The Soldier's Lotus Read Free Page B

repeatedly against the
side of the ship.
    “ We found her just
floating there,” Ruben’s voice called out.
    The girl pulled her pallav up around
her face, hiding her beautiful mouth and lovely nose, and her cobalt blue eyes
darted from one face to another. Darien recognized instantly what the girl was
doing; he had seen it before. She was counting. She was cornered, and she was
counting. She was figuring how many she would be able to defeat before she was
overwhelmed. It was the calm desperation of a skilled warrior who knew she had
no hope of escape. Darien liked her immediately, and he wanted to know her
more.
    The girl scrambled back until her back rested against the
bulkhead of the forecastle. She made sure she had her back to something, a
defensible position. This neither escaped Darien’s notice.
    “ We’re going to have a
little fun with her captain,” said another voice, “seeing as we found her. We
claim salvage rights.”
    It was a legitimate claim under Sunjaa maritime law, and such rights, though distasteful to Darien, extended to lost
persons on the sea. The girl was alone; she was without friends or connections.
She was finely dressed, to be sure, but the crew would tear her clothes to rags
and rape her naked body until she lay bleeding and
dying. Darien had seen such treatment often enough under Ulen’s – his former
captain’s – command. He could not let that happen. He would not have one raven
lock on this perfect woman’s head mistreated.
    “ As captain, I lay
first claim,” Darien said. The crew went berserk in protest, and Darien moved
to stand before the girl to protect her. Her eyes widened, but he could not
tell what she was feeling. Was it fear? Surprise? Indignation? Darien thought the crew might mutiny, and
though he was an accomplished warrior, like the girl he could not defeat so
many were they to come at him. But Darien would not stand by and let this girl
be gang-raped. Not while he was captain. A solution presented itself just as
the shouts of the crew turned to furious howls.
    “ Listen to me!” Darien
raised his arms. “Listen!” The men did not calm, but their voices lowered. “I
am a fair man. In exchange for this girl, I surrender two shares of my plunder
to the general coffers, to be divided equally among you all.”
    The shouts turned to grumbles, but still the crew glared at
him. Darien needed to sweeten the deal.
    “ And,” he said, “I
call common quarters.”
    The grumbles ceased, and the shaking of heads turned to
nodding, the upraised fists turning to caresses on one another’s backs. Those not essential to the running of the ship at that very moment
disappeared below deck, doubtless eager to indulge their lust at their leisure.
    “ Common
quarters.” Kamen came around
the main mast to where Darien stood. “A fine idea. Will you join the men?” He stretched out his hand, but Darien did not take it.
    “ Not today.” Darien
glanced back at the girl, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Arinport
held nothing half as lovely; in all the cities of the world he had visited,
Darien had never seen a woman to match her. She had an inborn grace and natural
allure about her that had obviously been enhanced through some sort of
training.
    So transfixed was Darien with this stranger that though he
spoke to Kamen, he could not look back at his first mate. “And I’m afraid you
can’t join them, either. I need you to stand witness.”
    The girl’s defensiveness was gone; her fear evaporated. The
hardness of her eyes had melted away, and the soft and inviting expression that
replaced her hate quite baffled Darien. “Do you understand me?”
    The girl nodded. “I speak the Sunjaa tongue, yes.”
    Darien stretched out his hand. “You’re safe now. No one’s
going to harm you. Welcome aboard Mirsa’s Crown .”
    The girl took his hand and rose from her vulnerable
position in one fluid movement. She applied hardly any pressure to Darien’s
hand, instead