Page 33 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

Tobi sucks on his bottom lip, remembering the stable with Harok the previous day, but he feels a little warm inside when he thinks of Harok saying, “ Suskara eh elizzia .”

“Are there many songs sung in Ambolk in Azuria?” says Lymok, sounding quite intrigued.

Tobi nods. “Usually, minstrels sing in Ambolk to disguise how bawdy a song is. If a song is being sung in Ambolk or Juran everyone knows that means the words would not be allowed in Artemian. There is another popular Ambolk song, Ar-lily kush . Everyone says that means the seamstress’s cunt.

It’s about a seamstress who doesn’t finish her work in time so her patron demands sex in return for his wasted journey to collect the mending and the sex is so good that she rips open her stitches each time he comes so they can have sex again. ”

“Oh,” Lymok sounds a little surprised. “This is not an Ambolk song I know.”

“Perhaps it's not. Just an Azurian song they sing in Ambolk to hide the bawdiness. And over time, people have started to assume the song itself is from the Amber Forest. ”

“Azuria sounds like the strangest place,” says Lymok. “Full of the most mysterious customs and superstitions.”

“I suppose it is,” he says.

But surely the Amber Forest is just as mysterious, if not more so.

For almost half the day, Tobi works with Lymok in the library.

Tobi is surprised by how much he enjoys it.

It is much more pleasant than Tobi’s memories of the lessons he had as a boy.

He had always thought he had no ability when it came to such things.

But Lymok teaches Tobi a great deal that morning.

He starts with yes and no, which Tobi has already picked up, and then the Ambolk numbers.

He teaches Tobi a few simple Ambolk sentences.

How to ask for food and drink. How to greet people and ask after their health.

By the time they finish, Tobi’s head is spinning, but he feels quite thrilled that he will be able to speak to Harok in his own tongue.

During dinner in the Sacred Hall, Harok is, once again, deep in conversation with Mereli and his council of advisors.

Tobi cannot understand anything of the discussion, but he listens patiently, trying to pick out words he knows, but there are few except Exceli, which seems to be a common topic of Harok’s conversations.

But later, in the bed chamber, Harok has Tobi lie beside him and kisses him deeply, making him squirm with pleasure, before saying, “ Suskara, Ambolk ?”

Tobi smiles and counts from one to ten in Ambolk.

Harok laughs. “ Sho, Suskara. Ga .”

“ Damalik, Irgorye ,” Tobi says, enjoying the fact they are having some kind of first conversation. Then he says, “ Priss? Endel priss ?” Which he hopes means five kisses .

Harok laughs again. A low soft rumble and drops five pecks on Tobi’s nose.

“ Damalik, Ereyek ,” Tobi says again.

He knows Harok likes being called Ereyek and isn’t surprised when Harok responds with a growl.

He rolls over on top of Tobi, eyes dark with lust. He pins Tobi’s wrists to the bed in one big hand and runs the other down Tobi’s body, down his side and up, under the alit.

Tobi spreads his legs as a finger strokes over his hole.

Harok mutters some words of Ambolk Tobi does not understand.

Is he talking about Tobi’s body? Tobi’s hole?

Perhaps he ought to learn more bedchamber words after all.

“ Ereyek ,” Tobi says softly as Harok slides a finger inside him. It’s dry and it burns. Tobi yelps and says, “ Ereyek !” again, pointing to the dish of oil beside the bed. “Oil.”

Harok laughs again. “Oil,” he echoes as if this word is very amusing. He pulls his hand back and takes a moment to do as Tobi asked.

When Harok’s oiled finger slips into him, Tobi keens with pleasure. He shifts to take more of Harok’s thick finger inside him.

Harok sighs and kisses Tobi, deeply on the mouth then on his chin, his neck. He worries there, licking, sucking at the bite mark on the soft flesh where Tobi’s neck and shoulder join. At the same time he fucks Tobi with his fingers. Tobi writhes on the sheets.

Harok slides a second finger into Tobi and Tobi cries out.

Harok’s fingers are big and it's a little too much, a little too fast. But Harok is greedy for him. He can feel it. Pain sparks through him as he is opened, but the pain is sweet, twisting into pleasure, mixing with the intense feel of Harok’s teeth nipping his flesh.

Harok’s fingers drag and move inside him, stretching wider and wider until he gasps, hips bucking up from the bed.

Harok chuckles and twists his fingers again, finding that spot inside Tobi that makes his breath hitch and the pleasure build.

