Encala : Book 3 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “None.” He held her tightly.

  “So it would offend a heku to call them such?” she asked.

  “Yes, very much so,” Chevalier said.

  “Hey Damon!” Emily yelled, and then felt Chevalier’s hand over her mouth.

  “He’s trying to get the rune off of your leg. Would you please leave him alone?” he asked, and removed his hand.

  “I bet I could get it removed,” she said.

  “Yes I’m sure you could, but it is his job.”

  Emily turned and sat facing Chevalier on his lap, “And the arm bands?”

  He smiled, “That’s my job.”

  Emily threw her arms around him and kissed him so passionately, that the chair they were sitting in fell backwards and crashed them to the floor. Chevalier cushioned her fall and didn’t even have time to ask if she was ok before she pressed her lips to his again.

  ***

  Chevalier kissed her shoulder and looked over at the roaring fire. They were curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace, with a thin sheet covering them. He took her wrist and pulled it up from her body, slipping the arm band off of her. She pulled the other one off.

  “Finally,” she said, tossing it into the fire.

  Chevalier chuckled, “It won’t burn.”

  Emily took the other band and rolled over onto her back. She held it up to the firelight to look at it, “It seems so harmless.”

  “Funny, how the most harmless looking things, can be the most dangerous,” he said, and kissed her lightly.

  She looked over at him, “You’re not referring to me, right?”

  He raised an eyebrow, “Of course not.”

  “How do you say ‘I love you’ in Latin?” she asked him.

  “Te amo,” he answered.

  “How is it you all speak Latin?” she questioned, propping up on her elbow to face him.

  “It is our native language. We taught it to the mortals, though they’ve tweaked their version a bit.”

  “Oh”

  “Where did you learn your fun little Latin phrase?” He brushed some hair from her face.

  She smiled, “I asked David, a long time ago.”

  “Do you know more?”

  “Sure… how about… Magister mundi sum!” she grinned, throwing her fist up into the air.

  “Anything other than odd sayings and mean names?” he laughed.

  “No, that’s about all.”

  “Tell me the truth. Did you throw the Encala out over New Jersey?”

  “Not all of them. Some I dumped in the river,” she said, wondering if he was mad. He answered her concern with a kiss.

  Chapter 12 - Mortals

  Emily spun the roulette wheel, “Call’em.”

  “One,” Allen said, watching the small ball spin in the wheel.

  “Red,” Mark said, and sat chips down on the felt table.

  The other heku thought and put chips down, “Two through twenty.”

  The heku on the end thought for a moment and then put some chips down, “Black.”

  “Are you sure this is how this game is played?” Mark asked Emily.

  “Nope, not at all. I don’t gamble.” She grinned and watched the wheel slowly stop. The ball landed on a black zero.

  Everyone pushed their chips across the table. Emily stole one and ate it, then went back to the wheel.

  “You aren’t supposed to eat the chips,” Mark chuckled.

  “Fine, you can each have one too,” she said, taking another potato chip.

  “Pass”

  Emily frowned, “That reminds me… Kyle lost a bet and owes me a pedicure.”

  “I thought you didn’t gamble,” Mark said, placing more of his chips on the table.

  “Oh, it wasn’t a gamble, it was a sure thing,” Emily spun the wheel and let the ball go. “Call’em.”

  “One,” Allen said, grinning.

  Mark got a faraway look in his eyes and then stood up, “We have to go.”

  “Why?” Emily asked, but the heku had already blurred away.

  “Where’d they go?” Allen asked her.

  She shrugged, “I have no idea. Want to watch a movie?”

  “Popcorn, too?”

  “Sure, popcorn too. Go get settled and I’ll make it,” she said, turning to the microwave. It had taken a few weeks to talk them into putting a microwave in their game room. The heku complained about the awful smell of popcorn, but now it was installed into the wall and stacked with popcorn.

  “What movie?” Emily asked, going over the DVDs.

  “Lost Boys!”

  Emily turned to him, “You’re 4, you can’t watch the Lost Boys.”

  “I do,” he told her.

  “Who lets you watch it?”

  “Daddy”

  “Of course… what else do you want to watch?”

  “Pete’s Dragon,” he said, pouting.

  Emily put in the movie and got the popcorn out of the microwave. She curled up by Allen to watch.

  Emily looked toward the wall when she heard soft whispers.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked Allen.

  He nodded, looking at the same wall.

  Emily finished her handful of popcorn and walked over to the wall. She stood back and looked at it, listening to the soft whispers. The wall was the one used for darts. It had several targets attached to it and a wooden rack full of darts.

