A Lotus for the Regent (26 page)

“
Ajalira. Blood on the balcony. They took her.”

Saerileth
looked down at Kamen's hand, and Kamen followed her gaze. He held the dagger.
He did not even remember picking it up.

Kamen read her
unasked question in her eyes. “I don't know. But if they killed her, I'll burn
this city down and every Ausir in it.”

Saerileth took
his elbow and steadied him. “Regent.”

Kamen nodded.
He willed the red mist away, and he buried his wrath for the moment. He would
need to be calm when he went back downstairs. “Let's go.”

Saerileth and
Kamen re-entered the main banquet hall and passed the antechamber that led to
the garden. The Ausir were still milling about on the lawn, the game of quoits
near completion. Kamen did not care who was winning. His unintelligible roar
spun everyone around. Every sharp Ausir eye was on him, every mouth agape.

“
If you don't return her immediately, you'll never have her as your
Queen.” Saerileth simultaneously interpreted for Kamen.

Ansim Kimereth
called out across the lawn. “Who?”

“
Ajalira. My concubine.”

“
She's missing?” Tivanel Seranimesti handed his quoit to a kinsman
and closed the distance between him and Kamen. “I heard she'd gone to the
Temple of Melara.”

Seranimesti
knew? He knew the lie. Because it was his lie? Or because someone had whispered
the lie in his ear, hoping to further confuse and deflect blame? Kamen could
read neither truth nor falsehood in Tivanel's impassive green eyes.
Damn
Ausir! Veirakai-spawn trash!

“
Melara,” Kamen repeated without reason. His gaze drifted to the
grass, but when Kimereth, too, drew near, his eyes shot back up. “Yes, Melara.
A Tamari swordswoman went to Melara to seek pardon. Anybody else find that
strange?”

Ansim shrugged.
“How can one predict the ways of a woman in love? She loves you dearly.”

The Kimereth
kinsmen chuckled where they took their ease in the shade of the trees. Kamen
could have cut all their laughing tongues out.

“
A woman in love does not leave her lover's present behind.” Kamen
produced the dagger still caked with tacky blood.

Tivanel took a
step back, and Ansim went rigid all over.

“
I found this in my apartments,” Kamen said, his voice nothing more
than a growl escaping clamped teeth. “Ajalira is my concubine, and if she's
been harmed, the Sunjaa nation will respond. I alone have legal claim to her,
but for the sake of peace, I was going to forgo that right and give her over to
one of you.” He let his gaze wither Kimereth and then Seranimesti. “I don't
know which one of you took her, and right now I don't care. You're obviously
not worth the time of the Sunjaa Crown, so fuck you and fuck peace. You have
one hour to return her. After that, it's war.”

The idle Ausir
jumped to their feet, but Kamen cut off any protest by snarling like a feral
dog. He slashed the upper side of his forearm in Tamari fashion, just the way
Ajalira had the night she had given herself to him. Tivanel and Ansim watched
in horror. Kamen wiped his bloody left forearm across his right cheek, leaving
a smear of gore across his face. “Bear witness to my vow, Alaxton,
Battlebringer of the Tamari, Keeper of the Word. I, Kamen Itenu, Regent of the
Sunjaa Crown, swear by Chiel's bright eyes that if Ajalira is not returned to
me safe and sound, I will scuttle every Ausir ship in Godswatch's harbor, hang
every Ausir in the city, and sack Norivea, only after I have burned the
Silbrios to the ground.”

“
You do me notorious wrong, Regent,” Tivanel said, though his angry
gaze rested on Ansim.

Ansim ignored
his rival. “You would be a fool to attempt such knavery.”

“
Indeed?” The blood flowed down Kamen's arm and dripped from his
fingertips. He felt closer to Ajalira than he ever had before, and in his
heart, he knew she lived. “I have a Sunjaa fleet waiting just outside Godswatch
waters, captained by Lord Admiral Darien Kesandrahn. You know, the Water
Serpent.”

