Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  Kralen laughed and put his hand around to hold her steady and then blurred back to the palace. The others were still waiting for them and watched when she crawled off of his back.

  “Did it break down?” Chevalier asked.

  Emily smiled, “You could say that.”

  “She drove it into the pond,” Kralen said, grinning.

  “You did?!”

  “Yes. I don’t want anything from Andrew.”

  Emily headed inside while they watched her. Chevalier was obviously pleased with the outcome of the gift and smiled when she was out of sight, “Nice.”

  “I would have taken it,” Silas said, frowning. “I could always paint it.”

  “Want me to go fish it out for you?” Kralen asked, joking.

  “I think I’ll pass on that. We could always go buy her one ourselves.”

  Kralen nodded, “That’s not a bad idea.”

  “Elder?” Silas asked.

  Chevalier shook his head, “I hated that thing. If she buys it, I won’t stop her, but I don’t want to encourage it.”

  Kralen chuckled, “True.”

  “So now he’ll contact her to see if she liked the gift,” Silas said.

  “Maybe,” Chevalier told him. “If I had to guess, the Council doesn’t know, and he won’t risk being caught by calling her though.”

  “You think he’d do this behind their backs?”

  “Yes, I do. I think he probably feels bad about breaking his promise to her and secretly bought her a peace offering.”

  “I hope this doesn’t start her crying again,” Kralen said, frowning.

  “Damn, I hope not,” Chevalier said.

  After Andrew left the last time she saw him, she’d cried on and off for a few days and refused to talk to anyone about it. Her tears had turned to anger, and since then, she’d been mad at Andrew. Lori was consulted, and she assured them it was the natural process for healing when a friend is lost.

  They turned when they heard footsteps and Mark walked out to the stables, obviously unhappy. His black shirt was wet all across his shoulder, and he was scowling.

  Chevalier chuckled, “Did you hold that dog the entire time?”

  “He fell asleep in my arms,” Mark said angrily. “I didn’t know what to do with the damned thing.”

  Kralen chuckled, and Mark glared at him before pulling off his shirt.

  ***

  Emily woke up and looked over at the clock. It was only 2am, and she had been tossing and turning the entire night so far. The pain from losing Andrew was renewed when he sent the motorcycle. She started to feel guilty for drowning it but still felt like she didn’t want to take his half-hearted attempt at an apology gift.

  For the last week, she’d thought over the motorcycle gift, and the more she thought, the more she wondered how he could just abandon her as a friend and not look back. She overheard Mark and Kralen talking about how they thought the motorcycle gift might have been ordered by the Encala to try to ensure Emily remained on their side.

  Tensions between the Encala and Equites were still high, and Emily started to notice new security measures throughout the city that were put in place by the Council. She could only assume it was to protect Council City from an Encala attack. Emily wasn’t sure how many Encala there were but couldn’t imagine there being enough to take on the ever-growing Equites.

  After another half-hour of tossing and turning, Emily finally sat up and pulled the laptop on to her lap. She loaded up the videoconferencing software, sighed, and then pushed the connect button on Andrew’s address.

  The laptop’s speakers rang over and over, but no one picked up. After a few minutes, she turned off the connection and then sat back to think. When the bedroom began to feel too empty, Emily pulled on a robe and headed down to try to find Chevalier.

  “What’s wrong?” Derrick asked when he saw her walk down the stairs.

  “Nothing. Is Chev in there?” she asked, yawning into her hand.

  He nodded and opened the door for her.

  Emily walked in and saw that the Council was in a discussion about something, but they stopped when they saw her.

  “What’s wrong?” Chevalier asked her, appearing at her side.

  “I can’t sleep.”

  He smiled and kissed her forehead lightly, “Want to talk about it?”

  “Not really,” she said, and then took his hand when he offered it. He led her up to the council stand and sat down. She sat on his lap and leaned back against his chest, “Why are you in session this late?”

  Quinn smiled, “Our work is never done.”

  “Problems with the Encala then, I take it.”

  “Some”

  “Anything I can do?” she asked, and lightly ran her fingers down Chevalier’s arms.

  “No, dear,” Zohn said. “They are just being pests.”

  Emily sighed, “I tried to call him tonight.”

  Chevalier was surprised, “You did?”

  “Yes, but he didn’t answer.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. We’re on the verge of a war.”

  “How can the Encala fight us? They can’t have the numbers.”

  Kyle shrugged, “They think that they are strong enough to make an impact.”

  “Are they?” Emily asked.

  “We don’t know,” Quinn told her. “We don’t have any way of knowing how large they are.”

  “I still can’t imagine it being larger than the Equites.”

  “Neither can we, but they seem pretty confident.”

  Emily thought for a moment and then looked toward the other two Elders, “Is this something you can tell me about?”

  Quinn smiled, “Of course. The Encala want to stake a claim to the Equites Council’s stronghold in Europe.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Before we moved to the new world and started Council City, the Equites Council was housed in Denmark, outside of a small village named Visborg. The Encala are trying to claim our old homestead as their own.”

