A Lotus for the Regent (10 page)

Kamen was by no
means a short man, but standing before Darien, he felt like a child. He
remembered Darien's touch, how Darien used to mount him and spray his cum
inside him. And Darien's kiss had been like honey, and Kamen wanted to hold him
again. But he betrayed none of his feelings. Their embrace on the docks was a
firm yet brief clasp of upper arms.

“
Welcome back, Regent.” Darien looked into Kamen's eyes.

Kamen slapped
his friend on the shoulders twice. “It's been too long. How are you?”

Darien glanced
over at
Mirsa's Crown
, the ship he captained as Admiral, even though the
Crown had offered him the flagship, the
Aramina
. “She's kept me afloat.
She's the terror of the sea, and I've still not grown tired of watching pirates
come full about at the sight of her.”

Kamen remembered
his days of sailing aboard her. “As Regent I must publicly prefer the
Aramina
,
herself a fine ship, but as Kamen, nothing will ever compare to the
Crown
.”

“
I know.” Darien sighed and put his hands on his hips, still smiling.

“
And how are Saerileth and the children?”

“
All thriving, gods be praised. The little ones would like to see
their papa more often, of course, but one day, when they're strong lads, I'll
take them to sea with me.” Darien's smile vanished as he paused. “And Saerileth
is well, of course.”

Saerileth, the
point of uneasiness between them. Saerileth, the woman who had stolen Darien
away from Kamen. No, not stolen. Kamen needed to stop thinking that way. Though
he and Darien had fucked each other after the fashion of Sunjaa sailors, there
was nothing more to it on Darien's part than recreation and naval tradition. He
loved Kamen as a friend and brother-in-arms, but nothing more than that, and
Kamen could not fault him for the way he felt. He could not make his heart love
him.

“
And you, my friend,” Darien said with a cheerful smile, drawing
Kamen out of his dark thoughts. “I hear you're having to deal with those damned
horned Ausir now.”

Kamen nodded.
“But they're already planning to betray us.”

Darien bristled,
reminding Kamen that a dangerous warrior lurked just beneath his merry
exterior. “How so?”

“
They want to steal our ships to resupply their depleted navy.”

Darien punched
the palm of his hand. “Abrexa's chain! They can't win their own war in six
years with all their technology, so now they want to steal our ships?”

Kamen laid a
hand on Darien's muscular shoulder, right where his tattoo, which matched
Kamen's own tattered one, snaked up across his chest. “Don't worry. I've got a
plan. They don't know I know, so they'll never see it coming.”

Darien's anger
evaporated like rain on the mountain. “But how did you find out?”

“
One of the Guildmaster's own servants told me.” Kamen whistled. “I
want you to meet her.”

Ruben escorted
Ajalira down the gangplank, and Kamen was struck afresh by her beauty. Every
time he saw her, her effortless grace and pride surprised him. When she deigned
to bend her gaze on Kamen, he forgot all about his old feelings for Darien.

Ajalira stopped
right before Darien and Kamen and bowed low in the Zenji fashion. She still
wore the outfit of a Lotus.

“
Admiral,” Kamen said, taking Ajalira's delicate hand, “I want you to
meet Ajalira.”

Chapter Five

“
Ajalira” he had called her. Not “Lotus”, not “slave”. He had called
her by her name. Ajalira risked a glance at the Regent. He had avoided her
throughout the voyage, and she had wondered if he were angry with her. His
face, however, showed nothing but pleasure as he introduced her.

“
Lord Admiral.” Ajalira bowed slightly to the enormous Sunjaa before
her. His rank she had at once detected from the large gold shawl-necklace that
rested on his bare chest, but even had she not seen it, she would have
recognized him. She had seen him through the window at the guildhouse—was it
only four days ago?

The Admiral
bowed in acknowledgement of the introduction. “I am pleased to meet any friend
of Kamen's.” He smiled at her, an open, friendly smile such as Ajalira could
not remember seeing since coming to the Dimadan. “But I'm afraid I can't stay.”
The Admiral nodded to the Regent.

“
I had assumed so.” The Regent's eyes were blacker than she had seen
them get before, and Ajalira noticed the slightest alteration in the pressure
of his hand on hers.

Once the Admiral
had gone, the Regent turned to look full on her again. “Ajalira, if you would
accompany me to the King's palace, I will have your writ of liberty drawn up.”

Ajalira's eyes
grew wide. Her mouth opened, and she tried futilely to speak. No sounds would
come out. She moved her lips, but all she could hear was the sound of the blood
rushing in her ears. He was giving her freedom. He had come back to the Dimadan
to purchase her—only to set her free?

“
Ajalira?” The Regent's voice reached her as through layers of wool.
“Are you all right?”

Ajalira licked
her lips, forcing some strength into her limbs. “Regent, I—thank you.”

The Regent's
mouth curved upward in a slight smile. The sunlight caught the gleam of silver
on his nose ring, and Ajalira clasped her hands together to keep from touching
him. “Then will you ride in my litter to the palace?”

Ajalira nodded.
Her mouth was dry, and when the Regent pulled the curtains of the litter shut
around her without getting in himself, she let herself go. She could still hear
his even tread walking alongside the litter, so she kept her tears quiet. But
she let herself cry. Since her mother's death she had not known one instance of
kindness, one expression of generosity. The Regent, with his soft, black eyes
and scarred chest, had shown her both. There was no benefit to him in this. He
had saved her life and brought her from the guildhouse solely to set her at
liberty.

Of course, no
Tamari could let the saving of her life go unrepaid. But the Regent did not
even yet know she was Ausir. She would, naturally, have to tell him. She owed
him her life. She smiled through her tears. At least this debt was to an
honorable man. He had had no idea when he saved her of what she would then owe
him.

