The Lotus Ascension (17 page)

Sand sprayed
into the basket, and the wind, caught in the balloon, dragged them farther down
the slope until the whole basket tipped over, spilling out the pair. Konas
tumbled out still holding Sillara, and down the dune they rolled. He made sure
to spin her in such a way that when they came to rest, he was lying on top of
her.

Sillara was
unbruised, and her tousled hair and sandy skin gave her a wildness that
attracted Konas. Her eyes shone with excitement, and her breast heaved against
his chest. He was nose to nose with her.

“
Are you all right?” Konas asked, moving his hands down Sillara's
sides. No broken bones. She felt wonderful.

Sillara nodded.
“Fine.
What happened?” There was no reproach in her voice.

Konas wanted to
kiss her lips, but it was too soon. Everything was going according to plan; he
would not risk ruining it now just because he was impatient. If he played this
right, she would be his anyway.

Konas rose, and
he helped Sillara to her feet.
“A malfunction.
Nothing
I can't fix.” The sun burned his skin, and he was obliged to wrap himself in a
light cloak. He pulled the cowl over his brow, shading his fair Ausir eyes from
the glare.
Desolate land in all directions.
It was
perfect.

“
What is going to happen now?” Sillara did not seem afraid. She
seemed, if anything, excited.

“
You're jolly.” Konas gestured eloquently to their barren, harsh, and
deadly surroundings.

Sillara shrugged
and climbed the dune. “Nothing ever happens to me. I am grateful for the care
my brother and parents—and you—take of me, but it is pleasant to have something
happen.”

Konas followed
her, and when they reached the top, they had a view of the desert to the
horizon in all directions. The only feature that broke the sand was a rocky
ridge that lay in valley between two high dunes.

“
We cannot stay here,” Konas said.

Sillara turned
to him and shifted her gaze to his face. “Did you not bring water and food?”

“
Yes, of course I did.”

Sillara said
nothing but looked as if waiting for further explanation.

“
I don't think you appreciate the situation we're in,” Konas said.
“Even though I can probably fix the balloon, it will take longer than the light
will last.” He would make sure of that. “The balloon works only during the
day.”

“
That's all right.” Sillara turned back and pointed at the rocky
outcroppings. “Doubtless there is a place we can shelter, and we can sleep
beneath the sky for once.”

“
But what of your maiden honor,
Your
Grace?”
Konas's use of her title would call to mind her destiny as Queen of the Ausir.

Sillara's chin
dropped against her chest, and her gaze was cast down. “There is that.”

The moment had
come. There was no going back. If Konas did not ask now, he never would, and he
would kick himself daily for letting this perfect opportunity pass. He took a
deep breath, felt his stomach rise into his throat and then fall into his feet,
and dropped to one knee. He took Sillara's hand and turned her toward him.

“
Marry me, Sillara.”

Sillara's mouth
fell open. She just stared at him.

But she had not
pulled away, either. She had not gone running off to waterless death in disgust
of his offer. There was hope.

“
I will guard your honor with the love I have had for you since your
Sunjaa coming of age, since the day you became a woman and were ready for
love.”

“
Do you love me, truly?” Sillara's uninflected voice betrayed none of
her feelings. To Konas she seemed distant, perhaps baffled.

But neither did
she spurn him. There was hope.

“
As Kerelebos clings to Kerelindos, so I would embrace you if you let
me.”

Sillara smiled,
and her face brightened.

Konas trudged
forward. He would wring her “yes” from her. “Marry me, and you'll be able to
stay in Arinport. You'd never have to sail across the sea and live in Duildal
for the long centuries of your life.” Arinport meant Soren in her mind, and
Konas hoped to tempt her with the very thing he would keep from her.

Sillara squeezed
his hand, and understanding dawned across her countenance. “And you would marry
me? I do not want this crash to force you into anything.”

“
As swift as sunrise.
Nothing would please me more.”

“
Then I shall be yours.” Sillara tugged at Konas's hand, and as he
stood, he swept her up in a great hug.

It had worked.
Sillara was his, and it had been so easy, Konas dared not think on it too much
lest his analysis shatter the dream. He put her down on her feet and kissed her
lips. He had tasted nothing sweeter in his life. Her kiss was life to him, a
cool draught to a parched throat.

“
I've
been wanting
to do that for years,”
Konas whispered into her hair as he hugged her.

 
“
Kiss on, then.”
Sillara nibbled at his neck. “You have your wife in your arms.”

Chapter Eleven

Her own words
sent a shiver through Sillara.
Konas's wife?
It seemed
strange, too strange.

“
Not quite yet.” Konas's grave eyes were yet full of so much love
that Sillara wondered she had never seen it before. “But before we swear, does
it bother you to … break your oath to my brother?”

His brother.
Brother.
Soren.
How could she leave
Arinport—Soren—behind? “No,” said Sillara clearly. “It was not my oath. And you
know your brother best. Would he not now refuse me anyway, for I will have
passed the night in the company of a man?”

“
True.” Konas closed his eyes, and Sillara's heart began to pound in
her breast.
“I am yours,” he said. He held her hands against his heart
for a moment,
then
slipped his broad, gold wedding
bracelet off his wrist.

Sillara's mouth
was dry, and she could not speak. Konas lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it,
and then looked expectantly at her. Sillara licked her lips, forcing the words.
“I am yours.” It was a ragged whisper, barely above a breath, but Konas's face
was transfigured with joy. He slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, and the gold
was cold and heavy.