Kimereth
laughed. “Even if I had her, which I don't for one minute admit to, you
wouldn't want her after I was through with her.”

At that moment,
Kamen knew Ansim had her. He rushed up to his horned foe and got nose-to-nose
with him. If Kamen attacked him, he would never get Ajalira back, so for her
sake, he checked his hand. “Oh, yes, I would, and if you push me, then you'll
see what the Sunjaa navy can really do.” He felt Banar's plump hands on his
arm, pulling him away.

“
My lord, do not fear,” the festhall master whispered in his ear. “I
will find her. I will have all my slaves and servants begin searching for her
at once.”

“
Thank you.” Kamen understood Banar's desire to restore calm. He
dealt in luxury, and if a full-scale war between the Ausir and the Sunjaa broke
out, his business would suffer. How much it had already suffered because of the
Ausir civil war, Kamen could only guess.

Banar smiled
and patted Kamen's shoulder. He clapped his hands as he waddled off, gathering
all his people to him.

Kamen turned
back to his foes. “By this blood I swear it.” And he stalked away, leaving the
Ausir dumb in amazement.

“
Where do you think she is?” Saerileth asked once they were alone.

“
Getting her out of the festhall would've been difficult,” Kamen
said. “Besides, she hasn't been by herself long enough. I left her not half an
hour ago.”

“
Then she is here.” Saerileth's blue eyes swept the room and out down
one corridor and then another. Her clever mind was at work. “They would have
had to have gagged her.”

Kamen paced the
room. “This place is a city. She might as well be secreted somewhere in
Godswatch itself for all the good it'll do us.”

“
You take the east wing,” Saerileth said. “I'll take the west.”

Kamen nodded.
“Keep your ears open.”

Saerileth
smiled. “I am a Lotus. There is nothing wrong with my ears.”

Kamen jogged
off, returned to his apartments, and grabbed his shortblade. He tossed the
scabbard aside and trotted out the door, moving up and down the corridors with
naked steel in hand. He imagined coming across the kidnappers, surprising them,
and spilling their guts across the floor. He would untie Ajalira and remove her
blindfold, and she would leap into his arms and give him a hundred kisses for
his rescue of her. He would tell her how much he loved her, and she would
promise to never leave him. The Ausir be damned, nothing would divide them
again.

The sound of
ringing steel spurred Kamen forward, and somehow he knew his fantasy rescue
would not play out the way he had hoped. He was, after all, in love with a
Tamari woman whose savagery was matched only by her beauty. When he turned the
corner where the clanging of steel was loudest, he smiled. A door stood open,
and an Ausir man ran in, his longsword drawn. Another one waited in the
corridor behind his companion, and he called out something in Ausir to him.
Kamen wished he understood, and he made a promise to himself right there that
he would have Ajalira teach him.

The man who had
run into the room stumbled back out backwards clutching his stomach. His hands
slipped across his abdomen as he tried to keep his innards from pouring out.
Ajalira's long, scarred forearm appeared in the doorway as she thrust forward,
piercing her enemy's neck and ending his life. The Ausir choked on his own
bile, slipped on his own guts, and fell dead. The other Ausir raised his blade
and cried out to Ajalira, though he did not advance.

But Ajalira
did. She was unharmed, and Kamen breathed easy. He did not approach but rather
leaned on his shortblade and watched. He would not rob her of her kill.
Besides, she had promised all her kills to him, and Kamen would not deny her
the pleasure of offering her foes' bones to him. He would weave them into his
dreadlocks and wear them with pride.

Ajalira muttered
something to her enemy and struck. The Ausir defended himself, but he did not
strike back. He made a clumsy attempt to hit her across the face with the
pommel of his sword, and then Kamen understood. Her jailers had been charged
not to harm her. Kimereth had planned to take her by force and make himself
King through her. Clever, but Ansim had gotten more than he had bargained for.
How could he have expected to conquer Ajalira's unconquerable spirit?

