Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  Shrugging it off, she headed up to her room and quickly got dressed. Before heading out, she wanted to ask one last heku what the word meant and she thought of one that might actually tell her.

  When she opened the door to the prison, she turned to her guards, “You might want to stay here.”

  “No, Ma’am,” the highest ranking said.

  “Is there another way out of the prison?”

  “No”

  “Then wait here. I’ll be back.”

  He frowned slightly and then shrugged, “Fine.”

  Emily ran down into the prison. She hadn’t been down there in a long time, but knew exactly where she was headed. She rounded the corner and walked to the end of the row of cells.

  “Greg?” she asked softly.

  The insane heku turned to her and grinned, “She came to me… she came by herself.”

  “Greg, come here,” Emily whispered, and moved closer to the cell.

  “Greg wants to feed,” he said, and moved closer.

  “I’ll let you feed if you’ll tell me one little thing.”

  “Anything for my daughter.”

  Emily glanced around and then whispered, “What is Yisolatara?”

  “Bad, very, very bad,” Greg whispered, and watched the vein in her neck. “Bad ceremony it is, no longer done…”

  “Hey!” Emily screamed when someone grabbed her arm.

  “Up you go,” one of the prison door guards said, and roughly pulled her up the stairs. “Elder’s orders, stay out.”

  “Let her go!” Jaron growled at the guard. He let go of Emily quickly, bowed, and headed back down the stairs.

  Emily rubbed her arm and walked toward the doors.

  “Did he hurt you?” Jaron asked angrily.

  “No,” she told him, and the guards followed her out to the stables.

  Chapter 17 - Guards

  Emily walked up and untied her horse from the hitching post and slid onto him. She rode over to where Silas and Jaron were talking.

  “Em, if you don’t want another screaming uproar in the castle, stop asking about it,” Silas whispered.

  “I would stop asking if someone would tell me what it means.”

  “No one is going to.”

  “Greg almost did, if that guard wouldn’t have stopped him.”

  “He was doing you a favor,” Jaron whispered to her.

  Emily shrugged and watched the Cavalry train on lassoing. She usually found this part amusing, watching them try to lasso something stationary, and missing enough they began to growl and hiss. Today, she was too preoccupied with the mysterious ‘Yisolatara’ to enjoy it.

  “Lady Emily?” someone said from behind her.

  Emily turned to the strange heku.

  “You aren’t to speak to her!” Silas growled.

  “There… the… is… someone…”

  “Spit it out, what?” Emily asked.

  “Package at the farmhouse, Ma’am. They won’t let anyone sign for it but you,” he said, and then glanced at Silas and blurred away.

  Emily slid down off her horse and tied him up to the hitching post.

  “Take guards,” Silas reminded her.

  “I don’t need guards to go get a package at the farmhouse,” she said, and started for the city.

  “Jaron…” Silas said.

  Jaron and three other members of the Cavalry caught up with her and followed behind her. They followed her silently until she turned at the back of the farmhouse and smiled.

  “Are you afraid I’ll say it?” she asked, grinning.

  “Yes, Ma’am, I am,” Jaron said sternly.

  “I’ll be good,” she told him, and opened the door. The casually dressed heku in the farmhouse stood full at attention when the Commanders came in.

  “He’s at the door,” was all the heku said.

  She nodded and opened the door, “Yes?”

  “Package for Emily Winchester,” the delivery man said, and handed over a clipboard for her to sign. She signed and then took the package.

  When she shut the door, Jaron’s eyes grew wide, and he grabbed the large box from her, “Get her out of here!”

  Everything happened fast, Jaron threw the box toward the far wall, as three heku guards dove at her and knocked her to the floor. The explosion sent flames and shrapnel through the house, and Jaron was the last to throw himself on top of Emily. He braced as the roof caved in, slamming into the guard’s backs, and as the floor gave way, they all tumbled to the dirt basement floor with Emily at the bottom of the pile.

