Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series (33 page)

“Em, we can’t help you run,” Kralen said.

Both Gifford and Kralen turned to ash, and
Emily ran back toward the barracks, “We’ll take Kralen’s truck to
the airport.”

“We can’t do this!” Miri said, following
her.

“You don’t have a choice at this point,
Miri,” Emily said to her. “If you don’t come with me, I’ll turn you
to ash and hide you.”

Miri gasped and looked over at Alexis.

“Mom, stop!” Alexis said. Emily didn’t stop
until she’d gotten into Kralen’s Ford F450 and adjusted the seat.
Megara and Alexis climbed into the back with Asher, and Miri
buckled into the front.

***

“Mom, Mom wake up,” Alexis said, shaking
Emily gently. “We’re landing.”

Emily sat up in the seat and looked out the
small window of the airplane as the lush lands of Denmark came into
view.

“Why are we in Denmark?”

“I’ll explain later,” she said, adjusting her
seat. They got off of the plane and then walked to car rental,
where Emily rented a minivan for the trip. No one asked any
questions but piled into the van, and Emily drove southeast.

“What are you doing?” Alexis asked when Emily
pulled the van over to pick up a hitchhiker alongside the road.

Emily smiled when Dain walked over.

“Took you long enough.”

“Oh my God, Dain!” Alexis said, and then
opened her door and ran into his arms.

“Good to see you, Alex.”

Miri shook her head, “We’re all in too
deep.”

“Why did you bring Miri?” Dain asked. Alexis
was pretty sure that Dain was nervous that Allen was there
also.

“She needs protected too."

Dain shrugged and scanned the area
carefully.

“I’ll figure this out,” Emily said, and
watched as Alexis crawled into the back, and Dain got in beside
her. “You can get us there?”

“Sure can,” Dain said. “I read about it a
while back and memorized the map.”

“So now we get to know where we’re going?”
Miri asked.

Megara reached over and hugged Dain with a
big smile across her face.

“We’re going to the Equites caves,” Emily
said, pulling back out into traffic.

“Why?”

“The Valle want me dead. I’m hoping those
caves are secure, and we can wait this out without worrying about
Valle attacks.”

“How do you know the Valle want you dead?”
Miri asked.

“I overheard the Cavalry talking, and the
Council sort of confirmed it. The Valle and Encala were going to
jointly attack Council City. With me out of the city though, now
the Encala would have to attack alone, and they don’t have the
manpower,” Emily explained.

“So, in a nutshell, she’s protecting the
heku,” Dain said, laughing. Emily tried not to listen too closely
to his laughter. It reminded her of Chevalier.

The van fell silent when Emily’s phone rang.
After the fifth ring, Dain looked at the caller I.D., “It’s
Dad.”

Emily just nodded, and her hands shook on the
steering wheel.

“Calm down, ok?”

She fought back tears. She not only lied to
herself but to Chevalier and the entire Council. Now, thousands of
miles away, she was able to see that she went overboard, but she
didn’t know how to fix things.

“Mom, what’s wrong?” Alexis asked her.

Emily swallowed hard, “I messed things up
now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Things have been calm since I agreed to
listen to your Dad and the Council, and they lightened up and let
me do things I wanted.”

“Right”

“I messed it up… now we’ll go back to how we
were. No one trusted me. I was treated like a child, and your Dad
and I fought all the time.”

Dain sighed, “They still treated you like a
child, or they would have told you that the Valle are after
you.”

“I don’t know how to fix this. This time was
big. I got Miri and Alexis involved, so now the Council will be mad
at them too.”

“I got myself involved,” Miri told her.

“So did I,” Alexis said. “I’m the one that
moved Dain into one of Garrett’s houses.”

When the phone rang again, Dain growled and
answered it, “What, Dad?”

There was a short pause, “You’re with
them?”

“Yes”

“You better not hurt one hair…”

“I’m not going to hurt them!” Dain
yelled.

“Let me talk to Emily.”

“No, she’s too upset right now to talk to
you.”

“I need to talk to her,” Chevalier
growled.

