Page 22 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

TOBI

T obi lies in Harok’s big bed and stares at the ceiling. Like his own adjoining chamber, Harok’s own room also has a ceiling covered in intricate carvings of leaves and birds and Ambolk symbols with coupling figures twined around them.

Tobi feels strange and sour that Harok took his leave so abruptly.

He had expected to wake to a repeat of the night before.

A morning where Harok would have covered him again, perhaps prepared him with that warm wet tongue.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps it would also be thrilling if Harok simply rolled Tobi onto his belly and used his body for pleasure, or demanded he slide to his knees on the floor to give suck.

He tries to tell himself that he ought to have expected Harok to be a busy man.

To take his leave without explanation. He is king.

Irgo. He had spent all of the previous day attending to Tobi, bringing him here, anointing him.

Not to mention riding like a demon to save them from the Exceli.

When Tobi thinks of that, the feelings that rise up inside him are a strange mixture.

It had been terrifying. Arrows whisking past as Harok protected him with his body.

Tobi had been shaking with fear. But like being owned by Harok and kept as kushir to warm his bed, it is strangely exhilarating to consider.

And last night in Harok’s bed had been so, so sweet.

Tobi cannot help from smarting about not having Harok’s full attention this morning too.

Because Tobi likes attention. Particularly from his lovers.

He enjoys obsessive, even controlling, interest. It had worked well when Cyrus had felt that way about him and stung for many moons when Cyrus moved on to find himself a more youthful bed warmer.

But that kind of obsessive attention would be even sweeter if Tobi could win it from Harok.

Strong, handsome powerful Harok.

Like he’d been at the anointing ceremony, when Harok had been so closely attentive. Touching Tobi, kissing him, feeding him tiny pieces of food with big, blunt fingertips.

And later, those fingers….

Tobi squirms at the memory.

But his thoughts turn quickly to those marks he saw on Harok’s back. Who made those? Could he learn enough Ambolk to ask the question? To understand the answer?

He’s still lying in bed brooding, wondering how long it will be before Harok comes back, deciding Tobi’s mouth is irresistible and forcefully taking it, when someone knocks on the chamber door.

Tobi bids them enter. It is one of the women Lymok had introduced the previous day as Tobi’s body servants.

She carries a plate of honeycakes, a jug and some fabric draped over her arm, which appears to be clothing.

Tobi shuffles in the bed, arranging the furs over his body hastily as the woman walks in. He is naked beneath the furs and his skin bears marks from Harok’s fingers and mouth all over it. The chamber must smell strongly of rutting.

But the woman makes no reaction as she sets down the wooden tray, drapes the fabric over the back of a chair, sees to the fire, then leaves.

She says a few words in Ambolk, but Tobi doesn’t know what they mean.

Were they an invitation for Tobi to eat the food?

Perhaps she simply called Tobi a slut, knowing that he would not understand her.

Left alone again, Tobi climbs from the bed to warm himself by the fire and break his fast on the delicious honeycakes that are laid out for him.

His favourite. He drinks two cups of the weak ale to slake his thirst, then goes to investigate the clothing.

It’s a fresh white alit and a grey cloak.

The fabric of the alit is a little thicker than the sheer silken one he had been given the previous night, but it is still a tiny garment.

The cloak is light, too thin to provide much additional warmth, but it will cover his body.

And every room in Urynwud is pleasantly warm.

But, it seems, he is still to wear an alit even if Harok is not present.

He supposes he ought to be grateful for the addition of a cloak.

He wonders what happened to the clothes he arrived with, that were cleared away by the body servants and the chest of belongings that came on the cart.

Perhaps this morning he will find a way to track them down.

He cannot be expected to spend all his time dressed so immodestly.

There is no kind of footwear provided. Until he tracks down his boots, he will be barefoot.

He should start in the stables. That is where the horses ended up. Perhaps the cart did too? And, while he is there, he can check on Baby. She had seemed quite calm the previous day. He hopes she is still adjusting well. His heart warms to think of what a good, obedient beast she is.

He pulls on the alit and the cloak. When he opens the door to the chamber and peers out he finds there are four guards stationed outside.

