Darien kissed Saerileth’s lips and imagined what her lovely, naked, pregnant body would look like. “Well, we can play now, then, as you’ve obviously been drinking those herbs – that’s why you have them on you, isn’t it? – but as soon as we are back in Arinport, we make our baby.”
“That is a promise.” And Saerileth returned his kisses with the passion he so loved.
Chapter Thirteen
Saerileth closed her eyes and slipped beneath the warm, soothing bath-water. The past two weeks, these fourteen days of travel through the desert, had been horrible. The sun was deadly, and the ambassador’s facial blisters had burst and become infected. Kamen had been unable to walk properly for days, and it had taken him two days to be able to walk at all. The little king had been as irritable as any child would be who was forced to travel across the desert – and who had not seen his parents for a fortnight. But Saerileth would not have wished herself anywhere other than that harsh desert, for that was where Darien was.
She surfaced, shaking her head to swirl her hair through the water. This was her first real bath since leaving Arinport, and she did not intend to waste the opportunity. She had washed her hair thoroughly even before stepping into the bath, and the sensation of clean hair was delightful to her. She was not much sunburned, thanks to Darien’s extreme care of her, and she would be ready to help him in this newest endeavor. She knew that the Vadal would not necessarily be interested in fighting a war of liberation for the Sunjaa. They had their own people back – the ambassador and King Jahen – and though it was right and just for them to help the little king win back his crown, it would be costly. She knew that she would need to use all her influence to help Darien get the army he required.
Saerileth smiled to herself. Darien did not think that there would be any difficulty, as there would not be, if all men were as perfect as he was. The image of Darien walking the desert, traversing the sands with the same ease he sailed the waves, while carrying the little Jahen on his shoulders, shot through Saerileth’s mind, and a tenderness that was three parts pain filled her heart. She wanted nothing more than to throw away her herbs and become the mother of his child. She wanted to hold Darien’s son to her breast, and the knowledge sent the blood to her cheeks. No Lotus bore children. But Saerileth had already come to terms with the truth that when she was near Darien, she was no proper Lotus. She was merely a girl in love, in love with a man who had become her whole world.
“Lotus?” The deferential voice of the girl assigned to attend her broke through Saerileth’s reverie. “His Grace will be ready to receive you and your companions within half an hour.”
“I will be ready.” Saerileth rose from the bath. Fresh garments of Vadal design had been provided for her, and she had some adjustments to make to them. She would need all her wiles to pull off this maneuver.
In fifteen minutes, Saerileth was dressed, her hair piled high on her head, with some half dozen loose, damp ringlets hanging in seeming disarray around her face. Her Vadal gown she had decorated with a silk shawl, and she wound the tassels of the shawl around her long, slender fingers with a studied carelessness.
“Saeri!” Darien, fresh from his own bath and still wearing a Sunjaa skirt, came to meet her in the hallway, and he swept her up into his arms. “You look fresh as the morning, glorious as an army with banners!”
“I hope to get you an army with banners, my love.” She whispered the words in his ear.
Darien pulled back to look at her. “Kamen said that the Vadal wouldn’t come with us, that we might as well settle here. Do you mean that you agree with him?”
“No.” Saerileth smiled. “You want an army, and I shall get you one.”
Darien kept his arm around her waist as they made their way to the throne room. Kamen joined them before they had gone half the necessary distance, and Saerileth felt the same peculiar burning in Kamen’s gaze as he looked at her.
She nodded appropriately as Darien greeted his friend, but she avoided looking at Kamen’s eyes. Ever since she had saved him from Ulen’s poison, Kamen had looked on her with a charged scrutiny. There was a mixture of emotions in Kamen that Saerileth did not want to identify. She did not want to grow any closer to this beautiful Itenu nobleman. He was her rival and her enemy.
“So what do you want to bet that the Vadal don’t join the fight against Ulen?” asked Kamen.
