by Bailey Dark
“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!”
Skarde’s body quivered and shook. He beat his fists against the snow, making a dense impact in its white fluff. He shook his head, his dark curls flying, and blood droplets spewed from his nose, spraying a light mist of red into the sparkling white. I pulled Skarde back onto his heels and looked him square in the face as I sank to my knees in front of him. It stilled my heart to see tears streaking down his face that he couldn’t seem to control. Tears and sweat mingled with the blood streaming from his nose. He braced himself against the ground, knees wide, wrapping his arms around his body, his gloved fingers gripping himself tightly. His eyes were glazed back in his head and he was breathing heavily. He seemed to be fighting against grabbing for his blaster.
I tried to reach into his mind but he thrust me out, such a pure feeling of rejection impaling me so that I felt punched in the gut, even though he hadn’t touched me. I caught my breath and breathed in deeply, calming the rage that threatened to make me want to demand why he thought he could thrust me out like that: it had to be because he thought he was protecting me.
“Must not kill… Must not fight… Must not hurt…” He grunted out the words.
I placed my hands on his tear-wettened cheeks. His face was fiery hot. His eyes wavered in his face, finally focusing on me.
“Skarde, reach out to me. Work against them. Work with me. Focus on me. I’m your Destin. Work with me. We can fight them. Don’t listen to whatever they are saying.”
“They… Tell me… Want me… Fight… Kill… Everyone….” Skarde’s voice was strained, guttural, harsh. His breathing was ragged. I leaned in and kissed him deeply. His breathing broke and he tried to push me off for a moment, then sank into the kiss. I grabbed onto his mind as his scattered, frantic mentality cleared and his mind melded with mine again, his hands grabbing me instead, and then I could feel what he was fighting, what he had been hiding from me: the full force of Fenvitz’s Readers and their mental war against him.
They were waging their strength and wits in a full attack on him to get him to stand up and wield his blaster, or the blaster cannons, or his swords, whatever he had near him, and slay us, anyone near him and on our side, and mow them down where they stood. And, instead, Skarde was on his knees, defending us in the only way he could: with inaction and blood and sweat and tears.
The flurry of the Readers in our mind was a hot mess of overwhelming messages, a slew of voices raining down on our mind and demanding we obey them, a train wreck of hosannas and thunder cracks, each one rising above the other, drowning each other out, then whispering, insidious and threatening. I squeezed Skarde’s cheeks and then moved my hands down to his and held him tightly.
Skarde ripped one hand from mine and grabbed his sword. He pulled it from its sheath and held it steady above his head, not threateningly toward me, not toward anyone, just out, broad, glinting in the new dawn’s light like a sliver of the frozen lake brandished above his head.
“Yes… Slash down and through her… Finish her… Destroy her… Rid yourself of your ties to this world to which you don’t belong, Skarde…”
The voice I could hear in Skarde’s mind was such a familiar power. It was the same power that had held me aloft in the mines. The power that had bashed me down into the railway tracks. A cold shiver ran through me. If that telekinetic Reader was here, commanding Fenvitz’s legion to control Skarde’s mind, then, this was a true battle…
The sword stayed steady above Skarde’s head and I could feel Skarde’s mind battling against the unknown man’s Will, pushing back, inch by inch, forcing it out of his mind, out of my mind, grabbing onto our power, our Destin love. Believing in it, trusting it. I slid my hand up his arm, feeling the tension in his bicep, his forearm, his hand, the strength of his hand around the hilt of the sword, and I gripped his hand against the handle.
“Believe in our Destin connection, Skarde! Throw them out of our mind! Ready, set, now!”
As I said the last word, I lunged to my feet and Skarde came with me. We flung our hands up in the air with a masterful display of telekinetic and pathic desire, the golden colors of our Destin connection rippling on our faces and hands displayed for all to see and the connection delivered a blow to the Readers in the mental sway far away in the village of the Kall, blasting them out of our minds and forcing their retreat.