  Emily frowned, “What makes them think they have the right to take over Equites' property?”

  “It’s similar to how we have it here,” Chevalier said. “Here, the Encala are the stronger presence in the Western U.S. The Valle have the Eastern coast, and we claim the middle. The covens are scattered, but most of the Equites live in the central U.S.”

  “Right,” Emily said, nodding.

  “In Europe, the Equites used to be strongest along the western half of Europe. The Encala were more central, and the Valle had stronger ties in Asia and Eastern Russia. Since we left Europe and moved to the new world, things have become rather mixed up.”

  “How so?”

  Zohn smiled, “Somehow, the covens began to migrate away from where we had a stronger presence. When the Encala rebuilt, their coven standing in Europe was stronger in the northern regions.”

  Emily thought for a moment, “So when they began recruiting new heku into the Encala, they started in northern Europe?”

  “Precisely”

  “Why? Why not stick with where they were before?”

  “The territory they were once strongest in has slowly been infiltrated by Equites Covens,” Chevalier said. “Although we were the strongest presence in Western Europe, we never forced Equites to settle there. They were free to go where they wanted. After the mortals ended World War II, the covens began to migrate more and more toward the east.”

  “They feel that we should give up any claims to the Equites property in Denmark and should move our stronghold to Eastern Europe where our covens are located,” Kyle explained.

  Emily frowned slightly, “There’s a palace in Denmark that used to house the Council and is now abandoned?”

  “Not a palace, exactly.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “It’s a series of caves, mostly.”

  Emily smiled, “You’re joking.”

  Chevalier chuckled, “No. The Equites lived there long before mor
tals even existed, before palaces. The first palace we had was this one.”

  “You all lived in caves?” Emily said, not believing them. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “No we aren’t. Caves are the perfect place to hide a society.”

  “If you all lived in caves in Europe, then why is there an Ancient below this palace with the vaults? Why aren’t they in Denmark?” Emily asked.

  Chevalier smiled, “We aren’t mortals… we knew of this land before humans arrived. Our vaults were hidden here in undiscovered lands, well away from any civilization. That’s how we kept the other factions from finding out where our records were kept.”

  “There was a hole in the ground leading to the vaults in undiscovered North America?”

  “Yes”

  “How did you find it when you needed it?”

  Kyle smiled, “We’re heku. That's how.”

  “Ahh, I get it,” Emily said. “So when you moved here you figured you might as well build a city on top of where you already had the vaults.”

  “Right”

  “Does the Council sit in here all night and make up stories?”

  Quinn smiled broadly, “This isn’t a tall tale.”

  She looked at him, obviously not believing him, “Right.”

  “It’s not,” the Records Keeper said. “The stronghold in Denmark was our home until we decided to move here.”

  “Why move then? You already have your caves…”

  “It was time for a change,” Chevalier told her. “How hard is it to believe that we were tired of the caves and wanted to gain ownership of this property before more humans came and began claiming it all for themselves?”

  “So you’ve been here since…”

  “We moved here in 1012.”

  She shook her head, “This is all just a little far fetched.”

  “You didn’t think we lived here from the start, did you?”

  “Yes”

  Kyle smiled and sat back in his chair. He knew the look on Emily’s face and understood that nothing they could say would convince her that they were telling her the truth.

  Chevalier kissed the back of her head lightly.

  Emily was deep in thought for a few minutes, “Ok, so… you moved here. Why do you care if the Encala want your old caves?”

  “We may need them again someday.”

  “For what?”

  “We’ve gone back there several times… well… twice actually, to live for a while,” Chevalier told her.

  “When?”

  “First in 1915, and then again in 1939.”

  “Why?”

  “World Wars…”

  “Wait… during the World Wars, you all returned to your caves?”

  “Sure, why is that hard to believe?”

  “You didn’t stay to fight?”

  “No, we don’t get involved in mortal wars.”

  She frowned, “That’s un-American.”

  “We don’t affiliate ourselves with a nation… we have factions for that.”

  “It just seems that if you live in America, you would help when America gets attacked.”

  Chevalier shook his head, “We can’t involve ourselves in mortal affairs.”

  “Europe was involved in the wars. Why go there?”

  “The caves are far below ground and allowed us to continue our society without war interference.”

  Emily smiled, “I can’t imagine you all living in a cave.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It’s dirty, and wet, and grimy, and cold…”

  “Not our caves.”

  “Oh right… you had clean caves.”

  Kyle chuckled, “They were cleaned. We had to live in them, no reason not to clean them.”

  Emily shook her head and stood up, “If you don’t want to tell me the truth, then I’ll just go back to bed.”

  Chevalier smiled when she left and then turned when Quinn started to laugh, “She honestly doesn’t believe us?”

  “Nope,” Chevalier said.

  “We’ll take her one of these days. She’ll see how nice they are.”

  “I bet they aren’t now,” Kyle said. “We haven’t had anyone in them since 1949.”

