At the end of the gazebo stood Ceritha, in her torn turquoise dress, its ethereal fabric whipping in the wind, graceful against her shapely legs, her arms up to the newborn sun, communicating with the ocean animals, Ilisa standing guard, throwing knives arrayed around her like a halo, three other soldiers nearby, all in ready stances, prepared to fend off any attack.
It was a scene fit to immortalize in a painting.
A firefin jumped out of the water and nudged Ceritha’s extended hand. The sensation split through my mind. “They don’t want to fight, but they don’t trust the Prince. He hurts them.”
The firefin’s words broke my heart. The impression was accompanied by images of scientists in white hazmat suits with tranq guns and needles and medical kits as we tried haphazardly to solve the blue flu. Yes, we hadn’t really known what we were doing, which is why we finally reached out to Serpul. Of course these dolgons would be scared – and furious – with me. Ceritha would have a job ahead of her, trying to convince them to trust me. I wondered what the pirates were offering the dolgons to get them to work with them. Vengeance? Were these animals inspired by such a thing?
My Spec Ops units, all in gas masks, were filtering onto the beaches. I had them hold off entering the waters in skiffs, to keep the firefins safe. But they were all skilled telekinetically and could float, at least for a little while, over the ocean waters, if needed.
I walked up behind Ceritha, afraid to break her telepathic connection, but touched her gently in the small of her back. She looked to me, tears in her eyes, and nodded when she saw the gas mask extended. She allowed me to slip it over her face and seal it to her mouth and nose and up over her eyes.
“They are really angry,” she said.
“The dolgons? They should be. I imagine they are the pride we have easiest access to and the one whose breeding and feeding ground has been hit the hardest. We need to help them the most.”
“I am trying to talk to them, but they are just so mad… They want to hurt you. To hurt us…”
“What can we do?”
“I’m not sure…”
“We have to just keep trying. Can the firefins help us?”
“They don’t have much reason to trust us yet, either, and can turn on us, too. The pirates are promising them many things. I don’t know how to reach them. I need help. I need help from all of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I need all of you to join hands with me and send wellness and goodwill to the dolgons and firefins, tell them we trust them, love them, welcome them, need them. That we are good, that we are here to help them. That we will heal them.”
“But, my soldiers don’t know how to telepath to the animals.”
“They are going to have to try. The pirates have been trying for days now, it’s why it is working with the dolgons. It’s more of an impactful force than just me trying. I need all we can muster.”
“Ok, I will tell my soldiers.”
I turned away from Ceritha and looked out to the shore where my men and women were gathered, all armed, all waiting for orders. “Bristola Soldiers, we must bond telepathically and open ourselves to speaking to the firefins. You have all by now come to know that Princess Ceritha of Serpul and I can communicate with the firefins. You must try to talk to the firefins and dolgons here, too, now, otherwise, the dolgons might open their poison on us. They might bolster the strength that the pirates have. We must tell the animals that we love them, that they can trust us to heal them. Give them the impression of love, goodwill, hope, and healing. I know it seems odd. It is never anything we on Farian have done. But, you must believe it possible in order for it to work.” I paused. All the soldiers were looking at me, and then at one another skeptically. “This is an order. On the count of three, everyone focus their Will on the animals in the water. One…two…”
With a huge crack, as if lightning and thunder were splitting the ship in front of us, a flash broke and then Gorgin leapt from the deck and soared into the air, floating up and forward, one arm in a sling, rippling his telekinetic intention outward, blasting everyone on the shore with a dramatic push of his shield, making us all take a wild step backwards to catch our footing. My telepathic call to everyone was broken and I dropped my hand from Ceritha’s back.
"Axis!!" Gorgin roared and flashed through the air toward me, a streaking rush of power, pushing air before him, lasering through the air, dolgons ripping through the water with him, and I instinctively leaped into the air to meet him, floating up to crash into him in his trajectory.
The wind burst from my lungs as he pummeled into me but I smashed his jaw with my fist as he burst by and through me. He was thrown out of his straight flight and angled off wildly but spun to a halt and sped back toward me, a burly, stout man. He began flinging knives at me as he came toward me and I lanced my own his direction, some of mine deflecting his off course, others of mine slipping inside his to barely miss his body as he flicked them away at the last moment with telekinetic power.
One of his narrowly missed my eye, another caught the edge of my shirt by the elbow, another slashed through my pants and nicked my thigh, just barely. All three I caught and spun around to speed back towards him. He had