“I’ll bet you your whole household,” said Darien. “Saeri’s promised me a Vadal army.”
“Well, then I withdraw the bet.” Kamen glanced sidewise at Saerileth, and she knew that he meant it for mockery. “Your Lotus can get you anything.”
A brief shadow flickered in Darien’s eyes, and Saerileth pressed his hand. She knew it was jealousy that touched him, and she could almost have laughed at the thought. Almost.
“His Grace will see you now.” A herald announced their names.
“Saerileth, Red Lotus. Lord Kamen Itenu. Captain Darien, late of the king’s navy.”
Saerileth had expected that Kamen would be announced before Darien, but the knowledge that her own status was accounted higher than that of a Sunjaa noble was helpful. She did not allow her smile to touch her lips, but she felt the added glow in her eyes.
“Your Grace.” She bowed gracefully, Zenji fashion, speaking first as she had been first introduced.
“Saerileth!” The little boy-king slipped from the knee of his grandfather, the Vadal king, and ran to Saerileth.
“You seem to have charmed my little grandson, Lotus.” The king appraised Saerileth, and she pretended not to notice. She kept her face half-turned from the king, allowing Jahen to lean his head on her shoulder. She kept the boy balanced on her hip, and, though the Vadal fashions were neither translucent like the Sunjaa ones nor tantalizing like the Zenji ones, she made the most of the way the red silk clung to the curve of her buttocks. Saerileth kissed Jahen’s brow and murmured soft Vadal words to him.
“Your Grace.” Kamen bowed, as did Darien, but Darien did not speak.
“You have rescued my grandson and my nephew, and for that you have my gratitude.”
Saerileth heard the king’s breath slow ever so slightly. He was bracing himself for the request he expected, the request that Saerileth knew Kamen was about to make. But it was too soon.
“His little Grace has been in my care since his mother died,” said Saerileth, not allowing Kamen time to speak. “He feels safe with me.”
“That brings me to something I have wanted to ask.” The Vadal king had pale blue eyes, and his wheat-colored hair was silvering. Saerileth had noticed these facts with no more than the briefest of glances, and she continued to monitor his reactions through her eyelashes. His eyes were wide, and strong emotion dilated his pupils.
“How may I ease Your Grace’s grief?” Saerileth was sufficiently confident in her guess that she did not speak vaguely.
“How did my daughter die? And who – exactly who – saved my grandson?”
Saerileth continued to cuddle Jahen against her shoulder. She was genuinely fond of the little king. “The Princess Royal was cut down by two assassins. One grabbed her; the other slit her throat. She died within seconds, and her honor was intact.” Saerileth turned to face the Vadal king, and she fixed her eyes full on his face. “As for then-Crown Prince Jahen, he was playing on my knee at the instant. I hid him in my pallav, and I fled with him to Captain Darien. In the noble captain I knew that the orphaned boy would find a champion, one to lead his army and retake his throne. For surely, Your Grace, the peace for which you gave your daughter into concubinage was not your only aim?”
“What do you know of my aims?” The king was on his feet, and his wide eyes showed Saerileth how nearly she touched him.
She let one hand skim over her side and hip, and the king’s breath hitched. “I know that you loved your daughter, Your Grace, and that you sought marriage to the Sunjaa king for her. You took concubinage because it was the most that you could get – and because your blood wou
ld sit on the Sunjaa throne forever. The Sunjaa nation is the oldest, most powerful kingdom of men. Their line has never been broken, not in all their long history. Father to son their line goes back, and so shall it ever go forward. Even now, when it was likely that the line would end, the gods willed otherwise.”
The king licked his lips, and Saerileth dropped her eyes, forcing a blush. “My grandson is safe here.”
“But he is deprived of his birthright, Your Grace.” Saerileth pressed her lips to Jahen’s brow. “He is of royal Vadal blood, but he is not Your Grace’s heir. He was the heir to the Sunjaa king. He is of higher blood than any other mortal king. He is only a child now, but he will one day be a man. He will ask then why a usurper sits on his throne.” She knelt down slowly, releasing Jahen. “Go back to His Grace your grandfather.” The red silk of the Vadal gown clung to her breasts, and Saerileth was slow in standing.
