Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (90 page)

“
What…” Emily started, but
her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and answered it, “Hi,
hold on.”

Chevalier watched her curiously.

“
I’ll be back,” she said,
and ran out of the room.

“
I can’t believe she shot
someone,” Quinn said, frowning. “Have they filed a
complaint?”

“
Dr. Edwards? Sorry, I
wanted to get alone,” Emily said, sitting on the bar.

“
I don’t know if this is
good news or not,” Dr. Edwards said. “I’ve ran this by my friend’s
entire forensic anthropology department to confirm.”

“
I’m not aging, am I?” she
whispered.

“
Long bones, like those in
the arm and leg, have an end cap called an epiphysis. After the age
of 20, those end caps fuse completely with the bone… yours aren’t
fused,” he said, and paused before continuing. “There’s another
epiphysis on the collar bone that fuses just after the age of 30…
again, yours aren’t fused.”

“
How old am I?” Emily
asked. She suddenly felt it hard to breathe.

“
As you get older, over 30,
you have pitting on the ribs that is used to determine age… you
don’t have any pitting.”

“
How old am I?”

“
Somewhere between 18 and
20,” Dr. Edwards said. “I ran your MRI by them from when you were
pregnant with your oldest, there’s been no change, no aging since
that time.”

“
I’m mortal,” Emily
whispered.

“
I’m not sure you are,
entirely.”

“
I can die.”

“
Yes, I think you
can.”

“
I can get injuries, I can
have children…”

“
Yes, however, you may
never die of old age, you may never get arthritis, or cataracts, or
wrinkles. Have you ever noticed that you don’t have any scars? From
what I’ve seen, your back should be covered in scars, and it’s
not…”

“
I have them on my
neck.”

“
Yes, but those were there
from when you were a child, while you were still
growing.”

Emily sat on the bar, staring at the damages
to the wall, unable to speak.

Dr. Edwards sighed, “I don’t know how to
help you. I can’t talk to any colleagues about this, and I have no
reference, no one to run ideas by.”

“
I’m only 49% mortal,”
Emily whispered.

“
If I can do anything, call
me,” Dr. Edwards said softly.

Emily hung up the phone and looked around
the room. She couldn’t think, her mind was running past ideas, and
thoughts, and fears too quickly and she grabbed a bottle of Jack
Daniels before leaving.

“
Drinking and shooting, how
very western of you,” Zohn said when she came back in.

Chevalier frowned, “Em?”

Emily walked in slowly, her eyes were
confused and she was starting to panic.

“
What’s wrong?” Quinn
asked, frowning.

Emily sat down on the dirt floor of the
trial area and pulled the lid off of the whiskey. She took a long
drink while the Council watched her.

“
Em, what’s wrong?”
Chevalier asked, kneeling down beside her.

“
I’m not aging,” she
whispered.

“
What?”

“
Damon and Alec… told me…
that Exavior realized I don’t age.”

Chevalier sighed, “Don’t believe what Damon
tells you.”

“
I saw Dr. Edwards… he did
an MRI.”

Kyle and Quinn walked slowly down to the
trial area to kneel beside her.

“
And?” Chevalier
asked.

“
My body is somewhere
between 18 and 20 years old.”

“
Is he sure?” Kyle asked,
touching her shoulder lightly.

Emily nodded, “Yes.”

“
I’m not entirely shocked,”
Quinn said, and sat down beside her. “You’re more heku than
human.”

“
I can get injured, I can
be killed, I can have children... but I don’t age,” Emily said,
mainly to herself.

“
This isn’t all bad,”
Chevalier said.

Emily looked up at him, confused, “Yes it
is…”

“
How? You don’t age… that
means you won’t die.”

“
I’m mortal enough I can be
killed, I can be injured.”

“
Not if you’re protected,”
Quinn told her.

“
All of the pain… all the
tortures and punishments… they could happen to me for hundreds of
years.”

“
They don’t have to, Em,”
Chevalier said. “The factions were fighting over you, that’s over,
Exavior is gone, Vaughn’s in prison… there’s no reason you have to
live your entire existence in pain.”

“
The new faction
though.”

“
Is a farce. We’ll destroy
them, and they will no longer be a threat,” Quinn told
her.

Emily sighed and stood up. She grabbed the
bottle of whiskey and left the council chambers without another
word.

“
Well, didn’t see that
coming,” Zohn said, amused.

Chevalier glared at him.

“
That child has no idea
where she belongs in this world, and it’s just become a thousand
times worse,” Quinn told him, irritated as he took his
seat.

“
This may cause the
factions to want her again… it may not be enough to have a friend,”
Kyle said, sitting down at his chair. “What if this breaks the
alliance we’ve formed?”

“
So we keep it from them,”
Zohn suggested.

Chevalier returned to his seat, “If they
find out, which eventually someone’s going to notice, it’ll cause a
deeper rift… we have to let them know.”

“
I agree with Kyle though,
it may cause them to begin fighting for her again,” Dustin
said.

“
We may want to wait and
see what Emily wants,” Chevalier said. “It’s her life we’re talking
about, and it just got a lot longer.”

The Council heard Mark call for the entire
Cavalry to mount up and they summoned him to the council
chambers.

“
Yes?” Mark asked from the
trial area.

“
Is there a problem?” Quinn
asked.

“
No, Sir, Emily has called
a training,” Mark said. “I know it’s weird, but I see no reason not
to.”

Chevalier nodded, “I think it’s a good
idea.”

Mark shrugged, “I think she’s been drinking
though. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“
She has been,” Kyle said,
grinning slightly. “She’s had a bad day so far.”

Mark turned, “She’s yelling for me.”

The Council watched as Mark blurred from the
room.

“
Is she about to assault
our Cavalry?” Zohn asked, concerned.

