The Lotus Ascension (8 page)

“
Melara of the downcast eyes, lady of the lost love.”
Sillara began the
litany she had written for the Rose-goddess. Over her own murmuring voice she
could hear Ileke turning down the coverlet on the bed. The scent of roses hung
heavy in the air, but the heady
shalar
, which Konas had shipped in from
his own castle in the far-distant Ausir homeland, were opening. Their sweetness
rivalled the roses', and Sillara inhaled deeply.

“
Lady Sillara?”

Sillara turned to the sound, and
she gasped aloud. Nathen stood, framed in her window, the night sky black
behind him. She did not know what shocked her more, the fact that Nathen had
climbed her walls to enter in by her window, or the fact that she had not heard
him doing it.

“
Nathen.”
Sillara rose from her knees and gestured to Ileke, who brought a
robe to drape across her mistress's shoulders. “Why have you come?”

“
I saw how moved you were
by your brother's words of his heroism, but he didn't even tell the half of it.
I thought that I would come to you and tell you more.”

Sillara looked eloquently at the
window.
“At this hour?”

“
Everyone else is awake,
Sillara.” Nathen waved vaguely out the window at the harbor. “Thanks to your
faith, Lady, that we were still alive, they are celebrating in a fashion fit
for our exploits.”

Sillara felt a warm glow in her
cheeks. “You praise me too much, Nathen. I did only what any sister would do.”

“
Mine didn't.” Nathen
stepped down out of the windowsill.

Sillara could have bitten her
tongue. She should have remembered that Merieke, along with everyone else, had
believed the ship had gone down. “Merieke could not—” Sillara stopped. She was
only making this worse.

“
Besides.”
Nathen did not seem aware of the impropriety of his being in her
bedchamber in the middle of the night. “At the party I did not have time to
speak with you privately. You might have questions about … about your brother's
deeds.”

“
You should go, Nathen.”
She gestured first to the window then the door. “You must not stay here now. If
you wish to talk to me more about Soren—and I dearly love hearing about him, as
he is too modest to tell all his own bravery—then you should come tomorrow. I
am sure that my father would be pleased to entertain any friend of my
brother's.”

“
No, that would not serve
my turn at all.” Nathen stepped toward her, and his eyes glowed in a fashion
that Sillara mistrusted. “For then Lord Itenu and Soren himself would hear, and
I should not be able to speak freely.”

“
Please go.” Sillara was
acutely aware of the fact that all her attendants were female, and most even of
them were abed. Ileke and she were alone for the space of several passages.

“
I think I should stay,
Sillara.” Nathen stepped toward her with an unnatural silence of motion.

Sillara did not hesitate further.
She did not think that Nathen would attempt to lay violent hands on her—there
was too much of adoration in his looks, and he must know Soren would never
forgive him. No, she did not fear that. But she did fear that he would stay the
whole night in her chamber, refusing to leave, and that would be enough to
sully her reputation in Ausir eyes. So she ran. She fled her own chamber, with
Ileke hard behind, and Sillara did not stop running until she stood before her
parents' bedchamber door. She heard sounds from within, but she knocked anyway.

“
Go away.” Kamen's voice
sounded farther away than Sillara would have thought, and she realized he must
be in an inner chamber.

“
Father, Nathen is here
to see me.”

A low growl came from the other
side of the door, and Kamen soon opened it. Her mother lay on the bed, and from
her disheveled state and Kamen's tented skirt Sillara knew what they had been
doing. She pushed the thought from her.

“
Where is that pup?”
Kamen's anger flashed in his eyes.

“
I left him in my
bedchamber.”

“
Abrexa's cunt!”
Kamen whirled back to Ajalira. “He's bought the loyalty of my own
slaves!”

“
No, Father. He climbed
the wall of my tower and crept in by the window.”

Kamen's fury lessened
slightly,
and he laughed.
“Silent and
crafty as his mother.”

Now it was Ajalira's eyes that
flashed with emotion, but the feeling was jealousy. Despite Nathen's pestering
Sillara found it amusing that her mother should, even now five years after
Saerileth's death, be jealous of the friendship Saerileth had shared with
Kamen.

“
When I asked him to
leave he would not, so for my reputation's sake, I did.”

Kamen's ire rose again, and Sillara
heard him muttering curses under his breath.

“
We will have him
escorted out,” said Ajalira. “But you're not worried, daughter?”

“
No.” Sillara smiled. She
was not afraid of Nathen.

“
I will speak to Darien
tomorrow,” said Kamen. “This presumption of Nathen's has to stop.”

“
You
are
the Queen
of the Ausir, after all,” said Ajalira.

“
And more than that.”
Kamen did not explain his
statement, and Sillara was not sure she wanted to hear her father speak of a
divine nature in her. “Once
Nathen's
been taken care
of, you should go back to bed.”

As Sillara had expected, once Kamen
made his appearance, Nathen became tractable and left without difficulty. But
when she had her room to herself again, Sillara could not sleep. Ileke was
curled up
beside
her, sleeping soundly, but Sillara's
eyes would not stay shut. She could not stop thinking about Nathen's behavior.
It was not like him, or at least she thought it was not. She admitted she did
not know him overly well. He was two years Soren's senior and had been at sea
for four years now. But she did not think that ordinarily a man, even a man in
love, would behave as Nathen had.