“You speak truly, Lotus.” The Vadal king swept the boy up into his arms.
Saerileth heard Darien’s increased breath, and she turned to him. Her eyes glowed, and she felt his jealousy as a flame in her flesh.
“It is only right that His Grace should honor those who risked so much to save him. The captain’s house was burned to the ground for his devotion to the true king.” She turned back toward the king and flashed him a brilliant smile. “Would it not be proper gratitude for the captain to lead the assault?”
“I will send my army to restore my grandson to his throne.” The king’s breath was faster even than Darien’s. “And I will have the captain lead alongside my own general.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.” Saerileth bowed again.
Darien spoke then. “I would be honored to help my true liege regain his rightful throne.” Then Darien grasped Saerileth by the wrist, pulling her toward him. “My Lotus and I are at Your Grace’s service to that end.”
Kamen bowed then, too, and spoke the first words he had said since his first greeting. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
“When will it please Your Grace that we should go back?” Saerileth kept her body pressed against Darien’s, but she smiled at the king. “For the longer the usurper remains in Arinport, the harder it will be to dislodge him.”
“The army will muster out within the week.” The Vadal king stood tall and proud in the center of his throne room, and he was utterly in Saerileth’s hand.
“Thank you, Your Grace.” Saerileth repeated Kamen’s words.
“And you will dine with me tonight?” Saerileth was careful to accept on behalf of them all, lest the king want to improve their acquaintance.
“We all would be honored to be Your Grace’s guests.”
****
“That was the most miserable evening I’ve ever passed.” Darien stretched out on the soft bed. “And I don’t even want to think about why the king put your chambers on the opposite end of the floor from mine.”
Saerileth smiled and lay down beside him. “But I am not in those chambers, my love.”
Darien pulled her close and nuzzled her hair. “And I’m not letting you go back to them, either.”
“Oh not to sleep, of course.” Saerileth leaned up and kissed him, enjoying the unexpected softness of his lips beneath her own. “But I will have to go back once, as that is where they will be delivering my clothes once they have been cleaned.”
“Do you think the clothes are ready?” asked Darien.
“Probably. Why?”
“Then go get them now and come back immediately.” His voice rumbled low in his chest. “Or I might have to kill the Vadal king before we leave, and then where would we be?”
“Are you jealous, Master?” Saerileth leaned up on her elbows and looked into his face. “Of a king not a twentieth part the man you are?”
Darien’s laugh was rough-edged, and Saerileth felt her nymphae flood. “I don’t mind their looking. It’s impossible not to look at you, Saeri. But when a man might be able to take you from me—”
“Darien!” Saerileth sat up straight, her breast heaving. “How can you say that?”
“I got a bit of my own back then.” He sat up, too, and cradled her against him. “Don’t tease me like that anymore.”
“I was not teasing you.” Saerileth looked up, anxious to reassure Darien. “I was manipulating him. It is what we Lotuses do. I know how to use words, to use every gesture, every glance – I can convince people of most anything. That was all it was, Darien.”
“You’ve never looked at me that way.” Darien twined his fingers through her hair, and Saerileth could hardly breathe through her need.
“I-I cannot manipulate you, my love.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Please believe that I have not, nor ever would, use any Lotus influence on you! I couldn’t if I wanted to. You melt me with but a glance.”
Darien laughed and kissed her. “I know, Saeri. You’ve told me that before. And I believe you. But I don’t have to like it when I see kings obsessing over you. Now go get your clothes before I change my mind about letting you wear clothes anymore!”
Saerileth kissed Darien’s lips and darted down the hall. The army was already being summoned. She would have no cause to go before the Vadal king again, and she resolved that their goal to aid little King Jahen would fall to the wayside before she caused Darien even an instant’s discomfort again.
