Mind Strike Read Online Free Page B

surprise, as was the sudden discharge of mental energy that pushed the Avatar away from her.
    Skiria floated back and flipped end over end while the councilwoman ran to her grandfather. To Skiria’s shock two of her own guards grabbed her and swam with her, deep into the city.
    When they pulled up in a dark hallway, she heard one whisper in her thoughts, You are under arrest for attacking our Avatar. I hope for your sake that he recovers.
    What? I didn’t…
    It doesn’t matter if you meant to; you injured our Avatar. That carries a death sentence.
    She looked frantically from one to the other as they stuffed her into a cell and sealed it as they exited. Tyvor was nowhere to be seen.
    Skiria looked around at the smooth walls, and her knees buckled when the water left the sealed cell. The suit didn’t drop her shield when the water departed, so she guessed that the pressure was still intense. Unsure of what else to do, she sat in the corner of the cell, pulled her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and tried to find out what was going on with as much range as she could muster.
    The results were not good.
     
    Twelve hours of waiting confirmed that the Avatar was dead as far as the citizens were concerned. The immediate response was to provide a formal Avatar burial and that meant that Skiria’s sentence was going to be carried out at the same time.
    The guards that came for her didn’t speak. They weren’t from her original contingent, and they were bristling with fury at having to touch a murderer.
    To her surprise, they hauled her toward the surface where a large structure was floating in shadow. The guards sped up as they approached the surface, and they pulled her out of the water and through the air to land on the flat barge with the bier in the centre. The manacles at the edge of the bier didn’t bode well, nor did the careful application of a thick oil into a trench on the sides of the barge.
    With no ceremony, Skiria was cuffed in place at the feet of the Avatar.
    The councilwoman came out of the sea with a smooth motion. She cleared her gills and hissed, “Skiria Linz, you have killed a good and true man, and in return, you will watch his body burn while your own death is assured under the sun. Make peace with your gods; you are about to meet them.”
    The woman turned to jump, and Skiria asked, “Where is Tyvor?”
    The councilwoman’s shoulders tensed. “You have contaminated him with your presence. He is being restrained until after your sentence has been carried out.”
    Skiria read the truth in the woman’s mind and curled her hands into fists while the small splashes told her she was now alone.
    Breathing in, the oil filled the air. All that she needed was an ignition source and she would be on fire.
    The Avatar was moving slightly as the barge rocked. There was no colour in his face aside from the standard blue and green with cream accents. Skiria felt the heat of the new sun on her back, and she looked around to see the heat waves rising from the oil in the two troughs. Apparently, it had a low ignition point.
    Skiria breathed in and out with as much calm as she could muster. Sure, she could have lashed out in panic, she could have screamed and fought with the guards, she could even have knocked them out and tried to swim away, but then, where would she be? On a world where she was wanted for murder with no way of getting to safety, that is where she would be.
    She flinched when the flames shot up but faced the man that Resicor had set a trap for. She had been the means by which the Avatar had been killed, and she would take the doom that awaited her. It wasn’t a great plan, but it had dignity.
    “Really? Dignity? Hmm. I thought a woman with your hair would put up more of a fight, but then, Resicor said you would do what she asked of you, and I didn’t believe that either. I am wrong a lot.”
    Skiria watched in shock as the Avatar sat up and doused the flames with a wave of his