A man in love?
Sillara sat up straight
in bed.
Melara's mercy, no.
Sillara rose from
her bed once again and went to kneel before the statue of the Rose-goddess. Sillara
had sung of unrequited love, and here was unrequited love right before her.

“
Forgive me,
Rose-goddess,” murmured Sillara. “I did not intend to so abuse your gift.”
Though she doubted that this power came from
Melara
,
she did not wish to offend the goddess. Worry gnawed at her. If Nathen had
loved her before this night that was one thing, but if she had inflamed this
passion with her song, was that not her fault? She wished that Soren were here.
He knew Nathen best. He would be able to advise her.

The sound of the sea filled her
room, and Sillara sighed. What if Nathen were to return?

“
Ileke.”
Sillara rose from her knees and went to her maid. “We are moving
to Soren's room. I will sleep in his bed tonight.”

“
Yes, Mistress,” said
Ileke sleepily. “You would not want Lord Nathen to return.”

If even Ileke had thought of it,
Sillara did not want to discount the possibility.

Soren's room, empty for two years,
smelled like him again. Two hours was long enough for his scent to cling to the
room, and when Sillara nestled down under Soren's sheets she felt safe. She was
asleep within minutes.

Chapter Four

Konas had seen Soren’s kind
before—that overhasty, prized stallion who is out of the chariot gates before
the race has begun. The orgy had not even properly begun yet. Konas had not
invoked Abrexa, as he always did, yet Soren had already conquered his first
lover. Sweat shone on his beautiful skin, beautiful much like his sister’s,
though Konas had never seen Sillara after such exertion. Not that he would not want
to. Soren was his sister’s
copy,
or rather she was
his, he being born moments before her. Konas remembered their births perfectly,
and the beauty which had awestruck
him
on that day was
only a shadow of the promise that the twins had grown into. Sillara was gone
for the night, and to Konas everything grew dim. The violet streamers that
covered the walls were dull, and the incense did not arouse him as it had in
his lascivious youth. Soren was right: Konas was not on form, not living up to
his reputation, but how could he? How could he continue on as he had, fucking
anyone who wanted him, moving from lover to lover as his indiscriminate tastes
led him? How could he when there was such a woman in the world as Sillara? On
the day of her Sunjaa ascension, as she stood dressed in traditional Sunjaa
fashion with translucent linen through which Konas could just barely make
out—or imagine he could—her shaved pussy, Konas had loved her. Though he said
nothing, he was sad to see her return to her Ausir dresses, which hid her
charms, though in no way diminished her beauty. From that point on, the lessons
had grown harder for him, sitting next to her every day, instructing the woman
he loved in how to be a proper wife for his brother—a brother he knew did not
want her.

All these things Konas thought as
he watched the pleasure slaves bathe Soren’s beautiful naked body. The dark
Ausir drained his cup and flashed a grin at Konas. Soren looked so much like
Sillara in one of her moments of glee that it broke Konas’s heart to look on
him.

He turned away, cleared his throat,
and adopted the role of orgy-master. This was his house, his party, and no one
in Arinport could get strangers fucking the way he could. He would throw the
best party he could and satisfy Soren and his friends. That would make Sillara
happy.

The last of the beer and wine was
wheeled away into the storerooms, and as low sofas and large pillows were
scattered about the room, the place started to take shape into a true pleasure
den. Guests who had not been present for the welcome party now arrived for the
night entertainment.

“
Why is the beer gone?”
Soren asked. He still stood naked, in no way ashamed. Why would he be, having a
young god’s body?

Konas snagged a passing slave and
whispered fresh instructions in his ear. Then he attended to his honored guest.
“Beer makes for a bad orgy.”

Soren’s eyebrows shot up.
“Really?
I would think that it would be decidedly good.”

“
If you have nothing
else, it’ll do, but we Seranimesti have learned a thing or two in our varied
experiences.” Konas indicated the statue of Abrexa with his gaze. “We claim her
for our own.”

“
It’s going to be a good
night. Thanks, Konas.”

Konas bowed to Soren. “Thank your
sister. She alone predicted your safe return and had this whole thing planned.”

Soren spread his arms out. “This?”

Konas chuckled. “Well, not this, in
detail, but I planned this at her insistence, the whole party. Even the orgy
was her idea.”

“
Well, then, thanks for
having confidence in her judgment.”

“
The passion with which
she held her conviction convinced me.” Konas would have done anything for her.
He smiled to see slaves bringing in flutes and bracelets that rattled when
shaken. “You’ve had common quarters enough, sailor. Are you ready to travel
through the marshes?”

Pleasure slaves walked around the
room placing flutes and random locations: on pillows, at the end of sofas, on
tables. Soren reached over and picked one up.

“
Who plays these?”

“
You do, if you can,”
Konas said.

“
I know a touch of it.
But why do you have the guests play?”

“
The flute is very
erotic, and in my experience, a lover who plays for his partner will find a
body much more receptive to him.”

Soren nodded. He had much to learn
from Konas. Though the young Ausir had a natural talent for sex, Konas could
teach him much and enhance his performance with knowledge.

The slave returned with a cup of
water.

“
Drink this, Soren,”
Konas said.

“
What is it?”

“
You want to be fathering
bastards at this party? No? Then drink.”

Soren laughed and drank. “You think
of everything, don’t you?”

“
I have centuries of
experience, that’s all.” Konas waved the slave away to administer the
contraceptive mixture to all his guests.

Soren took the flute and wandered
off.