Harok focuses his attention there and the feeling rises and rises.

Tobi moans, “Oh, please.” He wants more. Three fingers.

“Oh, please,” Harok echoes back, sliding his fingers deeper.

Tobi groans. He realises he has the words. He can ask for three, “ Tal ,” he says. “Please, tal .”

Harok makes a humming sound of delight and Tobi feels the overwhelming, almost too much, feeling as Harok adds a third finger.

Harok only moves his finger once or twice before Tobi realises that he cannot hold on. He cries out as he spends, his cock jolting between their bodies, just from Harok’s thick fingers inside him.

Harok makes another growling noise. Approval of Tobi’s fast, eager rush to pleasure. His desire. He withdraws his fingers from Tobi’s body and trails them through the warm seed on Tobi’s belly.

Tobi is still gasping, shaking from his spend, as Harok’s fingers slip into Tobi’s mouth. He tastes himself, sharp and sour. He gasps. He may not care much for the taste of spend, but he still sucks Harok’s fingers clean, moaning and cooing with want as Harok’s eyes burn into his own.

“ Kushessa ai elizzia ,” Harok murmurs, spreading Tobi’s legs with his free hand.

Tobi thinks, even in his deep haze, so soon after spending, that this must mean something like: my darling slut. He wonders if Harok realises he understands.

Harok keeps his fingers in Tobi’s mouth as he fucks into him.

It feels good to be filled doubly so. Tobi’s whole body seems to pulse.

He is over sensitised, overwhelmed, lost in feeling.

He cries out over and over as Harok takes him hard.

Tobi never would have believed it possible, but as Harok fucks him his cock twitches, growing roused again between their bodies, as Harok’s thick dek drags against the pleasure spot inside Tobi’s hole again, he feels a second spend building.

It comes upon him even more unstoppable than before and he spills seed on his body again just before Harok spends too with a great roar.

Tobi gasps and pants as Harok stills inside him and holds and kisses him through the last tremors of pleasure. He feels so good. His whole body alive, more alive than it has ever been. Harok’s love making is so sweet.

Sweeter than he has ever known.

As more days pass, Tobi spends time every day learning Ambolk in the library with Lymok. He starts fetching Baby from the stables and bringing her with him, taking his lessons with her curled at his feet.

Lymok is a good teacher and Tobi works hard.

He spends his free time seeking out anyone who will speak with him in Ambolk as he goes about Urynwud with Baby.

He learns the words he finds most useful quickly.

Honey. More honey. Mead. Bread. The bark tea he likes so much is called zakol .

He learns a few words so he can ask the stablegirl about Baby when he collects her from her cage each morning.

A word for meat and something that might mean food or eat and another that either means happy or calm or some combination of both.

Tobi spends his late afternoons napping in Baby’s straw, especially if he is particularly worn out from his night in Harok’s bed, or exploring more of Urynwud if he is not.

He quickly confirms that he is not allowed out of the walls of the main building of Urynwud.

The guards that follow him spring into action if he goes anywhere near any route that would take him beyond its perimeters.

Urynwud appears to be well defended. Even the grove that adjoins the stableyard has an iron fence around it with a single gate and high watchtower, with two guards permanently stationed watching the forest.

Tobi enjoys helping in the stable by grooming the horses.

The stablegirl’s name, he learns, is Sami and her matronly overseer, who makes the occasional appearance, is named Jer.

Jer is wary of Tobi at first, and seems unsure if Tobi is permitted to spend so much time in the stables, but she warms to Tobi in time.

Tobi discovers she likes moonleaf and has Lymok bring him a pouch one day so he can give it to Jer as a gift.

Everyone warms to Tobi in the end. He likes to make Sami laugh.

He brings crusts of bread and rinds of cheese to the stables and lures out some of the rats.

He begins a project of teaching them to do tricks and solve puzzles for their treats.

Harok has a new horse. This one even larger than Tamello, who seems to be happily retired, the wound on his neck well healed.

The new horse is a formidable black mare called Embox which Tobi learns is the Ambolk word for obsidian.

Embox is soon very fond of Tobi, who whispers to her in Ibian every time he sees her.

Although Embox is a difficult beast with most people.

Including Harok who spends hours each day riding her through the forest.

As the days pass, Tobi uses his old skills to impersonate the Solwen. He can mimic Mereli and Lymok and Sami’s voices quite well. He can even do a reasonable impersonation of Harok, which makes Harok look at him with a strange expression that Tobi thinks might be amusement.