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. That is 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 me how a great warrior fights. He taught me why.
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 to become a 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
Magnus
My lady was especially passionate that night, and it took the considerable skills of both Drayke and me to satisfy her desires. Fortunately we were up to the task.
We took turns holding her down and licking her pussy until she came again and again. Then Drayke sat on the edge of the bed. I made her stand in front of him and shoved her head down so she could to suck him off while I grabbed her hips and took her from behind. Meli orgasmed one more time, her cries muffled by Drayke’s cock in her mouth as he shot cum down her throat.
My fingers dug into her ass as her pussy clenched around my cock in rhythmic waves. I gave one final lunge, thrusting deep as I exploded.
I drew her trembling body into my arms and lay down with her on the bed. Drayke curled up so she was nestled between us. He drifted off to sleep. Meli followed shortly after, but sleep eluded me. Finally I fell into a fitful slumber, only to be awakened by the screams of men I’d killed in battles past.
They surrounded me, reaching out with bony hands from which the flesh had long ago rotted away. Begging for mercy. Mercy they’d never shown to their victims. I whirled and slashed, taking them down one by one, yet still they came. Rising up from the bowels of the earth, surrounding me, forcing me to relive every battle I’d fought over the centuries.
At first Melisandre fought by my side. Valiantly. Courageously. But she was no match for their ferocity. They captured her. Dragged her away to the Underworld as she cried out my name.
I woke drenched in sweat and slipped from the bed, knowing I’d have no more rest that night. Silently, I made my way to the temple.
The oracle awaited me as I’d known she would. She always seemed to sense the times I needed her. Bathed in starlight from the open dome, she sat curled up on the throne with her legs tucked under her. She appeared not as a crone or a brazen temptress this eve, but as a soft, nurturing maternal figure.
“Another bad night?”
I sighed, wearily climbing the steps to the dais, then sank down at her feet. My days of feuding with her were long past. No longer a self-centered immature lad, I’d outgrown the need to rebel against her authority and reject her teachings. And she in turn had become a source of great comfort and knowledge.
“I was fighting a battle again, this time with the undead. I killed them one after another, but they kept on coming, rising from their graves, swirling around me. It was all…” I stopped, unable to find the words.
“Chaos.”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “Peace does not create warriors. A great warrior is born in chaos. He rises above it, learns to use his skill and his might to restore order to the world.” She laid a hand on my head. Stroked my hair the way a mother would.
“Is that why you sent me to all those ancient battles? Had me fight by the side of men deemed as heroes in legend and myth?”
“When I met young Magnus, you had but one goal,” she said. “To be the greatest warrior our world has ever known. At the time, all was calm and orderly. Such a life does not a hero make. I had to send you to times and places where you would experience a different life, where you could gain the strength you will need in the coming days.”
I thought of all the men who had fallen at my hand, the guilt I’d suffered over the years at taking so many lives. “Did I really fight those battles? Kill those men? Or was it all another of your illusions?”
“Does it matter?”
“What do you mean, does it matter? Of course it matters!” I shot back. I felt like that young lad again, tossed into her frustrating maze where every lesson took me down a path that end
ed in a perilous confrontation with evil forces. I shoved her hand away.
“You’re angry with me. Yet beneath your anger, I sense fear.”
“You really are a witch,” I muttered. Once again, she’d seen through me. “Yes, I admit it. I’m afraid. But not for myself. For the queen. I know she must come with me. She’ll be in danger – and I’m not sure I can keep her safe.”
The oracle’s voice changed, took on the sonorous tone that told me she was slipping into the trance-like state she entered whenever she quoted the Prophecy.
“The Lord of Darkness draws power from five sources. Four are elemental – earth, water, fire, and air. The fifth, the most important, is the final one he needs to conquer our world and rule once again. The essence of the One.”
I nodded. We’d learned that from the scrolls in the library.
“Scholars and mystics puzzled for centuries over what the last could mean. Melisandre knows the truth.” She paused. “It’s her. It’s her soul.”
