The Soldier's Lotus (2 page)

****

Saerileth sat up in her bed. She had dreamt all the way to
the end, and the nightmare had turned to joy. That was uncommon. More usually
she woke in the midst of the clamor of the battle. That she had slept until the
end she considered a good omen. She rose and made her way to the porthole. She
could, by craning her neck, see the twin moons still high in the sky. She had
woken precisely when she had intended. She glanced back around the cabin and
sighed. She would have liked to take the dulcimer with her. Despite the
captain’s ignorance, apparently Ulen
Ahnok
had
researched her more thoroughly. A walnut dulcimer and two silver beaters had
been waiting for her. But perhaps, once she had collected the death owed
her,
she could go back to the master who had purchased her.
She bore him no ill will. He had, after all, made it through the screening
process of the guild, so he would have to be an intelligent, educated, wealthy
nobleman.

Saerileth patted the dulcimer. The herbs, on the other
hand, she could not leave. She opened the tiny chest and pulled out the various
packets. Two or three were in tiny, stoppered ceramic vials, and these she
wrapped in linen before adding them to the small seal-skin bag. Seal-skin would
keep the herbs dry even if she should fall into the water. She tucked the
seal-skin bag into an inner pouch in one of the folds of her
pallav
. No one would know it was there.

The danger of her present undertaking struck her like a
fist, and Saerileth inhaled deeply. The calming breaths failed. She shook her
head, displeased with herself. By the moons she had at least an hour’s leeway,
so she took the time to run through some dozen of the Lotus-Forms. The
positions, the stretches, the swift jabs – none seemed to be possible given her
tight-fitting skirt, but the seams were designed to give. The tightness gave
way to freedom of movement, and when, fifteen minutes later, Saerileth
readjusted her
pallav
, she was ready.

She rang the bell the captain had given her upon her coming
aboard. As she heard the approaching footsteps, she sat back on the edge of the
bed and draped her
pallav
across the lower half of
her face.

“
How may I serve the
Lotus?” The captain himself had answered her summons, as Saerileth had known he
would.
Three glances at him over dinner, one whisper of his
name, one half-touch of her hand on his arm as he passed, and he was hers.
She knew it.

“
Please, sir, close
the door.” Saerileth purposely gave the captain more deference than his rank
deserved, and she looked up at him through her long, black lashes.

His breath quickened, and Saerileth slowed
her own
as he closed the door. She closed her eyes. She
could hear his pounding heart.

“
How may I serve you?”
he asked again. Though Saerileth’s eyes were still closed, she knew exactly
where he stood, exactly how far he was from her.

“
I have been sold,”
said Saerileth, and she allowed her native Zenji accents to tinge her voice as
she spoke. “I have been sold to a man three times my age, to one rich, yes, but
one who – who cannot love me.” It was a line she would not have used had the
captain been a more educated or cultured man, but his lack of knowledge of the
ways of the nobility had been obvious to her. He was a commoner, and he had a
commoner’s views. Though as a Lotus she was property, first of the guild and
now of Ulen
Ahnok
, she was not accounted a slave. A
Lotus was highly honored, and a commoner would consider her almost magical.

“
What can I do for
you?” asked the captain. “If you will bid me do anything, anything at all, for
you, I would hold myself honored.”

Saerileth’s eyes filled with tears, and she allowed one to
fall. “I know you are
Sunjaa
, one of the people of
the Word. You have written your oath to Ulen
Ahnok
,
have you not? How could I ask you to do anything that might jeopardize your
word?”

“
And I will here write
for you, Lotus, a new oath, one that will bind me to you and your service for
all my life.”

“
I do not require so
much as that.” Saerileth fixed her eyes on the captain, knowing that their
cobalt blue was only enhanced by her unshed tears.
“Just an
hour.
I cannot ask for more than that.”

“
And what must I do
for you in this one hour?” The hunger in the captain’s voice was greater than
she had expected, but she did not have time now to adjust her influence.

“
Set a fire in some
part of the ship. Nowhere that would endanger anyone, of course!” Saerileth
turned to face the captain, and she let her veil fall away.

“
Abrexa
fuck me.” The captain’s whispered oath was his
only response to seeing her naked face, and Saerileth pretended not to hear it.
He stared at her full, red lips as she spoke, and she could see the hardening
of his shaft inside his breeches.

“
I cannot go to
Arinport. I … cannot.” Saerileth turned away again, but she did not lift her
veil. Instead she let the captain look upon her profile in the purple
moonslight
. “If you cause some commotion in the ship,
something that will keep everyone busy, prevent anyone from pursuing, I could
take a lifeboat and be gone.”

“
A small fire would
not do this, Lotus.” The captain began to pace.

Saerileth lifted the edge of her
pallav
and hid the lower half of her face once more. She knew perfectly well that a
small fire would not do what she required. She knew exactly where to damage the
hull to make the ship so unseaworthy that it must be attended to immediately,
to the exclusion of all else, but yet allowing enough time for it to be
repaired before sinking. She would, if pressed, suggest it herself, but she
hoped that the captain would think of it himself.

He did. “If you and I, Lotus, hit the hull in several
places – but can you do this?” He paused, and his anxiety was greater than
Saerileth wished. “Are you able to, if I give you a chisel, crack pitch?
For I cannot do it alone, not in enough time.”

“
For my liberty’s
sake, sir, I can do anything necessary.” Saerileth did not find it necessary to
mention that, due to her training in the arts of the Lotus-Forms, she could
probably have broken the captain’s neck, despite the seeming fragility of her
frame.

