The Lotus Ascension (11 page)

“
Oh, I have something you will love.” Merieke sat up suddenly. She
reached into the tiny pouch that hung from her golden belt, and Sillara, as
Merieke dug through, unhooked Merieke's straps. Merieke obligingly wriggled out
of her gown, and she dropped down to lie between Sillara's legs. Merieke gently
nudged Sillara's thighs apart, and Sillara obliged her.

“
Your own tutor invented this,” said Merieke, winding up a little
silver egg-shaped thing. “Orien brought one back from the party.”

Sillara heard
the whirring of tiny gears, and she could perfectly imagine Konas's long,
skillful fingers setting each one in place. Then Merieke placed the small,
shuddering egg on Sillara's bare pussy, and Sillara sucked in her breath.

“
Good, yes?” Merieke slid one hand up Sillara's flank up to her
breast. Sillara's breasts were a bit large for her
size,
and her breast more than filled Merieke's hand. And still Merieke kept that
vibrating egg pressed against Sillara's nub.

Then Merieke
pulled away the egg, and Sillara bit her lip. “More,” she said.

“
Patience, lovely.”
Merieke wound the egg up again,
then
settled it once more on Sillara's clit. Then she straddled Sillara again, and
the little shaking egg was between their smooth pussies. As Merieke pressed
down, Sillara pressed up, and then Merieke's lips came crashing down on
Sillara's mouth.

Warmth blossomed
up from Sillara's sheath, spreading throughout her whole body, and Merieke
bucked against her. Their breasts rubbed against each other, and Merieke's
tongue slipped between Sillara's lips.

This time
Sillara did not resist the urge to open to her, and Merieke's soft tongue
explored Sillara's mouth. And the warmth continued to grow as Merieke's pubis
ground against Sillara's. Sillara shook once from head to foot and threw back
her head. Her rising wail was smothered in Merieke's mouth, and wetness dripped
from Sillara's pussy.

Merieke sat up
then. “Well done! Your first climax I take it?”

Sillara nodded.

“
You came easily and without being self-conscious. You may be
inexperienced, but you are certainly not naïve.”

“
I liked it.” Sillara wondered for a moment why she had never had
more curiosity to taste what Soren had described as so pleasant. “More,” said
Sillara suddenly, pushing Merieke's head down toward her pussy.

“
Greedy!” Merieke's laugh was easy, and she obliged Sillara. She took
out the egg and instead placed her mouth against Sillara's dripping lips.
Merieke gave a long swipe of her tongue, collecting all of Sillara's cream,
then
sucked the swollen pink hood of her clit into her
mouth.

Sillara put both
her hands on the back of Merieke's head, holding her friend in place. Merieke
responded with a nip of her teeth, and Sillara climaxed again, a small one that
only whetted her appetite for more of the same. She braced with her feet and
pushed up against Merieke's sucking mouth. As Merieke's tongue—and teeth—worked
their magic, Sillara fucked her face. There was no other word for the wild
abandon with which Sillara bucked against Merieke, and when her next orgasm
shook her it was a fierce thing, one that left her gasping and panting and
sweat-soaked.

Merieke crawled
up next to Sillara and kissed her. “Now you will know what to expect from your
Ausir lover.”

Sillara's fogged
thoughts did not at once conjure up the King who had had her troth from the day
of her birth. She could not think of anyone at all. She wondered what Soren
would make of that.

Chapter Six

Soren found
Nathen at his father's forge, testing the weight of several harpoons. Much like
whaling harpoons, they were made of black iron, with cruel points reversing
direction back toward the wielder. Soren had never been wurm-hunting, though
Nathen, two years his senior, had been out in the dunes with his older brother
and father before going into the navy.

“
So these are it, then?” Soren walked over and picked up a harpoon.
He ran his thumb down its point and over the barbs. “They sound?”

“
Yes, just like whales, though not as deep, of course.” Nathen
indicated the hoop at the shaft's end. “Tie the rope here, and gallop along
behind it. Just hope you don't run out of rope before it comes back up.”

“
Sounds risky.”
Soren had an idea brewing. “How do you anchor the rope?”

“
Around the horse.”

“
Are you telling me that if the wurm dives too deeply, it'll snap
your mount's neck?”

Nathen nodded.
“It's not that common, though. Most of the sands just aren't that deep.”

“
But it
can
and
has
happened.”

“
Yes.”

Soren tossed the
harpoon back into its crate. “You need more rope.”

“
It's hard to store that much while riding along,” Nathen said.

“
Do you mind if I make use of one of your slaves?” Soren asked.

Nathen's eyes
widened. “Soren, you fucked all night! Surely you've had enough.”

Soren doubled
over in laughter.
“No, no, no, my friend.
I just want
someone to take a message to Konas.”

“
Oh.” Nathen laughed, too. “Sure.” He summoned a slave.

“
Go to Lord Seranimesti's house,” Soren said, “and see if he is at
leisure to see me. Tell him that if he comes to Lord Kesandrahn's house, he
will hear something that only an Ausir can appreciate.”

The slave bowed
and sprinted off.

“
What've you got cooking?” Nathen narrowed his eyes playfully.

“
Just a bit of Ausir tinkering. Speaking of Ausir tinkering, did you
enjoy last night?”

Nathen dropped
his harpoon and turned to face Soren. He slipped his arms around his waist and
laid his hands on his firm ass. “You know I did.” He pressed his rising cock
against Soren's own.

“
And did your sister recover?”

Nathen rolled
his eyes and pecked Soren on the lips. “You know her, always the saucy one. She
still calls you a thief of love.”

Soren looked
down Nathen's bare chest and abdomen. “It's good to be home, isn't it?” This
talk of sisters brought Sillara to his mind. He had missed her terribly, and
though he had not said anything, he was not sure how much longer he could have
borne it.

