Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (81 page)

Chevalier came down a few minutes later,
“Ok, let’s get started.”

“
If you ever grab Allen by
the neck again, I’ll burn you,” Emily said, glaring at
him.

Chevalier stifled a grin and sat on the
rack, “Any ideas?”

“
Why do you have a saddle
horse in here?” Emily asked, and sat on it.

“
Please… Dear… that’s not a
saddle horse,” William said, and pulled her off of the wooden
device.

“
I think it would be best
to launch our plan in Council City,” Sotomar suggested. “That way
we have the Thukil Cavalry at our disposal. It’s well known to all
of us that Emily uses the horse to get away and think, so there’s
nothing odd about seeing her out and the Thukils would need to be
there to match her horse.”

“
Agreed,” Chevalier said.
“There are also the trees, which will give good hiding
spots.”

“
I suggest our first course
of action is to never speak of the plan after this meeting. Just
say it will go into affect the moment we reach Council City,”
William said.

“
Can you act?” Sotomar
asked Emily, and she hid something behind her back.

“
Yes”

Kyle sighed and took the Spanish crusher
from her hands, “Stop it.”

“
Simple then?” Sotomar
asked. “A fight… she runs… guards chase… she gets away… Exavior
catches her and finds himself surrounded?”

“
Yeah, that’ll be hard to
pretend,” Emily said, irritated.

“
We need to prearrange a
spot for her to end up. Somewhere that we can have guards hide for
days, so no one will know they are there,” Chevalier
said.

“
The Durango?” Emily
suggested.

“
That’d work. Exavior knows
you go there often,” Kyle told them.

“
Course, not since you
ripped the door off,” Emily reminded him.

Mark slipped his cape off and pulled it over
Emily’s shoulders when she shivered. The room was damp and
cold.

“
So maybe the Durango won’t
work, where else is a good landmark?” William asked.

“
Just name it, I can get
bucked anywhere,” Emily told them.

“
You can make a horse buck
on command?” Silas asked.

Emily shrugged, “Not exactly, but I do have
a snake’s rattle out in the stable. One shake and it’ll buck.”

“
You could get hurt doing
that,” Kyle said.

“
Not too bad,” Emily
assured him.

“
So where then?” Chevalier
asked.

“
The guard’s party area,”
Mark suggested. “Can you get there?”

“
Yes,” Emily said, tapping
the cat’o nine tails against her leg.

“
So we station them all
around it. Em can get bucked off in the clearing,” Chevalier said.
“Can you act injured?”

Emily grinned slightly, “I think I have that
covered.”

“
Have the Valle take the
north line, the Encala can take southwest, and the Equites will
take the southeast, forming a triangle. Then we’ll post Powan and
Thukil in a circle around that,” Chevalier said.

“
Sounds good,” Sotomar
said. “How long do we want to leave them there before this
happens?”

“
I say at least four days,”
William said. “The problem will be leaving without being
seen.”

“
If we go in the light of
day, it’ll be easier,” Mark said.

“
In small groups, say, two
or three,” Sotomar suggested.

“
Why won’t you tell me what
this does?” Emily asked, turning the top crank on a metal device as
the four leaves began to spread.

William’s eyes grew wide, and he took it
from her, “You… it’s… no.”

“
Then it’s set,” Chevalier
said, chuckling. “We all in agreement? A lot of this needs to be
impromptu. If it’s too staged, it could give us away.”

“
We’ll reinforce with eight
of our…” Sotomar’s voice trailed off as Emily began to look around
the room.

In her boredom, she looked up and her eyes
focused in on the shackles hanging on the wall. She saw images of
the starving heku grabbing at her legs, and she instinctively
pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked, still watching the
shackles. Her mind replayed the feel of Exavior’s rough hands and
his eyes as he watched her hanging, unable to get free.

“
I’ve never had such an
exquisite creature in my control before. It’s quite
stimulating.”

Emily exhaled slowly, her eyes fixed on the
bloody shackles. She felt the rack sitting beside her, the feel of
her arms and legs being pulled painfully apart from her body, how
Exavior ran his hands along her body and pressed his teeth into the
flesh of her neck.

“
I see that something also
needs to happen between us for this to continue. How exactly am I
going to prove to you that I am better for you than that
Equites?”

Emily buried her face between her arms,
leaning her forehead on her knees in as small of a ball as she
could get. She rocked slowly, trying to wipe the images from her
mind and erase the memory of the pain.

“
Equuelius… escalera… banc
de torture… schlimme liesel… streckbank… la veglia…” Emily
whispered into her arms, words that Exavior repeatedly used as he
chatted with her during her time of intense pain on the rack.
“Errare humanum est, ego te absolvo, meus uxor.”

“
Em?” Kyle asked softly,
and knelt down beside her.

The room had grown quiet as she chanted
foreign words for the rack torture that Chevalier was sitting on,
and rocked back and forth on the blood stained dirt floor.

“
Errare humanum est, ego te
absolvo, meus uxor,” Emily whispered frantically, repeating a
phrase that Exavior said to her often while she was in
pain.

Kyle glanced up at Chevalier and then back
to Emily. He reached out and softly touched her arm, “Emily…”

Emily screamed and jerked away from him,
immediately returning to her tiny ball.

“
Leave us,” Chevalier
whispered.

The heku all blurred from the room, but
Chevalier held his hand out when Kyle tried to leave, “Stay.”

Kyle nodded and took the cat’o nine tails
from beside her and hung it back up.

“
Emily,” Chevalier said,
crouching down beside her. “Look at me.”

Emily shook her head, “They’re
starving.”

“
They aren’t here,” he
whispered. “Look at me.”

Emily looked up at him and he hated the way
she looked at him, terrified, a look that was normally
uncharacteristic for her. He reached under her slowly and stood up,
cradling her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her
face against his neck.