Which seems like a great number. Do they mean to keep him in this room?

It had not occurred to Tobi he would be so much a prisoner.

All of them wear the same outfit of body harnesses, short leather breeches, boots and cloaks.

They are all armed with tall lances. They look at Tobi.

He stands straight and says, “I’m going down to the stables to see my lykat. ”

One of the guards nods. “Sho, kushir,” he says. An agreement.

But Tobi has no idea if the man understood what he said. The rest of the guards do not speak at all. When Tobi walks out of the room the guards make no move to stop him, simply falling in behind to follow him down the corridor.

Well then, he thinks, at least he will not be all alone. These guards are clearly charged to follow him wherever he goes.

Urynwud’s stairways and passageways are still a confusing warren, but he manages to follow the corridor to the stairs Harok led him down the previous evening and finds his way back to the large courtyard behind Urynwud.

When he crosses the yard to the stables and goes inside, still with his four guards behind him, he notices the stall that had contained Tamello is empty.

Has Harok taken his horse out of Urynwud? Would the beast’s wound even be healed?

Tobi walks past the rows of stalls to the large one at the end that contains Baby’s cage, telling himself that surely someone will find him soon and explain to him where Harok has gone and when he will return, even if the great Irgo of the Amber Forest could not deign to do so himself.

But his sulk melts away instantly when he sees Baby and rushes to her, pressing his arms through the bars of the cage to pet her.

As always, she makes his heart leap in his chest. Her thick fur is soft and smells delicious, sweet and musky.

Tobi is certain no harm can come to him, even in this strange place, while he has his Baby. His Ashaki.

He coos with delight as Baby purrs and licks at him. He is so entranced by her that he doesn’t notice the young stablegirl who has appeared behind him until she says, “Kushir?”

Tobi turns around. “Good morrow,” he says to her with a small bow.

The stablegirl gives Tobi a bow in return, but she looks quite baffled by what he has said. She doesn’t look older than thirteen summers, but she easily stands taller than Tobi. Every Ambolk man and woman is a giant. She points to Baby and says something in Ambolk.

Tobi nods, guessing what she might have said. “You take care of her? You fed her?”

The stablegirl looks back at Tobi blankly. Tobi mimes eating something and points at Baby. The stablegirl nods eagerly. She lifts up a large wooden pail and shows it to Tobi. It is empty. Did it contain Baby’s food?

“Thank you,” Tobi says.

The stablegirl says something else in Ambolk. Tobi repeats it back, thinking perhaps that is the word for thank you.

He feels reassured that Baby is being taken care of and this young Ambolk woman has gone to such troubles to let him know. He wonders if Harok tasked her with the duty.

Tobi turns and walks back towards the courtyard. As he passes the guards, they fall in behind him.

He might be alone in the strangest place he has ever been and surrounded by people who speak a strange foreign language, but he is Prince Tobi Darek, Beast Tamer.

He has made his home on the Fanosti grasslands, in the Rose Court and in the wilds of Northern Azuria.

And he will find a way to survive here for as long as he needs to until he is borne back to Attar a hero, to retake his position as his father’s son.

Tobi makes his way from the courtyard, back to the corridor that leads to the stairs up to his chamber, but instead of taking those stairs he walks on.

At the end of the corridor are some wide steps leading downwards and when he follows them he finds himself in a large kitchen.

He stands on the threshold for a moment and watches over two dozen people at work around a large table and before huge firepits.

A couple of them glance his way, but none speak to him.

Further on, through the kitchen, he can see a passageway leading to other rooms. He smiles thinly at a kitchen boy who looks over to him.

He ought to say something. Tobi has no trouble introducing himself under normal circumstances.

But what to say? And how to say it without any grasp of the Ambolk language.

As he is considering how he ought to introduce himself, he looks back at his four guards, who are assembled behind him. Their expressions are blank.

He turns back to the kitchen to see a large red-faced woman marching towards him. She is waving a spoon at him like she is trying to shoo him away. She says something in Ambolk. She sounds annoyed, but Tobi is unsure if that is just how her Ambolk sounds to his ear.

He lifts his palms and says, “I just wanted to say thank you for your wonderful honeycakes.”