“
Indeed, it is.” Nathen dropped to his knees and lifted up Soren's
short linen skirt. He pulled aside the cloth that covered his cock and took the
penis in his hand, lifting it out into the sunlight.

Soren looked
around. They were in his walled garden, so the only people who could see would
be anyone coming from inside the house.
Slaves or family.
He did not mind Merieke happening upon them, but he was a bit unsure of how he
felt about Darien. Not that Darien would be against sucking cock, but now, when
they were busy with preparations for departure?

Nathen took
Soren's hardening cock into his mouth, and Soren's eyes rolled back with
pleasure as Nathen let it slip past his tongue and down his throat. Not being
completely erect, the phallus bent just enough to slide down. Soren's balls
rested against Nathen's chin. He drew in a quick breath, grabbed Nathen by the
hair, and gently fucked his throat. In a few short moments, he was obliged to
pull halfway out, no longer able to hold his full erection in place without
causing himself pain. Nathen licked and sucked, and Soren played in his hair.

“
Abrexa's cunt, man,” Konas said, surprising them. He stood on the
back porch with a wide smile on his face. “You're insatiable.”

Soren pointed
down to Nathen. “He started it.” Nathen showed no signs of stopping, and though
Soren would dearly have loved to come in Nathen's mouth, it would have been
rude to see the oral pleasure to completion when he had a guest specially sent
for. He tapped his friend on the cheek, and Nathen rose with a pout. “Later.”

Putting his cock
away, he walked across the short grass lawn to where Konas stood. “I've got an
idea, and I need another Ausir mind to help me with it.”

Konas bowed.
“I'm intrigued.” His eyes lit up in irrepressible Ausir curiosity.

Soren and Konas
spent the next eight hours in devising of a winch for the ropes to be coiled
upon. First they started with diagrams drawn on wax tablets. They went through
five such tablets before they could both agree on a basic design. Though they
bickered and picked at each other over the details, they laughed with each
other as well, for they shared a common love for artifice and craft. Nathen
disappeared sometime during the forging of the frame, and Soren, being so
engrossed in his work, knew not where he had gone. They fashioned the drum
first, then moved on to the gears and the pins. Konas instructed Soren in how
he had devised the vibrating eggs, and it was upon that principle that they
made a winch that could not only accommodate the sounding of a wurm beyond
three times the depth currently considered safe, but with a twist of the handle
in the opposite direction, the device could automatically pull the rope in.
They built it strong, so strong that the horse's strength would fail before it
would.

The afternoon
shadows grew long, and the sweat and grime of the forge clung to their skin.
Without asking for permission, the two Ausir were led by the day's joy to strip
off their clothes and jump into Darien's garden pool. They splashed each other
as they laughed with their whole hearts. Nathen found them playing like boys.

“
What's this?” Nathen grinned as he removed his skirt and joined them
in the pool.

“
Soren made a winch for wurm hunting,” Konas said before he dunked
his head under water. When he came up, his black horns streamed.

“
A what?”
Nathen asked Soren while Konas was still under.

“
A spool, much like the way a woman keeps thread, though this one
rotates over a stationary drum.”

Nathen's puzzled
look was eloquent.

“
It'll hold three times the rope you use now,” Soren said. “It keeps
the horse from getting strangled to death.”

Nathen smiled
and shook his head. “You Ausir are frightening. And you're not even full
Ausir!”

Konas wiped the
water from his eyes. “Yes, but he thinks like one, and has as much love for the
work of his own hands as I have ever seen even in the proudest of my race.”

“
Thanks, Konas,” was Soren's unequal reply.

All three
laughed and played, though there was no time for fucking. Soren was distracted
with thoughts of a chassis that would slip between the blanket and the saddle.
The weight of a full-grown man should hold the winch in place, though he should
have no other baggage. As it was made of nothing but metal, and as it would
hold a spool of rope, Soren thought any extra bags might overburden the horse.

Evening came so
fast that Soren jumped from the pool in surprise. “I must get back home, but I
have to forge the chassis first.”

Konas grabbed a
towel that a nearby slave offered. “I'll go ahead. I want to talk to Lord Itenu
about some things, and you don't need my help with a simple bit of metal
bending, do you?” He winked at Soren.

Indeed, compared
to the construction of the winch and all its fine moving parts, the
construction of the chassis was child's work.

“
Go ahead.” Soren waved Konas off. “I'll see you there.”

Soren worked
until the moons rose, and once he had the winch mounted to the chassis, he
washed his face and hands, mounted his horse, and sped through the city. What a
perfect day—he had gotten to make something new in the world, and now he would
spend the evening in the perfect company of his sister. All the way home, he
thought of how nice it would be to have these weeks with Sillara before she
went to the Silbrios to live among a foreign people as their foreign Queen. The
thought of her leaving was the only thing that could mar the day's happiness,
and though a shadow passed over his mind, he resolved not to dwell on the
inevitable but think rather on Sillara's beautiful face. That always cheered
him, no matter what circumstance he found himself in. He could be happy in the
stinging rain of a nasty sea squall, as long as he held the memory of Sillara close
to his heart. Soren's friends had always teased him growing up that he was
inseparable from his sister, but he had not begrudged them their sport, for not
only was the accusation true, he admitted it proudly. Whose company could be
better? Soren and Sillara understood each other completely, communicated so
perfectly that often they completed each other's sentences, and held each other
in such esteem and easiness that they were, together, as gay as in company, as
free as in solitude. They had never been separated until his required military
service thrust him from home and out onto the wide sea two years ago. And he
had not had the chance to spend any private time with her yet since his return.
He kicked his horse's flanks, daring to gallop through Arinport's streets.