Page 15 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

TOBI

T obi wonders what he is meant to do now. Although there is nothing he wants to do quite so much as stay where he is with his face buried in Baby’s fur, cooing sweet noises to her.

Baby, at least, appears to be adjusting to these strange circumstances. And he will have to adjust to his.

When Tobi is rescued from this place he will be able to tell great tales in Attar.

About how Urynwud is beautifully built and unlike any place anyone from Azuria has ever seen, glittering with wealth, but also at peace with the forest that surrounds it.

If Tobi had thought about the Ambolk at all before, he would have assumed that the Ambolk lived in caves and trees, not great castles covered in leaves.

But Urynwud is warmer and far finer than many buildings Tobi has been inside in Ceruleum, and perhaps even rivals the Azurian Palaces.

How long will he remain here before his father sends the Imperial army to free him?

That soldier had claimed there were thousands of men at Fort Serus awaiting the move into Ismagaar.

Surely it would be a simple matter to divert some of them?

Despite Cyrus’s skepticism, despite how his father has ignored him in the past, Tobi is certain, the Azurian Empire would not simply leave a Darek to a fate like this.

The army will come. Until then he will simply have to make the best of things.

He is the kushir of King Harok. Just another part to play. Tobi is good at mimicry. He can imitate voices and pick up words. If he is to imitate an Ambolk kushir, it would do him well to learn as many Ambolk words as possible.

Like kushir.

His thoughts are interrupted by someone else coming into the stables.

He sits up, thinking it might be Harok returning for him.

But it isn’t. It’s Lymok, the man who spoke Artemian at the campground.

He had travelled back with the party who took the ford.

Tobi had forgotten about this man, but now he sees him, he feels thrilled to realise this is someone he will be able to speak to.

The man is perhaps a summer or two younger than Tobi.

His hair is a sandy blonde colour, where every other Ambolk man Tobi has seen has hair that is either dark or pure white.

He wears paint on his face like every other person Tobi has seen in Urynwud with the exception of Harok’s mother and a few other women in similar green robes.

Three black stripes across his nose and cheeks.

And he wears the same clothing. Short breeches, tall boots and a harness, with a dark cloak hanging from his shoulders.

But he definitely looks different. In a way Tobi can’t quite explain.

As he reaches Baby’s cage, he says, “Harok told me I would find you here. I am sure you must have many questions.”

Tobi looks at him. For a moment all he can do is blink in stunned surprise to hear words he understands. “Questions?” he says weakly. Where should he even begin?

But before he can ask any questions, the man asks one of his own. “How are you finding Urynwud?”

“It is very beautiful,” Tobi says. “And I cannot fault the hospitality of the Ambolk so far.”

The man tips his head onto one side. “That is a diplomatic thing to say when you were snatched from your home and almost killed on your way here.”

Tobi inhales sharply. “I suppose so,” he says.

“So,” the man says, sitting down on the stool Harok vacated. “What do you want to know?”

Tobi shrugs. “Who you are?”

The man grins. “Of course, kushir. I am Lymok. I am cousin to Irgo Harok. And I am one of very few people in Urynwud who know the Artemian tongue. I am charged by Irgo Harok to be the voice of the Ambolk wherever we must speak with those from the empire.”

Irgo Harok, tobi thinks. Irgo must mean king.

“So that’s why you speak Artemian?” Tobi says. “You are a translator?”

Lymok nods. “In a way. I mostly work with the traders. I travel with the parties that take our goods to sell at the market in Ceruleum or Feildal. I speak Artemian and Magaar. As the forest borders Azuria and Ismagaar. I also speak a little Juran. Although I have little use for it.”

Tobi nods. “Juran.” He scratches Baby behind the ear. She purrs. “My lykat is from Ib. Perhaps she would understand you.”

Lymok nods, but he says. “The Ibian language is quite distinct from Juran.”

“Perhaps Baby could teach you Ibian,” Tobi says. “I was told once all beasts understand it. ”

Lymok raises an eyebrow. “Or I could teach you Ambolk.”

“That would be a much better idea, I think,” says Tobi. “It’s difficult not having any idea what anyone is saying.”

“I’m sure,” says Lymok. “But, until then, if you have anything you’d rather find out now without having to learn Ambolk, please ask.”

“Why have you taken me? Is it because I am a Darek? Do you wish to make war with the Empire?”

Lymok looks almost amused. “I doubt it. The Azurian Empire is of no concern to the Forests of Amber. We have not seen Imperial soldiers here for two hundred years. Sarelik Darek swore to always leave the forests in peace. But I understand you have Darek blood. Harok did claim so. That you were a distant descendant from the Emperor’s family. ”

“ Distant descendant, ” Tobi almost spits it. “I am the son of Prince Rafus. Emperor Selim’s brother and heir to the Imperial throne.”

Lymok frowns. “A prince of the Empire works as a Beast Tamer in a circus?”

Tobi has heard people say this to him after his performances before. Implying what he said in the circle was all lies. “I am not of the royal line. But my father is Prince Rafus. He will send soldiers to retrieve me. He was likely behind those men that attacked us in the forest on our way here.”

Lymok smiles. “Oh no. Those were the Exceli. Solwen that Irgo Harok banished from Urynwud when he took the throne twenty years ago. They rise up on occasion and Harok has to take his warriors and subdue them. He defeated their leader a little less than two moons’ turns hitherto and the survivors swore to remain ten leagues away from Urynwud or face death.

But as you have seen, they grow bolder once more. They always do.”

“Why did Irgo Harok banish them in the first place?” Tobi says, hoping he is using the Ambolk word correctly. Irgo Harok. King Harok.

