“I'll listen to anything you want to tell me, my love.” Kamen could not deny that he longed to learn her history.
Ajalira laid her head back down on her knees, closed her eyes, and spoke. “My name is Ajalira Zomalin, and though you do not know the name, any Ausir would be shocked to hear it. My father was Zomalin, my mother Tamar.”
“Of the Tamari?”
Ajalira nodded. “My mother, Kirami Tamar, had her father's name. He was Arathan, last Tamari King before my people's reunification with the Larenai. My mother's younger brother was King over all the Ausir until his wedding, when he decided to take a Tamari bride. This angered the Larenai, who felt they were being brought under the Tamari heel. At his wedding banquet, he was assassinated.”
“The fracturing of the Ausir people.” Kamen rubbed her back absently with the sponge.
“Yes. And I saw it happen. But the assassins were not content with merely the death of King Javin. They went after anyone connected with him who might have a claim to the throne.” Ajalira drew in a deep breath, and her chin crumpled in sorrow. “They murdered my father, Javin's bride, and all my cousins. They would have killed me, too, if my mother had not escaped with me.”
Kamen wrapped his arms around Ajalira and kissed her head. She was the Ausir heir! Why was she not pressing her birthright among her own people? Why was she effectively hiding among the Sunjaa? “I'm so sorry. How did you get away?”
“My mother, great with child, did not participate in the festivities. She was in a separate wing of the palace, attended by her servants. I was supposed to be with her, but I sneaked down to the party. I wish I had not.”
“If you hadn't, you wouldn't have known what was happening. Your mother would've been taken by surprise.”
Ajalira nodded, and a tear slipped out and splashed into the still bathwater. “I know. But my dear father, poisoned.” She could not speak for some time, and Kamen said nothing. He just held her until she was ready to continue. “I left Norivea when I was twelve. We fled to Tendol where a ship loyal to my father took us as far from danger as possible.”
“And this flight led you to the Dimadan?”
“We were pursued, and the ship's captain knew he would soon be overtaken. So he put us down on a large island and sailed off as if we were still on board. He said he would return for us, but he never did.”
Sunk by the enemy, most likely.
“The Guildmaster took us in, and he wanted to start training me as a Lotus right away.”
“He's a cutthroat businessman, trying to turn a profit.” Kamen remembered his greedy, little black eyes.
“My mother objected to her daughter prostituting herself, and she fought him. She grabbed a sword and defended herself and me, and she slew not only several of the guildhouse slaves but also a Lotus before she was surrounded.”
“Your mother must have been an outstanding swordswoman.”
Ajalira lifted her head in pride. “She was Tamari.”
“Of course.” Kamen kissed her lips. Tamari women came from a culture where they fought alongside their men.
“I knew my mother would be slaughtered, so I told the Guildmaster I would do as he wished. Anything to save my mother's life and the life of my unborn sibling.” The sorrow in Ajalira's eyes evaporated in a storm of quiet rage. “Everything I did was in vain. I was told she had died in childbirth, so my oath still held me. I did not know she had been killed until a few weeks ago, and that is when I tried to escape.”
“The Guildmaster promised to spare her life in exchange for your agreement, and then he murdered her anyway?” Kamen leaned his head on her shoulder.
“Yes.” There were no tears in her voice.
“And the baby?”
Ajalira shook her head and then threw her arms around Kamen's neck, sobbing on his shoulder. Kamen took her from the tub, carried her to the bed, and laid her under the sheets. Then he curled up beside her and held her until she fell asleep. But Kamen could not sleep. His mind was awhirl. He saw further than she. Ajalira was the heir and the absent Queen. If the Ausir knew her identity—Kamen's heart leaped in fright. They would want her. Whomever Kamen chose to be King, if indeed he would arbitrate, would want to take Ajalira as his wife to solidify his claim and strengthen his position. Kamen held her more tightly, as if she would slip away from him that very night. He had spent six years pining for Darien only to find Ajalira, the only one who had made him forget his desire for his best friend. Would he lose her as soon as he found her? Maybe the Guildmaster had lied about the baby's death. Maybe Ajalira had a little brother, someone who could be King and allow her to stay with Kamen. The hope that sprang up in Kamen died that very instant, for there was little to no chance that any baby could survive the murder of its mother.