“
Errare humanum est, ego te
absolvo, meus uxor,” she whispered.

Kyle opened the door for them, and Chevalier
stepped out of the interrogation room and then headed up the
stairs.

“
Valle 1 is here,” Sotomar
whispered. “Everyone’s on board.”

Chevalier nodded and followed Sotomar and
Kyle up to the helicopter. He easily jumped on board and belted
himself in, still holding Emily.

“
Equites’ Council City…
go…” Sotomar yelled.

The helicopter took off, followed by four
other helicopters, and headed out over the water.

“
Errare humanum est, ego te
absolvo, meus uxor,” Emily whispered again. “He kept saying
it.”

Allen sighed, “To err is human, but I have
forgiven you, my wife.”

Chevalier glared at him, and Allen sat back
against his chair and looked out the window.

“
Get rid of that room,”
Emily whispered.

Chevalier grinned slightly at Sotomar and
then whispered to Emily, “I can’t get rid of it.”

“
It all hurts.”

“
I know, but I can’t get
rid of it.”

“
Swear you’ll never put me
in there,” Emily muttered.

“
I swear,” Chevalier said,
and kissed the top of her head.

The helicopters split up just before
reaching Council City. The helicopter with the Elders landed softly
on the roof while the others disappeared from sight. Emily was
asleep in Chevalier’s arms, and even the loud bang of the doors
opening didn’t wake her.

Zohn jumped out first and turned to the
others, “Put her in bed. Make sure she stays there while we
meet.”

Chevalier nodded, “Mark, Silas, do it.”

Mark took Emily from Chevalier, and she
stirred slightly and leaned her head against his neck. Silas and
Mark headed down the stairs first.

William sighed, “She’s becoming a
problem.”

“
It won’t be much longer,”
Chevalier said. “Just keep up the pretense for a few more days and
once we know for sure if she’s pregnant, then we can
decide.”

“
Just remember, if she is,
it comes to the Valle,” Sotomar said, grinning.

“
I don’t care, now that
Alexis was promised to us,” William said, walking
inside.

Sotomar chuckled, “I prefer an infant,
easier to train.”

Allen glared at his Dad and disappeared down
the stairs. The Elders walked down toward the council chambers, no
longer speaking.

***

The three Equites Elders, along with Sotomar
and William, sat alone in the council chambers, discussing the
upcoming trial. Zohn and Richard, the Equites Chief Interrogator,
had discovered more of Exavior’s heku within their midst, and was
able to find more attacks planned on not only Emily, but the
children.

“
Sir,” Derrick said,
entering the chambers. “We’re bringing them up now.”

Chevalier nodded, “Very well, we’re
ready.”

Derrick looked over, still shocked to see
the three factions working together, and then left the room.

Eight heku were pushed into the council
chambers by members of the palace guards and forced to their knees
in front of the Elders. There were three Equites, four Valle, and
one Encala present, their capes showing who belonged to which
faction.

Sotomar sighed, “I don’t have to tell you
how disappointed I am that the greater number of you belong to my
faction.”

“
We didn’t do anything,”
one of the Valle said. “It’s a setup. The Equites are trying to get
rid of us.”

“
Shut up,” Sotomar
growled.

“
There’s no use even lying
to us,” Zohn explained. “This trial is a mere formality. I’ve seen
enough to convict you.”

“
Let’s begin then,” Quinn
said, standing up. “You eight are charged with high treason, and
attempted murder of a member of the Equites Council, how do you
plead?”

“
Not guilty,” they all said
nervously.

“
Fine, if you won’t admit
to it, then we can proceed,” Quinn said, and sat down.

“
Let’s start with the
attempted drowning of a member of the Equites Council,” Zohn said.
“Scotty, Bingham, Meiken, Christopher, and Gene were killed in the
act. Were you aware of the plan to kill the Winchester?”

“
There were talks… made
jokingly, about putting her in her place,” the Encala
said.

“
Jokes about killing a
member of the Council? That’s still treason,” Zohn said,
irritated.

“
Why do you care? We all
know you hate her,” one of the Equites said.

Zohn nodded, “I’ve not hidden my dislike.
However, I won’t stand for treason.”

“
We didn’t know they were
actually going to do it,” the Encala told them. “We thought they
were just joking.”

“
Yet failed to report it to
any of the Councils?” William asked. “What is the Encala policy
about that?”

The Encala sighed, “Report it to your
Captain immediately.”

“
Did you?”

“
No, Sir.”

“
Why don’t we skip this and
just ask them, outright,” Sotomar said angrily. “Have any of you
joined Exavior’s group?”

“
No,” they all said
emphatically.

“
We wouldn’t do that! We’re
loyal to our factions,” one of the Equites said.

“
They’re all lying,” Zohn
said calmly.

“
You know what?” one of the
Valle said. “I did join Exavior, and had I gotten my hands on the
Winchester, she would be his right now.”

Sotomar’s eyes narrowed, “Did these others
join him also?”

“
Yes,” the Valle said. “I’m
proud to say I joined Elder Exavior and his superior
faction.”

Sotomar growled.

“
What are his plans?”
Chevalier asked. “Other than Emily… that is.”

“
We were trying to take the
children, especially the eldest,” the Valle said. “We will succeed,
I assure you.”

“
You eight won’t,”
Chevalier growled. “I suspect you’ll pray for death by the time
we’re done.”

“
It’s worth it to see the
rise of a powerful faction. The three we have are weak and
pathetic,” the Valle scowled.

“
Derrick… take him to the
prison,” Quinn hissed, and the room fell silent while the one heku
was pulled from the council chambers.

“
Seven left with some
explaining to do,” William said, glaring at them.

“
We’re not with him,” the
Encala said. “I’m loyal only to the Encala.”