Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

“Em, I need a favor,” Kyle said.

  “What?”

  “Just say yes first.”

  “No, what do you want?” Emily asked him.

  “I want Quinn to come have a smell of your wrist.” He sighed at the look on her face.

  “If he comes near me, he’ll regret it.”

  “He’s older than I am, he may know this scent,” Kyle explained.

  “No”

  “What about the doctor then? He may know what it is.”

  “No. Good night,” Emily said, and rolled away from him.

  Kyle nodded and turned out the lights, and then stepped outside of her room. He waited for her to appear all night, but she seemed to have slept through. He took the pot of coffee from the servant after Silas took Alexis and he went into her room.

  Emily was curled up in the corner of her room, crying.

  “What’s wrong?” Kyle asked, kneeling down by her.

  “It’s growing. It happened again last night, but they have Zohn and the doctor now, too. Damon has them all convinced I’m going to join the Valle, and they are going to stop me,” Emily said, and watched the door fearfully.

  “Em, I was outside of your door all night, and you didn’t leave,” Kyle said.

  “I did too! I saw them in the hallway. I have to get out of here before they finalize that house,” Emily said, and glanced up at him.

  Kyle frowned and turned a light on, “Look at me.”

  “No,” Emily said, shutting her eyes.

  “I’m not going to try to control you, now come on.”

  “You promise?”

  Kyle sighed, “I swear, now let me see.”

  Emily looked up at him and the green from her eyes was almost gone. Her pupils were dilated enough the color had all but disappeared.

  “That’s it, you need to see the doctor,” he said.

  “No!” Emily yelled, and grabbed a hold of his collar. “He’s in on it.”

  “No one’s in on anything, you didn’t leave your room last night,” he said.

  Emily stood up and dressed quickly. Kyle turned around suddenly when she didn’t even go into the bathroom to dress. She slipped on her jeans and a t-shirt, and they hung off of her.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “I have to get out of here before they finish that house,” Emily said, and grabbed her purse and then ran out of the room.

  Kyle ran after her and almost ran into her in the hallway when she stopped.

  “You…” Emily said, glaring at Zohn and Quinn. They had been in the middle of a conversation when she came out of her room.

  “Good morning,” Zohn said, frowning at the look in her eyes.

  “Emily, no!” Kyle yelled when he saw the look on her face. He glanced quickly at Quinn and Zohn and sighed.

  “See, they won’t turn to ash. They know,” Emily said to them, seething.

  “She… she just tried to turn us to ash?” Zohn asked, shocked.

  Kyle whispered quickly to Zohn and Quinn. They listened intently, and Mark arrived for his part.

  Mark dove at Kyle and pinned him against the wall as he pretended to fight back. Zohn grabbed Emily from behind, and Quinn grabbed her wrist. She fought against them and Zohn was surprised at how weak she had become.

  Emily screamed when Quinn smelled her wrist and then looked into her eyes briefly. He frowned and headed down the stairs as soon as Zohn let go of Emily. Mark released Kyle and Kyle followed Emily into her room.

  “See!” Emily screamed at him.

  “I know! It’s outrageous, and I’m going to get answers. Stay in here,” Kyle said, and disappeared from her room. Within a few seconds, he had blurred into Quinn’s office where the Elder was waiting with Zohn.

  “So?” Kyle asked, sitting down.

  “I can’t place it, but it is something I’ve smelled before,” Quinn said.

  “I caught a brief glimpse of it. I don’t think I have smelled it before,” Zohn said. “However, it’s definitely there.”

  “Zohn and the doctor are in on the plan to kidnap her now,” Kyle told them.

  “Did you watch her door?”

  “I did, and she didn’t leave all night. I didn’t even hear her get out of bed, but she swears she caught you three talking to Damon,” Kyle said.

  “Where is she now?” Zohn asked.

  “Probably up in her room drinking coffee. She drinks it constantly now. I had the kitchen switch her to decaffeinated just so she could sleep.”

  “We need the doctor to smell her,” Quinn said.

  “Yeah we do, but he’s in on the conspiracy. She’s not going to go for that, and if we attack her again, she could run,” Kyle said.