Sillara burst
into tears. Some heavy feeling overwhelmed her. She knew that what she had done
could not now be undone, but why should that distress her? She would be able to
remain in Arinport, where Soren would be as close to
her
as
Kerelindos
was to
Kerelebos
.

No, Konas
swore that for himself.
Sillara wiped her eyes, and
she forced a smile through her tears at Konas.

“
I am glad you are so happy.” Konas's own joy filled him, and Sillara
was grateful for the chance to hide her face when he pulled her to him. “I had
never dreamed that you could love me as I do you.”

Sillara kept
her face hidden on his chest, but his hands roved up and down her sides. When
his touch skimmed her hips, she pressed harder against him. She felt his cock
rise in response, an immediate jerking that pleased her.

I will have
something to tell Soren after all!
Sillara slid her
hands up along Konas's back, feeling the ripple of his muscles beneath the
white linen tunic he wore.

“
Let's set up shelter, Sillara.” Konas's voice was rough-edged, more
a growl than speech. “I need you.”

Sillara's tears
dried. “Then hurry, for your wife is still a virgin, a most improper state for
a matron.”

Konas groaned
and pressed his lips to hers, slipping his tongue inside her mouth, tasting
her. His thrusting, searching tongue put Sillara in mind of Merieke's, and she
opened her mouth wider, allowing him deeper. A hunger woke in Sillara, an eager
desire that was like an ache in her middle. Ever since Merieke had touched her
breast, desire had smoldered in Sillara, desire to enjoy and be enjoyed, to
touch and to be touched, and now all her desires were about to be fulfilled.
She slid her hands up into Konas's golden hair and ran her fingers through its
silken strands.

“
My goddess, my wife.”
Konas cupped the roundness of her ass, and his cock pressed almost
painfully against Sillara's belly.

“
Will you take me here on the sand?” asked Sillara, and as she locked
her gaze with Konas, she wondered if he understood that that would actually
please her. She wanted to be desired, desired uncontrollably without thought
for the cost, and she pushed against him, grinding her aching pussy against his
engorged cock.

“
Oh, I would love to,” said Konas. “But it would be most uncomfortable
for you, my love. I want your first time to be unforgettable.”

Sillara pulled
him down to her mouth, and she kissed him with a fervor that had him gasping.
She was glad at that moment that Konas was an orgy-master, for she was hungry
for everything; everything Soren had ever told her of, she wanted, and she
hoped that Konas could give it to her.

Konas responded
as Sillara had hoped, by unfastening her dress and taking her breasts in his
hands. He looked down into her face, and his eyes were heavy with lust, glowing
with love.

“
Just a taste,” said Sillara, pushing on his shoulders.

He dropped to
his knees there in the sand, and he wrapped his arms around her bare flesh. His
cheek was against her hairless mound, and Sillara caught a whiff of her own
arousal. Then Konas turned his mouth toward her aching pussy and kissed her
lips. The soft roughness of his tongue was delightful, and she pressed down
against his mouth. He grasped her thighs, his tongue sliding between the folds
of her pussy-lips, darting up to her pink hood. Sillara took hold of Konas's
branching black horns and held him there. He lapped eagerly, licking and
sucking, and Sillara felt a burning desire begin to build low in her belly.

Konas slipped
one hand from its place on her thigh, moving it up to spread apart her lips.
Her clit glistened in the sunlight, and he kissed it delicately, teasing it
with his tongue until it was engorged and swollen—and then he bit it.

Sillara pressed
down on his face, giving in to her desire, and Konas licked up all the juices
she gave him.

“
Nectar,” he whispered, looking up at her.

“
There is plenty more to be had.” Sillara bent down and kissed his
lips, tasting her own essence on him. The realization went to her head, and she
thrust her hands up into his hair even as she parted his lips with her tongue.

But a gust of
sand-laden wind pulled them from their growing lust, and Sillara, naked, ran
down the dune to the rocky ridge they had earlier seen. Konas followed her,
dragging the wreckage of the balloon with him.

The ridge was
taller than it had seemed, and it had a convenient overhang that would provide
shade for the rest of the day.

“
Let me help.” Sillara took charge of the basket itself, and she set
it up against one side of the overhang, using it to form a make-shift wall.
Konas gathered up the black and white silk of the balloon itself and folded it
carefully. Sillara noticed that one of the ropes was frayed, and she assumed
that that had caused their crash.

Konas looked
down at the same rope, and he flushed guiltily. “I am sorry,” he said. “I
should have been more careful.”

“
But then,” said Sillara, pressing her naked body against him, “you
would not have had me.”

“
I would rather have you and spend the rest of my life in this
desert, than not to have tasted your lips.” Konas could not seem to help
himself, and his hands were on Sillara's breasts once more.

Sillara smiled.
“Then why am I yet a maiden-wife? I have been wedded an entire quarter of an
hour.”

Konas laughed,
an eager, hungry sound, and he pulled away from Sillara only long enough to
spread a thick blanket on the ground.

Sillara glanced
eloquently at the blanket, and Konas chuckled again. “It can get cold so high
in the air, but it serves a more delightful purpose now.” He made as if to
unfasten his tunic, but Sillara laid her hand over his.

“
Let me open my wedding gift myself,” she said. Konas's breath caught
in his chest, and Sillara smiled inwardly. She slid her hands up his chest on
the outside of his tunic, then back down to where his thin tunic was tucked
into his breeches. She tugged on the tunic, pulling it out, and then lifting it
up and over Konas's head.