The golden ripples flew from our skin and skittered up into the air, lasering through the trees above and wrapping into the snow broad branches, making glitter fall onto our shoulders as Skarde grabbed me and held me tightly, brandishing the sword up into the air, and then settling it back down, sheathing it away.
He smiled at me and then tapped his head.
“My mind feels clearer now than before. I’m ready.”
“Good, because there stands Fenvitz.” I pointed down the lane and it was true. There was the disenfranchised Duke with his second-in-command and a man clad all in grey armor who sent a shiver down my spine because I recognized his aura. He had just been in my head, and not only that, he had been the one to hold me suspended in the mine… He had been the one to command me so effortlessly to cast myself to the railway tracks. He was powerful… He could play with my mind so easily…
I stepped toward him and clenched my fists, jutting out my chin and spitting into the snow between us. Skarde and I had just beaten him out of our mind and he was not getting back in.
Besides, I had an idea that Skarde was now taking this battle to the swords… He would display his telekinetic power, and I would help him defend himself from this telepathic wizard… But, this man wasn’t going to break into our minds again.
Even if I had to kill him to prevent it.
Twenty-One
Skarde
“Duke Fenvitz.” I was glad the word was wrenched steadier from my gut than I thought was possible as I pulled myself from my knees in the snow. Ilisa didn’t put her hands on me, but I felt the calming force of her telekinetic push as she propped me up so that I could regain my footing against the Reader assailants who had just been launched from my brain. They were gone, they were truly gone, thrown free from our consciousnesses by the force of our Will as Destins, but the emptiness they had left was a vast void we were having to step over and fill with our own Will, and it was a feeling of vertigo that left me a bit teetering on the edge. Ilisa’s hidden telekinetic hands on my back were welcome.
I was so glad they hadn’t been able to mentally control me. That had been a true concern. Now that it was clear it wasn’t going to be possible, I could admit the relief I felt. It had been close… Too close… But I wasn’t meant to be controlled…
I took a deep breath and wiped the blood that had streamed from my nose and down my lips onto my sleeve, grimacing a little at the stain it would make on the fur coat. This was one of my favorites.
“You still call me Duke, yet you’ve unseated me, Berserker. You’re sitting on my throne.” Fenvitz had three men with him and they spanned out in the snow lane, matching the threat of the Spec Ops forces we had with us, hands at the ready for their weapons, not threatening a fight, yet, but ready for one.
“It’s an agreement between your King and my General,” I responded to Fenvitz, who snorted and rolled his eyes. “It is the way of our trade deal. It is prosperous for both our planets. It is temporary, as I understand it. It would do you well to back down, stop this rioting, and regain peace in the land. I want only good for your people.”
Fenvitz scoffed and tossed a knife toward my feet. Damox near me raised his blaster toward the fallen Duke’s face but I held up my hand.
“Fenvitz, I ask you one more time. As you can see, we have frozen your lake. The Kall will be cut off from its one lifeline: the only water that it has access to. The people will be starved of water. Now, I alone know the method to unfreeze it and give them back t
heir waters, but will only do so if you choose to back down, vow allegiance, or at least peace, with me for the time being. Let the people of the Kall have their village back. Come into my courts. Be an advisor. Come back to Harthen, in peace with me.”
Fenvitz glared at me. Behind him, people from the Kall, miners, farmers, lumberjacks, humble people whom he had taken control of, fanned out and stared at their splintered, solid lake. Fenvitz could certainly feel their glares upon him as he glared upon me. The man in grey leather at his left bore his beady eyes on me and tried to get back into my head, but I pushed his little prying mental attacks away easily. I had the feeling that he was the one that had hurt Ilisa and I tried to keep my blood from boiling over. I was more angered by him than by the instant threat of Fenvitz: I wanted to slay the one who had tried to take my Destin from me.
“You think I care about the Kall?” Fenvitz puffed up his chest, his beard quivering, his face growing red, his fists clenching and unclenching at his side. “You think I care at all about the people of Harthen?” The words were bitten off at the ends, like he was so angry that he had to speak them at all that they were disdainful in his mouth. “I just want my throne back, Berserker. You are a disgrace. An off-worlder, at my place, eating at my table, sleeping in my bed, standing where I have stood, walking where I have walked. I earned that Dukedom. With great toil. I earned it. I deserve it. It’s mine, has been mine for so long. And Kajo, the Beast King, just gave it to you. What have you ever earned?”