  ***

  Emily woke up and looked over at the clock. It was already 10am, and no one had come to wake her up. Thinking that was strange, she called out for her Door Guards.

  When a strange City Guard opened the door, she pulled the blankets up to cover with, “Who are you?”

  “City Guard, Ma’am,” he said, and bowed slightly. “You called for us?”

  “Where is the Cavalry?”

  “In the council chambers, Ma’am.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “We haven’t been told.”

  “Ok, wait in the hallway.”

  He bowed again and then shut the door after him when he left. Emily crawled out of bed and quickly got dressed. She wasn’t sure why but it seemed too quiet in the palace, and she wondered what was up. On the way down to the council chambers, she called for coffee and then let herself in through the back door. Chevalier glanced at her when she entered, but then he turned to the trial area.

  Emily sat down beside him and took a cup of coffee from the servant before turning to the trial area. All ranking officers of the City were there along with almost half of the Cavalry. She could tell they were in a deep conversation, so she sat back to listen.

  “It doesn’t have to be an Equites,” Zohn said. “Just because it happened in our city doesn’t make it one of us.”

  Mark nodded, “We know, Elder, but the scent was definitely Equites.”

  Quinn sat back, “To think one of our own would do such a thing.”

  Kyle stood up, “So the plan stands. We’ll keep at it until we find who is doing it.”

  “Report in each night,” Zohn said.

  Kyle nodded and then walked out through the trial room doors, followed by guards.

  Chevalier looked over at Emily and smiled when the trial area cleared out, “Good morning.”

  She sipped her coffee and nodded, “Morning. What’s up?”

  He glanced at the other Elders before answering, “There have been some attacks in the city.”

  “Heku attacks?”

  “Yes”

  “How many?”

  “There have been four.”

  She thought for a moment, “We could set up another sting.”

  “This one’s too dangerous,” Chevalier said. “Plus, it’s only strippers who’ve been bitten.”

  “You mean killed.”

  “No, none of them have died.”

  Emily frowned, “So just fed off of unwillingly?”

  “Yes, and beaten up a bit.”

  “Can’t you control them to see who did it?”

  “No, whoever attacked them erased his tracks,” Zohn said.

  “Just do me a favor and stay in Council City for a while, ok?” Chevalier asked.

  Emily smiled, “That or stay out of the strip clubs.”

  “Just because the attacks originated in a strip club, doesn’t mean they won’t escalate to include others.”

  “True… I have no plans in the city, so I’m safe. Are the women ok?”

  Quinn sighed, “Yes, we were able to feed them the shingle's story and wipe the memories of the police involved.”

  “They called the cops?!”

  “Of course. They were dancing, and then woke up in a dark alleyway with some bruises and punctures on their necks.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “We’ll get whoever’s doing it.”

  She nodded, “Well if you need my help, you know where to find me.”

  “We could put her undercover in a club,” the Chief of Staff suggested.

  Emily smiled, “I can pole dance.”

  Chevalier’s eyebrows rose, “You can?”

  “Well… ok, so I’ve never tried. How hard can it be?”

  “While I wouldn’t mind se
eing that, it’s too dangerous.”

  “How so? If I get attacked, I ash them.”

  His eyes narrowed, “No.”

  “I won’t without permission. I swear.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “For now, I’m going to go track down Dain.”

  “What’s he doing now?” Chevalier asked, shaking his head.

  “He’s not doing anything. You two need to get over this little rivalry or whatever it is you’re doing, and act like a family.”

  “It’s not a rivalry,” Chevalier explained. “He’s stubborn and not following orders.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as staying away from the barracks.”

  “So let him join already,” Emily said, shocking the Council.

  “You want him to join?”

  “If you’ll give him a break, then yes. He’s old enough.”

  Chevalier sat back, “I don’t know if he has the discipline to join the guard staff.”

  She stood up, obviously irritated, “Just leave the boy alone! He’s not hurting you, and all you do is strut your feathers around him and get him all riled up.”

  “Strut my feathers?” Chevalier asked, watching her.

  “Yes… the second you see him, you puff up and turn on Elder mode. For once be the boy’s father.”

  “I treat him no differently than…”

  “Oh yes you do! You treat him worse than the other kids, and I’m getting tired of it. He does the same to you. It's like two cocks in one pen, and I’m getting fed up with the bullying.”

  “Em…”

  “No, leave him alone.”

  “I’ll try… but he has to follow orders.”

  Emily shook her head and walked out of the council chambers. She knew she wasn’t going to change Chevalier’s mind. To him, Dain was a heku, not a child, not a son, and not someone to be pampered and coddled. To Emily, he was her young son, and she still treated him as you would a mortal child. She knew that Chevalier’s reaction to him was ingrained in his nature, she’d been told often enough, but she also knew he was intelligent enough to see past that and see that all he was doing was pushing Dain away.

  “Where’s Dain?” Emily asked when she saw Kralen on the steps.

  “I’m not sure. What’d he do now?”