Chosen by the Berserker

by Bailey Dark

  Skarde squirmed in his seat, his muscles visibly jerking beneath his shirt as he fought against my Will invading his mind. His eyes still had that dazed, frosted look, but the firelight glinting in their shine seemed to capture something new and suddenly I felt slapped backward and I literally lost my breath as he shoved the Will I was pushing forward out of his head.

  “I will… not… betray… my General…”

  The words were wrenched from deep within him and they sounded animal, visceral, painful to exclaim.

  Kajo stood up behind us and walked toward me. Suddenly, his Will was pushing in our minds. His Will joined mine and flooded Skarde with that same trust I had been pushing through: “Trust us… Tell us the truth, Skarde… Are you building quasar seekers with the frajili… Trust us… Tell us the truth… You feel this is the most important thing… Tell us…”

  Skarde’s eyes fully frosted again and any claim he had had on his own mind relaxed. “The southern mining fields have been retrofitted. We are building quasar seekers. We are seeking war with the planet Jarolu. Truloy has big plans. We are building more spaceships. We are training more warriors. We are looking to Farian for leadership for warrior training.”

  Skarde’s voice was a robotic, monotone. Kajo leaned forward, a smile stretching the scar through his eyebrow, the firelight shining his dark eyes a success that sent shivers down my spine. He laid a hand on Skarde and the spell broke.

  In that moment, Skarde’s mind broke free from my Will, but seemed to possess new power, grabbing onto my Will and the King’s, and he reached out with a new hold on tele arts and burst forth, reaching for the fire. He grabbed the logs where they flamed on the hearth, and pulled them out, leveling them over our heads and crashing them against the far wall, ribboning sparks up the newly hung tapestries, setting them ablaze. The logs crashed to the floor, embers rolling across the cobblestones.

  Kajo jumped back and flung the logs back into the fireplace. I lunged up and tried to grab onto Skarde as he roared and howled, flailing his arms around, as he tore apart the room with newfound telekinesis, tearing down the tapestries, flinging chairs and goblets and books about the room, crashing glass and wood and leather-bound tomes to the floor.

  Fire was flickering up the walls and Kajo fought to quell it as I chased after Skarde as he roared around the room, alternately bowing over to clasp his dizzied head and baring his chest to roar and destroy the room.

  My head was ringing with the cries of pain from within Skarde’s head as he fought for control of the power within his body that raged and I tried to calm it, tried to refortify my own mental blocks, but I was somehow connected to what he was feeling, and my entire body was tingling, my stomach roiled with nausea, and I was having trouble stepping straight as I stumbled toward him. The King, too, seemed affected as he dashed the flames and logs to bits.

  Skarde was swinging his arms wildly around and I couldn’t get close enough for fear of getting struck and there was no rope around to bind him with, I had no idea what to do, when Kajo came barrelling toward us, and smashed Skarde in the head with a heavy fist.

  The Berserker dropped to the ground, stunned, at least for a moment. He looked up at us, head in his hands, calmed for a moment, confused, trying to get his wits about him again.

  A hit from the Beast King was no joking matter.

  “Get him back to his quarters, Bravo. Try again. I deem you two a good match. See what else he will say that will help our kingdom. Just watch yourself.” Kajo said, moving to the door, rubbing his fist. Then, he paused. “Perhaps, it was an error to try and gain information from him so soon. Gain his trust, first. It is clear you two have a connection. I will put my faith in you.”

  The King left.

  I stared at Skarde on the floor where he rubbed his head, looking up at me. I bent down and moved my hand to his cheek. He jerked back from me but I kept moving into him, ever so slowly.

  “Let’s go to your quarters. I’ll try to explain what happened.”

  Skarde nodded, dark eyes vulnerable and open, long hair curling around his face, the bruise on his right eye swollen into purples and reds, and I wondered if I could ask him anything in that moment and receive an honest answer.