Ilisa stepped forward, ready to defend me, but I placed my hand on her shoulder.
“I see now that you never deserved your Dukedom, Fenvitz.” I didn’t have to feign the sadness in my voice. His entitlement made me think of the duty I owed to my people of Astrida back on Vailstor, of all that I owed them and how much I valued and loved them. How much I missed them… How long would it be before I was back home on my own planet? I stepped toward him as I spoke. “You don’t just earn it from your King, you earn it from your people. They are the ones who determine you are worthy to lead, and they are the ones who determine you’re worthy to keep it.”
Fenvitz looked angry enough that I thought he was going to jump at me. I was just a step or two away from him now. He started to reach toward his sword. It was the action I was hoping he would take. As he began to draw, I reached for my own blade. A mist of snow started to fall. The sun was blistering high above us, cresting over the snow-dotted treetops. Our eyes were locked, a rim of red sparking around his pupils as temperature flared heatedly in his temples.
“Down with Fenvitz!”
We were shaken from our stare as the cry rang out from the watching Kall townsfolk.
Fenvitz looked behind him. The miners from the Kall had gathered closer, an encroaching mob around us. The miners held up their weaponry, the sunshine glinting off the pikes and axes and knives. Fenvitz drew his sword and at the same time flung up two daggers, firing them telekinetically at the nearest miners. Damox thrust them away from the miner just in time, using his own tele skill. Then Fenvitz had his sword drawn and I was stepping in to clash my blade against his.
“I gave you a chance to step down, Fenvitz. I guess now, we duel.” I leaned in and smirked at him, then pushed off his sword to levy him off balance, swiping my foot behind his ankle to hook him, throwing him backwards and pummeling him full into the snow. HIs sword flew backwards, unleashed from his unsteady hand, long unused to battle in his cushioned throne and he fell into the snow on his ass. He clambered surprisingly quickly to all fours and crawled to his sword in the snowbank. I followed him as all hell broke out along the lake’s rim, blasters screeching, knives whizzing through the air, swords clashing. More of Fenvitz’s loyal men had come running from their barracks and were armed against our Spec Ops soldiers as they dropped from the trees above and as the Kall men and women fought to regain their village.
Ilisa was beside me, her telekinetics defending me in ways that I could only dream to someday be proficient in. I wasn’t sure if all the shots that came out were purposefully levied toward us, but certainly the grey armored man was intentionally seeking us out. He was clashing with Damox, but every moment he could, he sent something raining upon us. Ilisa sent a tree branch skittering away out onto the frozen ice of the lake as he wrenched it from its home in the sky above. She redirected a blaster’s cannon blow as it lasered toward us. She deflected a blade as it rose up from the ground where it had landed from someone else’s throw and streaked toward us. She was watching all sides as I watched Fentvitz retrieve his sword and swing it at me.
I held my sword before me with my well-trained technique, but I was determined to beat him on his terms: with telekinetics.
So, as he swung, I flashed it aside with a quick brush of air. His blade jerked away, down, and nearly sliced through his own leg. He stared at me as he pulled his leg away with a quick spring step.
“You’ve learned!”
“Indeed.” I grinned.
“That makes your place on my throne even more a disgrace. You don’t deserve to learn the tele arts.”
“You’re wrong, Fenvitz. The tele arts aren’t yours alone. Ilisa of the Bristola Special Operations Unit is my Destin. I am, therefore, gifted some of Farian’s skills. You can’t fight it. Kajo chose me. And I chose her. I belong here.”
Our swords clashed as they rang out and Fenvitz spit in my face but I froze the spit in midair with my tele skills, instead spinning it on him to deflect back so it splattered into his eyes. He spluttered and backed away, swiping it. Enraged, as he cleared the spit away, he swung at me wildly, losing control, and I easily defended his blows. I could no longer tele determine which way his sword would go, I found his blocks were too enhanced again. My Will couldn’t fight his. Which made sense. He had many more years of training.
