by Bailey Dark
Clarity struck and the feelings of slowness evaporated as if a bell had been rung. Ice shivered down my spine, a wave of coolness quenched the heat in my face, the pressure behind my eyes stopped thudding, and I beamed at my Vailstorans.
“I will battle all of you at once.”
They looked at me and it was as if they moved in slow motion. It no longer felt like I was moving slowly, the slowness had transcended to the rest of the world and I could anticipate their every move: because I could read their minds. It was much more than their minds… I could read their intentions.
I could only imagine it was the combination of klastani and tele skills along with decades of training as a Berzerker to worship the nature within the beast of us.
Corsin swung his sword at me and I jumped back, Willing myself to float up into the air, my hands braced out, telekinetically floating myself up from the ground, and, much to all our surprises, there I hung, suspended four feet in the air, looking down at my stunned Vailstorans.
I was flying.
Jalasa traded a look with Nessi, and then bent low to the ground. Nessi immediately took two running steps, then launched off Jalasa’s back to fling herself up into the air, sword levied above her head, ready to spear me.
I spun myself through the air and landed back against the rock shore before Nessi’s lunge could reach me. She landed in a tuck and roll, then sprang back up to race toward me, just as the other two also dashed right in, swords swinging, and I was deftly flicking away all three blades at once.
And it was easy…
I knew their moves before they made them. I could read them.
As I dashed away Corsin’s blade with such force that he was sent back reeling, Jalasa held up her hand and stopped Nessi from attacking. All three of them stood back, breathless, sweat-soaked from their parry, thrust, lunge, slash, attack, and they stared at me. Then Jalasa held up her sword and pointed toward the moon, glowing bright in the sun’s setting rays.
I stood up straight, my own chest slicked with sweat, my hair curled into my neck and sticking to me awkwardly. I held my sword up high, puffed my bare chest up to the sky, and howled.
It was the most animalistic howl I had ever made, but it sounded the most pure in my ears, reverberated the most truly, sang songs of nature and oneness and truth.
The three Vailstorans echoed my call, leaning back, yipping and howling, embracing the wild tint of the klastani and the fierce intensity of the battle.
“Proceed,” I said and waved to three of them. The three turned their swords on each other and launched into an acrobatic display of flips and gyrations away from and into each other, swords clanging and crisping in the night air.
Beautiful… Warriors… Strength… Determination… Teamwork… I pressed my hands into my temples and tried to keep my thoughts targeted. Usually the klastani made such a flurry of thoughts that all you could focus on was the battle at hand, now I found I was tracking so many tangents that I could hardly see straight.
I took a deep breath and looked out over the harbor, the tall masts with their sails tucked tightly in, swaying in the tidal pull. The sunset streaked red and orange and yellow. The dusk was pulling over the edges of the palace behind us. Damox, Renin, Modifi and their soldiers would be waiting for us. Ilisa would be with them.
I had hope that the Duke would take the deal of protecting the people of the Kall and backing down from his antagonism. But, in my heart I knew that I only had that hope because I had changed since Ilisa had touched my life.
It was much more likely that I had a duel coming. And I wanted to be ready.
I reached for a pipe again and inhaled. The klastani didn’t hit quite as hard this time, it was more subtle, more nuanced. The new sensation was almost a physical, tactical prickling against the skin, as if I could feel the air molecules begging to somehow be used in tele arts. Even the air was dying to be shown my skill. I held my hands out, turning them over and over, as if I could actually see the ripples they made in space with the movement.
I turned to the Vailstorans where they still battled. Corsin had just been knocked off his feet by one of the girls. I held my hand out, slowed my mind, focused on the Will to lift him, the Will to make his soul and his desire and his matter obey me.
Corsin, who was getting to his feet, slipped to the side as the ground suddenly gave way and he was lifted into the air. He dropped into a crouch, but stayed still, on alert, looking over at me. The girls stopped their acrobatics and watched as I demanded that Corsin float up over the layered ring of blue smoke in our circle, and then I turned him in the air.