Dain shook his head and laughed slightly,
“Mom thinks she messed up. She’s afraid for Miri and Alex’s life
because of you. She’s afraid you won’t trust her and will be mad
about this. I’m not going to let you intimidate her that way.”

“Dain,” Emily whispered, frowning.

“She did mess up, but we can work through
this. It’s not safe out there, and you know it!”

“I can protect them.”

“You? You can’t even protect yourself,”
Chevalier hissed.

Dain answered him by shutting the phone. The
rest of the drive was silent, and once they reached Visborg, Dain
told Emily how to get to the Equites property. It looked simply
like farm land, and Emily parked the van in a large metal garage,
never asking Dain how he knew the codes to get in.

Once they gathered supplies, they started out
along the rough terrain, hiking up the side of a mountain. Megara
was having a hard time keeping up, so Dain picked her up and
carried her up the hill. It was a long, hot journey, but they
finally saw the boarded up face of what appeared to be an old mine.
There was a sign hanging near the entrance that warned of radiation
hazards.

“This is it?” Emily asked, looking through
the slats covering the entrance.

“Yup,” Dain said, and tore down the boards.
“Get inside and I’ll board it up behind us.”

Emily shivered, “I hate caves.”

“Why?” Dain asked, looking inside.

“When I was a kid, Cade tied a rope to my
ankles and dropped me down a hole. Turned out to be some caves
under Montana. If he had dropped me, I would have died.”

“That’s awful.”

“Yeah, well when he did it, it would wake up
the bats, and they would swarm past me to get out.”

Dain nodded as her words made sense out of
some of her fears.

“Then there’s Exavior.”

“It’s safe down there. Let’s go.”

Once their tracks were covered, they started
down the long flight of cold rock stairs that seemed to descend
into the abyss. To their right was a sheer drop-off that looked to
go on forever, so they all stuck closely with the rock wall to
their left.

No one spoke, and the tensions were high as
hours passed and the group continued downward. Just as Emily was
about to cancel the entire thing and return to Council City, she
saw the end of the stairs.

“Now what?” Emily asked when they made it to
the landing.

Dain shrugged, “There aren’t maps of this
place. I just knew how to get here.”

“So… how big is this do you think?”

Miri smiled slightly, “Massive. At one point,
every Equites was down here.”

“There has to be rooms then, right?”

“I would think so,” Dain said, looking
around. “Why don’t Miri and I look around and see if we can find a
good central location? The rest of you stay here.”

Emily nodded, “Don’t get hurt.”

Dain chuckled and disappeared with Miri.
Emily sat down on one of the cold, damp stairs to wait. The caves
seemed unnaturally dark and quiet, and it was obvious that Alexis
was nervous also. They both felt some comfort with the heku around,
knowing they could still see in the dark.

Emily put the lantern down that she was
holding and took Asher from Alexis when he started to fuss. When he
quieted down, the only noise that could be heard was the water
dripping down the walls of the cave.

“What are you going to do about Dad?” Alexis
asked finally.

“I messed up bad, Alex. I don’t even
know.”

“He did too though.”

“Not as bad as I did.”

Alexis sat down beside her, “Things just got
out of hand.”

“I know, but I didn’t have to ash them and
run.”

“We can go back.”

“I would, but I have to think of you and Miri
now. You were already being sent to prison, and they can banish
Miri.”

“So now you’re protecting us?”

“I’m allowed to protect you kids.”

“Maybe we need to call the Council and offer
to come back if we aren’t punished.”

“I messed up too bad to just go back. I have
to have some time to think about it.”

“Dad wants you back though. I’m positive of
that.”

“He’ll be too mad.”

“Mom?” Dain said, appearing in front of them.
“We found the Council’s bedrooms. There aren’t beds in them, but
the council chambers are close, so we can all gather in there and
not get lost, but we each have our own space.”

Emily nodded and stood up with Asher, “Ok,
take me to the Elder’s rooms then. I'll find Chev’s room.”

Dain smiled, “He wasn’t an Elder when they
lived here. Miri’s in the Chief Enforcer’s room waiting for
you.”

“Oh right, ok,” she said, and followed him
through the caves. She had to admit they were cleaner than she
thought, but they were still damp and cold.