“They are heretics. When Irgo Harok ascended he banned a form of worship that had been part of the traditions of the Solwen for hundreds of years. The cult of Diazuul. For centuries the Solwen worshipped this Demon King. We called him a God. But the Great Irgo Harok slayed this demon and declared his worship an aberration. The Exceli disagree.”

That explains something about part of the title Lymok had used to introduce Harok to Copperhead Circus.

Slayer of Demons. Tobi knows demons are not truly real, just tricks and stories.

So, Harok is called demon slayer because he banned this false religion?

“So the Exceli still worship this demon? And if the Exceli grow bolder, will Harok have to fight them again?”

“It is likely,” says Lymok. “He has done so many times. But you should not concern yourself with that. You are a kushir.”

Tobi frowns. “And what exactly does kushir mean? You said there was no translation, but I know what kush means, everyone in Azuria does. A hole. Is that what everyone is calling me?”

Lymok smiles. “Azurians only think they know what kush means. It might be a crude word there, but here it is not. And kushir is simply a word for a king’s consort. As kushwen is a word for a woman. It is not an insult. And to be a kushir is a great honour.”

“So am I to be his queen?”

Lymok purses his full lips. “Not exactly. What you call a queen, we would call a Kushel. Yaelin, Harok’s mother, is a Kushel. An Irgo will often name his kushir as Kushel if that kushir pleases him greatly. The kushir is usually granted such status to indicate that her son is the heir of the Irgo.”

Tobi cocks his head to one side. What a strange place this is. “So only a female kushir can become a Kushel? But a man can be a kushir?”

“I suppose it has oft been so. But it has long been known that Irgo Harok’s desires are only of the deep earth. So perhaps Harok will want a male kushir as his Kushel. He is Irgo. He may declare such if you please him well enough.”

“So, even without a son, a kushir could become a Kushel? But how would your succession work if a Kushel is male, where would the heir come from?”

Lymok looks a little bemused. “A king’s heir does not need to be born of his body.

A king may choose any man to be his heir.

I have oft wondered what happens in Azuria, if the king dies without leaving a male heir of his body.

What would happen then, if he cannot simply name an heir from amongst his finest young warriors as we do? ”

“There are rules,” Tobi says with a shrug. This seems a strange thing to explain. “Emperor Selim has no heir and is unmarried. He is devoted only to his God and will not father any sons. So my father is his heir. My father is the Emperor’s brother.”

Lymok smiles. “Just as mine was. So why are you not a prince in Azuria? If that is Azurian tradition?”

Tobi says, “I am bastard born. My father was not married to my mother.”

“Oh,” says Lymok. “I knew the Azurian law was that an heir must be of the father’s body, but I did not know the mother had to also be anointed Kushel. How does that work? Must the father declare the mother Kushel before the son is born? How does he know she will bear him an heir?”

“Er,” Tobi frowns back. This has never seemed so complex to him before.

“He has to marry the woman and hope she gives him a son. In Azuria a man cannot lie with a woman he has not wed. Or he should not according to the Book of the Rules. Although a man can have more than one wife. If the first union is not fruitful. But, more usually, men only take one wife as Doroth Zain has declared such a practice against the will of Zai.”

“Zai, the God?”

“Yes. There is no other Zai as far as I am aware.” Tobi says lightly.

“Your God tells you who you should marry?” Lymok says this as if it is the strangest thing he has ever heard.

“I’m not sure if Zai is my God, but he would never allow a man to take another man to his bed.”

“Oh, yes,” Lymok says with a broad smile. “Someone told me this once but I wasn’t sure if it was true. So your God tells you who you can marry and who you have in your bed?”

Tobi nods. It does seem strange put like that.

Lymok looks quite impressed by this. “How does your God have time? Now Harok has slain Diazuul, the Solwen have returned to the worship of the Triple God who makes the sun rise and the trees change with the seasons. The Three in One give the forest life. They make mothers’ wombs quicken with babes.

They have a whole world to maintain. I do not think our Gods would have time to get involved in our bed chambers.

Even Diazuul had no such concerns. Why would Zai care about such things? ”

“I do not know. I never paid much attention to the ways of Zai,” says Tobi.

This makes Lymok smile. “And now you will have no more need of him than we do of Diazuul. But I suppose that it makes sense that there would be laws about such desires if your heir must always be body born.”

“You suggest the Rose Court makes Zai’s laws, not Zai himself?” Tobi says with a smirk. Lymok is not the first person he has heard claim such a thing.

Lymok tips his head to one side. “I do not know why a God would concern himself with something like that, but I imagine the Rose Court would. Kings who do not desire women would have no heirs under your system.”

“That happened to my Uncle Markus. He was Selim’s older brother. He was exiled for having such desires.”

Lymok raises an eyebrow. “What do you call it in Azuria when a man only desires men? There is no word in my Azurian books, but if it is a crime there must be a word.”

“Oh, there are many,” says Tobi. “The faith call it sins of the body, but most people would call it being sly. The act itself is called luxoli, after the isle of Luxoria, where they say it was invented.”

At this Lymok spits out a laugh. “Such desires were invented?”

“Yes,” says Tobi, matching Lymok’s bright amused tone. “Because they were not part of Zai’s great plan for the world. Wicked men had to invent them.”

This makes Lymok laugh again. “You should tell Irgo Harok that. I am sure it would amuse him.”

The idea of amusing that beast of a man makes Tobi’s belly quiver. Perhaps that is what he ought to try and do. Amuse the Irgo. Perhaps that is what a kushir is for. He thinks of Harok’s weary, unsmiling face. “He doesn’t seem to smile much.”

“He does not. He has many concerns. Many problems,” says Lymok, but then he seems to cut himself off, not letting that thought go any further. “But come, kushir, Harok bid me to see that you bathe before the anointing.”