The Soldier's Lotus (16 page)

Saerileth sat down at the table on the balcony. The room
behind her had been the primary harem chamber, and she had hated it. Now she
found it soothing, and she opened Darien’s account books with a good will. Her
anal plug was uncomfortable, but it was much larger than the one she had
started with a week previous. She estimated that she ought
,
if she kept to her plan, be able to take Darien’s cock within the next few
days. Pride brightened her eyes. She would give him something he had never had
before, and it would still be far less than what her love wanted to give.

****

“
Saeri
?”

The afternoon had worn away, and the sun was low and red.
Saerileth heard Darien’s voice, and she ran to him, clinging to him as she
always did upon his return.

Darien laughed. “Did you think I had gone aboard ship and
sailed away without you?”

Saerileth leaned her head against Darien’s breast. “I knew
you wouldn’t leave me behind, but I have wondered if you wanted to sail again.”

“
No.” Darien’s voice
was clear and decisive. “I like sailing, and I want to take you up to some of
the cities I’ve visited – but I don’t ever want to go back to the navy.”

Saerileth nestled against Darien, enjoying his nearness.
“Did anyone know anything more of Lord
Ahnok’s
assault on the
Dimadan
?”

“
No.” Darien leaned
down and pressed his lips to her brow. “I’m sorry, Saerileth.”

Saerileth pressed herself more tightly against him. “We
will learn the truth of it.” In the week since he had told her of the secrecy
of Ulen’s mission, that there was no record of it, Darien had been going out
daily to meet with old friends and acquaintances
who
had been under Ulen’s command. No one knew anything at all.

Something brushed against Saerileth’s thoughts, something about
no one knowing. How could no one know? The something vanished again directly,
and Saerileth did not attempt to grasp the idea. Chasing it would only cause it
to disappear more thoroughly. Instead, she smiled at Darien. He had devoted
himself to her cause, to her vengeance, as though it were his own.

“
If it
please
you, Darien, to go to the garden, I have milk and
strawberries for you.”

“
I prefer these
strawberries.” Darien tweaked her nipple through the thin linen. “But I’ll go
to the garden.”

Saerileth carried the food out herself, and she seated
herself next to Darien, joining him in dangling her feet into the clear water
of the pool. Darien’s house overlooked the sea, and the ocean breeze was
delightfully cool after the heat of the day. She popped a strawberry into
Darien’s mouth, and he laughed at her obvious pleasure.

“
We’re to go to the
Princess Royal’s festival tomorrow,” said Darien once the strawberry was
swallowed.

“
Yes.” Saerileth
licked the strawberry juice from Darien’s lips. “I have been looking up the
protocol on how to address her.”

“
Wouldn’t I just call
her ‘Your Grace’?” asked Darien. “Like I would the king?”

“
No,
for she is not the queen.
To
call her ‘Your Grace’ would be a veiled insult, throwing it up to her that she
is not the king’s wife.”

“
What should I call
her then?” Darien nipped another strawberry from Saerileth’s fingers.

“
Call her ‘Highness’.”
Saerileth loved the tiny nibbles Darien gave to her fingertips as he ate from
her hands. “Not ‘
Your
Royal Highness’, though, for
that was the title she held in her father’s house, and to call her by that
would be to ignore her position as the king’s concubine.”

“
It would be easier if
she were the queen.” Darien skimmed his hand along Saerileth’s side.

“
Yes,
and why is she not? I know that the
Sunjaa
have always held that
Sunjaa
may wed only
Sunjaa
, but why did not His Grace
abrogate that law when he sealed the peace?”

“
You know a lot about
our politics,
Saeri
.” Darien’s caress turned to
tickling. “Why?”

“
Because
the primary patrons of the guild are
Sunjaa
.
We must know how to interact, how to behave,
how to speak, for we might be at any time summoned for an evening like the one
tomorrow.”

“
So you’d likely have
gone to the celebration tomorrow even without me.” Darien’s long, strong
fingers roved over Saerileth’s body, and she only hoped that he did not roam
toward her ass. She was still plugged, trying as she was to advance as quickly
as possible in anal exploits, and she did not want him to discover her plan
before she was ready to take him.

“
Possibly.”
She wriggled around, trying to escape his
tickling fingers. “But I would not have enjoyed it without you.” She kissed his
cheek. “But tell me – for these sorts of things I do not know – why did the
king not change the law? He has the power to do so.”

“
Yes, by right and
tradition, the king, though not above the law, has the power to alter the
laws.” Darien’s face darkened. “He is a good man, the king. He was the one who
offered peace to the
Vadal
.”

“
Offered?”

“
They were losing –
losing battles, losing men, losing the war. And His Grace named them worthy
foes and offered them peace. It was for our good, too, of course. Why fight a
war if we could have honorable peace?” Saerileth admired the curve of Darien’s
lips as he spoke, and her love burned in her.

“
How did the
Vadal
respond? Was the peace popular here?”

“
The
Vadal
were overjoyed.” Darien paused, tracing the shape of
her brows. “His Grace offered them an honorable end to a war they should never
have begun. They were, after all, the aggressors.”

“
And the
Sunjaa
did not forget it.” Saerileth closed her eyes,
thinking. “But they were at least willing to accept the peace?”

“
Yes, but the
Vadal
king was not certain how long it would last without
some more permanent alliance. He offered his only daughter as a wife to our
king.”

