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“Self-control. Planning for the unknown. Good. What else?”
I remembered the scarf and how the memory of my mother made me rise and keep going when I wanted to lie down and die. How despite exhaustion and fear, I climbed a cliff I thought unsurmountable.
“I learned…I learned I can keep going far beyond what I ever dreamed I could.”
“Congratulations, young warrior. You passed your first test.”
Thus began my training.
Chapter One
Melisandre
Drums.
I heard the faint sound when I entered the temple. A slow, somber beat, muffled, like the leather-wrapped head of a long stick striking an animal hide stretched over a hollowed-out log.
At first I thought it was the pounding in my head. Goddess knows, it hurt badly. I’d fought my first real battle, felt the weight of deciding life or death for another living being. Faced a fiery doom at the hands of my lover, the dragon lord, then watched him consumed by flame when I defended myself with a power I never knew I possessed. Ended with another unbelievable flight on the back of a mythical beast.
All in all, it had been a hellish night. All I wanted to do was curl up in Drayke’s arms and sleep, safe in the fortress hidden deep within the heart of Mt. Jarazal.
I’d left my dragon lord outside, on the wide terrace in front of the doors to the temple where he’d shift back to his human form. Though he said it grew easier each time, I knew the process was still painful. I couldn’t bear to watch.
While I waited, I wandered through the temple.
Something was different. I didn’t realize 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. The faint sound grew louder when I picked up the object nearest me. As if a second drum had taken up the slow, steady beat.
It was a diamond, the largest I’d ever seen, fashioned with an intricate multifaceted 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 along 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, with a winged upright figure in its center. But it was the last that drew my eye. A rough dark chunk of rock, protruding from the wall, studded with a diamond 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 filled with dazzling rays of sun, illuminating the golden dome.
I gasped. Every rock in the frieze held a huge diamond in its center.
Power so great it can turn a lump of coal into a priceless jewel. The power of the earth.The second element 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.
More invisible drums took up the rhythm, the sound echoing off the walls. The stranger walked in time with their cadence, as though they beat to herald his arrival.
He looked like the hero 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 tossed 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 that ran from ear to jaw 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 dark, thick hair down to his shoulders. I wondered how it would feel to run my fingers through it.
