Chapter 66 Irena
IRENA
…standing outside the Door of Uncertainty once more.
I blink, looking around. Am I back? I see the Sorceress’s workroom with its many strange and mystical objects surrounding me.
And there is the Lady of Thornmere herself, standing back and watching me with an interested expression on her face, as though she’s waiting to see what I will do.
But where’s Valen? I look around for him, frowning. Is he lost somewhere in the other-land beyond the door?
I’m just about to open my mouth and ask the Sorceress but before I can get a word out, the Door of Uncertainty bursts open and there he is.
He has a wild, shocked look on his face and the minute he sees me he grabs me, wrapping me in a bone-crunching bear hug.
“Valen…what…?” I wheeze, since he’s squeezing the air out of me. “What’s… wrong?” I finally manage to get out.
“Fuck, baby—I’m just so glad you’re all right,” he mutters in my ear.
His grip on me is so tight I’m seriously having trouble breathing. It makes me realize all over again how incredibly strong he is—and how careful he’s always been with me whenever we’re close.
“Can’t…breathe,” I choke out at last.
“Fuck. Sorry, baby.” He loosens his grip but doesn’t let go of me. Instead, he cradles my face in his hands and looks down at me anxiously—almost like he’s making sure I’m really there.
“Are you well?” I ask, looking up at him worriedly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so upset before.
“Fine.” He blows out a breath. “I’m fine. Just glad you are too.”
“I take it that the Door of Uncertainty showed you…disturbing images,” the Sorceress says, arching an eyebrow at Valen.
He gets a guarded look on his face.
“Everything it showed me was bad—very fucking bad,” he says. “How do I stop the things it showed me from happening?”
“What did it show you?” I ask, frowning.
He shakes his head.
“Never mind, sweetheart. You don’t need to know.”
I have a feeling that I do need to know, but the Sorceress is already answering him.
“Remember that not everything the Door shows comes to pass,” she tells him. “Sometimes it shows false images…or things that may happen in the future.”
“I don’t want anything it showed me to happen, though!” Valen insists. “How do I stop it?”
A regretful look comes over her lovely face.
“No man may stop the wheel of time from turning, Master Drake. But do not let your heart be troubled—hopefully what the Door showed you was false.”
“What did you see?” I ask him again. “Did it have to do with me?”
It must have—why else would he have grabbed me like that when he first came out of the Door?
Valen gets a stubborn look on his face.
“I don’t want to scare you.”
“I’m not scared!” I protest.
He opens his mouth—I hope to tell me what he saw—but the Lady of Thornmere interrupts us.
“My dear, if you want to brew the Healing Draught for your mother, we must work quickly. You must tell me all the Door showed you so that we may interpret it and see best how to distill your magic.”
“Oh—of course,” I say. Whatever Valen saw will have to wait, I suppose.
“Very good. Now come with me and we’ll discuss what you were shown.”
She takes me by the hand and leads me to an alcove in the back of the workroom that I hadn’t noticed before.
There are several padded chairs here, gathered around what appears to be a magical potbellied stove.
There is a fire inside it but no smokestack.
In fact, the fire—which gives off a flickering blue glow—doesn’t seem to make any smoke at all.
Despite the absence of smoke, the stove gives off soothing warmth and sitting on top of it is a tea pot. The pot already has water in it, and I see that the “tea” it’s brewing is actually a huge pink flower with many tiny petals blooming in the hot water.
The Sorceress pours us all cups of pale pink tea which smells like honeysuckle and spice and then we all settle into the chairs.
“Now then, my dear,” she says to me. “Tell me what the Door showed you and we’ll be able to tell how to proceed.”
“Oh, well, the first vision was just of my father and brother in our dining hall,” I begin. I tell her about my brother serving as Cup Bearer to both our parents and she frowned and nods thoughtfully.
“I see, so it showed you a scene from your past. All right—go on. What else did it show you?”
“Um…” I don’t want to tell about the second vision, so I skip to the third. “It showed me the night that Valen and I ran away from the castle,” I say. “At least, I think it did—it was the same place and around the same time of evening.”
“So it only showed you things that already happened?” Valen asks, frowning.
“Er…not exactly.” I can feel my cheeks getting hot. Goddess, I really don’t want to describe the second vision the Door showed me. It’s so embarrassing!
“Go on, my dear,” the Sorceress says gently. “I must know all of what the Door revealed to you in order to help you with your magic.”
I don’t want to tell, but it seems I have no choice. Better to get it over quickly, I decide.
“I…it…it showed me—on a kind of pedestal,” I say, looking down at my hands as I speak. “I…I was naked. On my hands and knees.”
To my right, Valen makes an interested sound around his teacup as he takes another sip of the pale pink tea.
The Lady of Thornmere says nothing but, “Go on.”
“I saw something in the shadows,” I say, trying to think how to phrase it. “And when it came into the light I saw it was…it was Valen’s Drake.”
Oh Goddess, my face is so hot it’s amazing my hair hasn’t caught on fire and I haven’t even said the worst part yet!
“Go on,” the Sorceress says again. “What happened next?”
“He…the Drake…he got behind me and he…he…” I just can’t force the words out—I can’t!
“He bred you—mated with you.” Valen’s voice is a deep rumble and I’m both grateful to him for finishing my sentence and irritated that he knew how it would end.
“Yes,” I say shortly, still staring at my fingers, which are twisting in the silky fabric of the pale green gown the magical wardrobe offered me this morning. “But…there was something else,” I add.
“What might that be, my dear?” The Sorceress doesn’t sound shocked or appalled, as I had feared and when I dare to look up at her, her face is serene.