“
I have no idea how mad she
is,” Chevalier told him. “Want me to call her in here and
ask?”

“
No… no… I’m sure she’ll be
fine,” Zohn said, and opened up the docket book. “Derrick, bring
them in.”

Emily sat on her stallion out on the hills
west of town while the Cavalry lined up in perfectly straight rows
ahead of her. Mark rode his mare up to her side and faced the
guards. The once quaint group of 7, was now an ominous force of 36
mounted guards.

“
I’ve been thinking about
some of the things I’ve seen this Cavalry do, or try to do lately,
and one of the biggies is run your horse at full speed through
trees,” Emily said. Mark glanced at her and nodded.

“
I’ve seen that,” Mark
said.

“
I want to see what we have
to work with. Those of you on the racing horses are going to have
more of a problem. The faster the horse, the more they will try to
lead you through the trees to save themselves,” she explained. “If
you want the horse to go left, but he feels the safer way is right,
he may not want to go.”

“
This is a good idea. We’re
completely surrounded by trees here, and more than I’d like, we’ve
had to chase someone through them,” Mark said.

“
He means me,” Emily said,
grinning slightly. “Keep your heads low, keep control of your
horse, and don’t get distracted.”

“
The scent is going to be
the hard part, though,” Mark told her. “On horse, we have to
contend with the animal’s scent overpowering the
others.”

“
Fine then… let’s play a
game...” Emily said, and smiled at him as she pulled a paintball
gun out of the saddlebag on her horse. “Give me a 5-minute head
start… and don’t let me shoot you.”

The Cavalry glanced at each other, grinning.
Emily kicked the stallion, and he lurched into a fast gallop as she
disappeared into the trees.

Mark grinned when she left, and turned back
to the Cavalry, “New level of the game… get her gun, and you get 5
points. Get her on your horse, restrained, you get 10.”

Emily wove in an out, carving an odd path
through the trees as she rode deeper and deeper into the woods with
her paintball gun readied. She slid off the horse and tied him to a
tree, and then ran toward where two trees were intertwined, giving
her a good spot to hide. She heard the woods come alive around her
as the sound of hoof beats filled the trees. She grinned and
crouched down, waiting, her gun propped up on a branch.

Silas and Kralen were first on her trail,
having worked as her personal guards long enough, they easily
picked up her scent, even with all of the smells from the forest.
They split up when each thought they found a newer trail and
maneuvered their horses deeper into the woods.

Emily saw him approaching, one of the newest
Cavalry members from Powan. He was by her stallion, scanning the
area carefully when he felt the sting on his chest and looked down
to see a splatter of green paint across his shirt. He grinned at
Emily, and went back out to meet up with Mark, surprised to see
four others with him, all with similar green paint splotches on
them.

“
Damn,” Mark said,
laughing. “I thought this game would be too easy.”

Emily somehow managed to get high up into
the tree using the twisted branches, and aimed at Jaron. She
grinned just as he cursed and looked at his shoulder, a deep red
paint was oozing down his white shirt.

Jaron sighed as he came out of the trees and
saw Mark shaking his head at him, “Who’s left?”

“
Silas and Kralen,” Mark
said. “Everyone else is out.”

Emily watched from her perch on the trees.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she glanced behind
her. She had the feeling she was being watched. She grinned and
used the scope on the gun, but didn’t see anyone, then heard the
sound of a horse walking and spun around and her eyes grew wide as
her stallion set off walking toward the west.

“
Damnit,” Emily whispered,
and climbed carefully out of the tree. She ran after her stallion
and cried out when her feet left the ground and her gun was taken
from her.

“
Gotcha,” Silas said,
throwing her over the horse.

“
That’s not the game!”
Emily yelled, laughing.

“
Ooooh Mark added some.”
Kralen grinned and kicked his horse into a gallop, heading for the
Cavalry.

“
Let me up,” Emily said,
struggling to get up, but Silas held her down.

“
No way, you’re worth 10
points,” Silas said, amused. He clicked his tongue and headed after
Kralen. Emily was laughing too hard to fight back, and she figured
Silas wasn’t going to let her up anyway.

“
Nice, Silas,” Mark said,
and Emily looked up as the entire Cavalry watched. She saw Kralen
had her stallion tied to his horse.

“
They cheated!” Emily
yelled, and slid off of Silas’ horse.

“
How’d you get her?” Mark
asked, laughing.

“
They let my horse go,”
Emily said, brushing herself off.

“
Good job you two… the rest
of you though,” Mark said, sighing. “That was pretty
bad.”

Emily slipped back onto her stallion,
“Pretty bad?”

“
Yes, we’re born predators.
Not being able to find you doesn’t look good on us,” Mark said,
looking at his Cavalry. He jumped when he felt a sting on his back
and turned back to Emily, “You shot me?”

Emily grinned, “You think you can find
me?”

“
Yes, I do,” Mark said,
grinning.

“
5-minute head start,”
Emily said, and kicked the stallion into a gallop.

“
Good luck, Captain,” Silas
said, patting him on the shoulder.

Emily hit the trees at a full gallop,
determined to make Mark work hard to get her. She headed for the
opposite end of the woods where she remembered a large log,
hollowed out by time, which she thought she might fit in. Her
stallion stopped suddenly and reared back. She was able to hold on,
and it wasn’t until he lowered that she saw the five strange heku,
all wearing purple capes.

“
Are you kidding me?” Emily
asked, rolling her eyes.

“
Hello, Baby Girl. It’s
time you took your place as our Elder,” one of the heku said. He
stepped forward and smiled.

“
Are you seriously trying
to kidnap me?”

“
Not kidnap,
rescue.”

“
I see… and there are only
5 of you?”

“
Only 5? How’s a tiny
mortal like you going to fight off 5 heku?”