The Soldier's Lotus (18 page)

“
Melara
and all the gods
be
praised for bringing you to me,” Darien whispered in her ear.

Saerileth pulled away, though she did not release his cock.
Instead she stroked it slowly.
“The gods?
No, it was
your own goodness that saved me.” She laid her palm flat against his bare
chest. “In here beats the kindest, most noble heart I have ever known.”

“
Whatever the reason,
I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“
Alone?”

“
Especially
alone.”
Darien thought of
Kamen just then, but he was not as jealous as he had been. Sure, he had had a
part of Saerileth Darien had not, but she did not love or desire Kamen. But
Saerileth’s blue eyes danced with mischievous merriment that told Darien she
was thinking of something else.
“Oh, yes, the concubines.
Yes, I’m glad you sent them away. Though I’ve never doubted their gratitude,
they never responded the right way to me.” He did not want to mention sex with
them, for Saerileth’s jealousy would flare up at the slightest provocation.
“You know.”

Saerileth smiled, put her arms around his neck, and kissed
him again. “You are too big for them. They told me.”

Darien laughed. Now that her
competition
were
gone, Saerileth apparently had no problem talking about the
concubines’ sexual relations with the Master. “So, it’s just us, then.” He moved
Saerileth so that his cock pressed between her legs, and her stomach lay
against his.

“
Your arrows, sir,”
Aben’s
voice broke in. The steward indicated arrows
sticking in the grass next to the firing spot.

“
Another
round, then?”
Darien asked.
He wondered if he could out-shoot Saerileth, more a matter of curiosity than
competition. They both excelled in their training, but Darien was curious as to
whether Saerileth’s first shot had been a fluke or whether the guild truly did
train their Lotuses in archery.

Saerileth nodded and disengaged herself from Darien, making
her way over to the other side of the pool. She would shoot first in the second
round, but as she drew back her bow to fire, a cry of alarm rose from the
house. Saerileth spun toward the porch, and Darien looked, too.
Aben
ran across the lawn to investigate, so Darien strode
over to stand next to Saerileth. They both readied arrows. The shouting turned
to wailing, and
Aben
soon reappeared. He wept as he
came, and behind him ran one of Darien’s guards hired to escort the concubines
to the country house. Grimy dust and blood covered the guard’s sweaty skin. He
ran up to Darien and fell to his knees in the grass, his chest heaving in
exerted breaths, his shoulders slumped in exhaustion.

Darien lowered his bow, and his voice was quiet and
dangerous. “Speak, man.”

The guard glanced up into Darien’s eyes, but he quickly
looked away, choosing to keep his gaze fixed on the ground before him. “We were
ambushed. They killed all the women and made off with all the gold and jewelry,
and I alone am escaped to tell you.”

Numbness spread through Darien’s limbs. “What about the
other guards?”

“
Dead.”

“
And didn’t you
fight?”

“
I did, but I knew the
fight was lost. Someone had to get back to tell you what had happened.”

“
Why?”

The guard looked up and blinked rapidly. Darien’s question
was vague, but the guard attempted an answer. “They were dressed like
highwaymen, but I saw through that disguise at once. They fought like seasoned
soldiers. This was a strike, not some mere robbery. I don’t know if you have
enemies, but I thought you’d want to know.”

Darien nodded and could not speak for several moments. When
at last he found his voice, he said, “You did right, man. If it was as you say,
then there’d have been no survivors, and I would’ve never learned what had
happened.” He still felt nothing but a strange floating feeling, as if his feet
were no longer on the ground. He looked down. They were. What had he just been
doing?
Archery?
He let the bow slip from his hand. His
concubines were dead.
Lia
,
Aneke
,
and the others – all rescued from slavery.
Lia
, a war widow captured.
Aneke
, to be
sold to pay her family’s debt.
And the others, saved from gang-rape
aboard ship. Darien had saved them all, and now they were dead.

Darien turned and waded right out into the middle of the
pool. He did not even stop to remove his sandals. He needed to feel the cool
water on his burning skin; he needed something to keep him from floating away.
The water hugged his flesh, wrapped itself around his waist and held him to the
earth. His concubines’ souls were already fleeing above him, in the air, racing
toward the gods. Darien looked up and stared directly into the blazing white
light of the sun,
Jehiel’s
own palace.

Darien heard Saerileth talking low behind him, but he did
not turn to listen. Then he heard a disturbance in the water, like someone
stepping in. The next thing he knew, Saerileth had laid her arms around his
neck, hugging him from behind.

“
They’re dead,” Darien
said.
Still no sorrow, no rage.
Just
numbness.
Only Saerileth’s touch he could feel.
And
the water.

“
Yes.”

“
Why?”

Saerileth’s answer was long in coming, but Darien waited.
He stared at the sparkling ripples of water that settled around him. “If the
assailants disguised themselves, then they had a specific purpose,” Saerileth
said. “Someone killed them to get to you, to injure you.”

“
I have only one
enemy.”

“
Ulen
Ahnok
.”

Darien repeated the name, and it was like an invocation.
Wrath exploded from him, and he raised his mighty arms, his muscles cording in
his fury.
“Ulen?”
Could it have been him? He leaped
from the pool and snatched up the first thing he could find: his bow. With his
bare hands he bent the limb until it splintered and snapped in two.

“
Why them?” Darien
asked. “Why not strike at me directly if he hates me?”

Saerileth walked around to stand in front of Darien. She
placed her hands flat against his chest and looked up into his eyes. “Kamen
thought that I was going with them.”

