The Soldier's Lotus (12 page)

Saerileth pushed herself upward so that she could turn to
face Darien. She placed her hand on his cheek, and Darien gasped at the beauty
of her sorrow. Her blue eyes shone through her tears. “I have not wept since
that day.”

Darien’s world came crashing down around him.
Since that day?
Great gods of air and earth!
“That
was you.”

Saerileth nodded. “That was me. When I first saw you on
your ship, when you rescued me from your crew, I recognized you. I have seen
your face in my dreams all my life.” She leaned forward and kissed his nose.
“My rescuer.”
She kissed his brow.
“My
savior.”
She kissed his lips.
“My love.”

Chapter Seven

For many moments Darien lay beneath her, silent and
unmoving. He stared at her, and she saw the expressions in his eyes, the
emotions, changing beneath her gaze.

“
It was the gods’ will
for you to be
mine
, then.” The words were a mere
breath, but Saerileth felt Darien’s hands tighten on her waist as he crushed
her to him. “You were always meant to be mine.”

Saerileth nodded, blinking back the tears that threatened
to overflow yet again. Had she not already cried enough? “I have always had
nightmares about that night, but when I could manage to stay asleep until the
end, until I could see your face, I always knew the next day would be better.”

Darien moved his hands from her waist up to cup her face.
His thumbs slid across her cheeks just beneath her eyes, wiping away the last
traces of her tears. “What happened to you after I left you there? Was it the
guildhouse
?”

Saerileth closed her eyes, luxuriating in the feel of
Darien’s rough hands on her skin. No longer did she feel inferior as a Lotus
when her training failed her in Darien’s presence. She had always been grateful
to him, even before she had known his name, but she had never imagined that his
salvation of her had come at any cost to himself. Passion for him shook her to
her innermost center. She could never repay him, not if she spent her whole
life trying, and her whole soul overflowed with love for him.

“
I am sorry,” she said
after a moment. “I lost myself in your eyes.”

Darien’s thumb wiped a fresh tear.

“
But, no, my beloved,
it was not the
guildhouse
where you delivered me. It
was the house of the
Chamri
, another noble Zenji
clan. They did not keep me, though. Within two days of your saving me, I was in
the
guildhouse
.”

“
Why did they give you
to the guild?” asked Darien.

“
It had already been
arranged by my own clan,” said Saerileth. “I was to have gone the following
week, but had you not saved me, I would have died that very day.”

Darien leaned up and kissed her lips, his mouth devouring
hers. Saerileth slid her arms down his shoulders and back around beneath him,
feeling again the wide scars on his back.

“
I was always a bit
ashamed of those,” said Darien, when he at last released her mouth.

“
I worship you for
them.” Saerileth leaned forward and kissed him in her turn, letting
herself
go. She would never – could never – hold anything
back from Darien, and she no longer even wished she could.

“
You were fated to be
mine,” said Darien, letting his hands slide up and down her slender back.
“My Lotus.”

“
Yes.” Saerileth
nestled down on him again, letting her head rest against his heart. She was
lying on top of him, but he scarcely seemed to notice her weight.

“
So Ulen was the one
who had bought you?” asked Darien, and she heard the touch of anger in his
voice.

“
Yes,” said Saerileth
again. “And were it not for the massacre, I would have been in his house at
this moment.”

“
What do you mean?”
Darien tightened his hold on her.

“
I am Saerileth, a
full-blown Red Lotus, but I am also Saerileth
Kesandrahn
,
last daughter of that noble house – and I have spent my life seeking one
death.”

“
Whose?” asked
Darien.
“Ulen’s?”

“
No, at least I do not
think so.” Saerileth could not see Darien’s face, but she heard the slight
increase in his heart rate. “And I do
not for one instant
blame
you – or any soldier who fought under Ulen’s command. They were obeying
his orders, and to expect ordinary men to risk their lives for strangers? Only
you, beloved, are perfect. Only you would do that. No, I have sought the death
of the originator of the whole plot. It is the Zenji way.”

“
What is?” One of
Darien’s hands had left her back, and his fingers were twining through her
hair.

“
We are not like you
Sunjaa
,” said Saerileth. She traced over the water-serpent
tattoo on his breast. “We are a clannish people, but we are also an island
nation. We are proud as
Abrexa’s
Master, and for the
first two centuries after the Zenji arrived on the
Dimadan
,
there were feuds and clan-fights. The slightest insult could lead to years of
fighting. We would have wiped ourselves out altogether, and the
Dimadan
is an island. Where else could we go? No city could
be too far from any other. So finally the Red Lotus
guildmaster
,
the only man to whom every clan leader would listen, suggested a new law. For
any insult of sufficient gravity – and they listed out what qualified – a clan
was entitled to claim one death.
One.
For other,
lesser, insults, fines could be exacted.”

“
And you are owed a
death.” Darien had managed to unfasten her crown of braids, and the plaits now
tumbled around Saerileth’s shoulders.

“
Yes, but only one. I
am Zenji, and though we are not a people of words, of written laws like yours,
yet our traditions hold us as tightly as yours do you.” She kissed the
water-serpent’s head. “I have always heard that the massacre of my clan was the
prelude to invasion of the
Dimadan
, and it was only
the skillful negotiations of the
Chamri
that
prevented war. I have always thought that, therefore, it was the
Sunjaa
king who was responsible.”