  My heart quaked and I wanted so badly to lean into kiss him… But, it felt like taking advantage of him in an unfair way… He would hardly remember it. I wanted him when he was mine to conquer, not when he was already lost on the battlefield.

  I helped him stand up and led him to his quarters. As we walked, his pace matched mine, tentative and exacting: he was still connected to me. When I turned to look one direction, he turned to look, too. Even though I wasn’t pulsing any of my Will into him on purpose, it was still imposed on him.

  It was an odd, eerie feeling. If I stopped, he stopped. If I quickened my pace, he quickened his. If I smiled, he smiled.

  He was absolutely under my control.

  As we walked by a display of lit candles, I reached out a hand and swept a telekinetic wind to blow out a few of them. He did the same and with a slight whiff, a dozen of them were blown out. I grinned. He smiled back.

  “You have tele skills. Even without much instructions. You can tap into it. I can’t wait to teach you more.”

  “Thank you, Bravo.”

  I swallowed deeply. The deference was unnerving… That had been unexpected… Mentally controlling someone meant an immediate subservience… I hadn’t realized that would be part of the deal. I wondered how long that would last. I hadn’t asked Cartari and Zaya enough questions. I would work with him tonight and tomorrow and bring back the warrior inside him, teach him some mental blocks, and make sure he knew: I was not his master.

  My pulse picked up a beat as his hand brushed mine as we slipped through a particularly small corridor. He reflected a smile at me that I knew was just because of the mental control, but I still loved seeing that knee-buckling grin…

  I did want to be the master of his heart…

  Eleven

  Skarde

  I stared at my reflection in the bedroom wall mirror as Ilisa freshened up in the bathroom. I touched the purple bruise that Modifi had left on my right eye when he had fetched me for the mental exercise and then the growing red mark over my left temple that King Kajo had just made. I clutched my head between my hands for a moment and pressed hard. My brain raged. There was a mist over all my thoughts, like there was something hanging within there that wasn’t my own, something tangled in my mind that I had to obey, something intangible that pulled me… Something that told me to look this way, step that way, lift this, smile that, step here, back away there…

  And it was all connected to Bravo Ilisa…

  I held up my fists and turned them over and over. My fists. My hands. I could hit what I wanted. I could do what I wanted. Right…? I was the one in control… I was the one in control… Not her…

  Ilisa came out of the bathroom and I was pulled to her immediately. I stepped to her and I wondered, did I tell myself to step toward her…? Did I tell myself to smile at her? She was smiling. Did I smile at her because I wanted to? She looked to the bed and I followed her look. Was it because she looked? She pointed at my sword and I pointed, too. Did I raise my hand on purpose?

  I grabbed my head and sank to my knees.

  “I don’t know!” I yelled. She rushed forward and put her arms around me. Her hands wound their way into my hair, her touch calming me and I breathed out deeply. The fog in my mind was clouding it, but her touch seemed to wisp away the fog.

  “I can’t tell, Ilisa… I can’t tell if I am the one making these motions, or if it is because of you.”

  “It is both, Skarde. It is both right now. You are very tied to my Will at this time, because of the control I was exerting on you. You might be tied to Kajo a little, too.”

  “Kajo…” I growled and hit my fist on the ground. At least, I knew that was my own expression of anger. That asshole… He had invaded my mind… He had forced me to say things about Tr
uloy…

  “I know, I know… That shouldn’t have happened, Skarde. I’m sorry...” Ilisa held me tight to her chest and gripped my arms. Her breasts were so supple against my cheek and my heartbeat was picking up.

  “I know the necessity of this, and I will continue to work with you on this… But only you… I can’t let him in again, okay? I can’t let him in again…”

  “I understand, Skarde.” Ilisa kissed my cheek gently. “I want you to trust me… I want you to trust me because you know you can… Not because I mentally controlled you and told you to…”

  I pushed back from her and stared at her, eyes wide. Her words had been so clear in my mind. She smiled and nodded. “Think back to me.”

  “I don’t know how to do that.”

