you explain why the Chief Investigator
found your bloody fingerprints at the scene of Lady Randolph’s
murder?”

“
We tried to help her, when
we went back inside,” Ingram said.

“
So after you ran to help
the Lady of the coven, you then decided to hide from the Equites
Army in a storm drain?”

“
We were afraid. Everyone
was dead.”

“
Hm.” The Chief
Interrogator sat down.

The Council member on the end stood up.
Emily knew his face, but had never spoken to him, and didn’t even
know his title, “If you watched it all happen, can you explain how
the Valle were able to not only break in through the front gates,
but also destroy the back cement wall to gain immediate access to
the warehouse area?”

“
I didn’t see that, Sir, we
were up front,” Selhman said.

Emily frowned and wrote something down on
the paper in front of her.

“
So there was a huge crash
only 100 yards from you, and you didn’t hear it?”

“
We were busy
fighting.”

“
I thought you were
hiding.”

“
We fought first, and then
hid.”

Emily felt like she was watching a bad cop
drama.

The Councilman sat down, sighing.

Emily wrote something else down and then
looked up when Chevalier stood up.

“
I want to hear from you,
Ingram, everything you did from the start of your shift, until the
time the Equites Army arrived,” he said, and then sat back
down.

Ingram looked up at the Council, “We arrived
for work at 1500. Things were quiet, until a bunch of Valle came
out of the west and down toward us. We knew we couldn’t hold them
off, so we moved behind some pillars.”

“
Once things started to
quiet down, we ran into the castle to check on the Lord and Lady
Randolph. When we got to the castle, it was too late, so we ran
back out and hid until the Valle disappeared. Once they were gone,
we ran toward the sound of helicopters that we knew must be the
Army.”

Chevalier nodded and took a note from Emily.
He frowned and then stood back up, but Emily put a hand on his arm.
Things grew quiet for a few seconds, and then Emily let go of
Chevalier’s arm.

“
No, no, we tried to go get
help,” Selhman repeated.

Ingram looked at him with wide eyes.

Chevalier chuckled, “Selhman, tell me what
happened from when your shift started until the Equites Army
arrived.”

Selhman nodded, “Our shift started at 1500.
We only had a few things happen, nothing major, until the Valle
came down from the west towards us. We stood our ground and told
them to stop, but they just ran through us.”

Ingram glanced nervously at the Council.

“
We followed the Valle into
the castle, but we couldn’t stop the assault on the Lord and Lady.
We watched from a hallway, but there were too many,” Selhman told
them. “When we heard the helicopters, we ran out of the castle and
met up with the Army.”

“
I think I’ve made my
point,” Chevalier said, and sat down.

“
Let’s take a break until
Selhman has fully regained his memory,” Kyle said, and the guards
hauled the prisoners out.

Emily pulled down the hood and wiped the
sweat from her forehead, “This thing is so hot.”

Chevalier chuckled and pulled his hood down,
“Well played, Em.”

Emily stood up and pulled the robe off and
moved to one of the fans. She turned when her lunch arrived, and
sat back down. She took one bite and then looked over at Chevalier
and Quinn.

“
I’m confused about
something though,” she said, and ate another bite.

“
What’s that?” Chevalier
asked.

“
Where do the Encala figure
into all of this?” Emily opened up the Coke and took a
drink.

“
They don’t, this was Valle
only.”

“
No, the Encala are in on
it, too.”

Chevalier frowned, “What do you mean?”

“
William… last night he
told me he’s in town because of the Encala’s interest in this
trial. It also seems to me like the Encala have some kind of stake.
It was the Encala that attacked Thukil, not the Valle,” Emily said,
and picked up her sandwich again.

Chevalier looked over at Quinn, “They said
they were helping out the Valle in return for some prisoners.”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed, “We at first thought
it was a combined attack, but then the only evidence we could find
pointed to the Valle.”

“
Where was most of the
evidence? From the back broken wall, right?” Emily
asked.

Zohn nodded, “Yes.”

“
So the Valle came in
through the back, and Dumb and Dumber let the Encala in the front.”
Emily sat back with the can of Coke.

“
We found no dead Encala
though, all of them were Valle,” Zohn reminded them.

“
How do you identify them?”
Emily asked.

“
Uniforms… which can be
easily given out,” Chevalier said, and then frowned. “Why would the
Valle give the Encala uniforms?”

“
What were they
after?”

“
Nothing that we could
tell, other than blood,” Quinn said.

“
Find what they were after
and you’ll find out what they were up to,” Emily said, and stood
up. She ran out of the council chambers, “Back in 5!”

“
What did you find in the
interrogation chamber?” Kyle asked Zohn.

“
I wasn’t there… Damon took
them in,” Zohn said, and then turned to Quinn. “Maybe we better
take them back in.”

“
Let’s adjourn until
tomorrow then. Take them in separately, so they can’t just copy
their story,” Quinn told them.

Kyle grinned, “Coming, Elder?”

Chevalier shook his head, “No, not
today.”

Emily walked in and grabbed her robe,
“Ready.”

“
We’re done until we get
some interrogating done,” Quinn told her.

“
Oh good. I’m going to go
run naked through the rain,” Emily said, and walked out of the
room.