The Soldier's Lotus (17 page)

“
Yes,” said Saerileth.
“You did not turn away from the Princess Royal, nor did you show any disdain
for her, nor did you forget to address her.”

“
You told me how to
address her,” said Darien. “And why shouldn’t I like her?”

“
She is not
Sunjaa
.” Saerileth deftly avoided Darien’s stepping on her
foot as he missed the next cross-under. “I would say perhaps a third of the
guests here despise the Princess Royal.”

“
You’ve been here less
than ten minutes.” Darien narrowed his eyes. “You’re just teasing me.”

“
No, Master.”
Saerileth moved behind Darien and stood back to back with him, taking three
steps to the left.
“Not at all.
I have been watching
everyone. Their tones are not lost on me, nor did I fail to see the anxiety in
His Grace’s face as he waited to see how you would address the Princess Royal.”

“
You,
Saeri
, are a witch.” Darien pressed her hands as they
touched palms once more.

“
Not a witch, only a
Lotus.” She glanced up at him through the veil of her lashes, and she was
pleased to see his shaft begin to harden in response.

By the time they had danced the length of the hall,
Saerileth was herself as anxious for Darien as he was for her. The constant
stimulation of the anal plug she wore – which she still kept secret from Darien
– added to the sight of his broad, dark chest, contrasting with the wide gold
necklace he wore, made her wet as spring.

“
I had not known that
His Grace’s taking of the Princess Royal was so controversial.” Saerileth took
the goblet of wine that Darien offered her.

“
It was.” Darien
sipped his own wine and watched her.

“
Why?”

Darien laughed. “Is there really something I can teach you,
my Lotus? We
Sunjaa
have never been at complete peace
with the
Vadal
since they first came to the lands on
the far side of the desert around the River.”

Saerileth knew well that the river to which Darien referred
was the Sweetwater, but she knew equally that to a
Sunjaa
,
it was
the
River, as far as they were concerned the only river that
Abrexa
River-goddess had ever given to men. “I know that,
Master. You told me so much yesterday. But you did not tell me that they
disliked the Princess Royal now, three years after the fact.”

“
She has given the
king an heir,” said Darien, and that strange disappointment flickered across
his face once more. “The Crown Prince
Jahen
is not
pure-blooded
Sunjaa
.”

Saerileth nodded. “And for this reason many dislike both
the king and the Princess Royal.” She sipped her wine then and slipped around
to stand on the far side of Darien, with him between her and the rest of the
gathered guests. She knew that many watched her, but she wished to make certain
that all who saw her knew that she was here to please Darien and not anyone
else. But then Saerileth smiled.

           
“Would you
do me the honor, Lotus, of sitting out the next set with me?”

Saerileth was not surprised to hear the Princess Royal’s
voice; she had been expecting the invitation. She smiled up at Darien. “If it
please you, Master?”

Darien laughed. “Go, Saerileth.” His pleasure warmed her as
Saerileth bowed graciously to the Princess Royal.

“
I am at your service,
Highness.” Saerileth glided after the Princess Royal, watching her closely. The
Princess Royal’s breath was high, higher than could be comfortable. Seeing her
up close now, Saerileth could see the curve of the Princess Royal’s waist.
Saerileth judged the other woman to be perhaps five months gone with child.

“
How are you enjoying Arinport,
Lotus?” asked the Princess Royal, taking a seat near one of the large windows
overlooking the royal gardens.

“
I am overjoyed to
live here.” Saerileth saw the Princess Royal’s unhappiness and resolved to
learn the reason for it. She switched to the
Vadal
tongue and began the process of influencing the Princess Royal. Over the next
minutes, as they conversed of the meaningless nothings of court chatter,
Saerileth wove into her speech words of influence. They were not, as some had
on occasion claimed, Lorin enchantments. Rather, they were simply words that by
repetition and association gained ascendancy over the minds of the hearers.
Saerileth did not have any ill intent toward the Princess Royal. It was pity
for this lovely and noble
Vadal
lady, dwelling in the
midst of a strange
people, that
moved Saerileth to
action.

“
Please, Saerileth.”
After a quarter of an hour, the Princess Royal was using Saerileth’s name.
“Will you come to visit me?
Perhaps the day after tomorrow?
His Grace has to view the city guards that day – I think it is some sort of
anniversary – and I will be alone in the palace. Please, say you will come. I
want to talk to you, talk when we can be private.”

“
If my master does not
require me, Highness, I will come.” The simple way the
Vadal
princess had said “His Grace” had told Saerileth much. The Princess Royal
adored her master, and she was unsure of his affections. Saerileth glanced
across the room to see Darien, standing head and shoulders above every other
man, and he caught her look. He smiled at her, smiled as though she alone
existed, and Saerileth felt the blood burning in her cheeks at her love for
him. “Highness, His Grace loves you.”

“
What?” The Princess
Royal half started from her chair. “Why do you – oh, I don’t care why! How do
you know?”

“
He knows where you
are,” said Saerileth. “He is not looking at you, but he knows where you are. My
master knows where I am; I know where he is. I always know because my heart is
there, in his breast.” She smiled at the rosy-cheeked Princess Royal. “We can
talk more of it when I come to see you, Highness.” Saerileth bowed gracefully
and began to glide back toward Darien. She was careful to pretend she did not
see the Princess Royal’s sudden discomposure.

She was half-way back to Darien, having greeted three lords
and one general, when she saw a face more familiar to her than any save
Darien’s.