  Smoke filled the room and the crashing of falling debris sounded endlessly. The fire grew hotter around them as the wood from the structure started to cave in and fall into the flames. Emily ducked her face toward the ground where the air was fresher but had a hard time breathing. The four heku were still lying on top of her, unmoving, and she felt pain shoot down her back and through her legs.

  The Council all stood when the explosion shook the palace. They rushed outside and pushed through the crowd of servants and guards.

  “Get the Elders out of here!” Kyle yelled, and ran for the plume of flame and smoke rising from the farmhouse.

  “Let’s go,” Zohn said, and the Elders moved back into the palace.

  “The Lady’s in that house!” one of the servants said, rushing up to Chevalier.

  “What!?” he yelled, turning around.

  “Lady Emily, she’s in the farmhouse picking up a package,” the servant explained quickly.

  Chevalier disappeared from the stairs.

  “You and I better go,” Quinn said, and he and Zohn quickly went to the roof and took off in Equites 1.

  Chevalier appeared at the remains of the farmhouse just after Kyle. Mark and Silas were digging through the burning rubble, their hands blacked and charred as they dug. Sirens sounded from the distance. Kyle and Chevalier began throwing flaming support beams out of the way as they searched for any sign of her.

  “Emily!” Kyle yelled into the burning house.

  Chevalier jumped back just as the rest of the roof collapsed, and the fire rose higher. Six fire trucks arrived from the city and the firefighters scrambled to get their hoses out.

  “Was anyone in there?” the lead fireman asked him.

  “Yes, six are in there,” Kyle told him.

  “Get them out of there!” the fireman yelled when he saw Mark, Silas, and Chevalier digging through the burning debris.

  Kyle beat the fireman to the heku, “Get back and let them do it.”

  “No,” Chevalier growled, and moved another beam. Mark and Silas took his arms and began to drag him away. “Let me go!”

  “No, Elder,” Kyle said, and faced him. “They can put out the fire faster than we can search through this… Let them do it.”

  “I’m not getting anything from her,” Chevalier said angrily.

  “Just let them get to her,” Kyle said, and turned to watch the firemen work while Mark and Silas held Chevalier back.

  “Whose house is this?” the command leader asked.

  “Mine,” Chevalier whispered.

  “Who’s in there?”

  Chevalier couldn’t talk. The last wall of the farmhouse fell with a deafening crash and added to the fire.

  “His wife,” Kyle told him, “And five friends of ours.”

  “Where in the house were they?”

  “I don’t know. We were away.”

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “No, there was just an explosion.”

  Mark was eyeing a delivery truck that the explosion threw up against some of the trees. It was lying on its side, back away from the house.

  “That your truck?” the fireman asked.

  Mark’s eyes narrowed, “Yes.”

  When the fireman walked away to talk on the radio, Mark glanced at Silas, “Search that truck. I want to know whose it is.”

  “Yes, General,” he said, and let go of Chevalier’s arm, then blurred to the truck, making su
re none of the fireman saw him, and began to go through it.

  After four hours, the farmhouse was nothing but ash and smoldering beams. The Command Leader walked over to Chevalier again.

  “We found one set of remains, big fella. I’m so sorry… are you sure the other five were in there?”

  “Yes,” Chevalier whispered. The absence of emotion and feeling from Emily was harrowing.

  He turned back to the firemen, “Keep digging, look for 5 of them.”

  The heku knew what he was referring to. The heat, the smoke, and the collapse of the building would be too hostile to survive, even for a heku.

  ***

  “Jaron?” Emily was able to whisper through panting. Her lungs burned from the inhaled smoke, and the pressure of four heku and rubble from the house were making it hard to breathe, even little gasps, and her chest hurt. She tried to shift under them, but wasn’t able to move and the injury to her back was excruciating.

  She shut her eyes and groaned, “Tunnels.”

  Chevalier gasped, “She’s in there.”

  Kyle turned to him, “She’s alive?”

  “Yes,” he growled, and ran for the back end of the tunnels to the farmhouse.

  “Where are you going?” Mark asked, keeping up.