  Emily leaned closer and pressed her ear against the wall. She screamed when fell forward, landing on her hands and knees on a dusty, dirt floor. She coughed a few times, her landing stirred up some of the dust. Standing up, she brushed herself off and looked around, but it was too dark to see anything.

  “Hello?” she yelled, and jumped slightly when several torches lit around the room.

  Now that she could see, she looked around at the four walls. The room wasn’t large, smaller than her closet even. The stone walls were lined with runes, and covered in cobwebs.

  “Heku and their damned runes,” she said, and went back to the wall through which she had come. She put her hands out and touched it. It was a solid rock wall. She felt along the four walls, but they were all solid.

  “Great, Em, explain that one. ‘Well you see… I walked through a wall in the game room, and couldn’t get out’,” she sighed.

  “Allen?” she yelled, then listened at the wall. She didn’t hear an answer.

  “Gah,” Emily growled, and looked around. She noticed a small recession in the middle of the floor. She knelt down and brushed the dust off, it was covering a wooden plank. She tried to pry it open with her fingers, but it didn’t budge.

  Sighing, she stood up and looked around the room again, trying to see if there was any way out. She felt hands against her back push her onto the wooden plank, and it gave way under her feet. Emily fell 10 feet and landed with a loud crash. She felt around in the darkness and drew her hand back quickly when she felt a skull. She got to her feet, and fought to see with the little light that was coming from the splintered wooden plank above.

  Emily looked up and saw the wooden plank repairing, and soon she was in total darkness.

  “Hello?” she yelled, and again torches lit simultaneously around the room.

  Emily gasped and spun quickly. The octagon room’s dirt floor was covered with human bones and full skeletons hung from shackles on the walls. There was one passageway, but the entrance was entirely obscured with thick cobwebs. She could see the vapor from her breath as she carefully looked around the cold room.

  Walking slowly toward one of the skeletons, Emily reached her hand out. Just before she touched it, the head rose slightly toward her. She screamed and ran for the passageway, covering her face defensively when she broke through the cobwebs.

  ***

  “Did you hear that?” Chevalier asked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

  “What?” Kyle asked, looking up from his roster.

  “I just heard Emily scream, but it was… different.”

&n
bsp; “I didn’t hear her,” Kyle frowned.

  “She’s probably in some dire need of heku assistance,” Damon said, and pointed out a name on Kyle’s roster.

  “Would you be nice?” Chevalier said to Damon.

  “Yes, Sir,” Damon said, holding back his irritation.

  “She can’t be in too much trouble. We just barely left she and Allen in the game room,” Mark said, concerned.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” Chevalier turned back to the roster.

  “We could just leave it at four,” Damon looked up at them.

  “The full seven gave us even numbers on shifts though,” Kyle told him.

  “I’m not seeing anyone else,” Mark said, looking closer at the roster.

  Kyle sighed, “Her little trip into the barracks narrowed it down. That ticked off a lot of guards.”

  Chevalier nodded.

  “We could… you know…” Mark said, and then stopped and shook his head.

  “What?” Kyle asked.

  “Bring them back.”

  “They were drinking,” Kyle reminded him.

  “I know, it was just an idea,” Mark said.

  “I say we bring in three of them whether they like her or not. They don’t have to like it, and training is only a few months,” Damon said, coldly.

  “We’ve not had good luck with trainees who don’t like Emily,” Kyle said.

  “Is it the recruits, or is it the mortal though?”

  “Watch it,” Chevalier warned.

  “I’m just saying… if the problem is the attitude of the new recruits, we can handle that. However, as seen previously, if the problem is with the girl, then we always just let it slide.”

  Kyle frowned, “We don’t just let it slide.”

  Damon smiled, “Yes you do. That mortal has all of you in this room wrapped around her little finger.”

  “I think not,” Mark growled.

  “Ok”

  “Get back to the roster,” Kyle snapped.

  “There aren’t any more unless you start pulling them out of the individual covens,” Mark said.

  “I didn’t realize how many didn’t like her,” Chevalier said, narrowing his eyes.

  “They just don’t know her,” Mark told him.

  “Pick three at random. Kyle will control them, and we’ll let the girl just throw her temper tantrums alone,” Damon said, shutting the book.

  “The girl, while doing training, is to be considered an officer, and demands the respect as such,” Kyle said, glaring at Damon.

  “Pull three from the barracks, anyone except Kenneth. Kyle, you’ll just have to watch them,” Chevalier said irritated.

  Kyle nodded.

  “Damon will be with you for the first few days, he’ll help,” Chevalier added, and Damon began to scowl.

