The Lotus Ascension (14 page)

“
Yes.” Sillara stepped out into the reddening light of a setting sun.
“But she is doing better now.”

“
Then you can come with us?” Soren dropped a kiss on the top of her
head between her horns. “If not, I will wait for you.”

“
I can come now.” Sillara loved that Soren knew she would not—could
not—leave someone who had needed her, knew without having to be told.

“
The boys are off to the eastern side, and you and Merieke get the
western side.” Soren dropped Sillara off at the side of the pool and ran off to
join Nathen, Orien, and Konas, all three already naked and waist-deep in the
water.

Sillara stripped
off her linen gown, and Merieke laughingly splashed water up at Sillara.

Jumping into the
water, Sillara swam to where Merieke was now floating on her back. “It's
heavenly here,” said Merieke.

“
Yes.” Sillara, too, kicked off the bottom of the pool and lay back,
looking up at the swiftly-darkening sky. “I could stay here forever.”

She heard Konas
and Soren laughing, and Orien's quick voice, telling some bawdy joke, was
obviously the cause. But she could not hear Nathen anywhere, and for that she
was grateful. The water lapped at Sillara's pussy, and she could almost have
wished Merieke would offer to lick her again. She and Merieke had shared a tent
for a fortnight, but though Merieke nightly used one of Konas's vibrating eggs
on
herself, she
and Sillara had not touched again. And
Sillara did not want to, not really. Beautiful though Merieke was, with her
creamy skin the color of coffee and milk and her masses of black hair, Sillara
did not desire Merieke. If she wanted to touch breasts or a pussy, she had her
own. No, what Sillara wanted, needed, was to be touched. She wanted to feel
hands caressing her breasts, to feel lips kissing her dripping pussy, to feel
more, things for which she had no physical reference.

Sillara closed
her eyes, floating on the water, and the rose-filled bower took over her
thoughts. This time, though, there was another scent in the garden, one that
was as strong as the roses' own. She did not know the name of it, but she had
smelled it before, smelled it on Soren when he had come back from Konas's orgy.

The water beside
her was too still, and Sillara flipped to her feet in time to see Merieke, a
cheeky smile on her face, drop beneath the water. For several moments Merieke
was nowhere to be seen, and Sillara looked at the far shore where Soren, Konas,
and Orien stood. Suddenly Soren gasped, and he smiled. His hands went beneath
the surface of the water, to where Sillara knew Merieke's head would be.

After several
seconds, Merieke came up for air, only to disappear once more, to the laughter
of all three men.

Sillara narrowed
her eyes. Merieke was a beautiful girl, obviously in love with Soren, but she
simply did not deserve him.

“
Sillara.”
The word was a whisper, and Sillara whirled to see Nathen standing
beside her.

“
Nathen!”
Sillara covered her breasts and spoke loudly, purposely sending her
voice to carry across the distance of the pool. “What are you doing here?”

Soren's eyes
darted at once to her face, and he reached beneath water again, detaching
Merieke.
“Sister?”

Sillara saw the
darkness in Nathen's eyes, and she knew he had hoped for a chance to woo her.
But Konas and Soren were already half-way across the pool, and Nathen had no
choice but to step back from her. “I am just looking for Merieke,” said Nathen.
“Wasn't she with you?”

Konas was out of
the pool now, fetching Sillara's cloak, and Soren stood beside her. “Merieke
was with me,” he said.

Nathen's
laughter seemed genuine, and were it not for the heat of the glance he darted
at her, Sillara could almost have believed in his words. “Well, I can't blame
her for that.”

Sillara saw the
look that passed between Nathen and Merieke, still several feet away, and she
bit her lip. Something was afoot, and she did not know what. Nathen made off
for his brother on the opposite side of the pool, and Merieke, left alone in
the center, began to float again.

Konas dropped
Sillara's cloak around her shoulders and, once she was covered, helped her out
of the pool. “We will be here for at least three days,” said Konas, and Sillara
knew he was looking at Soren over her head.

Soren followed
them out of the pool, and the three, Soren and Konas both still splendidly
naked and wet, walked toward Sillara's tent.

“
That is so.” Soren put one arm around Sillara's shoulder
protectively.

“
And Nathen hasn't been fucked for two weeks,” said Konas.

Sillara glanced
at Soren, and she knew he understood. They neither of them saw lust, or not
purely lust, in Nathen's looks.

“
And?”

“
I suggest we have an orgy,” said Konas. “That is, after all, why I
brought the pleasure slaves.”

Sillara could
not believe her ears.
An orgy?
And she would get to be
present? Her nipples budded at the thought of being touched, but she knew that
she did not want just any lover. From Soren's tales, she knew that at orgies,
everyone was fair game.

“
Not with Sillara.” Soren's arm around her shoulder tightened.

“
Of course not.”
Konas's smile was sweet. “I have a balloon, and I will take Sillara
up for the day. You and the others can fuck until no one can stand, and by the
time your sister and I return, all will be well.”

Soren leaned
Sillara's head on his shoulder. “Do you like the idea, sister?”

Sillara
hesitated. She knew, of course, that she should not be present, nor was that
exactly what she wanted. She looked up into Soren's eyes, and he laughed.

“
Yes, of course.”

Sillara knew he
understood her desire and would tell her all about it afterward, but there was
no need for words.

Konas sighed.

“
I am sorry,” said Sillara, turning to her tutor. “If it were not for
me, you would be able to stay, too.”

“
I wouldn't want—” Konas interrupted himself. “That isn't what I
meant. I—”

“
I will go to tell the others,” said Soren. “Tomorrow morning, as
soon as the sun is up, you two can take to the air.” He pressed Sillara's hand
and loped off toward the pool.

Sillara looked
back after him, and she was glad to see that Merieke was already out of the
water.