  “There are a few illnesses that are easy to detect on a mortal. Cancer, for instance, has a peculiar scent. This is not something from an illness, I’d wager. So it has to be something she’s ingesting or breathing,” Zohn said.

  “All she ingests is coffee though,” Kyle said, and then frowned and looked at Quinn.

  “Let’s get a sample of her coffee then,” Quinn said.

  Kyle called for Mark to blur Emily’s coffee out of her room, and within a few minutes, there was a knock at the door.

  “Enter,” Quinn said.

  Mark came in with the coffee pot, “She’s not going to be happy about this. She lives on this stuff.”

  Kyle opened the pot and smelled deeply, “Damnit.”

  He handed it to Quinn, “It’s the coffee.”

  Mark frowned, “What is?”

  “Have you been able to catch Emily’s scent lately?” Kyle asked.

  “No, she won’t get near anyone,” Mark said, and took the pot from Quinn.

  “Whatever that scent is, she’s ingesting it with the coffee,” Quinn said.

  “Belladonna,” Mark said, and smelled the pot again.

  “What?” Kyle asked.

  “It’s belladonna,” Mark said, and put the pot on the desk. “I’d bet on it.”

  “She’s being poisoned? Right here under our noses?” Zohn asked angrily.

  Quinn called for the doctor and smelled the pot again, “He’s right, now I recognize it.”

  “Enter,” Quinn said when the doctor knocked.

  Kyle handed the doctor the coffee, “Get a whiff of that.”

  The doctor smelled it and frowned, “Why would you give her belladonna?”

  “When’s the last time you saw Emily?” Kyle asked.

  “It’s been months. She doesn’t like me much.” The doctor smiled slightly.

  “Go, right now, blur into a corner and get a good look at her,” Kyle said.

  The doctor nodded and blurred away. The others waited for him to return, and when he did, they understood the horrified look on his face.

  “Has she been ill? There are other medicines besides belladonna,” the doctor said, shaking.

  “She hasn’t been ill. We suspect she’s being poisoned,” Kyle said, sighing.

  “She’s going to need a hospital. Her pupils are dilated, and her pulse is weak,” he said to them.

  “We can’t take her to a hospital. They are going to start asking questions that we can’t answer,” Zohn said. “Can you treat her here?”

  “I could if she were cooperative,” the doctor said. “I am not exaggerating when I say that that child is on her deathbed.”

  “It’s a hallucinogen right?” Quinn asked.

  “Yes”

  “So that would cause her to have hallucinations about a conspiracy in the palace?”

  “Not really, the hallucinations aren’t that specific.”

  “Then what caused the conspiracy theory? She swears she saw me, Zohn, you, and Damon talking in the hallway last night,” Quinn told the doctor.

  “Suggestion I would imagine, a heku planted it?”

  “Emily can’t be controlled though, she’s always been very resistant,” Kyle said.

  “Unless she’s weak,” Zohn said angrily.

  Kyle looked
around, “Who here knows how to make coffee?”

  “I do, what was your plan?” Mark asked.

  “We need eyes in the kitchen and the bedroom. We need to know who is putting belladonna in the coffee without letting them know, and without letting Emily drink any more. So bring any coffee here and exchange it. Then we watch tonight and see if we can catch someone controlling her,” Kyle said.

  “I’ll take the kitchen,” Quinn said.

  “I’ll stay in Emily’s room,” Kyle said.

  “I guess I get to make coffee.” Mark grinned.

  “I’ll get what I need for her recovery. It’s not going to be easy. I need to know how long she’s been taking it, we may have to detox her,” the doctor said.

  ***

  Kyle talked to Emily again through the evening and as soon as she fell asleep, he slipped into the darkness of the wardrobe with a clear sight of the bed. He sat motionless for hours and watched her sleep. His body tensed when he heard a noise in her room, coming from the window. A figure appeared beside her bed.

  “Emily,” he called to her, and her eyes opened slowly. Within seconds, the heku had Emily caught under his control.