  “She’s in the tunnels,” the Elder said, and ran into the tunnels, followed by Mark and Kyle.

  The three heku came to where the tunnel caved in and began to clear away rocks and dirt. They were soon joined by the entire Cavalry as they formed a line to get the fallen debris out of the way.

  Chevalier and Kyle worked feverishly to clear away the tunnel. After two hours of digging, they’d managed to clear out 10 feet of the tunnel and kept working as night fell.

  Emily could hear something, something far away that sounded like rocks falling.

  “Emily?” Jaron whispered, obviously in a great deal of pain.

  “I’m… here…” she panted, and groaned slightly. She felt him move above her slowly.

  “I can’t get the boards off. I need to heal longer,” he told her.

  “Others?”

  Jaron caught his breath and answered, “Three are dead, burned… Ryder is badly injured, but still alive.”

  “You?”

  “Healing,” was all he told her. She felt some of the weight lessen off of her, and Jaron groaned as he tried to lift the beams lying on them.

  “Stop,” she whispered. “Don’t hurt… yourself.”

  She could hear the smile in his voice, “Too late for that.”

  “I… hear…” She couldn’t talk anymore. The pain in her chest and back was growing worse and she leaned her forehead against the cold dirt ground.

  “They’re coming, digging through the tunnel. I smell blood. Where is it coming from?”

  “Allen… needs… a bottle.”

  “Em, stay with me,” Jaron said, and struggled to relieve more of the weight off of her.

  She tried to get the breath to answer him, but couldn’t through the pain. She started to feel dizzy and leaned her head against the dirt as she fought to breathe.

  “Get here, now…” Jaron growled as he heard a strange sound coming from Emily when she gasped for breath, and he could feel her skin becoming cold and clammy.

  “Almost there,” Chevalier yelled back, and fought harder to get to them.

  “Get an ambulance,” Jaron yelled. “She’s crashing!”

  Jaron looked up when he saw light for the first time since the explosion. He was able to see Kyle and Chevalier as they slid under the rubble toward them.

  “I can’t move, it’s too heavy,” Jaron told them, and pushed against the heavy wooden beams on his back.

  “We’ll push with you,” Kyle said. “Silas… get ready to pull her out, but don’t move her any more than you have to.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Silas said.

  Kyle and Chevalier moved to Jaron’s sides and braced their arms against the beams, while Silas positioned his hands under Emily’s shoulders after moving some rubble away from her face.

  “On 3,” Kyle said, and counted to 3. The three heku pushed against the beams and were able to lift them the few inches it took for Silas to slide Emily out from underneath them. Sirens sounded from above them, and they could hear the Chief Interrogator talking to the paramedics.

  Silas slid Emily into the tunnel, and four other heku moved around them to help get the guards out. As soon as the four heku were released, Kyle and Chevalier let go of the beams at the same time, and were barely able to get out of the way as the ash and rubble crashed into the basement.

  “Em?” Chevalier asked, moving her hair aside. She was still stomach down on the dirt, unmoving, and breathing in short, rapid gasps. Once they could clearly see her face, they saw dried blood across her forehead and her lips were turning blue.

  Mark put his hands up for everyone to stop, “Don’t touch her. If we move her wrong, we could break her spine. Get me two boards and everyone hand me your belt.”

  Chevalier slipped off his belt and handed it over to Mark. He pulled his shirt off next and laid it over her, her clothes were soaked from the water the firefighters used to put out the flames.

  Mark gently slid the two boards under her and fastened her to it snugly using belts. Once he was satisfied she wasn’t going to be jostled, he lifted one end as Kyle lifted the other and they quickly moved out of the tunnels to meet up with the ambulance.

  Silas and the rest of the heku stayed behind in the tunnels to help Jaron and Ryder as they healed from broken bones and burns. The two deceased guards were carried out immediately and moved to the palace lawn.

  “Put her on the stretcher!” one of the paramedics yelled, and immediately began looking her over. He listened to her back for a moment with the stethoscope and then called out to the other, “Only breath sounds on one side, pneumothorax. I’m seeing signs of cardiovascular collapse, hand me the kit.”

