“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
