Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (15 page)

“
He wouldn’t stop kissing
her,” Chevalier said, and brushed past Kyle and tore a chair from
the airplane floor.

The plane landed smoothly and Chevalier
carried Emily onto Equites 1. They made arrangements with the
hospital and used their helipad. Several nurses and doctors came
out with a gurney and transferred Emily over to it. She was whisked
away to the Emergency Room. Kyle went to fill out the paperwork,
while Dr. Cook and Chevalier followed her to the curtained
room.

An x-ray tech came and took multiple x-rays
of her arm, and the doctor had them in his hand when he came into
the room.

Emily watched him walk in, but her eyes felt
heavy and she had a hard time concentrating on what he was
saying.

“
I’m Dr. Manney… I wanted
to show you the x-rays,” he said, and put the x-rays up on the lit
board. He glanced at Emily and back to the x-rays, “I’ve never seen
a break like this. It looks like a crushing force
injury.”

“
Exavior did it,” Emily
said softly.

“
Who is Exavior?” Dr.
Manney asked.

“
My horse,” Kyle said,
stepping into the room. “She tried to lasso him, but the rope
caught on her arm.”

The doctor looked back at the x-ray and
nodded, “Ok, I can see that now.”

Dr. Manny looked over his glasses at Kyle,
“I’m going to cast her entire arm eventually, to see if those bones
will fuse on their own. She’ll need to be seen in a month, so we
can see if she needs surgery to correct it.”

Chevalier nodded, still focused on the
x-ray.

“
Course, I can’t cast it
until the swelling goes down. So for now, I’m putting her on bed
rest and leaving that arm alone. When the swelling’s down, we’ll
cast it,” he finished.

Kyle nodded, controlling his temper.

“
This is Dr. Cook, he’s on
my staff and will be overseeing her care,” Chevalier said to Dr.
Manney.

Dr. Manney looked at Dr. Cook curiously,
“Ok, easy enough. I’ll send some pain pills and a few injections if
you would like. She’ll need the cast for eight weeks, but again, I
want to see her back in four weeks so we can x-ray and see if it’s
healing properly.”

Dr. Cook took the medications from Dr.
Manney and tucked them into his pocket, where Emily couldn’t see
them, “I can cast it when the swelling goes down.”

Emily was still watching them all in a
daze.

“
Until then, just keep it
still,” Dr. Manney said, and left the room.

The nurse came and ran though the
instructions again with Dr. Cook, and then brought a wheelchair
after refusing to let Chevalier carry Emily out. The nurse helped
Emily into the wheelchair, and had her arm propped up on a pillow.
Its grotesque swelling and purple color reflected what kind of pain
she was in with every movement.

Mark pulled up in the Humvee when they
arrived outside, and Chevalier put Emily inside and buckled her
seat belt. He sat beside her and she leaned against his shoulder
for the drive in to the palace.

Emily’s cell phone rang from Kyle’s pocket,
and he grabbed it and sighed, “It’s Exavior.”

“
I can’t even talk to him
right now,” Chevalier growled.

“
What?” Kyle asked over the
phone.

“
Where’s Emily?” Exavior
asked.

“
What do you
care?”

Exavior whispered, “It was an accident.”

“
You seem to have a lot of
accidents,” Kyle said angrily.

“
Just let me talk to
her.”

“
She’s not able to talk
right now, thanks to you,” Kyle said, and hung up.

“
He says Kyle does it… and
you do it…” Emily whispered softly.

“
Do what?” Chevalier asked
her, and Kyle looked over to see what she was talking
about.

“
I saw them… he said you
all do it.” Emily’s voice was growing softer.

“
Exavior did?”

Emily sighed softly, “Some things in...
heku… nature…”

“
She’s asleep,” Chevalier
said, frowning. “Wonder what Exavior told her we do.”

“
There’s no telling,” Kyle
said, frustrated.

