Dark One Rising(140)
After she and Tomaz were done, they sat down on the ground, breathing hard and sweaty. No winner this night. He conceded so that she could eat and rest.
She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and blew out a breath. “That was more tiring for some reason tonight.”
“Have you been doing your breathing exercises before your sparring?” Sol asked her, looking over his pipe at her.
“I know how to breathe, Sol. I learned that when I first learned to use a sword, and I was only seven years old then.”
“Is your mind clear?”
She didn’t look him in the eye, and for that he knew the answer.
“I told you that you can’t have anything occupying your head when you go into a spar. Your body can’t concentrate on what your body is trying to do if your mind is cluttered.”
“I try, but I can’t keep it empty for long.”
“You miss him, we understand that, Melenthia, and we don’t expect you to never think about him, only when you’re studying. He’ll do what is needed of him; you’ll do what’s needed of you. Apart you will be doing different things; together you will be fighting the same fight. You’ll be by his side again, but, for now, you must put him aside. You can’t fight Fallon if you’re worried about other people.”
“How can I not worry about those I love? I will be fighting Fallon to save those people that I love, the kingdom that I love. How can I be fighting for that if those people I’m protecting are not in my thoughts?”
“They’re also in your heart, Melenthia. That is where you must put them until this is over. You must only have one thought occupying your mind, and that is destroying Fallon and his army.”
She sighed. He looked at her with affection. “This is one of the reasons you were chosen for this path, Melenthia, because of your passion for your kingdom and the people that you love. You were chosen because you have a big heart as well as a strong mind.”
She looked up at him but did not answer. He smiled kindly at her. “You will get it. Eventually, you’ll be able to focus without even trying. Now get something in your stomach and get some rest. We’re only a day and a half from Vallis now.”
“Really? How do you know that? Every part of the forest we’ve ridden through looks identical.”
Tomaz answered now. “It is something I sense. I am one with the forest, all of our people are, so when we are close to our home, we can feel it.”
“You mean the forest talks to you?”
“Of a sorts. We can hear them whisper to us in our soul, and we know when we are among our people. The elves and the landscape are one.”
She glanced at him between bites of food and frowned.
“I know that visitors are rarely invited into Vallis. Is there going to be feelings of nervousness toward me?”
“No. We have waited for you for five hundred years. When my people got word that you had been born, they prepared for your coming of age. We have been preparing for your arrival into our city for twenty-one years. Every elf knows of your existence, and everyone is anxious to finally meet you.”
“I don’t like feeling like some grand person, someone to put on display. I’m ordinary, and I like it that way.”
Sol and Tomaz glanced at each other, Sol smiling behind his pipe. “You’re certainly not ordinary, but elves don’t take much stock in adoration or idolatry. They will treat you with respect only. The only preference you’ll get while there is that you may wander through the city unescorted, and you will feel welcome. You’re important to everyone, Melenthia, and the sooner you accept that fact, the faster you’ll learn your place. You can’t escape what you are or why you’re here; it’s your destiny.”
She sighed. She looked down and realized that she had eaten all the food in her bowl.
“We don’t expect you to accept your purpose immediately. In time you’ll feel your inner power and be able to understand your place. Give it time, but remember what I said. You must put your brother and the king in your heart and not let them invade your thoughts. There will be enough to clutter your mind; there will be no room for them there.”
“I’ll try harder.”
Sol smiled and touched her shoulder. “Things will work out as they should. Kevaan and Dain know their place. You will soon know yours. It’ll get easier in time. Now get some rest. Tomorrow we will see Vallis.”
She pushed her bowl aside and crawled over to the warm soft nest of blankets that had kept her cocooned for the last two weeks and laid down, pulling the top one over her. She curled up in a ball and closed her eyes. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and even though she told herself she could push Dain out of her dreams, he appeared there nonetheless.