“
But he could not wed
her.” Saerileth understood the implications. The peace was acceptable to the
Sunjaa
, but it was not necessary to them as it was to the
Vadal
. The
Sunjaa
would not be
willing to make many concessions. “How did he get around that?”

“
He made a law
recognizing the offspring of concubines as legitimate heirs. It was a wildly
popular law,
moreso
than the peace itself. His Grace
has not taken another concubine, though,
nor
a wife. I
don’t think he ever will.”

Saerileth heard the slight difference in Darien’s voice,
the faint hint of disappointment or even shame that colored his words. Why
should he be sorrowful?

“
What is wrong?” she
asked.

“
Nothing.”
Darien shook his head, as though to clear away
unpleasant thoughts, and when he fixed his dark eyes on her, her insides
melted. “So you must instruct me on how to greet the king and Princess Royal.”

“
You know how to
dance?” asked Saerileth. “For there will be dancing tomorrow. I have already
ordered the clothes we are to wear—”

“
And what are you to
wear, my
Saeri
?” Darien pinched her nipples again.
“Something that shows off your lovely flesh?”

Saerileth knew that Darien was not jealous of others seeing
her; he was proud of her appearance. As he often told her, they could look, but
not touch. She smiled. “Yes and no. I am to wear Zenji fashions, as it is part
of the mystique of a Lotus, but you, my love, should wear the garments of a
rich
Sunjaa
.” She dropped her gaze to where the shaft
of his phallus jutted from beneath his loincloth. His cock, even soft, hung
nearly halfway down his thigh, and now, from their amorous play and their
strawberries, it was half hard already. She smiled, dropped one burning kiss on
Darien’s lips, and fled into the house. She heard his loud laughter behind her,
but she knew she would have enough time to remove her anal plug before he
caught her. That was all the time she needed.

****

The red light of late afternoon was over all of Arinport,
and Saerileth smiled as Darien lifted her down from the litter. The royal
palace rose high behind him, and she thought how perfectly the smooth, straight
lines of the
Sunjaa
architecture seemed to suit
Darien’s own large beauty. He took her hand and raised it to his lips as they
entered the palace. Pages and footmen ran ahead of them, and Saerileth saw the
royal chamberlain whom she had invited to Darien’s own retirement party. She
nodded gracefully, and she laughed at how his eyes darted from her to Darien
and back again. He could not decide whom he thought lovelier.

Saerileth walked through the palace on Darien’s arm, and
she heard the rumor of her own arrival even before they entered the king’s
great hall.

“
They are anxious to
meet you, my love.” Darien must have heard the murmurs, too.

“
I am here for
you
,
Master.” Saerileth did not ever refer to Darien by his name when anyone could
hear, even if it were only the slaves in the king’s house. “This is the next
stage of your campaign to conquer the high society of Arinport.” She used the
military phrases she knew he liked, and she was rewarded with a dazzling smile.

“
A
full frontal assault, Saerileth.”
He pressed her hand as it lay on his arm. “But I have no
doubts of emerging from the engagement victorious.”

Saerileth paused in their walk and turned toward him. She
reached up, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him down to meet her,
as even on her toes she could not reach his lips. She kissed him then, enjoying
the sweetness of his mouth.

“
What was that for?”
asked Darien when she at last released his lips.

“
A foretaste of the
victor’s spoils,” she said. She did not speak aloud the pleasure she had in his
social confidence. His earlier anxiety at his own party had vanished, despite
this being a royal function. He trusted her to lead him aright, and she would
not fail him.

They reached the entryway to the king’s primary hall, and
as their names were announced by the herald, Saerileth took the opportunity to
survey the guests. This was a large affair, with perhaps four hundred guests.
Saerileth saw at once that their own arrival had been anticipated both by the
king and Princess Royal, as well as by the guests, for the royal chamberlain
was bearing down on them.

Darien did not let go of her arm as he followed the
chamberlain toward the high seat where the king awaited them.

“
Your
Grace.” Darien bowed, and Saerileth bowed with
him. But she looked at the king through her lashes, appraising his movements.

“
Welcome, Darien, late
of my navy.” The king’s dark face was lit with a smile then, and Saerileth knew
that he was genuinely pleased to see Darien.

“
We are honored to see
so loyal a subject, with so lovely and precious a companion.” The voice
belonged to the Princess Royal, and Saerileth noted that the girl spoke
Sunjaa
, albeit with a heavy accent.

Saerileth kept her eyes demurely lowered, not looking
directly at the king, but she noticed the king’s slight stiffening, his concern
over Darien’s and Saerileth’s reactions.

“
The honor is ours,
Your Grace.
Highness.”
Darien bowed slightly again to
the pair, and then, with Saerileth still on his arm, he moved away.

“
That wasn’t hard,”
Darien murmured in Saerileth’s ear as he pulled her out into the middle of the
hall. There many couples already moved in the intricate patterns of traditional
Sunjaa
dance.

Saerileth smiled at the realization that Darien had not
asked if she, a Zenji, knew the steps; he had simply assumed that, as a Lotus,
she knew how to do everything. She and Darien took their places at the end of
the long line, stepped toward each other, touched palms and backed away again.

“
You pleased His
Grace,” said Saerileth.

“
Nonsense.”
Darien’s hands lingered on hers for a moment
longer than the dance required.