With all the trust of a true soldier for his beloved leader, Corsin stood up straight, as confidently as he could, being suspended against his will, and held his hands up high above the smoke. He howled above us.
Jalasa, Nessi, and I echoed his cry.
With a swift intake of breath, I cushioned Corsin back to the ground. As he settled, he stood and bowed low to me, then crossed his sword in front of his face.
“Our strength with your strength, Lord Skarde.”
“Our strength with your strength,” Nessi and Jalasa echoed.
I held up the pipes for them to smoke again.
A trumpet rang out from the other side of the palace and we all looked in its direction. It was Damox, telling us that we had been long enough at our traditions. I had told him to alert me when it reached eight o’clock. I looked toward the setting sun and realized that the stars were well stretched into the sky, beaming down with no sign of daylight.
We had been lost in the klastani, as was typical for the tradition.
“Here,” I held out a stein filled with tea from a type of aloe plant. “It will give us some clarity. We have a job to do that requires stealth.”
My Vailstorans drank and then we settled into a circle on the ground. We would have ten minutes of meditation and then we would join the Farians. I know knew how strong the klastani could make me even in their world. Our traditions could merge harmoniously. Plus, I could take the best of their weaponry, their tele arts, and use it for my own devices.
I was a Berserker, after all.
Eighteen
Ilisa
The Kall’s log cabin homes were set back in lightly snow-capped trees, spread out amongst holly thickets and laced down charming lanes lined with winter flowers and lamplight. They were charming in the early dawn. It had taken us three days to get there by horseback along the mountainous roads above the mining routes. We hadn’t been able to take the train, for fear of word getting to Fenvitz before we reached him.
The journey had been cold, but enjoyable. I had spent most of my time riding beside my Destin, but I had also gotten to spend some time reengaging with Renin, whom I had trained alongside under Commander Axis and served with under Cartari. I had been able to express to him just how important it was that we stand beside Skarde, trust in him, acknowledge him full-heartedly as our leader. I had also been able to confide in him as my friend and ally that I was, truly, and for the first time in my life, one hundred percent in love.
Renin was not perhaps buying into the Destin concept, but he couldn’t argue that it had been touching Farian a lot of late between off-worlder and telepath. I could tell he was going to do his good duty as a soldier and defend Skarde. It had meant a lot to all the Farians under Damox that Skarde was seeking a relatively peaceful solution to the battle with Fenvitz. It certainly stood with what they had heard of him from Vailstor as a protector of his people in Astrida, providing a safehaven for those running from despots and warlords, from slavery and attack. Skarde was finding a way to make sure people he had no reason to care about would survive.
We threaded our way through the back lanes of the Kall’s village before anyone was up for the day. Miners began their day early, but they all headed to the entrance at the opposite side of town, so we were unlikely to run into any of them as they started their shifts.
The lake spread out before us as we reached a c
learing, a crystalline pool with frost across the top, spider webbing out in the glints of the first sunrays. However, the lake was heated geo thermally and the ice never went down further than an inch. It was why the calasis would need to flash freeze the masa with a chemical catalyst reaction.
Our horses stamped their feet, their breath making puffs of smoke in the cool air as they longed for a taste of the water just out of their reach. Damox signaled and we all swung off their backs, letting the steeds drink as the ice at the edges crunched under their hooves.
“Take the second cannon to the other side of the lake and wait for my signal,” Damox said. Six of his Spec Ops soldiers separated, taking one of the giant blasters from the side of one of the pack mules and carrying it across his lap. We had taken blaster cannons that were usually outfit on the sides of small fighting battleships. Just to make sure all the calasis would be frozen. We had two and figured to fire them at the same time.