“
Then I will bring you
a chisel at once. Wait until you hear me pass by the outside of your door. I
will have the lifeboat ready before we begin.”

“
Yes,
sir.
May
Melara
Rose-goddess and Chained
Abrexa
both rain blessings
on
you.
”

“
I pray they may.” And
he was gone.

Saerileth took up a place by the door and berated herself
inwardly. She had behaved as badly as a budding Lotus! She had made a mistake
only fit for newly-tattooed recruits. She had overshot her mark. He was too
much in love with her. She only hoped that, in the midst of the confusion they
were about to
cause,
she could find a way to leave him
behind.

****

Saerileth shivered in the sea-spray. The lifeboat rocked
perilously, and the captain’s muscles strained beneath his tunic as he rowed.
The
Sunjaa
ship was still visible, but already they
were well away. Saerileth could, by concentrating, still make out shouts from
the ship, but the captain, she knew, could not. For another ten minutes they
traveled in silence, the captain rowing as fast as he could. Saerileth watched
him, and she did not dare to relax. She had failed to leave him behind, as he
had met her halfway to the lifeboat and had remained at her side thereafter.

“
We are free, Lotus.”
The ship was at last out of sight, and even Saerileth could no longer hear the
sailors. She was alone on the sea with one she had made obsessed with her.

“
Thank you, captain.”
Saerileth curled up in the corner of the lifeboat. She was afraid, afraid that
she might have to collect a death not owed to her, to take a life for her own
protection, and she did not want to.

“
I have written my new
oath, Lotus.” The captain let the oars hang in the oarlocks and moved to sit
beside her. He pulled from beneath his tunic a rough parchment, not the papyrus
that Saerileth had expected of a
Sunjaa
. On it he had
written
Sunjaa
hieroglyphs. “Can you read it?” he
asked.

“
Yes.” Saerileth bit
her lip and forced her breath to slow. He had written out that he forswore all
other allegiances, repudiated all other oaths, and bound himself to her only.
“But I cannot accept such an oath, captain. It would bind me as well as
you,
bind me into the role of your mistress.”

“
It has been written,”
said the captain. “And so it is.”

“
I shall not be your
mistress,” said Saerileth, but she took the parchment nonetheless, tucking it
into her
pallav
.

“
My
lover then!”
The captain
leapt upon her, taking her words as she had dreaded that he would. She had done
her work far too well. In her fear that she might not succeed in gaining
sufficient influence over him by the time they reached Arinport, she had
overshot her mark. He was mad with desire for her.

“
No.” Saerileth slipped
from his grasp, and she saw the confusion on his face. He had not expected such
abilities in her.

“
For you I have thrown
over everything!” His eyes grew wild. “You must reward your servant!”

“
I never asked this of
you,” said Saerileth. “And I beg you not to do this thing. Do not try to force
yourself on me. It is forbidden.” She hoped against her better knowledge that
her words would have some effect, but still the captain came on. He ripped at
her
pallav
, trying to tear it from her. His hands
sought her breasts, and Saerileth closed her eyes. She had not wanted this
death.

As he pulled her toward him, she clasped her hands around
his neck.

And snapped it.

Only when she had heaved the corpse overboard did she
realize that the captain had, in his struggles, knocked the oars loose. She had
no paddles of any kind, no way to steer, and she was out of sight of any shore.
Despite her fear, however, Saerileth did not forget to tear up the parchment of
the captain’s vile oath, scattering the tiny pieces onto the waves.

“
Chained
Abrexa
have mercy.”

Chapter Two

Darien slammed his fist into his palm, cracking all the
knuckles in his hand. The close, hot air of the cabin stifled him, and he
yanked at his collar while with the deft movements of his thumb he popped the
buttons of his shirt. A couple of tugs at the white linen that stuck to his
sweat-soaked skin sent billowing relief down his chest and across his back. He
rose from where he sat behind his antique desk and took the two steps necessary
to the porthole. Throwing it open, he nodded to his first mate.

“
Get the door, Kamen.”

Puzzlement entered Kamen’s eyes.
“You
sure?”

Darien drew a wet hand across his wet brow. He was not the
type of captain to keep himself all cooped up in his room, even if he was talking
finances with his first mate.
And especially not in the heat
of summer.
He enjoyed
a certain
openness with
his crew that in his experience created greater camaraderie among the men.

Kamen opened the door, and the general noise of the main
deck flooded in. “Anyway, as I was saying, since the third mate and two other
men were lost in our
latest,
their shares are up for
grabs.”

Darien put one leg up on a crossbeam of the bulkhead,
rested his elbow on his knee, and looked out the window across the wide sea.
“What are the shares?”

Kamen came to stand near Darien and glanced down at his
ledger. “The third mate had 2 ½, and the other two together had one share.”

“
All right,” Darien
said, “take them all and divide them equally among the men. It’ll give them a
few more silver when they go ashore.”

Kamen’s lips stretched downward in surprise. “That’ll make
the crew happy.”

Darien turned to Kamen and smiled. “That’s the point.” He
clapped his first mate on the shoulder. “They did a fine job taking down those
Stormhaven
pirates.
Made short work of
them, thereby making my job look easy.”

Kamen reached up and grasped Darien’s forearm as it still
rested on his shoulder. He ran his hand along his captain’s smooth, brown skin.
“They owe it all to you. You’re the best commander anyone could ask for.”