The Soldier's Lotus (29 page)

“
Yes.” Saerileth read
over the second scroll. “And these are more of the same.
More
records, but more recent.”

“
I brought all three
scrolls I could not read.” Kamen handed her the third.

“
He has mercenaries
from the
Dimadan
,” said Saerileth, looking over the
further accounts.

“
Then he must not
trust his soldiers entirely.” Kamen nodded.

“
That is good news.”
General
Lomenin
poured out three mugs of beer.

“
Excellent
news.”
Saerileth looked up,
and she saw her own joy reflected in Kamen’s eyes. Her vengeance was glowing in
her mind.
The leader of the
Chamri
clan.
He would die by her hand. She and Darien would live in peace.

“
Do we know if he
plans to issue forth from the city?
To meet us in the field
before the walls of Arinport?”
General
Lomenin
unrolled the battle-map once more.

“
There is nothing to
show in these scrolls,” said Saerileth, and it was difficult to answer. She had
met the
Chamri
clan leader once. His name was
Talex
Chamri
, the third of that
name, and he was forty-seven years old. And he was her enemy. He was also
likely in Arinport right now.

“
He said that they
weren’t planning to go out to war. He said that they would wait for the ‘
Vadal
invaders’ to grow tired of waiting pointlessly by the
gates.”

“
He does not trust his
men even to meet us in battle?” Saerileth forced herself to speak.
Talex
Chamri
is my foe;
his death is mine.

“
He has given out that
King
Jahen
is dead, that the only scion left of the
line of the
Sunjaa
king is himself.” Kamen turned
apologetically to the general. “We are a people of words, of law, and our royal
line has continued unbroken since the dawn of writing. Ulen has taken up
residence in the royal palace, for he is unanimously acclaimed king.”

“
So if Captain Darien
can break through the guard around the port, then—”

“
When.”
Darien’s name broke through the fog of blood
that filled Saerileth’s mind.
“Not if, sir.
When. My
Master shall succeed.”

“
And now I must take
the scrolls back again.” Kamen rolled them up. “If Ulen doesn’t know they’ve
been taken, then he won’t know that we know his plans.”

“
These scrolls,” said
Saerileth, “tell us nothing of his plans. They tell us of his past, of how he
obtained the money to pull off this coup, but only your words tell of the
plans. Do not go back, Lord
Itenu
.”

Kamen stared at her, and Saerileth felt the weight of his
gaze as a burning brand on her skin. She forced her breath into evenness, lest
pity for Kamen touch her.

Then the name of
Talex
Chamri
swept away everything but Darien. She wanted to
present Darien with the proof of her vengeance, and then they would couple. She
would no longer have any duty to her lost clan, and she would make a new clan
with Darien.

“
If
you will excuse me, General, Lord
Itenu
.”
Saerileth left her beer untouched as well. She
nodded to them both and retired to the tent she had shared with Darien. Once
there, she traced in the dirt of the floor the boar of the
Kesandrahn
house.
The boar sigil, the sign of her lost clan.
She
would show it to Darien, and he would kiss her.

****

“
Lotus?”

Saerileth stirred. She had slept, though not well, and she
was rested enough. Three days. Three days since Darien had gone, and she slept
badly still. She recognized the voice of the general’s page. “I await the
general’s pleasure.” She rose, shaking out her hair.

“
The general needs you
at once.”

Saerileth heard the urgency in the boy’s voice, and she
pulled her
pallav
up over her face. “Take me to him.”

“
Please, Lotus.” The
general was not sitting, and his face was grey. “Lord
Itenu
did not listen to you, Lotus. He returned to Arinport.”

Saerileth closed her eyes. She had been avoiding Kamen,
avoiding any place where he might have been, for Darien’s sake. “When did he
go?”

“
The
night that he returned.”

Abrexa’s
chain!
Saerileth spoke quietly. “He expected to return before now then, sir?”

“
Yes,
Lotus.
What should I tell
the captain when he returns?”

“
You shan’t have to
tell him anything,” said Saerileth.
“For I shall fetch back
Lord
Itenu
.”

“
You can’t!” The
general reached out toward her, but Saerileth ducked beneath his arm and popped
up behind him. Her breath was in his ear.

“
I can. And I shall
not let my Master return to find his first mate lost.”

“
I think I might
change my mind about getting a Lotus of my own.” The general chuckled as
Saerileth stepped away from him. “They’re dangerous.”

“
Very.” Saerileth
smiled. “But we are also strong allies.”
And better concubines. I love you,
Darien, and for your sake, I will bring you Kamen
Itenu
.

****

Slipping through the streets of Arinport brought back to
Saerileth her happy days there. The realization that she had spent more time
with Darien wandering the desert than she had spent with him in his house
struck her like a blow. She kept to the shadows. The city was just as busy,
just as full of life, as it had been when Darien had brought her here. She did
not, of course, make her way directly to the royal palace. She needed to see the
best way to get Kamen back out of the city. She could not know if Kamen would
be able to walk when she got to him. She sighed. Kamen was, though not nearly
Darien’s size, far larger than she. She would need a horse.

Or a boat.

She turned toward the side of the city where Darien’s house
had stood. His garden had looked over the sea. She had seen a small skiff
there, and if it still were there, she could use it to get Kamen out into the
sea. She would not go through the harbor proper; she would cling to the coast
and get up to the beach. She needed only to get Kamen within sight of the
Vadal
army, and then she could get him out, give him to
Darien.

