“No, thank you. I am refreshed by the prospect of this encounter with you, General.” They might know the easiest way to kill a telepath was with poison while he didn’t expect it. “My name is Cartari, Commander of the Bristola Seawards Special Operations Unit on Farian. I’m pleased to meet you.”
“You’ve been through quite a lot since arriving on our planet. I must apologize for the original arrest you endured at the southern precinct. Primitive minds fear your mental skills.”
“You are more sophisticated?”
Blatson smiled. I nearly laughed, hearing the thoughts in his head. He truly believed he was not susceptible to my mental control. He believed that it was only feeble minds that could be controlled. Honestly, I didn’t know all the aspects about mental control and my attempts with Zaya and the guard had been sloppy, at best. However, I knew he would have no well-built guards in his mind. His defenses were already destroyed. His kingdom was already taken. He just was too arrogant to believe that possible.
It was tempting to control him just for that reason, but I wanted to fight him fairly…
“It will take more than your charzbos abilities to defeat me, Commander Cartari.” He took a swig of a glass from off the table. When he looked back at me, his eyes were blazing. “I believe you have an offer for me to consider?”
“Yes, I was tasked to bring you a trade deal from Farian. Our frajili for your calasis. However…”
A door to the left opened and two guards entered, holding a squirming, swearing, furious Zaya in between them. I took an involuntary step toward her. Her eyes swung to me, her mind opening.
“I’m sorry, Cartari… They were too fast for me to escape from…”
I ground my teeth together, but otherwise made sure I kept my cool, resettling where I was standing. “It’s okay, Zaya… Everything will be fine. You are my Destin. Just be calm and wait for my instructions.”
Zaya nodded and jerked her arms away from the guards, hugging herself as the guards prodded her forward toward Blatson.
“Zaya, my darling,” Blatson moved to her and curled one of the dark tendrils of her hair in his fist. He pulled on it a little too sharply, making her wince. “I’m so happy to have you back.”
She jerked her head away from him and looked at the ground. Blatson touched her arm, her shoulder, her cheek, and I was quivering with anger, fear, jealousy to such an extent that I had never felt before. My stomach was twisted, heat flowing into my temples, my eyes bursting from their sockets. My fists were clenching and unclenching and I was ready to rip him away from her. I took a step nearer, the guards reacting immediately, putting their swords up again, when Ilisa’s calming voice re-centered me, making me focus on her telepathic communication.
“Cartari… We have entered the compound. We are using mental misdirection to send soldiers to their barracks at this time.”
I stepped back to where I had been standing and sent a cooling breath through my chest. Stick to the plan… “We are in the main building, it has red banners hanging from it, at the center of the compound.”
“We will be there shortly.” Ilisa and the other Farians would be here soon and they would hold off the other Vailstorans while Blatson and I battled. And then I would kill him.
Blatson frowned at Zaya as she shuddered away from him. He turned back to me. “You were saying, Commander? You came to offer me a deal, however…”
“Yes, I was going to say, however, things have changed.”
Blatson pulled a knife from his waist and played with the blade, running it up and down his fingers, his silence was supposed to be intimidating, but I listened to his thoughts as he warred back and forth between throwing it at me, stabbing Zaya, and laughing and re-sheathing it. He had had too many plans for how to handle my arrival, and he couldn’t decide. It was going to be his failure.
All I knew was that if he made even the slightest violent decision toward Zaya, I would rip out his throat.
“Lady Zaya is my property, Commander. Did she explain this to you?”
“We don’t own other people on Farian, but I am familiar with the primitive concept of slavery.” I threw his word back at him and his blood boiled. He clenched the blade in his fist and dropped it to his side. Then his face softened and he placed the knife back in its sheath. He leaned back against the table again. I was a bit impressed as he thrust aside the anger in his mind and continued with his plan. It was amusing to me; he thought I was a mouse and he was the cat, playing with its prey. He had no idea…
“Why has this trade deal you came to offer me changed?”
“We have found another party who will better suit Farian’s desires? We also feel this change of leadership will be better for Vailstor.”
His dark eyes flashed, but he smiled in a way that bared his teeth, like fangs. “You have the audacity to make a decision for an entire planet?”
“It has not been hard to discover that most of your planet speaks out against you, already. General Truloy is a better fit for us.”
Blatson laughed, a true hearty laugh. He thumped his fist on the table. “You are fools. Truloy will never be the strong leader that I am. She will never move to unseat me.”
“She is on her way here already. We are charged to depose you before she arrives, to place her in command, and place any dissenting soldiers in prison to be dealt with by military tribunal.”
“We are
