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She patted the stone step, and I sat down beside her and told her the story of my first meeting with the oracle. About sharing with her my goal to be the greatest warrior the kingdom had ever known. I described my trial in the desert. How exhaustion and thirst brought me to my knees. How I struggled on for two days and nights, only to collapse at the foot of the cliff, ready to give up.
“But you didn’t,” she said. “I know that, or you wouldn’t be here right now.”
I nodded and went on. “When I finally made it to the top of the cliff, I found myself on a wide plateau. I saw the temple – this temple – in the distance. At least Ithinkit was this temple.” I looked around and shook my head. “I’m still not sure how the old witch pulls off her tricks. She was waiting for me inside. I told her she’d nearly killed me. She ignored my outburst and asked me what I’d learned. I was so angry I wanted to grab her by her skinny neck and throttle her. Instead I spat out that I learned not to drink all my water the first day.”
I shook my head. “The bitch laughed. ‘So you learned to conserve your resources,’ she said. She asked what else I’d learned. I thought about it and realized my time in the desert taught me I could summon strength to go on from reserves I never knew I had.”
“Those are good lessons,” Meli said. “But that’s not what earned you the title of warrior of the Seven Stars. You were just a boy back then, alone and scared. Cold. Hungry. Exhausted and in pain – yet through it all you kept on going. Why?”
I smiled. “Now you sound like the oracle. She taught me through her questions, made me look inside myself for the answers. At that moment I hated her, but I realized it wasn’t hate that kept me going through the whole ordeal. Great warriors do not go to war because we hate. We do it out of love.Thatis the secret, Meli. To be a great warrior, you must love something – or someone – more than you love yourself.”
Chapter Ten
Melisandre
That’s when I fell hopelessly in love with Magnus.
I’d met the dominating lover who took me to dark depths of passion, the fierce warrior who masked his fears with gallows humor. But in that moment he opened his heart to me. Gave me the gift of his vulnerability.
I confess, until then I’d thought him reckless and foolhardy. Every time he went into battle, he faced death. I thought it was out of a need to hold onto the title of which he was so boastful. But now I knew he was willing to risk it all, lay down his life, out of love.
I wasn’t egotistical enough to think it was love for me. After all, we barely knew each other. A few wild fucks, a couple – more than a couple if I was being honest – of mind-blowing orgasms didn’t equate to love. It just meant our bodies were compatible when it came to giving and receiving sexual pleasure.
Magnus was bigger than that. He loved our world - the World of the Seven Stars. I could see it now.
During my time at the fortress alone with Drayke, we too spent much of our time in battle training. But it was a different kind of training. He worked with me as I learned to summon the power of the Seven Stars at will.
“Everything is connected by energy,” he’d explained, “flowing through the Universe like a river. Humans, animals, plants and trees. Wind and water. The mountains have energy pouring through them.”
Drayke picked up a small rock and held it in his palm. “See this pebble? You are connected to it through the flow. Now close your eyes. Breathe in and out. Step into the river. Drink from it. Do not think. Just feel. Feel it filling you until you become the energy.”
I emptied my mind, concentrated on my breathing. My body tingled all over, and I felt a rush thrumming through my veins.
“Put out your hand. Palm up.”
His voice was commanding. I’d been trained to obey it in the throes of passion, and that training carried through. I stretched out a hand.
“Now become one with the rock. Call it to you. Let the universe carry it to you on the flow.”
I didn’t question. I didn’t argue or doubt. I saw the river of light in my mind, watched it pour through the stone. The image was so real, I wasn’t surprised when I felt the weight of it in the palm of my hand.
Not until I opened my eyes – and saw the rock.
I thought I knew all there was about being a warrior. I’d spent years sparring with the captain of my royal guard, learning to thrust and parry. Building up muscle and endurance. Honing my body to do battle.
Then Drayke showed me another way to fight. He taught me I could harness the power of the Universe. Use my mind and summon it to perform magical feats.
Magnus went beyond all that. Though I learned to wield a sword more ably from him, he didn’t teach mehowa great warrior fights. He taught mewhy.
My kingdom was in peril from an unimaginable force. Only a great warrior could defeat the Lord of Darkness. I needed warriors by my side. I needed tobecomea warrior.
I’d seen the way to victory firsthand when I tamed the fireborn dragon with a whisper, but I never really understood how it happened until Magnus bared his soul to me and shared his truth. His simple words pulled it all together. Physical, mental, magical – in the end, skills weren’t what mattered. The playing field didn’t matter.
What makes a warrior great?
Love. Love is the answer
Chapter Eleven