  “Kyle is with them, Emily… Kyle is helping Damon, too. The house is almost built, you need to run, get away from Council City. Kyle is no longer your friend. He’s in the hallway…” the words of the heku were cut off by Kyle’s hands around his throat.

  They fought briefly while Emily fell back to sleep, and suddenly, the heku fell into a pile of ash and Kyle fell to his knees. As soon as he was able to muster enough strength, he scooped the ashes into a leather bag and sat on the bed by Emily.

  “Em,” he whispered, and when she looked up at him, he easily caught her eyes and gained control.

  “Damon’s dead, there is no house. Quinn, Zohn, and the doctor are your friends, they wouldn’t hurt you.” He continued for almost an hour, hoping to erase whatever brainwashing already happened to her. When she became exhausted from the control, he left her room and went down to Quinn’s office.

  Kyle knocked and entered when he was called. A terrified heku sat in a chair with Mark watching over him.

  “I got him,” Kyle said, holding up the bag.

  “I caught this one putting belladonna in a pot of coffee,” Quinn said.

  “I only did it that once, I swear,” the heku said hurriedly.

  “He’s lying,” Zohn said calmly.

  “No, I’m not! It was just this once,” he said again.

  Zohn stood up, “I think he and I have a date.”

  The others watched as Zohn hauled the heku away, heading for the interrogation chamber.

  “Ok, let’s see what this one has to say,” Quinn said.

  Kyle poured the ashes onto the floor and revived him. He screamed in pain as his body reformed. Once he became aware, he looked, wide eyed, at the members of the Council.

  “Hey, Genius, have a seat,” Mark said, and pushed him onto the chair.

  “I don’t know you,” Kyle said, looking at his face. “We know what you’ve been doing, so now we need an explanation.”

  “I just did it this one night, I swear,” he said, gripping the chair.

  Kyle sighed, “Not what your coffee making friend said.”

  “He lied! He doesn’t know anything.”

  “He seemed to know a lot. Funny how the interrogation chamber can bring about someone’s memories.”

  “It... it wasn’t my idea, ok?” the heku said. “I had to do what I was told.”

  “Told by whom?” Quinn asked.

  “If I tell you he’ll kill me.”

  “If you don’t tell us, we’ll kill you slower,” Kyle said, and tore his hand from his body.

  He began to scream, “Stop stop! I’ll tell you… it was Elder Sotomar.”

  “Why are the Valle trying to scare Emily?” Mark asked him.

  “To… to get her out of the palace.”

  “You’re a brave one aren’t you?” Mark asked, laughing. “Why do they need her out of the palace so badly?”

  “They want to rescue the prisoners… that’s all I know, I swear.” His eyes were pleading.

  “How long has Emily been given belladonna?”

  “Five months,” he said, eyeing them.

  Kyle frowned, “She was on the island for part of that time.”

  “I know… we were there, too. We knew she’d be back here, and they wanted her to leave and not come back. Leave the palace unprotected,” he said nervously.

  “And if she died in the process?” the doctor asked, irritated.

  “If she died we were to come back, we’d be heroes,” the heku said proudly.

  “When is Chevalier coming back?” the doctor asked.

  “He still has about 5 days,” Kyle told him.

  “Ok, five months…” the doctor said, his voice full of rage.

  “Come on friend… let me show you something,” Mark said, and took the heku from the office.

  “What now?” Kyle asked the doctor.

  “First we have to try to get nutrition into her and detox her. Her body has become addicted to the belladonna, that’s why she drinks so much of it. The problem is, she’s so weak a detox could kill her.”

  “What are our other options? Keep her on belladonna until she gets stronger?” Quinn asked.

  “We can’t risk that,” the doctor said, frowning.

  “Then what? We just detox and hope she makes it? I don’t like that,” Kyle growled.

  “We don’t have an option. We are going to have to restrain her though. I need her to keep the I.V. in, and she’s going to fight us during the detox,” the doctor said.

  “I suggest we leave Kyle out of it,” Quinn said.

  “What? Why?” Kyle hissed.

  “You’re the only one she trusts. Let’s not break that in case we need to use it.”

  “If I’m the only one she trusts, then I should be in there with her.”

