The Lotus Ascension by Adonis Devereux Page A

wear?” Sillara laughed in her turn. “I have
not had a Sunjaa gown made since I was eight.”
    “ If we weren't leaving so soon I would suggest you have some made.
Since we are, I came prepared.” Merieke snapped her fingers, and her own
body-slave brought in from the hallway an enormous parcel. “My father is
constantly buying me gowns, not realizing I still have far too many. We are
much the same size, so I brought some to see if they would fit you.”
    Sillara nodded.
“I will try one, and if it fits I will take these instead.” Ileke helped
unfasten Sillara's laces, and soon Sillara was clad in the flowing, translucent
linen of a Sunjaa woman. She felt cool and free, and she actually twirled in
place.
    “ You look lovely,” said Merieke. “The white suits you better than
those Ausir colors.”
    Sillara sat down
on the bed beside Merieke, her only female friend, and curled up beside her
like a kitten. “You're the one known as the beauty of Arinport, Merieke.”
    Sillara felt
rather than heard the departure of the body-slaves, and she appreciated
Merieke's sensitivity in dismissing them.
    Merieke leaned
Sillara's head on her shoulder and stroked Sillara's hair softly. She pulled
Sillara even closer. “That may be so, but it is only because you are never seen
by anyone. Last night more people saw you than at any time in your whole life.”
She paused. “How can you not be beautiful? You look like your brother.”
    Sillara laughed.
That Soren was beautiful did not admit of doubt. “You flatter me.”
    Merieke did not
speak her reply. Instead, she leaned forward and kissed Sillara's mouth.
Merieke's lips were soft and warm, but Sillara resisted the urge to open her
mouth. Instead she pulled away, perplexed.
    “ Merieke!” Sillara knew that Merieke liked men.
    Merieke's smile
was sensual, and she reached up, tracing the shape of the Itenu falcon above
Sillara's breast, which was clearly visible through the sheer linen. “It
doesn't count, you know , if it's just two girls.”
    Sillara shook
her head. Apparently Merieke liked men and women. “I may be a maiden,
Merieke, but I have heard enough to know that two girls can go quite far
together, and after all, isn't that how you avoid getting pregnant?”
    “ What?” Merieke, despite her obvious shock, did not release Sillara's
flesh, instead dropping onto the breast itself, and Sillara felt her nipple
begin to harden beneath Merieke's fingers. “First of all, no, I love the feel
of semen erupting inside my pussy, and I don't want to give that up. I take
herbs. My mother was a Lotus, remember? But who could possibly have told you about what two women can do in bed?”
    “ My brother.”
    Merieke's
caressing hand tightened on Sillara's breast. “Soren told you? Why?”
    Sillara could
not help pushing her breast back against Merieke's hand. “Someone had to. He
told me all about coupling when my father told him. We always tell each other
everything.”
    Merieke removed
her hand from Sillara's breast only to slide her fingers up beneath Sillara's
linen gown and touch her bare flesh. “Are you going to tell him about this?”
    “ Of course.” Sillara smiled.
    “ Well, if he is going to hear about it, I should make it worth his
hearing.” Merieke unfastened the golden straps of Sillara's gown. “Have you
ever had your pussy licked?”
    “ No, of course not. I have not been touched by anyone since my pubic hair was removed
when I was twelve.”
    Merieke's laugh
was rough-edged with lust, and she straddled Sillara's waist. “Would you like
for me to lick you?”
    Sillara felt the
weight of Merieke's bare pussy pressed against her own, and the sight of
Merieke's soft, pert breasts with their stiff nipples was lovely. Sillara had
never desired women, but she had not really thought of men, either. She had
been kept in an isolation that, were it not for Soren's lusty tales, would have
left her with no more knowledge of sex than the embarrassed and