“We will set up just over there.” Damox pointed to a nook back in between two tall trees. Skarde caught my eye and then nodded his assent. “Take the horses off to the left and tie them up.” Two Spec Ops soldiers obeyed. Everyone busied themselves quickly.
“Fenvitz will hear the cannons fire but how do we know he will come to the lake right away?” Skarde asked.
“On Farian, when an attack is suspected or initiated, one of the first things that is employed is a full area scanning by a Reader. Fenvitz will hear the attack and then his Readers will search the area, looking for who set off the blasters. He will find us. Most likely, he will find you. You will stand out, as an off-worlder. He will know you right away.” Damox clapped his hands together and hefted the other calasis-fueled cannon to his shoulder before they escorted the pack mule away.
“From what we hear, he has been training people to seek you, anyway. Make sure you have your mental blocks ready,” Modifi reminded him gently, trading a meaningful look with me. He didn’t need just Skarde to be ready to help against mental attacks, I needed to be ready to help defend Skarde, too. If Fenvitz was able to get mental control of Skarde… We couldn’t even think of that.
Skarde rolled his shoulders confidently. “I will be ready.”
That easy cockiness in his voice was true. He had told me about what had happened when he had held his Berserker ceremony. He said that the sharpened cognition had not yet waned. The klastani effects were still reverberating through his body. He was not necessarily intoxicated, but he said he felt better than he ever had. It had me tempted to try it…
I sighed and watched my breath float away in the air. The trees were gorgeous in white snow and evergreen. The sun was just peeking through their lowest branches and sending sprays of wrinkled light out onto the shivering lake’s surface. The thin ice was melting and crackling. Soon, it would flash into the most solid ice it had ever been.
I could feel Skarde’s eagerness, but also his cautious trepidation. He was mentally prepared to duel the Duke, but I was afraid he was looking past the duel that would come first. I still couldn’t shake the sensation of powerlessness I had felt when suspended by that unseen telekinetic in the mines. That soldier, and likely others, would be waiting to go to war on Skarde’s mind… He was ready, I hoped. We had done extra training along the route here, but no one had ever viciously attacked him mentally. We honestly couldn’t know if he was ready.
Skarde and I waited by the edge of the lake. There was a whisper of movement in the trees on the far side. We could barely make out the other Spec Ops soldiers setting up the blaster cannon. Skarde wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tucked me in close to him, but didn’t speak. There was a lot going on in his mind, but I didn’t think it right for me to pry.
Damox waved toward us from where he stood beside the near blaster cannon. One of the Spec Ops soldiers ran to us, kicking up snow with his boots.
“Duke Skarde, the other blaster cannons are in place. Are you ready?”
“Proceed by the will of Commander Damox,” Skarde said. The soldier ran back. I opened my mind to listen and heard Damox communicate with the other side, giving the countdown. I clutched Skarde’s arm and we prepared for the blast. I hoped the soldiers holding the horses had them well tethered. This was going to wake the whole sleeping village.
The blasters roared to life, their purple lasers arching out over the ice with a sizzling scream. They wrapped a rainbow up and over, a slicing X that bent down and cut through trees, breaking off branches and scaring off birds, and then dove down into the thin ice sheath and plunged into the lake’s water.
Immediately, the lake ruptured, blistering, as different pockets of cooled air flash froze at different moments, ice swelling the lake’s depth and density. The water in the air seemed sucked dry, too, and there was electricity in the air, making the hair on our heads and arms stand on edge. Water spiked up in little towers all along the lake as it solidified into tectonics of ice sheets and froze, not one solid chunk, but splintered segments all stacked on top of each other in a matter of seconds.
They kept the blasters running nearly a minute to ensure full freeze and then called them off.
The ice crept up the edge of the shore and grabbed onto the bits of masa in the soil and began to freeze the ground. I slipped under the new slickness and grabbed to Skarde for support.
The sun made a mirror surface on the ice as it rose up over the trees.
It had happened so quickly…
We could hear shouts from within the village just on the other side of the trees and down the village lane.
