The Soldier's Lotus Read Online Free

shifting her body weight in perfect balance as she stood. At that
moment, Darien knew she was trained in some form of martial art. It also
explained her quiet determination to kill as many of her would-be rapists as
she could before they overcame her.
    “ My name is Darien. I
am captain of this ship.”
    The girl stood dangerously close to him. Her exotic, perfumed
scent aroused him, and the way she held her gold and red pallav across her face – hiding her beauty from him – made him want to pick her up and
crush her to his broad chest. He did not know her, but he wanted her more than
all the booty in his cargo hold. Compared to Darien she was small, to be sure,
but the captain sensed some deep strength within her that told him he could
probably play rough with her and she would not mind.
    “ I am Saerileth.” Her
eyes spoke to him more than her words. They beckoned him; they teased and
enticed him.
    “ Have you no friends?
Where did you come from? Where were you bound?”
    Saerileth did not answer at first. Her eyes darted this way
and that, almost as if she sought escape still. “I was lost from a ship bearing
me to Arinport.”
    The answer came as if it had been jerked from her, and
Darien sensed there was more to this mystery. But he knew what he had to do. He
took Saerileth by the hand and led her to his cabin. “Come, Kamen.”
    Kamen followed, but he whispered a curse under his breath,
and though Darien could not make it out, he caught the name of Veirakai in it.
He chose to ignore it. Once inside, he offered Saerileth a seat on a divan of
black velvet – spoils from a pirate ship taken years before. He had never sat
on it, though, not wanting to mar its beauty. He was glad he never had, for its
merit suited Saerileth, and her deigning to sit on it was like a blessing.
    Darien nodded at Kamen, and the first mate, jaw set
tightly, got to work. Why this would bother Kamen Darien could not say, for he
had taken concubines in the past. He had four at home in Arinport. Why should
this one bother Kamen so? The first mate drafted a document that stated how
Darien had taken Saerileth into his bed and made her his concubine on this date
and on this ship, in the witness of Kamen Itenu . All
that was left were the signatures. Darien took the pen and signed it, for he
found it distasteful to interrupt lovemaking with legalese. Kamen took the
quill after, sighed, and signed. Darien would have to have a chat with Kamen
later about his attitude.
    He put his first mate out of his mind and bent all his
thought and desire on the pale-skinned Zenji girl reclining on his divan. Still
she covered her face, and still her blue eyes beckoned him.
    “ I must enter you
now,” Darien said, and Saerileth’s eyes widened.
    “ Why?”
    “ To prevent my crew
from taking you themselves and dividing you as common spoil.”
    “ Can you not just
order them not to?”
    Darien shook his head. “They found you. If I renounce
salvage rights to you, they can claim them. The only way to put you utterly
beyond their power is to make you my legal concubine.”
    “ Then why do you not
just tell them I am?” Saerileth shifted on the divan and crossed her ankles.
    Darien glanced back at Kamen who stood in front of the door
and looked straight ahead, bending his concentration on the invisible air. He
did not make eye contact with Darien. Something serious ate at him, something
that had started the moment Saerileth came aboard.
    “ I tried that once,”
Darien said, returning his attention to the girl he knew he must couple with.
“There was no contract, no witness. I didn’t want to take the girl against her
will, so I faked it. We Sunjaa are the People of the
Word, as you probably know. If it isn’t written down and witnessed, it didn’t
happen.” Darien did not enjoy talking about this, but he wanted Saerileth to
understand. “Well, my crew went ahead and raped her anyway, and I wasn’t able
to do anything about it. She was their