The skiff was there, but when she saw it, Saerileth could
not even think of it. Instead she saw the black ashes of Darien’s house as a
scar on the face of Arinport. Ulen had wronged Darien, and she would rejoice to
see Darien take his vengeance on the one who had flogged him.

Saerileth traced a boar in the ashes. The
Kesandrahn
boar would rise from the ashes Ulen had made and
gore the
Chamri
leader to death.

When Saerileth reached the royal palace, it was ablaze with
light. With an army at his gates, Ulen feasted his nobles. This could only mean
that he needed their good-will. She smiled. This would make her task easier.
She had been in the royal palace twice, and that was more than enough for a
Lotus. She knew its corridors, knew its halls. It would not take her long.

It took her even less time than she had expected. Saerileth
kept to the shadows, and she had thought to have to pass around the festival,
to search through the whole palace – but she had learned the sound of Kamen’s
voice. She could make it out over the sounds of the music, over the sounds of
the feasting, over the sounds of the singing.

Kamen was screaming, screaming in agony.

She was able to hide in the shadows of the palace, for they
were many; and the dungeons were the darkest of all.

She paused outside the door from whence the sounds issued.
The cries there were so loud that Saerileth had difficulty in making out the
number of others in the room. She heard, too, the weakening of Kamen’s cries.
The time was too short. She could not wait further.

Saerileth pushed open the door and tumbled into the room.
She had judged Kamen’s location by his screams, and she assumed that there
would be at least two others, one on either side of him. There might be a
third, probably by the door.

There was a third. Saerileth would have to save the third
for last. She could not afford to leave the torturers alone even a moment
longer. The two torturers had blades, short and bloody ones, but the guard on
the door had a sword.

Saerileth tumbled behind the torturer whose blade was still
in Kamen’s flesh. Her fingers flew quickly, and the Katipo Form held him
motionless. She grasped the blade from his hands, pulling it from Kamen’s skin.
He would have scars to match Darien’s.

She lifted the blade in one smooth motion, ending her arc
in the fleshy
underpart
of the jaw of the other
torturer.

The sword-wielding guard charged her then, but his cries
were not
so
loud as Kamen’s had been. She did not fear
discovery. She had, she judged, ten minutes before the paralyzed one came out
of it. That would be plenty of time.

The sword danced in front of her face, and Saerileth ducked
beneath it. Low was easier when she was smaller than her foe – and she was
usually smaller. She still had a dagger, too, and that was more than she
needed. She tumbled backward, and she felt Kamen’s bloody flesh brushing
against her thighs. Then the dagger flew from her hand as though it had a will
of its own. It buried itself in the eye of her foe. Saerileth darted over to
snap the neck of her paralyzed enemy, and then she was back at Kamen’s side.

“
Lord
Itenu
.” She spoke low and urgently into his ear. “Can you
hear me?”

A short groan was the only reply.

Saerileth looked over his ravaged flesh as she unfastened
the manacles that held his arms and legs. The cuts on his chest and back were
deep, but the torturers had been skillful. None of the cuts individually was
life-threatening, and though the overall blood loss and shock had nearly killed
him, with care, he would live. She pulled gently on his arm, trying to lift
him. She was a skilled martial artist, but her strength, though great for her
size, was not enough to carry Kamen for very long. They would do better if she
could get him to shuffle along and lean on her.

“
Lord
Itenu
.” She reached into her
pallav
and pulled out two pungent herbs. She poured a small amount of each into her
palm and spat on the mixture. Using her saliva, she made a paste, which she
then rubbed on Kamen’s upper lip, just below his nostrils.

“
Lord
Itenu
,” she said again. This time, with the aid of the
smelling salts on his lip, Kamen managed to open his eyes.

“
Saerileth?”

“
I’ve come to take you
back to meet my master.” She tugged on his arm again. “But you will have to
help me. I need you to walk a bit.”

“
Why?” Kamen’s eyes
still held the delirium of pain-induced shock.

“
I can’t carry you the
whole way.” Saerileth avoided answering the question she knew he meant.

Still groaning, Kamen struggled to sit. “You’re an angel.
You saved me – and Darien wasn’t even there. You could’ve let me die.”

“
Don’t speak.”
Saerileth helped him to his feet, and he leaned heavily on her shoulders. She
could feel his blood dripping down her skin.

For a long while Kamen obeyed, and when he did not speak
even when Saerileth had to leave him propped against the wall to dispatch three
guards, she hoped that he would be silent until they returned to the
Vadal
camp.

Her hopes crashed around her as, so soon as the palace was
well behind them, Kamen said, “I love Darien, but you – you’re too—”

“
Do not say anything,
Lord
Itenu
.” Saerileth judged it would take them an
hour to reach the skiff, as Kamen’s speed was excruciatingly slow. She hoped
that the herbs she would have to give him to keep him on his feet so long would
not overtax his weakened system. And they were leaving a trail of blood.

“
But, Saerileth—”

“
I am a Lotus, Lord
Itenu
.” Saerileth removed her
pallav
and, with as much gentleness as if he had been little King
Jahen
,
she wrapped the silk around his torn flesh. “That should absorb enough blood to
keep us from being tracked by it.”