The Soldier's Lotus Read Free Page A

You’ve hauled in enough plunder to prove yourself. What
are you still doing here?”
    Kamen whirled so quickly on Darien that his dreadlocks
swung out across his face. “What do you mean?”
    The sudden fear in Kamen’s eyes confused Darien. He was not
intimating that he planned to kick Kamen off his ship. On the contrary, Kamen
had been his trusted first mate for three years, and Darien would be happy to
keep him on for as long as he wanted to stay. “It’s just that you’ve got
responsibilities, and I thought you’d want to be seeing to your future.”
    “ The future of my
family, you mean.” Kamen’s head sank, and he rubbed the ring in his nostril.
    Darien shrugged. “Same thing?”
    It was Kamen’s turn to shrug. “I like sailing. The navy’s
been my life these past seven years.”
    “ Yeah, and you’re
overdue. Your term of service was up two years ago.”
    “ Why would I want to
leave? You know how many glorious battles you’ve led us in? I couldn’t get this
kind of excitement on land.” Kamen puffed out his chest and haughtily waved his
head at Darien. “Besides, what about you? You came
into the military at sixteen just like everyone else. What are you still doing
here twenty years later?”
    “ You’re an Itenu ,” Darien said, laughing. “Me? I’m nobody. I don’t
have a drop of noble blood in me.” He stomped the floorboard. “This is me.”
    “ But you’re richer
than most of the nobles of Arinport. You could retire tomorrow.”
    “ When the chase no
longer thrills me or when the sea no longer carries pirate ships – whichever
comes first – then I’ll retire. But you? It’s about
time you find a wife, settle down, and make a litter of little Itenus . A nobleman’s got his duty.” He gave Kamen a wink.
    “ And you common men
can live free as birds?” Kamen’s soft, delicate lips turned up in one of his
signature charming smiles.
    “ Something like that.” Darien spread his arms wide in mock apology. “One of the privileges of birth.” He threw his head back and
laughed, and Kamen shared his mirth. So lusty was their chortling that it was
not until their laughter began to die away that they heard commotion out on the
main deck.
    “ What’s this, then?”
Darien leaped to his feet and raced past Kamen. His first mate was on his
heels.
    Beyond the main deck hatch the crew had gathered, their
rowdy shouts and wide, anticipatory stances telling Darien that they had caged
something – or someone. Perhaps a pirate had escaped the sinking of his ship;
perhaps like a coward he had abandoned his comrades only to be picked up on the
open sea by the very men who had deprived him of his ability to further
terrorize the merchant ships that ran between the coastal cities.
    Ruben, the second mate, stood apart from the ebullient
crowd, though he watched the men with a close eye.
    “Explain this,” Darien said.
    Ruben snapped to attention. “Sea plunder, sir.” With a nod
of his head, he indicated the sailors gathered at the other end of the main
deck.
    “ Make way there!”
Darien cried out, shouldering his way through the crew. Darien was a head
taller than the next tallest man on the ship, and his muscular shoulders,
powerful arms, and broad, well-formed chest set him apart from so many other Sunjaa , whose frames were for the most part more like
Kamen’s, lithe and cat-like with a wiry strength. Darien was a lion among cubs.
    What appeared before Darien’s eyes was no pirate, no
prisoner of war, but rather a fair-skinned Zenji girl. Memory struck him like a
lightning flash, and he saw in a moment in his mind’s eye the raid on the Dimadan and the destruction of the Kesandrahn Clan. That was the last time he had been this close to a Zenji.
    “ What’s this all
about?” Darien’s voice was a roar that silenced the raucous crew. He heard a
knocking in the ensuing silence and peeked over the side. A lifeboat was
tethered to the hull, and the choppy waves thrust it