I wasn’t sure if he was fully back to his proper self, yet, but this gentle voyage into the mines surely wouldn’t hurt anything, and we were both getting restless. There was only so much time we could spend between working on tele arts and between the sheets.
As enjoyable as both those things were…
Jalasa and Renin paused and were discussing a tunnel that diverted off to the right. She was correct to ask about the defense of that side tunnel. It didn’t lead to anywhere. It was an off-chute for debris when they had been building it. It wasn’t a threat.
Skarde and I walked by them, our hands slipping into each other’s. I looked up at him and smiled, his eyes glinting back that smile I loved in the dim light.
“Think we can find a corner to sneak into?” His grin made my knees weak.
“I’m sure there are one or two down here.”
“It’s hard not to touch you.” As he spoke, he slipped his other hand around and gave my ass a squeeze, glancing behind us to make sure Renin and Jalasa couldn’t see. I giggled and wiggled away, brushing aside his hand.
“I know…”
“Being with you and only you the past three days has been amazing.”
“Yes, but you have a war to tend to now.”
Skarde’s eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips. “At least I have you to fight beside me.”
I squeezed his hand. “You’re lucky to have many strong warriors beside you. You need to trust Damox and Renin. They will be the ones leading our operations against Fenvitz.”
We turned a corner, the tunnel narrowed, and a knife slashed past my face. I shoved Skarde to the side, instinctively moving myself in front of him, just as he fought for the same position in front of me, to protect me, as more knives rained down on us. I flicked them aside with telekinesis, one slicing through my thigh before I could catch it.
“Renin!” I yelled. “Retreat!” I tried to obey my own command to Skarde but something gripped my body and I looked over in horror to Skarde as someone, extremely strong in tele arts, grabbed me, fighting against my own Will to remain in the place where I was, and I was grabbed and flung against the side of the tunnel wall.
I slammed full force into the rock wall, sliding to the ground, breath knocked from me like I had been hit with a tanker truck. I coughed, choking on dust from the ground as it rushed up into my face from the fall. I pushed myself up, trying to gather my breath, my head rocked with lights, blinking rapidly as I tried to focus on the swirl of action before me. Skarde was rushing toward me, but before he reached me, I was jerked backwards, grabbed telekinetically again, my body raising into the air.
I reached out with my Will, fighting against the person grabbing me, demanding that I be let loose, demanding that I be put back on the ground, and I wavered a moment in the air, but kept floating higher and higher.
Skarde was below me, reaching for me, while also whipping his sword in front of him to defend himself from knives flying at his face. He had two sticking from his chest and one from his thigh.
Renin and Jalasa rushed in. Renin reached out with his telepathic skills and tried to pull me back down, but the person who held me flushed me full with his Will. It was a terrifying sensation of violation, feeling the Will of someone else saying that what I wanted more than anything was to crash into the ground, eight feet below me, with the full gale force of a storm.
No… No… I want gentle release… Float back to the ground and be freed…
“You want to crash to the ground and split your head open…”
No!
My Will fought against the foreign invader and Renin tried to help below me, but… The person who held me suspended, floating in the air was too strong, too strong… Nausea overwhelmed me, my eyes misted with tears… I saw Renin tackle Skarde to the ground -- was he protecting him or fighting him?
And, then I crashed to the ground, flying at a speed that sucked my breath from me.
I thrust my arms over my face as the dusty mine floor rushed at me and then I hit the mining rails and everything went dark.
Fourteen
Skarde
They couldn’t very well hold me in a prison, but I was certain they wanted to. There were two guards in Ilisa’s room at all times and it seemed like either Renin or Damox were always within sight, no matter where I went within the castle. Granted, I was only going from the control room, to my quarters, to Ilisa’s bedside; I was not hard for them to track. The lack of trust was starting to trigger my temper.
Jalasa, Nessi, and Corsin stayed close to me. I had not asked them to, but they sensed a battle might be coming. They could sense the mistrust, not only leveled at me, but at any Vailstoran. Their hands were close to their weapons at all times. I was just glad that it had not yet gotten to the point where the Farians had taken away our weapons.
We just needed Ilisa to wake up… Once she did, she could corroborate what happened. She could tell everyone how she had been injured, make sure they knew it hadn’t been my fault, and things would go back to the only minor level of discomfort they had been resonating at before.
And, if she didn’t awake… My heart might just die with her.
Renin had tackled me and Ilisa had fallen from her suspension at the same time. That seemed to make him think I had been the one holding her suspended, the one causing her harm, the one who