Mark pulled the Humvee up to the front doors
and let them out, then disappeared into the garage as Chevalier
carried Emily into the palace.

“
Is Mom hurt?” Allen asked,
running down the stairs to meet up with them.

Chevalier considered lying for a moment, but
thought better, “She had a run in with a Valle.”

Allen frowned, “What happened?”

“
She fought him, and he
grabbed her arm and broke it,” Kyle told him.

Chevalier laid Emily down in bed and cringed
when she cried out as her arm moved. He carefully placed her arm on
a pillow and covered her up.

“
I’m sorry… I’m always
hurt,” Emily whispered.

Chevalier smiled, “It’s part of your charm,
Em.”

“
Tell Exavior… if he does
it, I’ll kill him.”

Chevalier frowned, “If he does what?”

“
We just got back from
Powan,” Quinn said, stepping into the room. “Dare I ask what
happened?”

“
Exavior was…” Kyle glanced
at Allen, “Pushy, as Emily once put it. She broke his neck, so he
grabbed her arm and crushed the bones. She called us from New
Mexico.”

“
There’s more though,”
Chevalier said, watching Emily. “He’s told her something that all
of us do… and he’s doing something Em wants him dead
for.”

“
Pretty cryptic,” Zohn
said. “Maybe drug induced.”

“
She seemed pretty adamant
about it,” Kyle said, and set Emily’s phone on the
table.

Allen grabbed Alexis as she tried to jump on
the bed.

“
Is Mommy sick?” Alexis
asked, looking down at her.

“
She has a hurt arm,” Allen
told her.

Alexis frowned, “Who did it?”

“
A heku,” Allen said, and
then looked at his sister’s face. “Dad!”

Chevalier looked over and stood up quickly,
“Alexis, no!”

Alexis scanned the heku in the room. Her
angelic face held a hint of anger, and she started to get the
faraway look that Emily used to get before she turned a heku to
ash.

“
Silas,” Quinn said
hurriedly.

Silas came in and quickly took Alexis out of
the room.

“
I hope she doesn’t turn
him to ash,” Zohn said after they left.

“
She won’t, she trusts
Silas,” Chevalier explained, and sat back down.

“
How does Exavior keep
finding out private information?” Zohn asked.

“
He either has this room
bugged, or an informant… and I want to know which,” Chevalier said
angrily.

“
I’ll get a team in here to
search for bugs as soon as she wakes up,” Zohn said.

“
Do it now, while she’s
unconscious.”

Zohn nodded and blurred away.

“
Em?” Mark
asked.

Emily looked up from her breakfast, “Come…
sit.”

“
I can’t, Sotomar and
William are here. They are waiting for you in the council
chambers,” Mark said.

“
Damnit, they’re early,”
Emily said, and stood up. Her left arm was in a full cast, and was
propped up high on a stick that attached to her waist.

“
Yes, they are,” Mark said,
and held the door open for her. “They’re all anxious to talk to
you.”

Emily nodded and walked sideways through the
door, careful not to bump her arm. She walked into the back of the
council chambers and sat in the chair that was made for her during
the trial.

Sotomar and William watched her
carefully.

“
You are injured?” William
asked, frowning.

Sotomar sighed, “I’ll go ahead and get it in
the open. She was injured by our Chief Interrogator.”

William growled, “Exavior interrogated
her?”

“
No,” Sotomar hissed. “He
wouldn’t do that.”

“
Has he been
punished?”

“
Yes, he has,” Sotomar told
the Council.

“
That’s part of what I
wanted to bring up,” Emily said. “During the attack, he reminded me
that I couldn’t turn him to ash, or I would negate the peace
agreement.”

“
Was he… feeding?” William
asked.

“
No, he was…” Emily glanced
nervously at Chevalier, “Kissing… mostly.”

William frowned, “I see no reason why you
wouldn’t be able to defend yourself against unwanted sexual
advances.”

Emily winced at his terminology.

Sotomar nodded, “We as the Valle agree.”