Kamen kissed Ajalira's hair and caressed her cheek. She was beautiful by the moonslight, and she slept peacefully, even though Ausir required little rest. Kamen's love-play had exhausted her, and her confession must have wracked her soul. In the quiet of that moment, Kamen figured it out: Ajalira must not consider herself the heir because she was a daughter's daughter. He knew just enough about the Tamari to know that only males inherited.
Once Kamen could no longer concentrate on the ramifications of Ajalira's identity, weariness soon overcame him. As he drifted off to sleep, the music in his mind that sang him to melodious repose was that song of the eerily beautiful little boy who had played the dulcimer for him at the guildhouse that night weeks ago.
****
The music of the little minstrel haunted Kamen's dreams, so when he awoke the next morning, he gave orders for the Aramina to be readied. He and Ajalira would sail to the Dimadan to solve the mystery of the boy. Could it be that Ajalira had a little brother and he yet lived? As they waited for word on the preparation of the ship, they breakfasted. Ajalira sucked absentmindedly on a strawberry, staring off into space and only biting off its end after holding it between her lips for several moments.
“My lady? What do you think?” Kamen reached across the small, round table and took her hand.
Ajalira snapped back to reality. “It may be, but I do not want to hope in vain.”
Kamen squeezed her hand and raised it to his lips. “We will know soon enough.”
Raised voices beyond the breakfast room brought Kamen to his feet. Something was amiss. “Wait here.”
But Ajalira rose, too. “I am Tamari. I go where my man goes.”
Kamen kissed her. People out in the corridor were yelling, but the voices mingled together in nothing but an incomprehensible cacophony. Something was terribly wrong.
“It is the Dimadan,” Ajalira said, and Kamen remembered how keen her ears were.
Just then a servant burst in. “Forgive the intrusion, Your Grace.” He bowed.
“Out with it, man.”
“The Guildmaster of the Red Lotus Guild is here in Arinport, indeed, even at the palace gates. The Dimadan was attacked by the few remaining Losiengare ships, pillaging for supplies. Zenji refugees have come seeking protection. It seems they escaped by small boats to the Sunjaa warships and fled here. The Guildmaster himself demands to see you.”
Just the man Kamen wanted to see. “Who is with him?”
“The finest women clad in the finest clothes, silk pallavs and long skirts.”
“Lotuses,” Ajalira said.
Kamen turned to Ajalira, took both her hands, and held them against his chest. “We'll have our answer soon enough.” He commanded the servant to show the Guildmaster in, and he gave direction for the Lotuses to be given the best apartments the palace had to offer. They would expect nothing less, despite being refugees.
“I want to be here when you confront him.” Resolve hardened Ajalira's eyes.
Kamen grabbed her around her waist and crushed her to him. “I'd never dismiss you in an affair that touches you so closely.”
“I love you, Regent.” She kissed his nose.
He winked back at her. “And I you, Interpreter.”
Kamen tried to keep Ajalira's spirits light for the few minutes it took the Guildmaster to appear. He was going to reveal perhaps the heaviest news Ajalira had heard since the death of her mother, and he wanted her to be prepared for it, not dwelling too much on the darkness that threatened to crowd her spirit.
Ajalira was sitting on a rich, embroidered sofa when the Guildmaster entered the bright breakfast room. Kamen stood looking out over the balcony, his back to his sudden guest. The Guildmaster had to clear his throat before Kamen turned around.
“Welcome to Arinport, Guildmaster.”
The old Zenji man bowed low in his native fashion. “Regent, you honor me and my Lotuses with your hospitality.”
Kamen gestured to the table, still laden with a half-eaten breakfast. “What news from the Dimadan, then?” He sat.
The Guildmaster stared at Ajalira, who said nothing but glared, and then he, too, sat. As he spoke to Kamen, he kept glancing over his shoulder back at Ajalira. “Losiengare ships attacked, and we had no choice but to flee the perfect solitude and beauty of the guild.”
“I'm sorry that you've been dragged into this. Tea?”
The Guildmaster's already pale skin blanched. It was Kamen's aim to have his flippancy unnerve the Guildmaster. “You are too kind, Your Grace.”