  “I agree with the Elder,” the doctor said. “Let those of us in there that she already doesn’t care for.”

  “I want to…” Kyle started, but Quinn interrupted.

  “You will stay outside. That is final.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Kyle said, and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

  “Are you all ready?” Quinn asked the doctor.

  “Yes, let’s start. Zohn can join us when he’s done. First we just need to get her in restraints, that’ll be the easy part.”

  Quinn grinned slightly, “So you say.”

  Emily sat up in bed when she heard the door open. She caught sight of Quinn and the doctor and ran for the window. Quinn grabbed her from behind and she screamed at him, kicking and biting. As he moved her toward the bed, she threw her head forward and slammed it back into his nose, shattering it. He yelled, and dropped her to the floor, so she scrambled to her feet and ran for the door.

  “Going somewhere?” Zohn asked, stepping in and shutting the door.

  Emily ran at Zohn and rammed into him with her shoulder. His arms wrapped around her waist as he fell back against the wall. He picked her up, avoiding her head butt, and threw her down onto the bed, then used his body to hold her down while he fastened the restraints.

  “Let me go! Chev won’t stand for this,” Emily yelled, trying to pull her hands free.

  “Are you ok, Elder?” Zohn asked.

  Quinn nodded and stood by the bed, “Yes.”

  “Please, don’t listen to Damon,” Emily begged.

  “Dear, Damon’s dead,” Quinn said, and glanced at the doctor.

  Emily’s eyes grew wide when the doctor brought out the supplies for an I.V., “Kyle!”

  “Hold her arm,” the doctor told Zohn. He nodded and grabbed a hold of her wrist and shoulder, so she couldn’t move.

  “Kyle! Help me,” Emily screamed. “Mark!”

  Zohn looked nervously at Emily when she relaxed and stared at him, “We sure she can’t turn us to ash?”

&nb
sp; Quinn nodded, “Pretty sure that’s what she’s trying to do right now.”

  Emily yelled in frustration and struggled against Zohn, “Let me go!”

  The faction doctor taped down the I.V. and strung up a bag of white liquid that began to pour into Emily’s vein.

  “What is that?” Zohn asked.

  “TPN; calories, nutrients, that sort of thing,” the doctor said, and stepped back. “Now we wait.”

  “Get rest, Child.” Quinn told her.

  “Go to hell.” She scowled at him and pulled at the restraints.

  “Did you get any information out of the chef?” Quinn asked, turning to Zohn.

  “Yeah, a little pain and he sang. Orders came down from Sotomar. They started adding belladonna about 5 months ago and have slowly increased it. It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago that they started adding in the nighttime stories,” Zohn explained.

  Quinn, “Interesting, is he alive?”

  Zohn nodded, “He doesn’t want to be, but he is. I’ve left him for Chevalier.”

  “I know what you’re planning, and you can’t get away with it.” Emily glared at them.

  Quinn glanced at her and then back to Zohn, “It’s going to be hard to keep her at the palace. She keeps getting attacked.”

  “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!” Emily yelled. “Let me go, now!”

  Zohn nodded, “I know, I figure we’ll get through this and deal with her leaving later.”

  “Oh, I’m leaving alright,” Emily screamed.

  The doctor took Emily’s face and forced her to look at him. He was able to quickly put her to sleep. The three heku visited through the day and into the night as she slept. Any time she woke up, one of them would put her back to sleep. Kyle and Mark sat outside of her door silently, each wanting to go inside to see how it was going. Silas and Alexis were in Kyle’s room as the baby slept.

  “Please, I need some coffee,” Emily said softly, no longer pulling at the restraints.

  “No, Child. Your coffee has been doctored with a drug. We have to get you off of it,” the doctor explained.

  “No it hasn’t, just give me some, please. I have a headache.”

  The doctor felt her forehead, “She has a fever, the detox is starting.”

  “Don’t touch me,” Emily hissed.

  The doctor motioned Zohn and Quinn over to the corner of the room, “This is going to get rough. I’m afraid we may have a problem with Kyle and Mark when the pain starts.”