“The Drake…when he was, er, finished…he looked at me and I saw Valen’s face instead,” I say.
“Well, that makes sense—the two of them are one, after all,” the Sorceress remarks. She takes a sip of her own tea and nods decisively. “Very well—the Door has given you your answer.”
“My answer?” I ask, blankly.
“It has told us how you are to gather the magic to brew the Healing Draught,” she explains.
“You see, magic is a force—an energy—it must be generated but you can’t make it out of nothing.
It’s like this—when you light a fire, you must first have kindling for it to consume.
In order to brew the Draught, you will need to give fuel to the magic spell you use. ”
“What kind of ‘fuel’ are we talking about?” Valen growls.
“In this case, the Door is telling you that you’ll need to raise sexual energy to feed the magic,” the Sorceress says.
I feel a shiver run down my spine.
“You mean I’ll actually have to…have to let Valen’s Drake…”
“No, my dear!” She gives a little laugh. “No, you do not need to give yourself to the Drake directly—it is enough to give yourself to your man.”
“But…but I can’t,” I protest.
“Why, certainly you can,” the Sorceress says breezily. “I generate magical power using sexual energy all the time. Why do you think I have three husbands?”
“I’m a virgin!” I blurt and feel my cheeks go hot again. “I mean, Valen and I…we’ve done things, I’ve never done before.” I shoot him a glance. “But we haven’t done that.”
“Irena is saving herself for a Royal wedding,” he says dryly and takes another sip of tea.
“Dear me, never?” The Lady of Thornmere gets a thoughtful look in her eyes. “Well then, it seems the magic demands a sacrifice of you. You must give up your virginity—in so doing, you should generate an enormous amount of magical power. Power which can be used to brew the Healing Draught.”
I bite my bottom lip so hard I swear I draw blood.
“What if I get pregnant?” I ask softly.
“That’s part of the sacrifice—the risk,” she answers calmly. “The greater the risk, the greater the reward. You should have magic to spare when this is said and done. Why, you’ll be able to brew a Draught that would bring back the dead!”
“What if she doesn’t want to?” Valen asks, surprising me. “What if she’s frightened? Isn’t there any other way?”
“Sorry, I’m afraid there isn’t.” The Lady of Thornmere shakes her head firmly. “The Door of Uncertainty showed her clearly what was needed.”
“What about pain?” he persists. “Can you use that to generate magic power? What if she tied me up and beat me?”
“What? I’m not going to beat you!” I exclaim, horrified.
He shrugs.
“I’m just trying to think of a way you can keep yourself intact, sweetheart. I know your virginity is important to you.”
“Which is exactly why it must be sacrificed,” the Sorceress says firmly.
“In another, less serious case, pain might be substituted for pleasure, but I am afraid it wouldn’t be enough here.
It’s not just the pleasure the magic needs—it’s the sacrifice of something important to Irena—and the risk that she might get pregnant. ”
“Then…I’ll do it. If it’s the only way to brew the Draught—the only way to save my mother—I’ll do it,” I say. I shoot a glance at Valen. “If…if you’ll help me.”
“You know I will, Princess,” he says, frowning. “But I don’t like the idea of leaving you pregnant and alone after this is all over.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say quickly. “Right now, I just want to concentrate on brewing the Healing Draught.”
“A wise thought,” the Sorceress says. “It’s best to act as soon as you can after you have a vision. You can use my own power-raising suite if you wish.”
I frown.
“You have a whole set of rooms devoted to raising power by…”
“By having pleasure with my men? Yes, I do.” The Lady of Thornmere gives me a languid smile. “It is, as I said, my preferred method of raising power for my own magical spells.”
“So…we’re going to just…do it right now?” I ask again. I feel stunned at how fast things are moving. I look at Valen, who shrugs.
“Whenever you’re ready, Princess.”
Well, it’s not like we haven’t been intimate before. It’s just that…I feel so nervous to actually lose my virginity—mostly because of his size.
“It’s just…you’re so big!” I blurt out and then wish I could call the words back.
“Why, thank you,” Valen says, smirking a little.
To both our surprise, the Sorceress burst into peals of tinkling laughter.
“Oh my dear!” she exclaims. “I am sorry, but the way you said that…”
“Well, it’s true,” I insist. “You saw the size of his Drake’s, er, equipment last night! And Valen himself isn’t that much smaller than, you know, his other half.”
“My Drake says to tell you thank you as well,” he says dryly. Then he looks more serious. “You know I’ll be gentle with you, sweetheart—we can take it slow and easy,” he promises.
“Thank you,” I whisper, feeling my cheeks get hot again.
“It’s good to know that your man is a gentleman,” the Sorceress remarks. “But you need not worry about being unable to accommodate him. For once the magical honey from the bathing flowers has entered your system, it provides a permanent benefit.”
“What benefit is that” Valen asks, frowning.
“Why, the ability to accommodate a lover with a very large shaft,” she says.
“You ought to see my Horatio without his pants on—he’s positively hung like a horse.
” She laughs again. “I know one isn’t supposed to have favorites amongst one’s husbands, but I must say, he’s the one I enjoy the most.” She shakes a finger at us. “But don’t tell my other two men!”
“No, of course not,” I say, feeling the strange urge to giggle. Then the feeling passes and I’m just scared again. Am I really going to have to do this?
Apparently so, because the sorceress is rising from her chair and placing her empty teacup on a nearby table.
“Come,” she says to me and Valen. “We must strike while the iron is hot!”
And so we follow her out of the room, but I can’t help wondering how I’m going to get though this.