“
My
king?”
Darien’s voice held
displeasure. “My king is a good man.”

Saerileth trembled for an instant. For Darien’s sake, could
she give up her vengeance? She kissed his lips. “I wanted to know who was
responsible for the massacre. I did not want to risk killing the wrong man. I
had to make sure that the one ultimately responsible was the one who died.”

Darien’s eyes softened. “Whoever is responsible shall
indeed die. I will kill him myself if I must.”

Saerileth’s love and gratitude stole her voice for a long
moment. “When Ulen’s ship left the
Dimadan
to sail
for Arinport, I resolved to escape. I had nothing against Ulen. I did not know
him, and I certainly did not know he had any connection to you or to the
destruction of my clan. All I knew was that I needed freedom to move about the
city, freedom to learn what I could of the massacre, and freedom to kill the
one responsible. I had no objections to going back to Ulen afterward, but—”

“
Why didn’t you run
away from me then?” asked Darien. “If you needed liberty to take your revenge,
what liberty could you have in my house that you could not have had in Ulen’s?”

Saerileth laughed. She could not help it. “First of all,
Darien, you allow me absolute freedom. I am freer in your house than anywhere I
could be. Secondly, I – I did try to leave.”

Darien tilted her face up to his. “But that wasn’t because
of your vengeance.”

“
No, it was because of
my jealousy.” She smiled, though her cheeks were
flaming
.
“I loved you already. You are more to me than my vengeance is.”

“
Abrexa’s
chain.”
Darien suddenly
flipped them both over, and he was lying on top of her. His massive size did
not frighten Saerileth; it thrilled her.
“My little
Saeri
.”
He caught her mouth in a bruising kiss, and
when he released her lips, she was dripping with need.

“
Please, beloved.” She
whispered the words. “Take me, take me,
take
me.”

“
I can’t do this
gently,
Saeri
.” Darien’s low growl sent yet more
dampness to Saerileth’s aching pussy.

“
I don’t want
gentleness.” Saerileth opened her legs, inviting Darien to partake of her. “I
want you, all of you.”

The sound Darien made as his enormous phallus plowed into
her reminded Saerileth of the low purr of a lion. He was a very lion among
house-cats, and she loved him more than life.

Darien grasped her hips and slammed her down on his cock
even as he thrust into her. Her whole body rippled with the pain, for Darien’s
phallus was like a spear, hard and unyielding. Saerileth did not even try to
restrain herself. She screamed in her ecstasy.

Then Darien pulled up. He knelt on the bed and lifted
Saerileth’s thighs. He rested her thighs on his forearms and supported her
weight on his hands. Only Saerileth’s shoulders were in contact with the bed,
and she was utterly in Darien’s power. He rammed into her and pulled her toward
him, and as he did so, Saerileth felt a sensation that she had never before
known. Some strange pressure built in her abdomen, and she felt as though she
were going to wet herself. She struggled then, trying to get away from Darien
and his inexorable cock lest she shame herself, but she was helpless in his
hands. He was far, far stronger than she, and he was not finished with her. His
pounding continued, and she squirmed in his grasp. She could not hold back, and
just as she sobbed out his name, he pulled his cock out of her. Wetness poured
out of her as he did so, and he dropped her onto the bed. The liquid flowed,
soaking the bed beneath her, and Saerileth, opening the eyes she had only just
realized she had closed, saw Darien looking at her with complete satisfaction.

“
Good girl,” he said,
and Saerileth felt her cheeks burn.

“
You knew I would—”

“
Lotuses are not the
only ones who know how to fuck.” Darien laughed and inserted his thumb into her
sopping
cunny
. He rubbed it around, lubricating it
thoroughly, and then he flicked Saerileth’s button.

Sweat soaked Saerileth, and the bed was, thanks to her
ejaculation, wet, too; but Darien did not seem to care. “Turn over,” he said,
and the words were a command.

Saerileth shook her head. “No.”

Darien laughed. “Oh, we are far beyond such things now,
Saeri
.” He grabbed her around the waist and flipped her over.
He did not allow her any movement. He half lifted her onto her knees, and her
pussy was fully exposed to him. Saerileth loved that he took from her, and she
only refused him that he might take more.

“
Now, my disobedient
concubine, you will feel what it means to displease your master.” He rammed his
cock into her again, and Saerileth thought she would split in two. He slipped
one arm around her waist, and he continued to thrust even as his other hand
came down on her buttock. The stinging slap was unexpected, and Saerileth
creamed.

“
Darien!” She could
hardly recognize her own voice, so ragged was
it.

“
That’s ‘Master’ to
you, concubine!”
Another slap.

“
Master!”
Saerileth creamed again, and she could feel her
cum dripping down her thighs.

Then he settled into his rhythm, and Saerileth’s world
shattered. She was helpless in Darien’s hands, and she had never known such
perfect pleasure.

A pressure on the rosebud of her anus made its way through
the red-white haze that was Saerileth’s universe of ecstasy and torment. For an
instant, in her disorientation, she thought it was a cock, but it was nowhere
near the size of Darien’s enormous phallus. Nor did that instrument of her
delight leave her hungry
cunny
. Something slipped
inside her ass then, and she felt as though she would fall to pieces. It must
be, she
realized,
his previously lubricated thumb.

“
Master.”
It was all she could manage.

He leaned forward, his thumb and cock still buried in her,
and he whispered in her ear. “I am Darien, my love.”