Kamen?
Kamen.
Ulen wanted Saerileth, and
Darien had seen Kamen and Ulen talking. Maybe Kamen mentioned something about
the concubines being shipped north. If Ulen had thought Saerileth would be
among them, then he would have made his move. If he had killed everyone off,
then there would have been no witnesses. It would have seemed that Saerileth
escaped the slaughter, not been abducted, and Ulen could have claimed her. Kill
everyone and bring the Lotus to me – those must have been Ulen’s orders. At
that moment, Darien realized how close he had come to losing Saerileth, too. He
grabbed her and caught her up in a tight hug, lifting her off her feet.

“
I could have lost
you.”

Saerileth smoothed his hair. “But you did not.”

“
How can I prove
Ulen’s involvement?”

“
You cannot,”
Saerileth said, “at least not on the testimony of one guard. He saw soldiers
dressed as thieves. That proves nothing.”

Holding Saerileth with only his forearms pressed against
her, Darien clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to kill Ulen, to rip
his tongue from his mouth and gouge out his eyes, to choke the life out of him
with his own two hands. He could see Ulen at that moment, sitting in his rich
house, drinking too much, and waiting for his ill-gotten prize to be delivered
to him. If only Darien could be the one to walk into his house and tell him
that he had failed to get what he had murdered for.

“
I must do something.
I won’t let that bastard get away with this.”

“
Of course,” Saerileth
said, “but you are
Sunjaa
. You are a man of the law.
We will find a way – that way – to prosecute him. Ulen is a fool, and this is
but the first of his mistakes.”

Rage gave way to sorrow, and Darien collapsed on the grass.
As his tears flowed, he mourned the deaths of his concubines. “I failed them! I
rescued them from slavery – and for what?
So that they could
be slaughtered in their litter on some country road in the middle of nowhere?”
Guilt seized him, and all his anger against Ulen disappeared. He alone was to
blame. He alone had failed them.

Saerileth took Darien’s face in her hands. “No! No, Darien.
This is not your fault. How could you have known? How could you have predicted
such a deed?”

Darien shook his head. He did not know how; he just knew he
should have.

“
You saved me,”
Saerileth said, kissing his forehead and letting him weep on her breast.

Darien lost himself in the pain of his regret, but through
his dark journey of shame, he was aware of Saerileth’s nearness, aware of her
life. Her touch had never felt sweeter than there in the midst of his sorrow.

Saerileth leaned in and kissed his lips. “Come inside, my
love. Your Lotus yet lives.”

****

Saerileth’s soft fingertips were like silk on Darien’s
skin. The bedroom was dark and cool with the curtains drawn. Scented candles
burned near the base of the wall, and Darien’s heart nearly burst with
gratitude at all Saerileth was doing to try to put him at ease. He took another
sip of his wine and then laid his head back in Saerileth’s lap. She wiped the
last bits of sweat from his brow, and the morning’s heat was felt no more. She
caressed his cheek and traced the contour of his muscular neck and shoulder as
she hummed a light, beautiful Zenji tune. Darien reached back and touched her
thighs, wanting to feel the softness of her flesh beneath his hands. He needed
her close; he needed her to stay close forever. Darien kept his eyes closed,
sensing Saerileth only through touch, heightening his desire for her. He felt
her kisses on his eyelids, and he smiled. Saerileth could be sexy, and she
could be sweet; she could be the life of the party or be alone with him. Darien
opened his eyes just as Saerileth leaned in, from his vantage point upside
down, for a kiss of his lips. Their mouths touched, and he felt from her such
passion and tenderness at the same time, as if it were their first and last kiss.

His hunger for her awakened, Darien flipped himself over
and pushed Saerileth down on the bed. He yanked at her short gown, and it tore
free, revealing her perfect, naked body beneath. Her white skin against the
dark purple sheets was a thing of indescribable beauty to him, and he made it
his mission to kiss every inch of her. She sat halfway up and helped him remove
his skirt, already raised by his growing cock. There was no foreplay, none of
the practiced coyness. Saerileth beckoned him forward, and he plunged his
massive phallus into her cunt. She had been wet for some time, for even her
pussy lips were slick.

Saerileth was Darien’s, and he was hers. He had her, and
she was all he needed. Joy mingled with desire as he realized afresh that
Saerileth still lived, that she had been spared. He drove his cock in all the
way and hunched over her, pausing to kiss her lips, to tell her with his kisses
just how happy he was. The sorrow of the past hour was gone, for who could
mourn when Saerileth was near? He was one with her. Saerileth held him inside
her with her heels against his backside, and she returned his kisses with
fervor that surprised Darien. Had they not just met? Her first orgasm struck
her then, and she gave out a lip-locked whine.

Darien lay back, and he brought Saerileth with him, placing
her on top. She rode him, took his cock deep inside her, rocking her pelvis
back and forward so that Darien could feel the narrowness of her vagina all the
way down his shaft. His cum built up inside him, eager to pour itself into its
new home. They fell into a steady rhythm of bliss, and Saerileth’s body was
wracked by orgasms again and again. Then, suddenly, she leaned forward far
enough for Darien to pop out. He looked into her eyes, but she only answered
with a sly smile. She reached back and grabbed his cum-coated cock and placed
it against her anal rosebud. Darien opened his mouth in silent shock. Again,
Saerileth did not respond with words. She placed a light, playful kiss on the
end of his nose, and that innocent gesture, coinciding with him entering her
ass, nearly made him lose it.

He felt his long shaft slide all the way in, and he
marveled at how he had disappeared completely inside her and how comfortably
Saerileth sat on top of him.

“
Saeri
?”
That was all he could say. He had fucked men
before, but this was altogether different, altogether sexier.