“The Water Serpent. That is what the pirates called you.”
“Call me.” Darien caressed her cheek. “As far as they know, I’m still out there sailing.”
Saerileth’s hand followed the tattoo across his shoulder and down his back. Her fingers brushed against his scars. “Why were you flogged?”
“My commander, Ulen Ahnok – you met him tonight – had me flogged for disobeying his orders.”
“I do not believe for a moment that you could ever be guilty of mutiny.”
Darien tilted his head to look at Saerileth. “You heard that?”
Saerileth only touched her earlobe and then snuggled down closer on Darien.
“I could not in good conscience obey him.” Memories of the raid flooded in on him. Shadows of murder and bloodshed assaulted him. He could still hear the women crying for their children, only to have their own weeping suddenly silenced. Darien shook his head to clear the evil thoughts, and he breathed deeply.
“What did he order you to do?” Saerileth’s voice was a whisper.
How could he tell her? How could he bring himself to tell his Zenji lover about Sunjaa massacring her own people? He considered answering vaguely, but he quickly dismissed that. He did not want falsehood – even omitted – to grow between them. “This may be hard for you to hear.” He patted her head, and she hugged him tightly. “Ulen sailed us to the Dimadan, saying that we were to wipe out a Zenji strike force that had been assembled to sail against Arinport. We were going in to save the city, to save the crown, and defeat a lethal enemy. None of us suspected the lie. When we landed, we found no strike force, no secret army bent on our destruction. What we did find was a compound, flying the red flag of a boar, guarded by armed soldiers. We fought and killed them, but when we broke through their lines, the horrible reality became all too clear. This was a clan household and nothing more. Ulen ordered the slaughter of everyone within the compound’s walls, but I would not murder innocent people. I found a little girl and took her, and her nurse, all the way inland until I found another compound. I didn’t know who they were or where I really was, but I made certain the little girl was safe before I fled. It was the least I could do, to save that one life in recompense for so many who had died. I returned to my ship to face judgment. I thought I would be executed for refusing an order in wartime. But I wasn’t. Instead, Ulen ordered me flogged twenty times. Maybe he thought I would’ve died from the whipping, but I am built of sturdier stuff than he knows.”
Darien had been so absorbed in the memories that he did not realize, until he had finished speaking, that Saerileth was crying. He could not see her face, for she had buried it in his chest, but he felt her hot tears on his skin, and her shoulders shook with emotion.
“I’m sorry, my love. I didn’t know.” Darien stroked her hair, but he did not know how to comfort Saerileth. She wept for the slaughter of her people.
She did not speak for a long time, only cried and hugged him. Several times, just as he thought her grief was easing, she would burst out in tears again and clutch at his sides, running her fingers across his scars again and again, almost in a kind of fascination. After a while, Darien did not know what to think, for her sorrow was not commensurate with his story. What was going through Saerileth’s mind at that moment?
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 sligh
test 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.”
The penetration was almost more than she could bear, and the pain tinted her pleasure so much that she could not breathe. Savior, master, lover. Darien, Darien, Darien. She could not speak, and her thoughts flew apart. She could not concentrate on anything beyond what her Darien did to her. He broke her and remade her in whatever image he wished, and she had no other desire than that this should be so.
“Come, Saeri.” Darien had a hand around her throat. When had that happened? “Come now!”
She obeyed, and as she floated into the white spaces of the stars she felt Darien’s cock pulsing, filling her with his hot seed.
“Are you all right, my love?”
Saerileth was not sure how much time had passed, but she was safe, cradled in Darien’s arms, lying on a bed. But the bed was not wet. It was not Darien’s bed; it was hers.
“How did we get here?” she asked. Her voice was hoarse.
“I carried you.” He kissed her forehead, and she saw the slight fear in his eyes. He was worried about her, worried he had hurt her.
“I am fine, beloved.” She traced his cheek with her forefinger. “Truly. You did not hurt me.”
“But your throat?” Darien caressed her skin. “It’s bruised.”
“I am fine,” she said again. �
�The bruises are mild. It was my screams that have made my voice rough.”
“Well, those I am not sorry for.” Darien’s concern melted away into love, love like an ocean she swam in. “You seemed to enjoy what I did.”
“I loved it.” Saerileth nestled more closely against him.
“You are mine, Saerileth,” said Darien as he held her. “And no one keeps my love from what is owed her. I will go tomorrow to the Royal Hall of Records. If the king ordered the strike on the Kesandrahn clan, the records will be there. We are Sunjaa.” He clearly must have seen her objection before she voiced it. “Yes, Saeri, I have – or can get with enough coin – access to the appropriate tablets, and, yes, they would have records.”
Saerileth smiled and kissed Darien’s broad chest. “You would do this for me?”
“I would do anything and everything for you. I love you.” He pressed his lips to her disheveled hair. “But if it were an attack sanctioned by the king, then why did Ulen not execute me?”
Saerileth blinked at the sudden leap in his thoughts. “What do you mean?”
“I have tried not to think about that day, and I left the navy because of it. I could not serve under Ulen Ahnok ever again. I transferred to the army. But Ulen had me flogged.”
Saerileth ran her fingers over Darien’s scars, worshiping them, as he went on.
“That is the punishment for insubordination aboard ship, not for disobeying an order on the battlefield.”
“It makes no sense,” said Saerileth.
“I will learn the truth of it.” Darien kissed her brow, and Saerileth knew that that was the seal on his promise.
****
Saerileth sat on the balcony that overlooked the courtyard. The early morning breeze was warm, and it ruffled the linen of her Sunjaa gown. She smiled. Darien had already gone to the Royal Hall of Records. She sipped her mug of cool milk, washing down the taste of the herbs she took daily.
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