Page 37 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

“My father, Irgo Vahul,” says Lymok, “was sitting on his throne in the Sacred Hall when Harok rose from that pit, blooded and demon-kissed, and he cut Vahul’s throat.

I was there. I saw Harok kill my father when I was six years old.

I thought he would kill me too, kushir, I did.

But he chose to simply give me this.” Lymok pulls back the yellow kerchief he always wears.

Beneath it is a ragged scar. Anyone who had scarred him so with a blade could easily have cut his throat instead.

Tobi stares. “Harok gave you that scar when he took the throne. But you were a child then? Why would he do that?”

“A reminder, I suppose, that he chose to spare me.”

Before Tobi can respond there is a knock on the door. The man they call into the room is an Urynwud messenger. “Kushir,” he says with a bow, “Irgo Harok requests you attend him in his bed chamber.”

Lymok looks at Tobi with his eyes narrowed. “Irgo needs hole for cock,” he says in Ambolk. Then in Artemian, “You’d better hurry along.”

When Tobi reaches the chamber he leaves his guards outside and walks in with Baby to find Harok in a bathtub set on the fur rug before the fire. His hair is wet, hanging over the edge of the tub, being washed by a body servant. A second servant fusses with a tray of oils.

Tobi’s breath catches. He has not seen Harok bathing before, although he knew that he must do.

Tobi is bathed every few days by his own body servants, rubbed smooth with various salty pastes and sweet oils and shaved again whenever any of the hair on his body starts to regrow, a process he has grown quite used to. His skin has never been so smooth.

The fire is lit and the room is warm. More warmth comes from wide glazed windows looking out over the forest and letting in the sun. Tobi can’t help staring at Harok. When he was nine, his father was given to a demon by his uncle. When he was sixteen, he slayed both and took back his throne.

And I was sixteen summers, Tobi thinks, when I sent my own mother to madness.

Harok nods unsmiling at Tobi, saying, “Kushir,” in Ambolk, before waving a hand to dismiss his servants.

Tobi walks closer to the bath. Harok points to his hair. “Bathe me,” he says in Ambolk. Or something like it. Perhaps wash me, or attend me. But the meaning is clear.

“Sho, Irgorye.” Tobi takes up a position behind Harok, kneeling on the rug and runs his fingers through Harok’s long dark hair.

He takes his time over it. This is not something he would ever have asked Harok to be allowed to do, and surely it is a job for a body servant, not a kushir, but he likes it, nevertheless.

The water is warm and scented. Harok’s hair is soft, running slickly through his fingers.

Harok does not speak as Tobi works, stroking sweet oils through Harok’s hair and then washing them away with a jug of warm water.

When it's done, Tobi stands and walks around the bath so he can face Harok. He holds up a folded linen cloth from the table of oils and bottles. He says what he thinks is the Ambolk word for ‘wash’. The word Harok used.

“Sho,” Harok says.

Tobi comes closer and kneels again. He uses the cloth to wipe warm water over Harok’s chest, then pours some rich oil into his hand and rubs that over Harok’s skin. He shivers. It feels so good to touch Harok like this.

Harok makes a soft sound of pleasure as Tobi’s hands slide lower on his body. Harok is roused. Tobi feels the tip of Harok’s cock nudging his hand. Tobi looks at Harok.

Harok smiles. “Cock,” he says in his odd-sounding Artemian. “Magnificent cock.”

Tobi laughs and replies in careful Ambolk, “I touch it, Ereyek?”

There is a cup of spiced mead on a table beside the bath. Harok takes a drink and replies in slow Ambolk Tobi can follow, “No. Remove alit. Stand. Show me body.”

Tobi swallows with a tickle of pleasure to be ordered so bluntly and does as he is bid, standing and walking around the bathtub, pulling his alit off so he is naked before Harok. His cock is almost fully hard from touching Harok’s body and being subject to Harok’s demands.

Harok groans aloud at the sight. “Beautiful Suskara,” he says in Ambolk. The words make Tobi shudder. “In bath now.”

It’s an order not a request. Tobi walks over to the bath and steps into it.

The water is deliciously warm. The bathtub is large, but Harok is a large man.

When Tobi lowers himself, he is pressed into Harok’s lap.

He can feel Harok’s roused cock between their bodies.

Tobi shifts, so his own desire is pushed against Harok’s.

Harok groans. His next words are in Ambolk.

He speaks slowly. “Suskara. At dawn I leave Urynwud.”

Tobi swallows. “Irgorye leave? Where you go?”

“I go for many days,” Harok says.

“Many? How many days?” says Tobi.

“ Tal ,” Harok says. He holds up three fingers, although Tobi knows the Ambolk numbers.

Tobi nods. “ Tal ,” he says. Three days. Tobi has never spent the night in Urynwud without Harok in all the moons he has been here. He has never fallen asleep without first having Harok take his body in all kinds of pleasing ways. “Where Irgorye go?” says Tobi.

