Shield's Lady

blade.
    Instinctively he fought the slamming force of the light inside his head the same way he had fought it before. But this time he had no prisma to use as a focus tool.
    Somehow he caught his mental balance and blocked the paralyzing rays before they could rip his mind to shreds. His whole body vibrated with the energy it was taking to adjust to the strange battle. He didn’t know how he was managing the defense without his prisma lock, but he didn’t question it. Gryph simply held on.
    He opened his eyes and saw Targyn braced a short distance away. The other man’s eyes widened and his grin broadened.
    “This,” Targyn said, “is going to be interesting.”
    Gryph’s only consolation was that Targyn apparently had to exert as much physical energy in focusing the mind blast as Gryph was using to block it. At least the rogue Shield couldn’t cut him to pieces with a blade while holding him pinned with the invisible light rays.
    But Gryph knew he couldn’t hold out for long. Already Targyn’s mental weapon seemed to be gathering energy and strengthening itself. Targyn’s fingers played on the prisma lock as if the man were searching for just the right wavelength.
    Gryph closed his eyes, satisfied that his enemy was as physically immobilized as he was. For all the good that did. Then he started concentrating on feeling his way back along the wavelengths of painfully brilliant light that were trying to shatter him.
    He had thought about this a lot during the past few hours. He’d had little else to do but think about it while locked in the prison chamber.
    His only hope lay in the suspicion that projecting the kind of mind violence Targyn was projecting couldn’t be too dissimilar from projecting thoughts and images. The mechanics of the thing had to be the same, Gryph had reasoned. And he’d had plenty of experience lately projecting images into Sariana’s head.
    He concentrated the way he would if he had his lock under his fingers. The pulsing rays of light separated under his mental touch, just as they would if he were tracking prisma. Gryph found the ones he wanted and started the task of countering their rhythm, feeding the pattern back upon itself and projecting it.
    The first indication he had of any success was when Targyn screamed in rage.
    “You bastard! Do you think you can play this game? I’ll show you how weak you are.”
    Gryph sensed the redoubling effort Targyn was making and he moved to counter it before the new blast could strike.
    The battle was fought in an agonizing silence, the blood of the dead bandits trickling between Gryph’s bare feet as he stood braced in the corridor.
    Targyn screamed again, rage and hatred flaring out along the invisible beam of mental light.
    Gryph caught the rage and hatred and sent it pulsing back along with the full force of the beam.
    Targyn’s control faltered for a moment. It resumed almost immediately, but Gryph had sensed the growing weakness in his opponent. He sent an image of that weakness back along with everything else he was trying to project.
    Without any warning Targyn broke. The blast of mental light wavered and disappeared. Gryph was so overwhelmed by the sudden loss of a target that he staggered and slipped in the blood of one of the bandits.
    He went down on one knee just as Targyn threw himself forward, knife in hand.
    “I’ll kill you anyway!” Targyn screamed. “You can’t stop me. I’m stronger than you are. Stronger than any other Shield!”
    Gryph scooped up the knife lying on the floor beside the fallen bandit. He brought the blade up in a short arc that ended in Targyn’s chest.
    Targyn collapsed across the body of the bandit he had killed earlier, his blood mingling with his victim’s.
    Gryph crouched warily beside him. A dying Shield was not an unarmed Shield.
    “Targyn?”
    Targyn’s eyes opened, revealing a gaze that was already glazing over. He smiled grimly. “Too late, Chassyn. You’re too damn late. It’s already started.”
    “What’s already started?”
    “The reaction. Without me to control it, every weapon on the ship will detonate. It’s going to take a big chunk out of this continent, Chassyn. There’s enough power in those weapons to reach all the way to Little Chance. Maybe farther.”
    “How do I stop it?” Gryph demanded savagely.
    “You’re stronger than I thought, Chassyn. Maybe, just maybe, you could have done something if you had your lock or the aid of another Shield. But you