The room assigned to her was well-lit, but there were no attendants present. Saerileth did not like this, and she swept her clothes into her arms and turned to leave.
“Stay, Lotus.”
Anger warred with fear, and Saerileth whirled back to see Kamen.
“Lord Itenu.” Her voice was ice. “I must go back to my master.”
“What was the game you played on the Vadal king?”
“His Grace did not see any game.”
“I wouldn’t have even guessed, either, if I hadn’t been expecting something of the kind.” Kamen stepped nearer, and she could hear his heightened breath. “You’ve bewitched Darien, haven’t you?”
“No.” Saerileth stood her ground and looked up to glare at Kamen. Though nowhere near Darien’s mammoth proportions, Kamen was a large man, beautiful and graceful, and she could almost smell his desire.
“Then why should he love you?” Kamen towered over her now.
“Why shouldn’t he?” Saerileth tilted her chin. “I am accounted beautiful by the Sunjaa. I am a Red Lotus. And I love him.”
“Do you?” Kamen’s words were almost a purr.
“Yes.” Saerileth closed her eyes, concentrating, wanting to hear Kamen’s heartbeat.
“Even though he … dominates you?”
She heard Kamen’s heart rate speed up as he asked the question. “My Master does not do such things. You do, Lord Itenu. It is you who are the dominant, you who desire such absolute control. And you will never succeed with my Master. Not only is he unlike you—”
“Unlike me how?”
“He does not take equal pleasure from males and females.” Saerileth raised her hand to forestall Kamen’s objection. “Yes, I know about common quarters. I know that he has fucked you, Lord Itenu, many times.” As she said the words, Saerileth felt her own jealousy rise like bile in her throat. “And for that I could wish you dead!”
“Then why didn’t you let me die?” Kamen was only a breath away from her.
“Because I love him, and you are his friend. Your death would hurt him, and I would not have him suffer anything that I could prevent.”
“I want him,” said Kamen.
“No.” Saerileth looked full into Kamen’s dark eyes, and she saw there the pain she had known she would see. But she saw, too, the other emotion, the one she had dreaded. “You love him. Because he is great, because he is a man the likes of which you will not see again, because he is … Darien. But you could not make him happy, nor could he make you so. You are a dominant. I have seen it in you. But you would never be able to dominate my Master, and you would break your heart trying. No, him you love. I am the one you want.�
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“Saerileth—”
“Do not love me, Lord Itenu. You are already spoiled for any man. Having loved Darien, no other man would ever be able to satisfy you. Do not love me, too.”
“Love you? I wish you were dead!” Kamen’s arms slid around Saerileth’s waist, and he pulled her tight against him.
Saerileth had dreaded this moment, this moment she had feared from the time she had saved Kamen’s life in the desert. He desired her, and she knew, as surely as she knew the sun rose in the east, that if it were not for Darien, she would have already loved Kamen Itenu for his beauty, his courage, his nobility, his grace. But there was Darien, and Saerileth drew her breath for his sake only.
She felt Kamen’s arousal pressing against her belly, and she moved her arms up around Kamen’s back.
“Saerileth.” Kamen leaned down toward her, and his face was black with fury and yet full of desire.
But Saerileth had no intention of succumbing to Kamen. Her arms around his back, she reversed the standard moves of the Katipo Form, and Kamen froze in front of her.
“You shall never have him, Lord Itenu!” Saerileth’s breast was heaving, and she stepped back from Kamen. “You are noble, cunning, and wise, worthy of my master’s friendship – precisely the sort of man any Lotus could love. Any Lotus except this one!”
“Saerileth?” Darien’s voice was raw with pain, and Saerileth spun around to face him.
“Darien!” She threw her arms around him, and she saw the pain on his face morph into a furious joy. “I love you, Darien. Only you!”
“I know it.” Darien pushed her behind him. “Now go back to our room.”
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