“Ceruleum. With traders.” Harok speaks in slow, simple Ambolk. Tobi concentrates to understand the word. “Exceli attack. Traders attack by Exceli many times. I send warriors. More attack. Tomorrow I will go with warriors I send.”

“Yes, Irgorye” Tobi says, although he does not hide the note of disappointment in his voice.

“A van. A rill. A vervan ,” Harok says bluntly.

A familiar phrase Tobi knows. I go. I kill. I return.

Harok points over at the bed. “ A vervan coo. ” I return here.

“Irgo Harok go,” Tobi says in Ambolk, “ai…” he makes a sad face. He can’t remember the word for sadness.

Harok slides a hand beneath the surface of the water.

He wraps it around his own cock and Tobi’s, stroking them together.

Tobi moans at the touch, leaning into Harok.

The sweet familiar pleasure of Harok’s palm on his cock.

He rests his forehead on Harok’s shoulder.

“ Elizzia ,” Harok coos. “ Ei laraman .”

Don’t be sad.

Harok’s fist tightens and moves faster. Tobi feels himself already close to falling into pleasure, but thinks, laraman , yes, that is the word for sadness.

He lifts his head. “ Irgo Harok van, ai laraman ,” he says, half a gasp as he looks up into Harok’s face and repeats himself. “ Harok van. ai laraman. ”

“ Ei laraman, ” Harok says again, then something else in Ambolk Tobi cannot follow all of, “ A vervan coo. Ai suskara mallet. Ai kushir. Esich en melucia… ”

“ A vervan mellet? ” Mellet is the Ambolk word for bed, according to Lymok it specifically means a bed used for coupling. He hopes he has asked Harok if he will return to their bed.

Harok gasps, tipping his head back to show Tobi his thick neck as his hand moves even faster. The water is splashing, tipping over the edge of the bath tub onto the floor. “Sho, Suskara,” Harok says, voice a broken moan of pleasure. “ A vervan mellet .”

As he speaks, Tobi reaches his peak, spending with a broken cry. He hears Harok growl with an echo of his own pleasure.

They both gasp and breathe heavily for a moment. Tobi feels Harok’s arms tight around him, but the thought of not sharing Harok’s bed for three whole nights still makes him ache.

“Why Irgo go?” Tobi says. “Send warriors not Irgo.”

Harok says something like, “Suskara, I am Irgo. I am Irgo Harok. ”

Tobi can feel tears prickling behind his eyes. The rush of spending along with this conversation is too much. He doesn’t want Harok to leave him alone here. He doesn’t want Harok to ride out into the forest and face the Exceli. Tobi says, “But, danger. Exceli.”

Harok nods. “Exceli enemies, Suskara. I slay enemies.” He touches his chest. In Artemian he says,“Beast.”

Tobi laughs. “Beast,” he says, as a tear spills. His voice cracks. “My beast.”

“Beast,” Harok says. before kissing him deeply and slowly. “ Esterillika .” A word Tobi learned almost a moon’s turn ago. Part of Harok’s formal title. Esterillika Irgo, Maren Rillani.

Unkillable King, Demon Slayer.

When the kiss breaks, Tobi cannot speak.

Harok shifts, moving himself from under Tobi and standing up in the bathtub.

Water streams down his naked body. He looks truly magnificent.

An Unkillable Irgo. The Esterillika Irgo.

Harok steps out of the bath. He takes Tobi by the hand and leads him over to the bed.

They lie down together, Tobi held in Harok’s arms. Their bodies are still damp, wetness seeps into the bed linen.

Tobi has never lain with Harok in his bed while the sun was up before.

“Suskara, tomorrow I go. I return after three nights. You will sleep alone,” Harok says in his simple, patient Ambolk, as if he is concerned Tobi has not understood him.

“ Ereyek, ei, ” Tobi says sadly.

“Suskara,” Harok says sternly. “I am Irgo. Command me not.”

“How I sleep?” Tobi says, finding the Ambolk words. “Without Irgorye cock?”

“You sleep…” Harok says and then something Tobi doesn’t understand.

“I don’t understand you,” Tobi says in Artemian.

“Suskara sleep. Copperhead Circus,” Harok says in Artemian, then points over his shoulder.

“I slept in the past?” Tobi says. “Is that what you mean? I slept before I knew you.” It is strange to hear Harok say the words Copperhead Circus. It makes him feel eerily homesick. Copperhead Circus feels so far away. Like something from a distant dream.

Harok only looks at Tobi blankly.

“Before I knew you,” Tobi says sadly. But he’s speaking Artemian. “In Azuria I did not know Ereyek dek.”

“Magnificent cock.”

Tobi laughs. “Sho. How I sleep without magnificent cock?”

Harok taps Tobi’s face in a playful slap. “Obey, Irgorye, Suskara,” he says simply, before leaning down and cutting off any more of Tobi’s babbling with a deep, warm kiss.

And there is nothing to be done. Harok is the Irgo. He is king and Tobi’s master. He is the Unkillable Irgo. But Tobi does not believe that anyone is truly unkillable. Such things are simply the legends kings like Harok build about themselves.