“
Lotus!”
Kamen’s shock was palpable, and Saerileth had
to swallow her own surprise. Why should he not expect to see her?

“
Lord
Itenu
.” Saerileth nodded to him, but before she could pass
him by, he held out his hand to her.

“
Stay – why are you
not upriver? Darien told me that his concubines were going upriver, that you
were arranging it. How can you be here?”

Saerileth smiled. “I arranged it, yes, but I did not think
it necessary to accompany them. They can arrange my master’s country house to
their own tastes. They can bring him no discredit there.” She lowered her gaze,
letting Kamen think he had the upper hand of her, but she knew that he had
hoped to have some time alone with Darien.

“
How long has he been
training you?” Kamen tugged on her arm, and Saerileth allowed herself to be led
near to the window where none could overhear. “How long has he been …
dominating you?”

“
Lord
Itenu
.” Saerileth disengaged her arm from him. “My master’s
tastes do not run in that channel.”

“
But he has you...”
Kamen trailed off and gestured to her curving buttocks.

“
You have the eye of a
dominant,” said Saerileth coolly. “But you do not know how to observe
him
.”
There was no need to use Darien’s name; for both Saerileth and Kamen there was
only one “he”. “He does not think of me so, and if he is not a dominant, there
is no hope of his ever switching with you.”

Kamen stared at her.
“Witch.”

“
Lotus.”
Saerileth turned her back on Kamen, only to see
Darien coming up through a press of guests. His eyes flashed, and Saerileth
rejoiced to think he might be jealous. She fairly skipped to him, ignoring the
jostling of the plug as he crushed her against him.

“
And how fares my
Saeri
?” asked Darien, but he was not looking at her. He was
glaring at Kamen.

Joy filled Saerileth, and she leaned against Darien. “I
have been invited to visit the Princess Royal the day after tomorrow. She
wishes to entertain me privately.”

“
How—”

Saerileth laughed. “Do you think that she would not enjoy
my company?”

“
I didn’t mean that.”
Darien’s clasp on her was still tight.

“
I know. I did, I
admit, influence her slightly, but only to get her to open up to me. She needs
someone to confide in, and she does not know whom to trust.”

“
You can do that?”
Darien traced the curve of her cheek. “And have you influenced me? Is that why
I love you so?”

“
Never!”
Saerileth knew that he was only teasing her,
but she wanted to make sure he understood. Despite the guests, despite the king
himself, Saerileth stood on tip-toe and pulled Darien down to whisper in his
ear. “When I am with you, my love, I can hardly remember how to breathe, let
alone how to influence someone. Your eyes undo me.”

“
Then I think we
should go home as soon as possible.” Darien leaned against her, and she felt
his rising phallus. “I wouldn’t want you to be overthrown here in the king’s
hall – and I don’t know how long I can restrain myself.”

Chapter Ten

Darien adjusted the hard leather guard on his forearm and
peered across the garden and beyond the pool to where his target stood. His
left hand gripped the body of the bow, while the fingers on his right hand
wrapped around the string and pinched the arrow’s end.
Aben
had set up a large brass disc near the grove of trees at the wall. Darien took
aim, pulling the arrow back past his ear, but he did not direct his full
attention to the target. Instead, he glanced at Saerileth out of the corner of
his eye. She stood some distance off, near the pool’s north edge, her bow’s end
planted in the grass before her. She leaned on her weapon and watched Darien,
and Darien could not help but watch her and the way her thin, white
Sunjaa
gown clung to her wet body. The day was hot, but
Saerileth was more scorching than any desert heat. Without shifting her gaze
away from Darien’s face, Saerileth nodded at the far target. Darien focused on
the shining brass disc and let his arrow fly.

It struck dead center. Darien was used to firing his bow
from the rolling deck of a ship at sea, so standing on solid ground was to him
child’s play. Saerileth, too, had already taken her shot, and she, too, had hit
the target’s center.

“
The Red Lotus Guild
might consider training warriors, as well,” Darien said, praising Saerileth for
her equally proficient shot. He walked over to her and grabbed her around her
waist, pulling her small, lithe body against his large, muscular one. He could
steal a kiss while
Aben
retrieved the arrows and
reset the target.

“
That is precisely
what the guild does.” Saerileth stood on her tip-toes and kissed Darien lightly
on the lips. “After all, a Lotus is a valuable asset, and the guild must ensure
its investment. A Lotus who cannot defend herself is a liability.”

Darien remembered the paralyzing touch she had tried on
him, and he knew it would have worked, had it not been for the permanent injury
dealt him by Ulen’s flogging. As if reading his mind, Saerileth ran her hands
down his back, her fingers brushing against the rough, scarred flesh.

“
Warriors of the sexy
variety,” Darien said, trailing kisses across her jaw and down her neck. His
cock rose at the thought of penetrating her.

“
The guild is not the
only place that breeds sexy warriors, though.” Saerileth reached down and
grabbed Darien’s phallus through the thin fabric of his skirt. She turned her
face skyward, giving Darien more neck to kiss.

And he took it, licking at one spot and nibbling it before
moving onto another, biting there, and continuing on closer to her shoulder.
They had fucked just hours before by the mingled
moonslight
,
but Saerileth always left him unsatisfied in that he always wanted more of her.
What she gave to Darien was as boundless as the sea; the more he took from her,
the more she had, and the more he gave to her in return. That she was a Lotus
was incidental; Saerileth would have been the woman for him no matter what, and
he wanted her to know that. Truly, in his heart, he was convinced that the gods
themselves had directed him to save that little girl on the
Dimadan
all those years ago.