The Soldier's Lotus (26 page)

“
Then leave us.”
Darien did not even look at Kamen, instead giving all his attention to the
hollow of Saerileth’s throat. “I must bid farewell to my Lotus.”

Kamen nodded, but Saerileth knew Darien did not see the
gesture. “Will I see you before you go?”

“
No. Farewell, Kamen.”
Darien bent his head to Saerileth’s then, and even she did not see Kamen’s
departure.

“
My
Saeri
.”
Darien dropped kisses on her throat, deep, bruising kisses, and Saerileth ran
her fingers over the scars on his back. She dropped her hands to his short
Sunjaa
skirt, and without being able to see it, still she
unfastened it by touch alone.

Darien laughed. “You were afraid I was going to take Kamen
with me, weren’t you?”

“
I knew it was unwise
– what I told him was true – but I feared it.” Saerileth gasped as Darien’s
mouth dropped to her breasts. He took her nipple into his mouth, and the
sensation of his teeth biting through her dress and into her flesh sent the
cream dripping down her thighs.

Darien threw her back onto the pallet they had shared on
their way out, and he stood, naked, over her. The sight of his unclothed glory
dazzled Saerileth, and she stared up at him, dumbstruck.

He seemed to share something of her emotions, for he
dropped to his knees beside her and gathered her into his arms.

“
Abrexa’s
chain, Saerileth!
What have
I done?”

“
What are you talking
about?” Saerileth was perplexed.

“
It just occurred to
me, seeing you lie there in your strange
Vadal
gown
on the floor of an army tent – I shouldn’t have even brought you back from the
Vadal
court! You – you’re a Lotus! You’re fine and delicate
and deserve to be cherished—”

“
Master,” said
Saerileth, twining her arm around his neck. “I am a mere concubine, and I am well
served by an army tent.”

“
Saeri
.”
Darien traced the curve of her cheek. “You know
what I mean.”

“
I know that if you
had left me behind, I would have followed the army.” Saerileth clung to him. “I
wish you could take me with you!”

“
I thought of it,” said
Darien. “But I can’t risk it. I can’t risk
you
. I’m trying to convince
the very men who nearly gang-raped you—” His voice failed. “I’m not their
captain anymore, and I don’t want you anywhere near them!”

Saerileth kissed his lips, and their sweetness nearly made
her drunk. “I know, and I will be waiting for you to return.”

Darien did not speak; he acted. He tore her gown from her
in one swift motion, leaving her open and exposed to his eyes. He pushed her
back down onto the pallet, spreading her legs apart with his knee. Then he
grasped her thighs and impaled her with his massive cock.

Saerileth felt him stretching her open, the very pain a
pleasure, and she clung to him as he shoved into her repeatedly. His hands
wandered from her thighs up to her hips, and he – somehow, Saerileth did not
know precisely how – he was on his knees, and she was on her back, only her
shoulders touching the pallet. His rhythm shattered her, and she screamed his
name. She focused on the water-serpent on his breast, and it seemed to be both
the thick phallus that split her apart and also the sea-master who owned her
heart. She felt pressure on her throat, and she knew that one of his hands was
closed around it. She closed her eyes, giving in to the pleasure that only
Darien could give.

“
Saeri
, look at me.” The grunted command caused her
eyes to flutter open. “Now come for me.”

Saerileth felt the pressure on her throat increase, and a
particularly deep thrust broke her apart again. She sobbed incoherently as
their passion swept her away. She arched her back and came, squirting her
juices all over Darien’s pelvis.

“
Good girl.” Darien
rewarded her with thick streams of his seed, spraying hotly into her womb.

****

“I have a gift for you, Darien.” Saerileth had resumed wearing her
Zenji
pallav
, and Darien was dressed in the light
armor of a
Sunjaa
soldier. They were still in their
tent, but the sun was low on the horizon. Their time grew short.

“What?” Darien pulled her close.

“This.” She took from a fold of her
pallav
a thick, black bracelet capped with gold clasps. “I once told you that Lotuses
gave away locks of their hair as favors, and I wanted you to have this when you
left me.”

Darien turned the bracelet over in his hands.
“Your
hair,
Saeri
?
Thank you.” He held out his wrist
for her to close the bracelet around. “Where did you get the clasps?”

“In the
Vadal
court.”
For a long moment, they were silent, and Darien
kept her crushed against his chest. She could tell the impression her gift had
made by the unevenness of his breath.

“
Saerileth, you must
promise me something.”

“
I will promise you
anything, my love.” Saerileth stirred in his arms.

“
Stop taking your
herbs. When I get back, I want to make a baby with you.”

“
I will not take them
again.” Saerileth did not speak her fear, but Darien tilted her face up to his,
seeming to sense her need.

“
I will come back for
you,
Saeri
.”

She could not look at him; she dropped her gaze.

“
And if I don’t—”

“
Don’t say that!”
Saerileth interrupted him.

“
If I don’t, then you
must promise me to make sure to achieve your vengeance.”

Saerileth stared.

“
I saw you at my house
as it burned. I saw you.”

“
I was going after
you.” Saerileth leaned her cheek against his chest.

“
You have to achieve
your vengeance, Saerileth.
Even if you have to do it alone.”
Darien looked away in his turn, and Saerileth saw that there was more he wished
to say.