Ajalira lashed
out and caught the Ausir guard's cheek, drawing a thin line of blood through
his pale flesh. This brought out her enemy's fighting spirit, and he
retaliated. Ajalira welcomed it, and Kamen drew himself up with pride to see
her warrioress fires burn in her eyes. With a twist of her wrist, she sent her
blade down the length of her foe's, stabbing him through the hand. When he
dropped his weapon, Ajalira let slip a wordless battle cry and slashed him
across the throat. She liked cutting throats, Kamen now realized, because that
way the most blood possible flowed in offering to Alaxton.

Once done,
Ajalira chopped off the forefinger of each of her slain enemies and breathed a
prayer to, Kamen guessed, Alaxton. She whispered in Ausir. Yes, learning
Ajalira's language would only bring them closer together, and that he longed to
do. Only after praying did she look up, and then she gasped.

“
Kamen!” She dropped her sword, ran to him, and kissed him all over
his face, getting him just as bloody as she was. “You are here. You are here.”

“
Yes, I'm here.” Kamen returned her wild kisses as best he could.

Tears rolled
down Ajalira's face, and her voice was thick with sorrow. “They told me you had
given me over. They told me you did not want me anymore.”

“
Abrexa's chain, I'll never let you go!” Kamen hugged her and pressed
her head against his chest. “Damn fools thought to divide us.”

“
Never, never, never.” A kiss punctuated each word. Once she was at
least partially satisfied, she drew back, her eyes wide and wild. “How long
have you been standing here?”

Kamen smiled
wryly. “Long enough.”

“
Why did you not say anything?”

Kamen adopted a
casual air by leaning against the wall. “Gods shield I should disturb
devotion.” He meant the killing, not the subsequent prayer.

Ajalira fell to
kissing him again, and Kamen returned her kisses, running his fingers through
her hair. Thrilled to have her back in his arms, he lifted her off the ground
and crushed her against him. “What happened?”

“
The Kimereth lord thought to rape me and force my honor into
accepting him as husband.”

Kamen was
amazed at her acumen. “How do you know it was him?”

“
The way his men spoke. They invoked Mirsa, but since the cataclysm,
the Seranimesti have worshiped Abrexa solely.”

Kamen kissed
her again. “I love you.”

Ajalira rested
her bloody forehead against his. “And I you, more than anything.” Her tears
welled up afresh, flowing down her cheeks, leaving clear streaks through the
blood. “I am so sorry, beloved. Forgive me even for thinking that I should …
leave you.”

Kamen shook his
head, finding no words.

“
I am yours only, always. In honor as well as love.”

“
How?” Kamen could not understand why she was apologizing, but he
understood her need to explain.

“
I realized something, and wish only I had done so ten minutes
earlier!”

“
What's that?” Kamen luxuriated in her scents—blood, sweat, and
ginger soap. A perfect combination for his savage beauty.

“
I am yours, just as you are mine.” She kissed his lips. “Sunjaa law
binds us to each other, and that law is enough. Indeed, in giving our children
rights of inheritance, I am, for all intents and purposes even in Ausir eyes,
married to you. You cannot give me away.”

“
Nor would I.” Kamen wrapped his arms around her and pulled her
close. “Your honor is then satisfied?”

“
Yes, beloved,” Ajalira said. “The duty I owe you as recipient of my
oath—” She gestured to the scars on her forearm. “—takes precedence over any
other.”

Kamen could
only respond by embracing her more tightly.

“
And these, once clean—” Ajalira opened her hand to reveal three
severed forefingers, “—are yours, trophies of my love and devotion.” She must
have killed another in the room, for how else would she have gotten a sword in
the first place?

Saerileth
turned the corner. “There you two are.”

“
You found us, then?” Kamen felt his good humor returning.

“
How could I not? Everyone in the festhall heard her screaming.”
Saerileth offered Ajalira a slight bow, and Ajalira returned it. “They'll be
coming. Fat Banar was on my heels.” She looked past the couple. “Kimereth?”