  “Sure you do. Open your mind. Think of me. Think of the tangible wave of thought that you latched to when you were throwing the logs around, it is the same sensation. It is the natural movement of the world.”

  I frowned but tried to feel out for that type of sensation in my mind, that Will, that sensation I had latched onto when I had pushed back against Kajo and Ilisa… It seemed like there was something foreign in my mind, now. Maybe that flood that Ilisa had let loose, like she had said would happen.

  I guess I could try… I pushed out with my Will, feeling along that line of emotion and attraction and weird tendril of thought toward Ilisa. “Can you… Can you hear this?”

  Ilisa’s smile was so genuine and happy that it made me grip her tighter and pull her in close.

  “Yes! You are doing it!”

  “I can hear you and you can hear me?” I asked, pushing through my thought more strongly, and as I did so, it was as if an entire flood of emotions went with it, the anger and fear and desire I felt for her echoing through my body and an eruption of sparks exploded through us, triggering a ripple of lights across our skin.

  I gasped as the ripple whirlpooled through me and held tightly to Ilisa as she shuddered. The lights poured through her, and I stared to watch it flicker through her, lighting up her moon-shaped face, down to her fingertips and shining through her eyes, sparks flaring off her skin.

  She was gasping for air as the lights dimmed and she collapsed into me.

  “What the hell was that?” she demanded and gripped me tightly, pushing off me, her breath hot on my neck, her lips barely brushing my cheek.

  I held her slightly away, her breasts brushing my chest.

  “I think… That has to be what you Farians call the Destin connection… Isn’t it…? Zaya told me of it.”

  Ilisa’s eyes widened, stunned, then they filled with tears and she blinked them away, looking away, shaking her head. I grabbed her jaw, as I had done two times before. She looked at me, breasts heaving with quick breaths, then I crushed her mouth with mine and drew her body close, pulling her to her feet, grabbing her up so that she wrapped her legs around my waist, and carried her quickly to the bed, our tongues entwined.

  I flung Ilisa to the bed and followed quickly, straddling her. I leaned over and brushed my lips over hers, then kissed down her neckline, tracing it down to her clavicle and pulling aside her blouse to bury my mouth in her breasts, stripping away her clothes to reveal her pointed nipples. I licked at them and nibbled them, biting at them until she squealed, her hands in my hair, as she pushed me down toward her pants.

  I looked up at her with a grin and then obeyed. I felt an overwhelming desire to devour her pussy, and I wondered if it was my own true desire or if it was her own Will still pulsing into me… It didn’t matter though, because we would both enjoy it…

  I stripped off her pants and boots and she wrapped her legs around my head as I gently, so gently, licked at her clit. She moaned. I stroked her stomach and clawed at her bare breasts with one hand while I inserted one and then two fingers into her hot, wet pussy, stroking in and out gently, as I sucked and sucked on her clit and labia.

  Her hands tangled in my hair and she used her legs to rock her pussy full into my face, her juices dripping down my lips and chin. She tasted so good…

  Ilisa was moaning and rocking, getting close, my fingers teasing in and out with my tongue swirling in just the right motions when I stopped and popped up to look at her.

  “No!” she wailed and giggled.

  “I want to be inside you.”

  She looked at me, her face a stubborn pout.

  “Absolutely.”

  I tore off my belt and then tugged down my pants. Her eyes went wide as she looked at my huge cock again. I knew my size was substantial, and though she was a fairly tall woman, I knew it would be hard for her to take all of me. I would need to ease in, especially since she would be primed and tight already.

  I was fully erect; giving her pleasure got me hard.

  “I want to cum when you orgasm.”

  She nodded, playing with her clit, keeping herself close. “Come into me…”

  I tapped my cock on her clit and she moaned again, arching her back up, such a graceful motion, ready to take me into her body.

  I moved down and slowly inserted the tip, then eased into her, and I couldn’t help but moan out, long and hard as her heat and tightness accepted me fully. My eyes rocked back in my head and then I pulled out and thrust in again.