“
Why won’t you speak?”
She kissed his chest. “After everything – what can you hesitate to say?”

“
I can hesitate to be
selfish,” said Darien. “For I have insisted you be true to yourself, to your
clan, knowing that that would mean you living and loving again, and yet I find
that I want to be sure that it isn’t—”

“
I cannot love again,
Darien.” Saerileth laughed, a sound more bitter than sweet. “You’ve ruined me
for any other man, and I wouldn’t want another. And I shan’t love Kamen. That
is a promise.”

Darien kissed her then, his lips on hers the sweetest fire
she had ever known.

And then he was gone.

****

The
moonslight
was
more red
than blue, and as Saerileth sat in the general’s
tent looking at the battle-map, she thought it was a bad omen that the whole
map looked to be bathed in blood.

“
So, Lord
Itenu
,” said General
Lomenin
.
“Why have you asked to see us at this hour?”

Saerileth glanced at Kamen. So he had asked for her presence,
too? She hoped that his desire for her had not become something more.

“
Why haven’t we been
met by the army yet?” asked Kamen. “We have come into the heart of our own
nation – through the desert, true – but so far to have met
no
opposition?”

“
We march under the
banner of the
Sunjaa
king.” The general gestured
vaguely in the direction of the tent-flap. “Surely that is why?”

“
No, it isn’t.” Kamen
paced, and Saerileth saw the resemblance to Darien in the way he responded to
stress. She supposed that Kamen might have picked up the habit from his
captain. “You are obviously
Vadal
, and if the
Sunjaa
army were so idiotic as to fall for such a simple
ruse, you would not have lost the war.”

“
It is not a ruse!”
General
Lomenin
half rose from his chair.

“
Of
course not.”
Saerileth spoke
then, easing the tension she felt rising between the two men. General
Lomenin
was, like Kamen, a nobleman, and they brought out
the irritable pride in each other. “But the young king’s existence is not
widely known. The banner would have been assumed to be a half-hearted attempt
at deception.”

“
So
what then?”
The general,
obviously mollified, sat back down.

“
It is doubtful that
Ulen
Ahnok
,” Saerileth refused to give him his title
of “Lord”, “has so much support as he would like.”

“
We have already
established that he does not have the navy.” Kamen nodded his agreement, and
Saerileth felt a chill of discomfort at his courtesy.

“
He does have at least
some support, for there were many who were not entirely pleased with His
Grace’s taking of the Princess Royal for his concubine.” Saerileth paused,
calculating. “But displeasure and rebellion are different. He has, I am sure,
the support of the infantry at least so long as they are near him. He knows,
though I am sure not all his men do, that the young king lives. He cannot risk
sending out troops into the desert. He might lose them.”

“
Not to death but to
us.” Kamen clearly understood what she meant. “So he keeps them with him.”

“
Until we arrive, and
then he can call us aggressors. He can cement his hold on the city by uniting
them against ‘the
Vadal
invasion’.” General
Lomenin
seemed impressed by Saerileth’s acumen. “Do they
train Lotuses in
warcraft
?”

“
Not in tactics, my
lord.” Saerileth smiled. “But in reading motivations, yes.”

“
We need more information,”
said Kamen.

“
Yes.” Saerileth
caught his eye. “For the Zenji connection still has no explanation. How has
Ulen
Ahnok
been able to get the Zenji to guard his
harbor for him?”

“
I will go,” said
Kamen. He turned to the general. “We will not be moving against the city before
Captain Darien’s return, and I will be able to be back before then.”

“
You’re sure?” asked
the general. “I wouldn’t want to be left alone without even a single
Sunjaa
to give countenance to my ‘invasion’.”

“
I will be back by tomorrow
night.” Kamen bowed and left, and Saerileth, not liking the lascivious gleam in
the general’s eye, followed immediately.

Kamen was waiting for her outside the tent, and he dropped
his voice, speaking in low, quick
Sunjaa
, ensuring
secrecy, though they were in public view. “You’re not coming with me.”

“
I actually had
thought to go instead of you,” said Saerileth mildly. “I can be stealthier than
you could.” She saw the flash of darkness in his eyes. “But you are not going
by stealth. You are going to approach Ulen
Ahnok
openly, as an ally.”

“
I am no traitor!”
Kamen’s voice, though still low, was full of burning passion. “You can’t think
that I am!”

“
I know you did not
betray King
Jahen
or his father, and I know that you
love my Master too much to betray him – knowingly.”

“
Abrexa’s
chain!
You’re a witch.”
Kamen grabbed her wrist and held it.

“
Not a witch.”
Saerileth almost wanted to roll her eyes.
“Just a Lotus.
You knew about my Master’s concubines being sent upriver. You assumed that I
was among them. You told Ulen about it, hoping he would take me away. But he
slaughtered them all, and I was not even there.”

Kamen seemed to be choking. “I didn’t know. I didn’t think
he’d kill them. Gods, I wouldn’t do that to Darien! He didn’t love those women,
but—”

“
But he wanted to
protect them.” Saerileth disengaged her wrist from Kamen’s clasp. “And you
endangered them.”

“
I didn’t know.”
Kamen’s misery moved Saerileth to pity, and some of her hate melted away. She
knew that Darien loved her; Kamen would never be loved by Darien, not the way
Kamen wanted. Was that not enough punishment?