Kamen blew a raspberry and waved his hand. The Guildmaster looked bemused, and he turned to regard Ajalira with equal confusion. The Sunjaa Regent impudent in the face of a Losiengare raid?
Kamen poured out the tea and passed the honey, grinning as he did so. “Well, at least you have music to comfort you.”
“Pardon?” The Guildmaster mixed honey into his tea.
“Music.” Kamen looked over at Ajalira who now stood in anticipation of the answer. “The boy you have who plays the dulcimer.”
The Guildmaster narrowed his eyes and dropped the spoon on his plate. “Who?”
“The boy who played for me the night I stayed at the guildhouse.”
The Guildmaster's shoulders slumped, and his eyes filled with tears. “His music is forever silenced.”
Ajalira started forward, and Kamen jumped to his feet.
“The Losiengare launched their incendiaries at everything that moved. He was trapped in a burning house, and no one could rescue him.”
“He is dead?” Ajalira asked, coming forward.
The Guildmaster slowly raised his face to his hosts. “I shouldn't have let him out of my sight.”
The Guildmaster was so masterful a liar that Kamen could not tell whether this news, too, was false. All the old Zenji's looks were true, so Kamen could do nothing but take him at his word. He went to Ajalira and hugged her, running his hands through her hair and kissing her head.
And as Kamen consoled her, the Guildmaster sipped his tea in peace.
Chapter Eleven
“So, Lira, it comes to you.” Having left the Guildmaster and his Lotuses in the palace, Kamen and Ajalira had returned home.
“What does?” Ajalira heard the heavy note in Kamen's voice, and she went to where he stood, looking out over their enclosed garden.
“The Ausir throne.” He was still looking at the garden, not at her.
“My love, you can't think—Kamen, no.” Ajalira took his hands and turned him to face her. “No, no. I am only a daughter. My father was no King, nor was my mother a Queen.”
“You are the last of the blood of the Tamar House.” Kamen's eyes were so grave that Ajalira ached.
“No, my love, no.” She understood now. Of course Kamen would be upset that she had put him in a position of appearing to be biased in his decision. “You mustn't think that I want to press this—this claim. It is not even a claim. Truly, there is no way that anyone could think that you would be influenced by my lineage in making your choice of whom to set on the Ausir throne.” She raised his hands to her lips and kissed the knuckles of first one hand then the other. “Please, you must believe me, beloved. I would never have brought disgrace to you that way!” She hung her head. “But I have anyway, haven't I?”
Kamen suddenly laughed and pulled her close to his chest. “My Lira.” He leaned her head on his shoulder and murmured into her hair. “You don't care about potentially being Queen of all the Ausir. You care about whether or not I 'appear' to have been influenced?” He kissed the crown of her head, but Ajalira was perplexed.
“Of course. You cannot think that anything means more to me than your honor?”
“If any Ausir were to learn that I had somehow managed to maneuver the Ausir into accepting my arbitration to choose their King, while all the time having the true heiress as my concubine, they would not think me dishonored. They would think me shrewd and cunning beyond my desert.” He nuzzled the top of her head, setting his chin between her horns.
“So you are not angry with me? Not ashamed of me for not telling you this before you took me as your own?” Ajalira spoke her deepest fears. “I should have, but—”
“Ashamed of you?” Kamen took hold of her upper arms and held her out to look into her face. “Absolutely not. Never.” He kissed her lips then, slowly and tenderly, but with a building passion that had Ajalira soaked with desire by the time he released her mouth. “But angry? Oh, yes, Lira. I am very, very angry. For a concubine who always finds new ways to be troublesome, I must always find new means of discipline.”
Ajalira's pussy clenched at the mere word. She remembered the figging Kamen had given her—was it only yesterday?—and she wanted more. “I will be good,” she said. “Or at least, I will try.”
Kamen laughed, a sound tinged with hunger, and he leaned so close to her ear that she could feel his breath ruffling her hair. “Oh, by the time I've finished with you, you'll be begging for mercy. And all you'll get is cock.”