  The other paramedic handed the first a large bore needle and the first unwrapped it quickly, and without even pausing, shoved it into Emily’s side, sinking it deep into her chest. She groaned slightly but was unable to move away from the pain.

  Chevalier started forward, but the Court Reporter and Chief Interrogator held him back.

  The second paramedic began taping Emily down to Mark’s makeshift stretcher as a third started an I.V. in her arm, “I.V.’s in, going bolus. She’s in shock and we need to watch out for crushing syndrome.”

  “What’s going on?” Chevalier asked angrily.

  “Push Mannitol in the back, let’s get out of here,” the oldest paramedic said, and jumped into the front of the ambulance. The other two loaded Emily in and talked quickly as they shut the door. The ambulance sped away with the lights flashing and the sirens blaring.

  Kralen appeared with his truck and stopped long enough for Kyle, Mark, and Chevalier to jump inside before speeding off after the ambulance.

  “I want to know what caused that,” Chevalier said angrily.

  “We already know,” Kralen told him as he wove in and out of traffic. “The V.E.S. handed Emily a package with a bomb in it. Jaron told Silas that he picked up the scent, and was able to take the package from her, but they didn’t have time to get her out before it exploded.”

  A shadow crossed Chevalier’s face, “Get all three factions together, we need to dispose of the V.E.S. immediately.”

  “I’ve called Quinn and Zohn back in,” Mark told him. “As soon as they get in we’ll tell them.”

  Kralen screeched to a halt behind the ambulance as twelve doctors and nurses met the ambulance and Emily was rushed into the hospital.

  “I want CBC, SMA-12 and Chem 20 stat, call in help if you have to,” one of the doctors yelled. He had taken over from the paramedics and was barking orders angrily as he cut Emily’s clothing off and shut the curtain around her.

  Chevalier lunged forward when Emily screamed, but the other heku were able to hold him back.

  “Let them do what
they have to,” Kyle told him, fighting the urge himself to go in and kill whoever made her scream.

  Her scream stopped almost as abruptly as it started, and all that was left was the sound of people moving frantically around the room, yelling out results and ordering more tests.

  “Do you want a 2nd I.V.?” one of the nurses asked.

  “Yes, go through the jugular and push saline,” the doctor ordered.

  “Doctor, potassium came back. She has hyperklemia, 7.1,” a strange voice called out frantically.

  “Get 15u of regular insulin and 50ml of 50% dextrose hung up now!” the doctor yelled, and a nurse ran out of the small room and returned shortly with an armful of supplies.

  “Are one of you Emily’s husband?” someone said from behind them. Mark, Kyle, and Kralen all turned to face another doctor.

  “Yes, he is,” Kyle said, motioning to Chevalier, who was concentrating to hear everything that was going on in the room.

  “I’m Dr. Sauts, I’m Dean of Medicine here. We have a room ready for you to wait in. It’ll be more comfortable.”

  “No,” Chevalier whispered.

  Dr. Sauts sighed, “I was trying to be polite. You gentlemen are in the way.”

  Mark grinned slightly, “Sorry.”

  “Just wait in the waiting room. It’s a private one, and then the doctors will know where to find you when they have an update.”

  “Come on, Elder,” Kralen said, and took his arm. He hesitated, and then turned to follow the others into the private room.

  “Have a seat. I’ll go see what I can find out and come back,” Dr. Sauts said, and shut the door.

  After twenty minutes, they all looked up when Silas came in. He sat down next to them, “How is she?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Kralen told him.

  “We got the delivery guy. He knew exactly what was in that package,” Silas whispered. “He’s waiting in the prison.”

  Chevalier nodded.

  “We lost three guards, Ryder and Jaron are still healing. Jaron remembers the most,” Silas explained. “When the explosion happened, they all dove onto her and took the brunt of the roof caving in and the fire from the initial explosion. What they didn’t expect was that the floor would cave in, and that’s how they all ended up trapped on top of her.”