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Chapter Twenty-Three
Melisandre
In the past, I’d seen the red spark of dragon fire in his eyes when he looked at me. Simmering just below the surface, waiting to emerge. Even when he took me to bed.
This time, I saw only tenderness and love.
I took his hand. Trusted the man to rule his beast. We flew away into the night. Away from the mountain, away from its fiery embrace. The lure of the dark lord was gone from this place. But I knew now my struggle to defeat the forces of evil had just begun. Four elements remained. Four more battles to wage. And if the Oracle’s prophecy rang true, as each source was taken away, the remaining powers would become stronger.
We flew back to the fortress. I caught sight of the golden dome, bathed in the first rays of dawn. Instead of the dread I’d felt when I first came to this place, I was filled with a sense of peace. In the fortress, built deep within the womb of Mt. Jarazal, I’d be safe.
My dragon steed alighted on the terrace atop the steps of the temple, as he’d done in the past. I went inside to wait for him to shift back into human form. Though he said it grew less difficult each time, I knew the process was still painful, and I couldn’t bear to watch.
Something was different. I didn’t realize at first what it was until I drew near the dais. The throne was gone. In its place stood a stone altar. Two objects lay on it, side by side.
I moved closer. Ventured up the steps of the dais for the first time. Around me, I fancied I heard echoes of the chant the Oracle had sung the night she revealed the Prophecy.
I picked up the object nearest me. It was a diamond, the largest I’d ever seen, fashioned with an intricate multi-faceted design. When I lifted it from the table, the facets caught the light streaming in from the opening in the dome above. Glittering rays danced around the room, and for the first time I saw symbols carved in a relief running at the top of the walls. The same figures repeated over and over. A stylized dragon, breathing fire. A wave cresting. A spiral that seemed to whirl as I watched, like a tornado. A winged upright figure. But it was the last that drew my eye. A chunk of rough, dark rock, protruding from the wall, with a diamond at its center, as big as the one in my hand.
It caught the sparkle of light from the one I held, sent it shooting around the room. Picking up the reflection, sending it from wall to wall until the entire ceiling was filled with dazzling rays of sun, illuminating the golden dome.
I gasped. Every rock in the frieze held a huge diamond within it.
Power so great it can turn a lump of coal into a priceless jewel. The power of the earth.The second source the Lord of Darkness seeks.
I heard the voice of the Oracle so clearly, I whirled around, certain she was somewhere in the shadows. But the temple was empty.
I put the diamond down, and the sparkling rays disappeared.
The second item was a scroll, so old and fragile it crumbled in my hands as I unrolled it. But not before I read the words inscribed there.
Fate whispers to the warrior,
“You cannot defeat the storm.”
The warrior whispers back,
“I am the storm.”
I heard footsteps and turned around with a smile. But it wasn’t Drayke coming toward me.
The stranger looked like a character stepped from the pages of an epic tale. Broad chest, bare and glistening with a fine sheen of sweat. A dark half-tunic slung around his narrow hips, sandals held on by thick leather thongs that crisscrossed up his calves. He had a long blue cloak over his shoulders, and gold cuffs as wide as the palm of his hand circled his thick wrists. A huge sword hung from the belt around his waist, and I saw the hilt of a dagger protruding on his other side.
He stood head and shoulders above the average man in our kingdom. A rough stubble couldn’t hide the square jawline and chiseled planes of his face. The faint line of a scar on one cheek didn’t detract from his looks but rather added a dash of bravado, though he cut such an imposing figure, he didn’t need it. He had a high forehead and thick, dark hair down to his shoulders.
As he drew nearer, I saw a medallion around his neck. A metal disc on a silver chain, surrounding a hunk of black rock with a glittering diamond in its center, as big as the one I’d held in my hand moments ago.
He came up the steps to where I stood, towering above me. Took a knee but didn’t incline his head. Instead, his deep blue eyes looked straight at me, unfazed by my royal title. I knew instantly this man bowed to no one.
His gaze traveled up and down my body, lingering on my breasts, before returning to my face. I glanced down and realized my nipples were visible under the thin white shirt I wore, standing out in hard little peaks from the cold wind hitting me when I rode on the dragon’s back.
He raised one eyebrow and gave me a wicked smile. In the past, my virginal self would have called his behavior arrogant. Insolent. Now, after experiencing Drayke’s passionate lovemaking, I saw it as dominant. And the wanton wench my dragon lord had awakened inside me responded with a shiver of raw lust.
“Forgive my appearance, my queen. My journey was arduous.”
I didn’t recognize his voice, or his face. But I knew those deep blue eyes. I’d seen them before. Here in this very temple. They were the eyes of a shadowy figure the Oracle showed me that night. The eyes of the warrior.
The One the Goddess decreed would join me in my mission – and in my bed.