“
I don't want you to think,
Sillara, that I would
rather be at this orgy—at any orgy—than
pass that time with you.” He had
his hands on her shoulders, and Sillara smiled. He was naked, but he seemed to
have forgotten the fact.

“
You are kind to say so,”
said
Sillara, “but
I have heard of your reputation since before I was old enough to know what it
meant. You are the premier orgy-master in Arinport, and you do not get to be
that way without enjoying it.”

Konas leaned his
face down to press his brow against Sillara's, and the high, black branches of
his horns caught the moonslight. “I swear that I would not prefer anywhere else
to being in your company.”

“
Are you coming to bed?” Merieke passed Konas and Sillara, entering
the tent.

“
Yes.” Sillara leaned up and kissed Konas on the cheek. “Thank you
for arranging this. You were right to 'plan ahead', as you call it.” Then she
went back inside her tent. Merieke was chuckling.

“
Did you see Orien's face? He thought for certain I was heading for
Nathen, but Soren's cock looked so tempting.” Sillara could hear the vibrating
egg being wound up, and she almost wished she had one of her own.

“
Not that Nathen isn't worth
sucking.”
Merieke's voice was low, so as not to
disturb the sleeping nurse. “He's amazing.”

But Soren is
more beautiful.
Sillara knew perfectly well that
Merieke would not have been able to resist Soren. No one could.

As she heard
Merieke's smothered moan of climax, Sillara definitely wished she had an egg of
her own. They were Konas's invention, but she would be too embarrassed to ask
him for one.

****

“
Good-bye, sister.” Soren pressed his lips to Sillara's brow. “See
you tonight.”

“
Remember everything,” Sillara whispered in his ear. “Tell me
everything
when I get back.”

Soren winked at
her as she followed Konas to the balloon. Sillara had seen an Ausir balloon
before, had even ridden in one for an hour or two, but she had not been allowed
to go anywhere.

“
Are you ready?” Konas was tying off a line to the collapsible
basket. The mystery of his overly-large luggage was now explained, and Sillara
smiled.

“
You planned ahead very thoroughly.” She waved vaguely behind her at
the small encampment. The noblemen's tent was being converted into a proper
orgy-pavilion, and the four pleasure slaves were busy within, setting
everything up.

“
Of course.”
Konas lifted her into the basket. “What is it?” he asked.

Sillara shook
her head and looked up at Konas. “I was just glad that Merieke's nurse is doing
better.”

“
She was ill?”

“
Yes, but, though she is still tired and will probably sleep the
whole day through, her fever broke last night.”

“
Are you ready to go?” Konas adjusted yet another line, and Sillara
wished that she had, like Soren, been allowed to fly more often. Soren had, of
course, told her all about ballooning, and she had a theoretical knowledge of
how to work one, but she had never actually done it.

“
I am ready.” She waved at the camp as the Konas pulled a cord and
rolled up the white silk that covered the black of the balloon. The balloon
rose slowly into the air, and Sillara waved at Soren until a gust of wind took
them up too high for even her eyes to make him out.

“
I haven't been ballooning in years,” said Konas. He seemed more
cheerful today than he had been last night, and Sillara was glad that he did
not seem disappointed to miss the orgy. “It reminds me of home.”

“
Of Duildal?”
Sillara knew that Konas had been born in the Seranimesti city, now
the capital of all the Silbrios.

“
Yes. There is a balloon platform on the top of my family's castle,
and I used to take off from it as a boy.”

“
Where would you go?”

“
Sometimes up to Norivea, sometimes
west to the ruins of Kartalon.”

Sillara looked
across the desert. They were moving more quickly than she had expected, and she
amused herself with calculating the difference in how long it would take a
rider, whether on camel or horse, to catch up to where they were. “I thought
that no one ever went to Kartalon.”

“
No one stays there, true.” Konas dropped her cloak around her
shoulders. “But though the goddess Mirsa foils any attempt to rebuild it, she
does not seem to mind if someone visits for a while. I used to sleep under the
moons in what was once the royal garden. The double waterfall is still there,
and now the whole place is overgrown with roses.”

Sillara's
throat tightened. Could Kartalon be the place that haunted her waking dreams?
“I wish I had seen it.”

“
You will be able to see it, Sillara. Soon enough you will move to
Duildal and accept your crown. You will be Queen of all the Ausir.”

Sillara could
not help the sigh that escaped her. “I know.”

“
Aren't you happy to be the Queen of the Ausir?”

Sillara paused,
unsure how to answer. “What shall I say?”

“
Answer me truthfully, as truthfully as if I—as if I were Soren,”
said Konas, taking her hand in his.

Sillara bit her
lip. She and Soren had not spoken of this before because he already knew her
heart, so she had never had to find words to express these feelings. “I have no
desire to be King Tivanel's Queen, but is it not my duty to my mother's people
to secure their succession? And if I cannot live in Arinport with Soren and—and
my mother and father, then is not Duildal better than anywhere else?”

Konas pressed
her fingers. “Duildal is beautiful indeed, a very city of roses.”

Roses?
Sillara bit her lip.
Roses and roses.
They had haunted her for her whole life,
and it seemed that roses were her fate. She looked down. “I would rather be
able to stay in Arinport if I could, but I know that is impossible. I have
never met His Grace, but I am sure that he is a very proper man. He is your
brother, after all.” She forced a smile to her lips, but the thought of leaving
Arinport and Soren and all those she loved behind was too much. She could not
keep the dampness from her eyes, so she spoke, to keep herself from weeping. “I
know that it will be soon. His Grace will send for me soon. I was eighteen not
three weeks ago. That was my Ausir coming-of-age.” Sillara had successfully
spoken past the lump in her throat, and she kept going, blinking back any
threatening tears.