Page 11 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

Tobi can see the animal is distressed. The horse can’t understand what Harok wants it to do.

There is foam on its lips. Tobi knows a panicking animal when he sees one “Don’t,” he says to Harok, looking around.

“Don’t. He’s hurt. He can’t do what you want.

” Harok’s face is wild. His eyes dark and his expression monstrous.

Harok reaches forward. He snaps off the arrow shaft where it protrudes from the horse’s flesh, the horse makes a sound of pain and Harok kicks at it again and cries out more sharply, “ Elik, elik .”

Tobi can hear sounds behind them. The attackers are still coming. He hears another scream. Another sound of a man falling from his mount.

There's no reasoning with Harok, so Tobi leans down and places a hand on the neck of Harok’s horse.

“ Lalian ,” he says softly. Ibian words.

The beast tamer that worked in the Rose Palace once told Tobi that all animals understood Ibian.

Once, long ago in Ib, men and animals all spoke the same language and spoke to each other.

Tobi does not know if this is really true, but he knows there is something about certain Ibian words that seem to calm beasts.

“ Lalian, ” he coos again and he feels the beast softening.

The arrow in its body is sunk deep, but perhaps if he can stop the animal panicking it will be able to move fast enough to get them away from this.

“ Lalian ary juzu ,” Tobi says, reciting it like a magic spell as he runs a hand along the horse’s neck. He feels it working. The horse is calming.

Harok shouts, “ Elik, elik. ” Tobi wants to tell him to stop. But there isn’t time. They need to get away from here and this horse is their only chance.

Tobi strokes the horse again and he feels it respond to Harok. It makes a single low whining sound and begins to move, as if knowing, finally, what it needs to do.

Tobi squeezes his legs tight around the animal as it picks up speed, muttering to it over and over, “ Lalian, lalian, lalian ary juzu .”

They flee into the forest, leaving their attackers behind.

It isn’t until Harok slows his horse first to a trotting pace and then to a halt, that Tobi speaks. He says, “What was that?”

He knows Harok cannot understand Artemian, but he thinks this question might be obvious.

“ Exceli ,” Harok says.

“ Exceli ,” Tobi repeats back. Wondering what that means.

Harok slips down from the saddle. He pats the horse’s flank and inspects the wound. Then he walks away, towards the trees. Tobi sits where he is on the horse’s back. What is he doing?

Tobi looks around. There is still a tail of Ambolk riders behind them. But Tobi thinks there are less than there were before. And a few of them are slumped over in their saddles. Others have done like Harok and slipped down onto the ground. Several men have fresh bloody wounds.

Tobi swallows. He knows Baby wasn’t with them. The cage went the other route. Down to cross at the ford. But Baby is somewhere in this forest. Is her group of Ambolk warriors also being attacked by deadly arrows?

He closes his eyes. He was selfish to insist on bringing Baby. She could have been left safe with the rest of Copperhead Circus.

Harok does not leave Tobi’s sight, but turns around a moment later and walks back to the horse.

He has a scrap of blue moss in his hand which he smears over the horse’s wound, around the piece of arrow shaft that is still sticking from its flesh.

Tobi winces to see it. He leans forward over the horse's neck and whispers, “ Lalian, lalian ary juzu ,” again.

Harok frowns at him. Then turns away. He walks all the way down the line of riders behind him, speaking with each one.

One man, on a large black mare, exchanges some words with Harok, before swinging down from his saddle with a scowl on his face.

Harok takes the reins of the mare and leads it to the front of the line.

He hitches the new horse to the injured one, before taking Tobi by the waist, and with simple, practical grace, he lifts Tobi and transfers him to the new beast, before swinging up behind him. Tobi grunts as Harok’s body knocks into his back. The heat of it tight against him once more.

“ Urynwud ,” Harok says.

Tobi turns to look at him. “I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what anything you say means.” His voice is a whine. His fear making his words shake.

Harok makes a low sound, a soothing sound. He leans close and says in his heavy Ambolk accent, “Home,” before urging the new horse forward, leading the injured beast beside them, on through the forest.

As the pair of horses walk on, the sun rises. The sky above the trees turns rosy pink then summer blue. The sunlight is gold between the trees when they finally see something in the distance. It’s hard to make out, but Tobi thinks there is some kind of building ahead of them.

Harok reaches over, onto a pack on the injured horse's saddle and pulls out a wineskin. He takes a drink then offers it to Tobi. Tobi takes it, only realising when he starts to drink how thirsty he is.

When he hands it back to Harok, Harok points through the trees at the distinct dark shape of buildings clustered together and says, “ Urynwud. Home.”