“Her soul?”
“Her essence, her life force. The Lord of Darkness doesn’t want to kill her. He wants to own her. To know that she’s surrendered her will to his, to know she’ll submit to him in all things.”
A blast of jealous rage hit me. He wanted to dominate my queen? My woman.
“Why does he need her so badly?”
“A thousand years ago, the Dark Lord sought to take over the World of the Seven Stars. King Vidos the First defeated him in a great battle, then Melisandre’s female ancestor sent him to a prison deep in the bowels of the earth. Legend has it she used a magic spell to bind him there in a deep sleep.
“Your queen is the last of her line,” she went on. “The rightful heir to the throne. The blood of the king who defeated him flows through her veins – as does the magic of his consort. The Woman Clothed With the Sun cast the spell that bound him for a millennium then went on to wed the king. Melisandre is descended from both of them. The Dark Lord could not defeat her ancestor but he is determined to conquer this queen. Claim her body and own her soul.
“If he can force her to submit her magic to his will and then bear his child, his seed will live on forever. Stronger than he because the child will have both the powers of darkness and the magic of the Seven Stars within him. He will make his offspring the rightful heir to the throne and thereby condemn our world to a thousand years under his rule, a millennium of misery and pain. You must protect her. For it is written that she alone will deal the fatal blow. Only she can pierce his heart, enchain him, and send him back to the hell from which he came.
“You are not in this battle alone,” she went on. “You know the Dragon Lord. You have seen his power. It is written that four warriors will join the queen to defeat the Dark Lord, each one with a special gift. Four valiant souls on the quest to seek out the sacred sources before he does. But in the heat of battle, each of you will face your darkness alone.”
The pace of her words increased. Her tone became more urgent. “When your quest ends, the next warrior will appear. He has his own task to perform. But you must all learn to work together. To share your knowledge. To share your queen. For only with all of you by her side will she defeat the Lord of Darkness.”
I couldn’t stay silent any longer. “What do you mean, ‘share our queen’?”
The faraway look left her eyes. She glared at me and spoke once again in the tone I’d grown to hate – shrill and slightly mocking. “I mean take turns ramming your dicks in her.”
I’d looked forward to sharing my queen with Drayke long before I ever met her. He and I were brothers, in heart if not in blood, dedicated to our cause. If the female the Goddess had chosen for us was a hot piece of ass, all the better. We both loved dominating a woman, making her do whatever we demanded.
Once I met Meli, I discovered the dark thrill of true mastery. I loved the way she sucked the head of my shaft deep into her mouth while he fucked her hot, wet pussy. I loved watching her blush when I made her play with herself then ordered her to come for us. I loved when Drayke licked her sweet slit until she screamed then held her legs spread wide apart so I could ram my raging hard cock deep inside her.
I knew I’d die before I let the Dark Lord take my woman. But to willingly share her with three men? Prophecy be damned. I was far too jealous, too selfish for that. “No.” I said it louder. “No. I won’t do it.”
“You will,” she replied calmly. “You must. For it is written. She will draw strength from your seed. From each of you a different kind of strength.” Her voice grew somber. “Melisandre has her own skills, her own powers. Powers she has yet to discover. Each of you needs her as much as she needs you. Only by uniting with your brothers to cherish and protect her will you all succeed.”
“You’re a daft old bitch! I don’t know why I keep coming here to listen to you.”
She gave me an infuriating shrug. “You made your choice long ago, when you asked the Goddess to make you the greatest warrior our world has ever known. Now you cannot choose. You can only do.”
Her voice softened. “You are no longer ruled by your head, Magnus, but by your heart. You love her. That’s why for the first time in your life you’re afraid.”
Love her? I opened my mouth to argue then stopped. I’d bedded many a bawdy wench over the years, sometimes alone, sometimes with Drayke. I’d taken women while drenched in sweat, still humming with raw energy from a battle I’d won. I knew how lust felt, and savage hunger and aching need. But love?