  Kyle grinned, “Sounds good.”

  “I won’t coddle her,” Damon said, bluntly.

  “She wouldn’t let you if you tried,” Chevalier told him, and looked up just before someone knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Kyle called.

  The head gardener came in holding Allen’s hand, “He was wandering the front lawn.”

  Chevalier picked Allen up and put him on his lap, “Oh? Where’s your Mom?”

  “In the wall,” Allen said, picking up a pen. He brought the roster over by him and started to draw loops on it.

  Damon grinned.

  “What do you mean in the wall?” Chevalier asked him.

  Kyle reached over and pulled the roster away from Allen.

  Allen shrugged, “She fell into the wall.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. How do you fall into a wall?” Chevalier asked, confused.

  “First you have to be Emily,” Damon said, and hushed when everyone glared at him.

  Allen crawled out of Chevalier’s lap, “You go like this.”

  Allen put his ear up against the wall, and then made the motion of falling forward, “Like that.”

  Chevalier picked him up again, “I see, and where is this amazing wall?”

  “In the game room,” Allen said, and pulled a handful of smashed popcorn from his pocket. The heku in the room all wrinkled their noses and turned away from him.

  “Time to go save the mortal,” Damon said, following them all out of the conference room.

  “You don’t have to come,” Kyle snapped at him, as they walked toward the game room.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Damon grinned.

  Chevalier glared at him, and he became serious again.

  “That smell is awful,” Damon said, as they entered the room. He put his arm over his nose.

  “It’s just popcorn,” Chevalier said, trying not to grimace.

  “This wall,” Allen said when Chevalier let him down. He ran to the wall with the dartboards.

  “She fell into this wall?” Kyle asked, running his hands along the solid wall.

  “Yup”

  Damon leaned up against the wall between dartboards, “I say we leave her.”

  “Damon,” Kyle growled.

  Damon just shrugged, “I was kidding. You can’t fall through a solid wall. The kid’s imagining things.”

  “When did Mommy fall through the wall?” Chevalier asked, amused.

  “When the movie started.” Allen pointed as the credits ran along the TV screen.

  “Come on,” Chevalier said, picking Allen up. “Let’s go find her. I need to get back to my meeting.”

  “No!” Allen frowned. “She’s in the wall.”

  “Drinking younger and younger these days,” Damon said, walking forward a few steps.

  “Enough, Allen. She’s not in the wall,” Chevalier said, a little more sternly.

  “Yes she is,” Allen yelled, crossing his arms. Chevalier had to grin, when he did that, he looked just like Emily.

  Chevalier put him down, “Mark, stay here with Allen while we look for Emily, that’ll be easier.”

  Allen ran to the wall and pushed against it. There was a sound similar to electricity, and with a lot of force, he was able to stick his hand through the wall. The heku all gasped and went to the wall.

  “See,” Allen said, and tried to get to the wall, but Kyle held him back.

  Mark walked up to the wall and touched it right where Allen had gone through, “It’s solid.”

  “It can’t be solid,” Damon said, and tried it himself, but his hand hit solid wall.

  Kyle moved Allen closer to the wall and took his hand. They both reached out for it. Kyle’s hand stopped when it hit solid rock, but Allen’s hand disappeared.

  “She’s really in there?” Chevalier asked Allen.

  “She fell in,” Allen said, smiling. He was glad the others believed him now.

  “Sam?” Chevalier called out, and turned when the familiar appeared.

  “Yes?”

  “Walk through that wall,” Chevalier said, pointing to the dartboards.

  “Erm… ok,” he said. Sam walked toward the wall, put his hands up, and stopped when they touched the wall.

  “Can’t go through it?” Kyle frowned.

  “No… it’s a solid wall.” Sam said, confused.

  Allen stuck his hand through again, when he pulled it out, he shivered, “Cold in there.”

  Sam watched him with wide eyes.

  “Well, well, a Mortal Trap,” Damon said, grinning.

  ***

  Emily quit running and bent over with her hands on her knees. She was breathing hard from running and her hands hurt. She’d been running through the corridor in the dark, feeling ahead of her. Numerous times her hands would feel bones or sharp rocks, and she would move away in a panic. She finally regained control of the terror and stopped to rest. It was colder here than in the first room with the shackles, and she felt like she had been moving downhill.

  “Think... think… skeletons cannot move,” she said to herself, and the corridor lit up. She looked up at the torches and grabbed one off of the w
all. She was in a narrow stone corridor that extended as far as she could see in both directions. She decided to head back the way she had come.