Ajalira was
grateful for the curtains hiding her from the Regent's sight. She had expected
that he would have her pass the voyage in his company, but instead she had been
left alone and told to rest. So now she was still unused to seeing him. He was
not so tall or broad as the Admiral, but Ajalira did not find the Admiral half
so beautiful. The Regent's long, black dreadlocks fascinated her. She wanted to
touch them, just as she wanted to touch the gleaming silver hoop in his nose—and
the ones on his nipples.

Ajalira sat up
and wiped her face. She wronged the Regent to think of him so. She was a
sullied woman, and though she knew enough of Sunjaa politics to know that the
Regent was unmarried, she could not believe that so beautiful a man did not
have a lover. She would be a long while yet in Arinport, and just because she
was free of the guildhouse, it did not mean that her shame was covered or wiped
away.

When the litter
stopped, Ajalira's eyes were dry, her jaw set. She was already running through
the words in her mind.

“
Ajalira?” The Regent himself reached up to help her down from the
litter, and as his hand touched her skin, all the words vanished. She was
silent as he set her down. She looked up at him, and the sorrow in his eyes
struck her like the Lotus's blow to the mouth.

Ajalira was not,
she knew, particularly short. She was a Tamari, born of a line of soldiers, and
she was not accustomed to having to look fully up to see a man's eyes. Evix had
been nearly the same height as she. But the Regent was more than a full head
taller than Ajalira, and she could not help her admiration of his lithe
warrior's grace.

“
Please, follow me.” The Regent moved through the palace like a ship
through the water, and Ajalira was pleased to notice that the servants seemed
genuinely happy to see his return.

“
An official scroll,” said the Regent to the serving-boy who opened
the door for him. “And sealing wax.”

“
Yes, Your Grace.” The boy scampered off, and Ajalira was left alone
with the Regent again.

“
I'm sorry that your journey was so overwhelming.” The Regent
gestured to a high-backed wooden chair. “Will you not sit?”

“
No, thank you, Your Grace.” Though she had not given him his title
in the Dimadan, here it seemed impossible
not
to. Lord Kamen Itenu was
the Sunjaa Regent, and in any other nation, Ajalira suspected he would have
already been made King due to the wisdom and skill of his rule.

“
You have nothing to fear here, Ajalira.” The Regent moved around a
carved desk to sit behind it. “I wish to thank you for what you did for me.”

Ajalira shook
her head. “No, Your Grace. I did only what anyone of honor must.”

The Regent's
eyes flashed with sorrow, and Ajalira could not understand. Why would those
words cause him pain? “Not just anyone would risk injury,” he gestured to her
bruised mouth, “or death for a stranger.”

Ajalira furrowed
her brow. “That does not affect duty.”

The Regent
laughed then, a sound as sorrowful as his eyes had been. “I've only ever heard
one other person talk like you.”

“
The scroll, Your Grace.” The serving-boy was back, carrying a
scroll, an unlit candle, and a cylinder of red wax.

“
Thank you.” The Regent dismissed the boy with a wave. “Can you read
Sunjaa as well as speak it?” he asked.

“
Yes, Your Grace.” Ajalira stepped nearer, assuming he wanted her to
read what he wrote.

“
Then read.” The Regent wrote—and Ajalira noticed that he had the
graceful, flowing hand of a born artist—and every word was balm to her aching
spirit.

“
I, Kamen Itenu, Regent of the Sunjaa nation, Lord of the House
Itenu, Bearer of the Serpent-Seal, do hereby declare that Ajalira is a free
woman, and no one may lay claim to her labor or her person without her leave.”
In short order, he had affixed his seal to the base of the scroll.

“
We Sunjaa,” he said, “are people of the Word. When a thing is
written, it
is.
You are a free woman, Ajalira.”

Ajalira closed
her eyes, not wanting the Regent to see the tears that burned there. “Thank
you.” It was still incredible to her that this powerful and important man had
gone to such trouble for her. “But, Your Grace, I am not so free as this paper
declares.”

“
What?” The Regent actually laughed. “There is no nation in all the
west that will dare defy the Sunjaa.”

“
No nation, true, but one girl.” Ajalira opened her eyes. This part
was easy, for her duty was clear. She reached up into the mass of her hair and
pulled out the bone she had managed to hide there. She knelt beside the
Regent's chair and held out the bone to him. “This is the spoil of my first
battle. I lay it at your feet, for you have saved my life. My life is yours,
sir, and all the spoils of every battle I fight shall belong to you, for
without you, I would have fought no battles more.”

The Regent
stared at her. For the first time since she had seen him, there was no sorrow
in the depths of his eyes. There was no emotion at all that she could see,
none, that is, apart from shock.

“
Abrexa's chain! What are you doing?”

Ajalira smiled.
“You saved my life, Your Grace.”

“
When? How?” The Regent pushed away from her and rose from his chair.

“
When you returned to the Dimadan and carried me away from the
guildhouse,” she said. “For I was to have been executed.”

“
Why?” The word seemed forced from the Regent.

“
When I spoke to you, Your Grace, the Guildmaster said it showed my
incorrigible defiance. He sent a Lotus-trainer to kill me, but I slew him
first.” She held out the bone again. “So he set the Lotuses upon me, and I was
actually on the block when your ship returned.”

“
For me.” The Regent scarcely seemed to have heard her words about
Evix's death.

“
So I owe my life to you.” Ajalira took the Regent's hand and pressed
the bone into it. “This battle is yours, and all my battles are yours.”

“
Battles? What in the Four Hells are you talking about?” The Regent's
shock had not lessened, but he did not cast the bone aside. He gripped it
tightly, and he did not loose his hold on her hand, either.

“
I am not Zenji,” said Ajalira. “I am not even human. I am an Ausir,
a Tamari.”