  She clamped down hard on me and goddamn but it felt good…

  I thrust in and out again and again, gripping hard to Ilisa’s hips and I was getting close already and she was calling for me to come in hard and I could hardly breathe and It was an electric storm inside and suddenly ribbons of lights exploded through us again.

  The Destin connection…

  The lights rippled through our bodies, our minds were melded, I could feel her gasping, could feel the orgasm squeezing her body, could feel the rise of her climax, the shudders of her body, could sense how good it made her feel, could actually sense the intense desire and emotion she held for me, connected through her mind, and the lights rippling through our bodies made us one…

  And then I was cumming into her body and I gripped her hard, slamming into her as tight as I could, groaning and gasping and diving down…

  Sparks magnified the delight, titillating in the air.

  Then I slipped, sweaty, down onto Ilisa’s body, my cock sliding out and I fell onto her, clasping her to my chest, kissing her face all over, holding her tight, murmuring things I couldn’t even understand, and she massaged my arms and my back and held me, too.

  Destins…

  How could this be?

  Then we held hands and stared up at the luffing of the canopy bed above us and breathed together in silence, enjoying the ecstatic connection of knowing we would never be alone again, and wondering how in the hell we would tell our respective leaders that we now had an alliance that neither side would ever be able to conquer or supersede…

  Twelve

  Fenvitz

  “They will surely have a contingent of Readers guarding him, Duke Fenvitz,” Barzon said.

  I looked at my First Lieutenant with a waspish smile. “Yes, indeed. Which is why it will be so important to get to him while he is alone. He is famous for being a Berserker, the infamous traditional warrior of Vailstor that adheres to traditions of certain styles of fighting and battle readiness. It won’t be hard to bait him into battle without his mental guards present. We will have to appeal to that sense of pride.”

  “You think that he and the warriors he brought from Vailstor will come seek us out if we leave a battle invitation?”

  “Yes. Something like that will work. I doubt he will be able to foment much loyalty amongst the remaining Harthen warriors. Renin and Damox are skilled military men, it is true, and they are faithful to Kajo, so they will be doing his bidding, of course. But, they won’t easily trust an off-worlder. Not without him proving himself first, of course. So, we won’t give him a chance to prove himself. Not publically, at least.” I rubbed my steadily whitening beard and flicked a knife off the table into a target at the far wall. It landed in a de
cent mark. I had been working on my precision. Running a Dukedom, my fighting skills had gotten out of practice. I hadn’t expected Kajo to depose me… I had foolishly thought I would have no more need of my fighting skills and had been content to settle into a lifelong rest of ruling my lands.

  “So, a covert mission.” Barzon followed up my own throw with one of his own. He was my most skilled knife artist and it showed.

  “Yes. We can sneak into the castle and control them during their next evening Berserker herb ceremony.”

  “How will we know when they will hold one of those?”

  “They will do it the evening before battle.”

  “So, we set up a proposed battle, and then sneak into Harthen the night before…”

  “Indeed.”

  “We still have a few soldiers loyal to us within the ranks left at Harthen.” Barzon flicked his wrist and retrieved all our knives from the targets, floating them back to us.

  “Yes, this is true. I will need you to contact them. Not mentally, as I am sure Damox has set up Readers to be watching for communique from the Kall to anyone in Harthen from us.”

  “Ok, I will send in someone through the mines.”

  “Good. Also, I want new sentries posted along the one route into Harthen from the Kall. I don’t know if Skarde might just try something stupid like exploiting that path and shut us down that way somehow. I don’t know the Vailstor tactics well… Our best chance is to control his mind, get him back to the Kall, torture him for information about what they are really doing with the frajili and use that information to win my place back in the Dukedom for favor with Kajo.”

  “I will follow you all the way, my Duke.”

  “I know you will, Barzon. And you will be rewarded.”

  I lashed three of the knives back into the target and was pleased with their accuracy into the bullseye. I licked my lips and imagined it was Skarde’s head.