“Goddess knows I love fucking her more than anyone I’ve ever been with. But it’s more than that. I respect her,” I began slowly. “Meli is the most courageous female I’ve ever met. She’s absolutely fearless.”
I chuckled, remembering how she’d charged straight at me with her sword, though I was easily twice her size, then glared defiantly as she picked herself up off the ground when I dodged her attack. “She takes her knocks without whining, like a good soldier. She has a sense of duty, doesn’t see herself as the ruler of the people, but rather as their caretaker. She’s intelligent and funny…and she always tries to give far more than she takes. I never tire of being with her. When I open my eyes in the morning and see her lying next to me, my heart soars. At night, cradling her in my arms, I feel at peace. I want to be with her. Always. If that is love, then yes. I love her.”
I took the oracle’s hand in mine, kissed it. “Though it pains me to admit it, you’re a wise old woman.”
“It’s about time you finally recognized it,” she shot back.
She sat up straight. “Mortals take themselves far too seriously. Over the centuries I’ve learned the gods create these pageants for their amusement. Some are dramas, some comedies. We know not how they will end. So go – play your role. And if you please them, they may grant your heart’s desire.”
Dawn was breaking as I headed back to the fortress.
My heart’s desire?
For so many years, I’d had but one. To be the greatest warrior who ever lived. Then I met Melisandre – and now, for the first time in my life, I wanted more.
Chapter Twelve
Melisandre
“So my task is to find the Lord of Darkness and take away his magic rock before he uses it to bury me alive? Too bad you destroyed the Flask of Fire.” Magnus shook his head. “I think I’d have preferred going out in a blazing inferno to being slowly crushed to death. It would have made a much more heroic legend.”
We were in the library again, surrounded by stacks of dusty parchments we’d discovered tucked behind the scrolls on one of the topmost shelves.
“You may call yourself the Warrior of the Seven Stars,” Drayke shot back, “but everyone loves dragons. When this tale is written, I’m the one who is going to live on in the minds and hearts of our people.
I stared from one to the other in disbelief. Were my heroes really quarreling about who would have the more prominent place in history?
They saw the shock
ed look on my face, and both men burst into laughter.
“How can you make jokes after what we read? Those weren’t made-up stories from a children’s book! Real men suffered and died. They had wives who grieved for them, children who grew up fatherless.”
The Dragon Lord took my hand in his. “We’re warriors. It’s how we cope, Meli. Refusing to give in to fear, making light of danger, putting on a brave face for the sake of those around us.” He shot a look at Magnus. “Believe me, we wrestle with our demons. But we do it alone, in the dead of night.”
“Except for those nights when we’re wrestling with a willful wench determined to wake us with a raging hard-on,” Magnus added with a comical leer at me.
“And may the Goddess bless all willful wenches,” Drayke chimed in, bowing his head and joining his hands in a prayerful position.
I sighed. Were all men obsessed with sex?
“Queen Melisandre!”
We all headed for the door as a distant shout echoed off the stone walls of the passage outside the library. I recognized the voice and darted out ahead.
“Antonius!
The old man hurried toward me, his arms outstretched. I ran into them and was enveloped in a warm hug.
“I’ve missed you so much!” I cried. “But what are you doing here? Is everything all right back home?”
My vizier pulled away. Gave up acting like a doting uncle and resumed his role as trusted advisor to the reigning monarch. “Your majesty,” he said with a sweeping bow. “I trust all is well with you?” The question was accompanied by a raised eyebrow as Drayke and Magnus took up positions on either side of me, Magnus with one hand resting on the handle of his dagger.
“All is well, Antonius,” I assured him. “Allow me to present Lord Drayke DeMartine. And this is Magnus Markhan of the House of Linderal, Warrior of the Seven Stars.”
Chaos Born: A Sci-Fi Menage Romance (Warriors of the Seven Stars Book 2) Page 7