Five
Skarde
They had killed two of the guards, but it was clear one of the attackers had had a key. The door to the armory had been opened without any type of force. The inside was a wreck; they had swept through and cleaned it out as quickly as possible, grabbing all they could, as quickly as they could. There must have been four or five of them. They had managed to take a goodly amount of our weaponry. They were gone by the time we got there, which was a good thing, because I was ready to have their heads… And I would have someone’s…
I needed to make a statement.
I needed to find someone culpable. I needed to send a message. It was a concern that there was clearly such dissent from Fenvitz’s side, and a well organized rebellion fomenting in support of his disenfranchised reign. Especially since Kajo was supposed to be an all-powerful, unquestionable King… I wondered what type of battle I might be facing with Fenvitz and his rising army… I licked my lips and clenched my fists. The knives at my waists and the sword I had grabbed from the training ring felt more heavy against my skin... It had been awhile since the last war on Vailstor…
“Where are they now?” I turned to Ilisa. I pointed to my temple. Surely, they had some way of mental tracking. “Can’t you tap into one of them and tell what they are seeing or thinking?”
The Bravo shook her gorgeous, round face and studied the wreckage of the vast room. She brought her sparking eyes back to mine. “Not without knowing who one of them is. We would need to enlist one of our mental trackers, too. I don’t have that skill. We need to alert King Kajo that Fenvitz has moved against you, assuming that’s who this is from, of course, we can’t leap to conclusions--”
I pointed my finger at a fresh paint mark on the wall, the brand of the former Duke’s military. She looked from it to me and shrugged.
“All right, then. Let’s tell the King before the feast tonight. We are having the meeting tomorrow morning to address the pending threat and a strategy for dealing with Fenvitz in the morning. I am surprised he moved against you so aggressively this soon, especially with King Kajo in the castle…”
I rubbed my chin and heaved a sigh, the fire burning within my chest threatening to explode as a fist against one of the walls. I flexed my fist to deny its explosion and took another deep breath. I hadn’t wanted to come here in the first place… Truloy was trusting me. Well, if Fenvitz wanted to play a game… Then a game I would play. And I would win. I was good at games. I would crush him.
“How soon can a mental tracker arrive? And how soon can my mental training start? I want to learn how to track them myself.”
I was confused by the look on Ilisa’s face. Her brow furrowed, seemed frustrated, daunted, dismissive, all at the same time. As if facing a trial that was exhaustive without even knowing the full mission, yet.
“What?” I demanded. I wanted to roar at her, smash the wall apart, because I could tell from that look that she had been reading my mind. How dare she invade me! How dare any of them! Just because I wasn’t born with this charzbos, this barbarian craftiness of violating someone’s innermost space… They had no right!
“It isn’t that easy. It isn’t just learning two plus two. You don’t have the skill. You weren’t born with the mental talent. Your species, your people… You don’t have tele arts. We can’t just magically gift them to you.”
“How does Zaya have them? How does the Queen?” I glared at her. Get out of my mind! “Surely you’re not saying I can’t also learn.”
Ilisa sighed.
“It means I have to mentally control you. I have to have control over your mind. You have to be entirely vulnerable to me. You chose me. That’s what that means. But I will control you.”
I stared at her. My fists flexed at my side. I gulped. I looked at the weapons on the wall, haphazardly strewn about on the floor, those that hadn’t been carried off by the men who had raided my castle, my dukedom, my reign. The symbols of things that were mine… Within my control… My jaw set hard and I stepped in close to her.
“You mean, you will enter my mind, with your charzbos arts, and take control of me? I won’t be able to have any say over what I am doing, saying, thinking?”
“That’s right.” She stared up at me, unflinching, a head shorter than me, blue flecks in her brown eyes steady, unshaking. I breathed in and out, harsh, my heart racing. No, that couldn’t be true. There was no way I could let this woman who looked so down on me control my mind. Granted, I wanted to control her and conquer her, I wanted to see her match me in every way possible, there was no doubt I had been attracted to her, seeing her fighting in that training ring… and I desired to feel her body against mine… But… the thought of having her in my mind… Prowling around and controlling it… Without my say…
I huffed, turned my head, and spit on the ground.
That was a price I couldn’t pay.
Even if it meant I couldn’t track the Duke myself.
I would just have to trust the Farians to track him.
There had to be another way.
I moved away from her and began picking up the weapons, rearranging the armory. I sensed her eyes on me. I sensed the other Bristolans watching us as they also picked up the fallen weapons. I tried