They would be here soon.
Damox signaled and the Spec Ops soldiers melted back into hiding in the forest, some of them even floating up into the branches. The Vailstorans stood beside Skarde. Renin and Damox remained beside us. It was our seven standing before the frozen lake with a large blaster cannon aimed down the main village thoroughfare, waiting for Fenvitz and the rightfully elected leader of the Kall to come ask us what we had done.
Figures came into view and I kept my hand near my blaster and one near my knife. We were ready.
A thundering of pain buried itself behind my eyes and splintered my skull, streaking down the back of my neck and making me double over. Skarde collapsed to his knees, holding onto his head, gasping out my name.
I realized the pain wasn’t really coming from within me, I was just feeling some of the pain that he was experiencing: it was a mental attack.
Just as Damox had suggested, Fenvitz’s men had scanned for us, and they had found us.
Nineteen
Fenvitz
The sizzling scream of a blaster cannon ripped through the air and had me lunging from my warm blankets.
“Barzon!” I roared, throwing a coat on while fumbling for my boots at the same time. The world around me was sleep-blurred but my mind was fighting for control about the potential attack. What could be happening? Who? Skarde, of course, right? But, why with blaster cannons?
My lieutenant slept in the barracks right beside mine in this little hovel of a village. He burst through the door, tugging on his own coat and looking wild-eyed, hair smashed to one side from sleep, but weapons well strapped to his waist. “What is going on?”
“Shall I alert the Readers, Duke?”
“Yes! And I want to speak directly with Vlax.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Barzon left, the front door swinging open and blowing cold air in to hit me before I had fully buttoned up my coat. I caught a look of myself in the mirror, as its pristine surface nearly rattled off the wall with the high-energy reverberations of the still screeching blaster cannons. There were no screams going up in the Kall. We weren’t directly under attack. It sounded like they were coming from near the lake.
I pulled on my amply furred hat and gathered up my weapons. Vlax was just entering the outer door as I moved to exit it. He was a slender man, always dressed in a full get-up of charcoal grey leather armor with just a red bandana. His eyes were strikingly black and they pierce
d right through you, probably because, if you knew who he was, you knew he was Reading you, even if you had the most intensive of mental blocks prepared. He was a Mercenary Reader, trained at the most elite colleges, but turned out for practicing some of the more delicate nuances of mental control, even on the teachers when their minds were distracted by other matters. He was a sociopath if ever I saw one.
He had cast Bravo Ilisa from Bristola to the ground using telekinesis and straight into a coma for a few days, so we had heard. She was in recovery now. He was worth the price he was having me pay: or he would be if he helped me control Lord Skarde so I could get back my Dukedom.
“Well? What have you learned?"
“Your Readers are still casting a net, but I already know.” Vlax rubbed his face with his grey gloved hands and stared at me a long moment. I huffed out a sigh to get him moving along with what he had to say. “If you are ready, Duke Fenvitz, the moment is now. Skarde the Berserker is here. They are out by the lake. He is here and I am ready to take him down for you.”
I took a step down into the snow. “Good, Vlax. You are ready to battle for his mind?”
Vlax walked down the stairs beyond me and turned to look back. “Why no, Duke Fenvitz. There will be no battle. I will cripple him. I will cripple his mind and then you can do whatever it is you want with him.”
A chill went through me, a chill that was partly suggestive of fear and partly suggestive of eager anticipation for a gift I had long awaited. Vlax’s eyes were so dark, so unforgiving… That was what I needed on my side right now.
I was taking back my Dukedom.
Twenty
Ilisa
I held onto Skarde’s back as he cringed into the snow. I dug my fingers into his fur coat, trying to send calming waves of thought from my far-too erratic emotions into his taut, tense body.
“Put up your mental blocks! Fight against it! The harshness, the pain they are sending you, that is just to get you to break so they can control you! You must put up the mental blocks!”