“
Lastly,” Emily said. “I
wanted to remind you… I warned of any of the three factions messing
with my family. That means my entire family.”

Chevalier glanced at her, unsure where she
was going with this.

“
We understand that,”
William said.

“
That goes for trying to
turn my Uncle,” Emily said, directly to Sotomar.

Chevalier frowned at her, “Who is trying to
turn Alec?”

“
Exavior is, and if it’s
done, it activates the ultimatum of the peace agreement. My uncle
is part of my family,” Emily said angrily.

Sotomar nodded, “I wasn’t aware Exavior was
planning on turning any of your family.”

“
Well he is, and he has
neglected to tell my Uncle about the heku. He doesn’t even know the
name of your species.”

“
That’s not really
uncommon,” Zohn said.

Emily glared at him and he sat back in his
chair.

“
Leave my uncle alone,”
Emily said to Sotomar.

“
I assure you, he won’t be
turned, not while I’m an Elder,” Sotomar said.

“
No more bugs… or spies… or
whatever it is the Valle have either.”

Sotomar frowned, “I’m not sure what you
mean.”

“
I mean that private
conversations I have with Chev are being listened to, and the
information is being spread throughout the Valle,” Emily told him
angrily.

“
Every faction has spies,”
William said in the Valle’s defense.

“
You damn well better not
have them on me.”

Sotomar nodded, “No, we don’t have them on
you. We are leaving you alone.”

“
Then how does Exavior know
things that only Chev and I know?”

“
He has a dangerous
obsession. We thought it was harmless, but after the… attack…”
Sotomar sighed, “In New Mexico, we realized how precarious it
really is. We have taken all precautions to ensure it won’t happen
again, and that includes spying.”

Emily nodded, somewhat pacified.

“
We also know he told you
about the…”

“
Hush,” Emily told him,
blushing. “Any private conversations between Exavior and me are
also to remain between just us two.”

Sotomar frowned slightly, “That’s not what I
was….”

“
No,” Emily said again
firmly.

“
Well I, for one, want to
know about this conversation between you and Exavior… that no one
seems to want to talk about,” Chevalier said, watching
Emily.

Sotomar took a step back and Emily’s blush
deepened.

“
Yes, what exactly is it
that we are all accused of?” Kyle asked.

“
Sotomar… can I trust you?”
Emily asked him.

Sotomar nodded, “Yes, I won’t bring anything
up.”

Emily smiled, “Thank you… now… I hear some
pancakes calling my name.”

The Council watched as Emily walked out.

“
Ok, spill it,” Chevalier
told Sotomar.

“
I’m not going to defy the
Lady,” Sotomar said, grinning slightly.

Kyle’s eyes narrowed, “Can you at least tell
us if what he told her is true?”

“
I can assure you, I don’t
know. I’m not sure we were talking about the same
thing.”

“
Well, damnit, someone
needs to tell us… she can’t even look at some of the guards, and
now she watches us like we’re doing something wrong,” Chevalier
said, frowning.

“
Now, let’s go over next
Friday’s attack on Powan,” Zohn said, changing the
subject.

William frowned, “I’m not sure what you
mean.”

“
I mean… one of your
insiders told us everything, including names and dates, so I
suggest you back off. Now that we know, we’ll
reinforce.”

Sotomar shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

Zohn grinned, “Apparently we, as Equites,
have a new interrogation technique that’s quite effective, and your
guy sang.”

“
We have no attack plans on
Powan,” William said indignantly.

“
Sure you don’t,” Kyle
said. “Before we let you go, Ingram and Selhman have been
banished.”

Sotomar frowned, “You had no right to do
that.”

“
We did. They were punished
as traitors,” Zohn told him.

“
They should have been
turned over to us,” Sotomar said.

“
Why would we do that, when
it’s our coven they destroyed?”

“
We should have been
notified before!”

Zohn turned to William, “You’re not mad at
all? We banished your spy, too.”