Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series (12 page)

“Does she even know how close we are to a
major war with the Encala?”

“Nope,” Mark said, and then turned when the
mechanic came up.

“Sir,” the mechanic said, bowing slightly.
“The motorcycle is in good working order, but I did find a tracking
device under the rear fender.”

Mark squatted down and looked under the
fender. Hidden beneath the decorative edge was a small box with a
tiny blinking green light, “Perfect.”

“What shall we do with it?”

“Let me get the Elder and he can decide.”
Mark took the box that was also delivered and headed into the
palace. The Council was in session, but Derrick told him they
weren’t with a prisoner and let him in.

“Is there a problem, Mark?” Quinn asked as he
stepped up to the Council.

Mark bowed slightly, “Sort of. Andrew sent
Emily a motorcycle. It was delivered an hour ago, and our mechanic
found a tracking device under the fender.”

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “That’s pretty
stupid of them. They had to have known we’d check it out.”

Mark nodded.

“Does Emily know?”

“Not yet, Elder. He also sent her this box,”
Mark said, and handed the box up to Chevalier.

Chevalier immediately opened it and pulled
out a small electrical device, “This is a remote tracker.”

Zohn’s eyebrows rose, “So they put a tracking
device on it and sent us the other side?”

“Looks like it.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea. If she takes
off again, we’ll know where she is.”

Chevalier shook his head, “We can’t track her
without telling her. She hasn’t taken off in a long time.”

“Just because the Encala sent us the tracking
monitor, doesn’t mean they didn’t keep one also,” Kyle told
them.

“That’s true,” Quinn said, and then took the
device to look it over.

“Ask Emily in please, Derrick,” Chevalier
called to the door.

“Can that be recalibrated to a different
frequency, so we can track her without worrying the Encala are
also?” the Chief of Defense asked.

Kyle shrugged, “I don’t know enough about
them to say.”

The Council looked up when Emily walked in,
holding the bulldog up against her shoulder like you would a baby.
He was sound asleep and snoring as drool fell, soaking her
shoulder. She stepped up to the trial area.

“You called for me?”

Chevalier shook his head, “Is the dog
injured?”

“No, he’s sleepy.”

“Shocker”

She just smiled.

“Andrew bought you a motorcycle,” Chevalier
told her.

She frowned, “I don’t want it.”

“We’ve had it looked over, and it’s a good
bike. There is a tracking device under the fender though, but he
sent us the monitor.”

“I don’t care if it’s a good bike. I don’t
want anything from him.”

Chevalier nodded, “I kind of figured.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s out by the stables,” Mark told her.

Emily handed the bulldog off to Mark and
started for the door. Mark wrinkled his nose when his shirt became
soaked from the drooling dog as it started to wake up and look
around.

“I’ll go with you,” Chevalier said, appearing
by the door.

Kyle followed them out of the room and down
to the stables where Kralen and Silas were inspecting the bullet
bike.

“This is a sweet bike,” Silas said, smiling.
“Other than the color, that is.”

Emily walked over and looked down at it, “No
note?”

“Just the box.”

“What was in the box?”

“That was the monitor for the tracking
device,” Chevalier explained.

“No note in there?”

“No”

She nodded and walked around the bike before
slipping on it and starting it up. She revved the engine a few
times and then righted it, “I’ll be right back.”

“Can I go?” Kralen asked.

She nodded and then rode toward the city
gates.

“Maybe she will keep it,” Kyle said,
surprised.

Chevalier watched up on the hills as Emily
took the bullet bike cross country toward the north, “She’s
off-roading it.”

Silas cringed, “Does she know bullet bikes
are for street riding only?”

“I don’t know, actually.”

Kralen kept pace with Emily as she rode
silently through the trees. She stopped at the leech pond and
looked over the still water.

“Do you like it, then?” Kralen asked.

Emily nodded, “It’s a pretty nice bike.
Smooth ride, comfortable seat.”

“Wait!” Kralen yelled when Emily spun out and
headed for the pond at a fast speed. He blurred forward and reached
for her, just as she jumped off of the bike and watched as it
splashed into the pond and disappeared beneath the murky water.

Kralen watched with wide eyes as the bike
disappeared, “Wow.”

Emily stood up and brushed herself off.

“You could have given it away,” Kralen
said.

“I don’t want anything he gives me.”

“Still…”

She turned and started back for the palace.
Kralen caught up with her after watching the pond for a few
seconds, “Did you get hurt?”

“No”

“It’s pretty dangerous to jump off of a
moving motorcycle.”

“I know.”

“Nothing hurt at all?”

“No”

Kralen looked her over as they walked, and
the only injury was a scrape beneath a torn part of her shirt where
she’d landed when she jumped.

After a few minutes, he finally sighed, “Can
I just carry you?”

Emily thought about it for a moment, and then
jumped up onto his back, “How’s that?”

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 mortals 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.”