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