Ajalira pressed against Kamen, and wonder filled her. Kamen, her lover, her legal master, spoke to her in ways that even her Lotus-trainer would not have dared. Kamen touched her, spanked her, figged her, fucked her—and she did not feel shamed. She was not sullied by his touch. He had absolute rights to her, and she wanted nothing more than for him to take full advantage of that.
“Lira, my naughty little concubine.” Kamen took her mouth, devouring her lips. As he kissed her, his hands wandered up to the gold clasps that held her translucent gown in place. He unhooked the clasps before releasing her lips. “Go to our bedroom.”
Ajalira ran up to the bedchamber, but she paused just outside the door. She knew that Kamen was doing something, preparing something, for her discipline, and she resolved to thoroughly earn it. She did not go inside the bedroom, instead standing defiantly in the hallway.
“Oh no.” Kamen, a small, silk bag in his hands, stopped in the hallway, seeing her standing disobediently in front of the room. “You aren't trying very hard to be good.” His eyes glittered, and Ajalira swallowed the whimper in her throat.
“Inside.”
She obeyed this time, backing across the threshold. “I will be good.”
“Too late.” Kamen picked her up bodily and sat on the edge of the bed, turning her over his knee. Ajalira was not surprised by the stinging slap on her ass, but the pleasure of it was not lessened by knowing it was coming. She moaned, trying to rub her thighs together to ease the ache in her pussy.
“No.” Kamen brought his open hand down on her other cheek, and Ajalira bit her lip to keep from moaning again. Kamen must have dropped the silk bag on the bed beside him, for Ajalira caught a glimpse of him rummaging through something just before a blindfold slipped over her eyes.
“You keep peeking, Lira.” Kamen rubbed his hands across her ass, and then she felt his finger slide down into her pussy. She was drenched, and she knew it. Kamen, however, pretended to be surprised. “You like this? What am I to do with you?” His finger trailed up from her pussy to her ass, and she felt him circling her rosebud, teasing her tight hole. Then something cold and heavy was pushed up into her pussy, coating whatever it was with her juices. She squirmed on Kamen's lap, but
another slap to her ass stilled her. She gave herself over to the sensations, enjoying the slow penetration with the cold thing. Then Kamen slid the thing out of her pussy, but he kept it in contact with her skin as he slid it up toward the hole of her ass. Now instead of his finger, this heavy shape circled her.
And then he pushed it inside her.
It was slick with her arousal, so it slid in without much difficulty. Still Ajalira gasped. It was utterly unlike the slow burn of the ginger-root. This was a fullness, a pressure, that promised but never delivered. Clenching her muscles around it only drove her further into desire. She ached for Kamen's cock to fill her.
“Now stand up.” Kamen removed her blindfold.
Ajalira stood, and the thing stayed in her ass. “What have you done to me, Kamen?”
“I've plugged your ass, you naughty girl.” Kamen rose, too, and she pressed herself against him.
“Take me, please.” She wanted nothing so much as to feel Kamen inside her.
“But we are to be guests at the palace this evening.” Kamen gestured toward the afternoon light streaming in through the window. “You'll just have to wait until after dinner.”
“What?” Ajalira's eyes grew wide. “But—”
“I suppose you may suck on my cock a bit.” Kamen kissed her lips. “But I'm not taking that plug out until after dinner at the palace. And I'm not fucking you until then, either.”
Even as Ajalira dropped to her knees to take Kamen's delicious cock into her mouth, she whimpered. Every move she made pitched her arousal higher.
“No one will be able to see that plug, Lira.” Kamen grasped her horns as he thrust into her mouth. “Even though your dress is translucent, I put it in far enough that the curves of your sweet ass hide the handle. But I'll know it's there, and you'll know it's there. Throughout this whole evening, while we dine with the little King and the Guildmaster and his Lotuses, you'll feel me in your flesh. You'll know that I'm staking my claim on your ass.”
Ajalira almost cried as she licked down the length of Kamen's shaft. He had known, as she would have if she had thought about it for a moment, that they would have to pass the evening with the Lotuses. He had known, too, how difficult that would be for her. But now she would not have a thought to spare for these women. It would not matter how they had treated her or what they thought of her now. She belonged to Kamen, and she wanted nothing else.
A Lotus for the Regent Page 13