Once in Chevalier’s old room, the others left
to find a room for themselves, and Emily wrapped her arms around
herself and looked around. There was no sign that Chevalier had
ever been there. The shirts hanging in the room were non-descript
white Equites shirts, so she smelled them and didn’t catch any sign
that he’d worn them. There were no personal items in the room,
nothing at all to let her feel like he was there with her.

She fought back tears and then sat down on
the hard stone couch. She knew that it would be fine for a heku to
relax on, but she wasn’t looking forward to the back ache it was
going to cause. She slipped on a few of the guard shirts to help
keep warm, and then leaned against the damp rock wall to try to
decide what to do.

After a few minutes, she got bored and
grabbed the lantern to check out the council chambers. The door was
right across from the room she was in, so she walked in and looked
around. It looked almost exactly like the council chambers in the
palace, but instead of wooden desks, everything was made of stone
and cement.

Emily walked up and sat down in the chair
that would be for Chevalier, and looked over the trial area.

“Playing Elder?” Dain asked, walking in with
Alexis and Miri.

“Where’s Asher?”

“Megara is lying down with him.”

Emily smiled and did her best Chevalier
impression, “Derrick! Bring in the next innocent heku to kill.”

“Nice, Mom,” Alexis said, laughing, and
joined her on the Council stand.

“I vote for 1 billion years of banishment for
breathing the wrong way!” Emily said, very much like Chevalier.

Alexis grinned and shook her head,
“Chevalier, we cannot banish him for such a small crime.”

Emily looked at her daughter, impressed,
“Nice Quinn impression.”

“Why thank you.”

Miri shook her head, “I swear, you two.”

“What?” Emily asked her.

“No one… I mean no one, makes fun of the
Council.”

“Yeah well, we’re going to have to face that
Council, so we might as well get the jokes out now,” Emily told
her.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll figure it out. I got you into this, and
I’m not going to let them banish you for it.”

Miri smiled, “I’ll be ok.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I led you to
defy the Council, and both of you opposed your husbands because of
me,” Emily said, looking down at her hands. “Not my best day.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Mom,” Dain said,
walking forward. “You did it all because of me. I’m to blame.”

“Did you kill that girl?” Emily asked
him.

Dain sighed, “I didn’t mean to.”

“Damnit, Dain!”

“I don’t need this shit from you! I didn’t
mean to.”

“Let’s all calm down and get some rest,” Miri
suggested. “I could use some quiet time, and we all need to think
our way out of this.”

Emily nodded and stood up, “Fine, maybe
you’re right.”

***

“Mom? I got you a surprise,” Dain said,
walking into the room. Emily sat up from the rock couch and then
stretched her back as he lit the lantern.

“What did you get?” she asked him.

Dain smiled and handed her a cup of hot
coffee.

“Nice!” She took it from him and cradled it
in her hands, hoping it would warm them.

“I figured anything’s better than
sandwiches,” Dain said, sitting down.

“Yeah, I’m getting tired of cold sandwiches,
cold walls, cold couch…”

“Maybe it’s time to go back.”

“What about you?”

“I can’t. I’m sure by now the Encala know I
killed someone and wouldn’t offer me prison anymore.”

“They would if I asked them,” she said,
taking a sip.

“Go ahead then. Let me have it.”

“What?”

“We’ve been down here for two weeks, and you
haven’t yelled at me for killing that girl.”

Emily sighed, “Why did you?”

“I was feeding and just got carried
away.”

“Consensually?”

He shrugged.

“So that’d be a no. Dain, I didn’t raise you
like this.”

“You didn’t raise me. That would mean having
a childhood.”

“So because you grew up too fast, you feel
like breaking all the rules?”

“No”

“I don’t think you need to run for
eternity.”

“Just until Dad dies. Then I’ll stop.”

Emily frowned, “What makes you think he’s
going to die?”

“I fully plan on killing him.” Emily’s eyes
grew wide as she realized that Dain wasn’t joking.

“Why?” Was all she could say.

“No one else will rid this world of him. It's
my job.”

“Dain…”