He swung his sword wildly over his head and brought it down full force and I brought both my hands up and pulsed a telekinetic surge of ice and snow and fury at him that thrust him backward a few feet so he went flying back into a tree, losing his breath and his footing to collapse at its roots, shaking his head and sitting still for a moment, just looking at me. He swiped at his sweaty brow and lumbered slowly to his feet.
The fight all around me was continuing full force. There were a few people still in the snow, blood painting a riot of color on the world around them. Screams echoed from our group across the lake; Fenvitz’s men had found our troops there, as well.
I preferred to just cut the Duke down with my sword, but I knew it was important for me to show all the Farians that I could fight also with their skills. And there were moments like that, when I thought that I could overpower him telekinetically. Perhaps, with my Destin’s Will, together we could defeat him entirely…
I looked over at Ilisa and was just in time to see her fling her hands up to stop the grey armored man from propelling her into the air again, like in the mines. His command made her fly back a few feet in the snow, digging her in deeply, burrowing her feet a few feet in the bank as her Will fought against his command to fly up and completely counteracted and over-compensated.
“Vlax!” Fenvitz called out and the man looked over at where Fenvitz and I fought. Ilisa brought her hands down as the man’s Will dropped to obey the Duke’s commanding tone. “Help me defeat them!”
Vlax walked to Fenvitz and helped straighten him from the snow. The two men squared their shoulders toward us, rolling their swords in their hands, licking their lips, ready for the next strike. Ilisa stepped up beside me.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“They can’t control your mind, you’re too strong. They can’t beat you with a sword. They can’t beat us together. I don’t know what they’re thinking-"
The blaster cannon suddenly screeched through the air making us all cringe and stare toward its sound from behind us. I grabbed Ilisa and dove to the side as its pure purple ray leveled toward us. It knifed through the air and split through Fenvitz, sizzling his body into space dust, the
immediate smell of burning flesh obscene and offensive, just as Vlax pulsed a space of telekinetic warp bubble around the blaster’s ray so that he could fit through without the hostile pulse touching his body.
The cannon stopped its screeching and everybody stared at Fenvitz’s seething boots.
Vlax’s chest was heaving with the intense effort it had taken to move aside the blaster’s trajectory. He stared at me. He held up his hands.
“I give up. My loyalty was bought and paid for by Fenvitz, who is no more. I have no quarrel with you, Duke Skarde. I plead fealty to you and all of Harthen. I will pay for my part in the pain caused to Bravo Ilisa, or, preferably, work off the debt with the unique services I might render.”
I cleared my throat and looked at the rest of Fenvitz’s men. They were all staring from his smoking boots, all that was left of him, to where Damox stood behind the blaster cannon’s firing harness, the apparatus still smoking from its short burst. While I didn’t quite approve of the way the fight had ended, I was grateful we didn’t have to keep fighting a needless fight against Fenvitz.
I looked at Ilisa and realized she had her left hard pressed to her side. I turned her to me. Her left side was bloody! She had been struck by a knife during the fight!
“Renin! Where is your troop’s medic! Ilisa needs tending!” I yelled. “Ilisa, get a bandage. Now.”
I turned her to Renin and his medic, then pulled her back to me, squeezing her in tightly to embrace her lips to mine with a fierce kiss. I breathed in her lips and then released her to her Farian friends. She let go of my hand with a squeeze as she was escorted away and then I turned back to Commander Damox. The last of Fenvitz’s men had their hands tethered. There were a few men and women from the Kall that had also been injured, but as far as I could tell, there were only three actual casualties, including Fenvitz. That was a lot better than it could have been.
“All hail Duke Skarde!” Damox shouted as he stepped down from behind the blaster cannon, raising his fist in the air. There was a pause as everyone looked toward me. Then nods went all around. Fists raised in the air. Snowflakes gleamed as they fell onto the splintered, frozen ice. I caught Ilisa’s beaming smile as she raised her fist, too, and shouted with the others.
