Page 40 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

Tobi looks away, down across the courtyard.

Behind the warriors, some carts are being brought into the yard by the traders.

Tobi spots Lymok greeting with his trader friends.

The carts are loaded with wooden boxes, like the ones Tobi saw in the kitchens.

These must be supplies arriving for Urynwud.

Tobi looks down at the carts that are being unloaded.

Goods bought in Ceruleum. Bales of raw wool and tools and sacks of rye and barley.

Tobi glances at Harok. He is talking to Mereli.

He is paying Tobi no attention and nor is anyone else.

There’s nothing for Tobi to do but wait.

He slides his hand under his cloak and strokes the embroidery of his fine waistcoat.

As he does so, a voice behind him growls low, “Kushir?” Followed by something in Ambolk that Tobi doesn’t understand.

He turns to see Harok is right behind him. He stares at Harok’s big chest. Harok grabs Tobi’s wrist, pulling Tobi’s arm up painfully between their bodies.

Baby snarls and Tobi shushes her quickly.

“Irgorye, I do not understand you,” Tobi stammers out.

From one of the carts, Tobi sees Lymok turn around. He looks at Harok for a moment then comes over, carrying some tools. He says something to Harok in Ambolk. Greeting him.

Harok’s grip on Tobi’s wrist is still painfully tight .

Harok waves his free hand at Lymok, shooing him away,“ Ei, Lymok. Idi nal. ”

Lymok takes only a small step back and says in Artemian, “I was just offering to help Irgo Harok with the issue you are having.”

“Please do. I have no idea what the issue even is,” Tobi says. Harok is still holding Tobi’s wrist up tight between their chests.

Lymok looks at Tobi with a smirk that seems to suggest he knows exactly what Harok’s problem is. He says something to Harok in Ambolk and Harok snarls something back.

Lymok says, “Irgo Harok is asking about what you are wearing.”

Tobi is not sure exactly what Harok said, but he knows enough to understand that the exact words he had said had been rather more threatening.

Harok’s face is stern. He keeps hold of Tobi and points down at Tobi’s feet, snapping out something in Ambolk.

Tobi looks up at Harok with what he hopes is an engaging, defiant smile. “Don’t you like boots, Irgorye?” he says in Ambolk. “My boots from Attar.” .

“Kushir obeys the Irgorye,” Harok replies in a growl of Ambolk, but Tobi can follow each word. “ Kushir grelsi .” He looks at Lymok and in a darker tone he says, “ Lymok, idi nal .”

Lymok shrugs and turns away, going back to his duties, as Tobi says, “I wear the alit,” replying in his own Ambolk words and tugging the hem of it.

He thinks, if he knew more Ambolk words he could tell Harok that he decided not to wear his leather breeches or his shirt with full sleeves.

His arms and legs are still bare. He just prefers having boots on his feet.

Tobi looks at Harok. He looks angry, but also drawn and exhausted. He points at Tobi’s feet again. “Boots,” he says in Artemian.

Tobi nods, “ Sho, boots.”

Harok speaks slowly, picking Ambolk words Tobi knows. “ Kushir el boots es willun .”

Tobi understands this. A kushir in boots is free. Harok thinks Tobi is wearing boots because he wants to be free. He wants to leave.

“ Ei, ” Tobi says. “ Ei willun. Kushir yours.” He isn’t sure of the word for yours. But he curls his free hand into a fist and presses it to the centre of Harok’s chest, which he hopes makes his point clearly.

“ Suskara jara ai ,” Harok says quietly. Harok turns away and shouts something in fast Ambolk. The next moment Harok’s hand is gripping Tobi by the wrist and Tobi is being marched at a pace back into Urynwud. He is still holding Baby’s halter with his free hand and she comes padding behind.

Harok marches past Susal-ur-Bellan with Tobi trotting behind and only halts when they are behind the dais, beside the fire pit.

Tobi looks at Harok. His eyes are dark. He says, “Boots,” and points into the pit.

Into the pit? Tobi shakes his head. Harok wants him to throw his boots into the fire. “ Ei, arral, ” he says, shaking his head.

“ Sho, Suskara ,” Harok says. “ Kushir grelsi .”

Tobi just stares at Harok. Eyes burning. He knows there is no point in trying to argue.

Sullenly, he removes his boots, one at a time. He holds them out to Harok. Harok shakes his head and points again to the firepit.

Tobi has no choice. He throws his boots into the pit and watches them burn. His feet bare once again against the stone floor of the Sacred Hall. Harok reaches out and tugs off Tobi’s cloak, snarling out more angry words of Ambolk as he sees the waistcoat.

He points at it, then at the pit.

“Ei,” Tobi says in horror. Not his beautiful waistcoat. Perhaps wearing boots as a kushir is some kind of taboo, but what harm does it do if he wears a waistcoat? It covers no more of his skin than the alit does.

But Harok simply crosses his big arms over his chest.

Swallowing, Tobi removes the waistcoat. He blinks. The pit is smoky. There are tears behind his sore eyes as he throws it into the firepit.

Tobi stands in the Sacred Hall, cold now, in just his alit. The skin on his arms bristle into gooseflesh.

Harok looks past Tobi and says something to Olladin who, along with the rest of Tobi’s guards, have followed them into the Sacred Hall. Olladin responds and Harok speaks again. The guard says, “ Sho, Irgo ,” and turns, marching away with Cel.

Tobi did not understand the exchange but he thinks he can guess. Harok was asking where the boots came from and Olladin had told him about the chest and the other clothes.

Harok looks back at Tobi. He points to the floor. “ Fran-da ,” he says.

Tobi knows what that means. He gets on his knees. He looks up at Harok. “ Dekuna? ” he says, brightly, hoping to snap Harok back to himself. Tobi has not seen Harok in this foul a mood since the time he felt Tobi had insulted him at dinner.

Is that what this is? Has Tobi done something that Harok feels makes him look weak?

“ Ei ,” Harok says sharply, followed by some Ambolk Tobi doesn’t understand but Harok seems to be making it clear he did not find that amusing. Tobi can’t seem to get through to him. It is almost as if this Harok is someone else.

Harok stands impassively as Tobi remains on his knees until Olladin and Cel return with Tobi’s chest. They set it down beside the firepit. Tobi watches as Harok nods and Olladin takes the shirt, breeches and another waistcoat from the chest and tosses them into the firepit to be consumed by flames.

Harok finishes by throwing Tobi’s cloak, too, into the firepit.

Seeming satisfied, Harok turns and walks up the steps to his throne on the dais.

“ Kushir, idi. ” he says, pointing to the cushion beside him.

Tobi gets up from the floor. He walks up the steps after Harok, aware of the whole hall’s eyes on him as he takes his place, kneeling in only his alit with Baby beside him.

Tobi is left where he is, mostly ignored by Harok for the rest of the day.

Some healers come and tend to the wound on Harok’s chest with a paste of clay and moss that they apply to the wound then cover with linen strips.

With this done, Harok speaks with various courtiers and warriors in clattering Ambolk.

And all the while Tobi kneels beside him.

At one point Sami appears and takes Baby back to the stables, looking a little wary as she does it, but Baby behaves sweetly. Tobi watches them go.

All afternoon he is made to kneel, burning deeply with anger and humiliation.

Dinner comes and goes and eventually, Harok takes Tobi’s wrist and leads him from the hall.

When they get to Harok’s bed chamber, Harok pulls Tobi to him and kisses him hard.

Tobi feels his body respond to Harok, but the last thing he wants is Harok taking him to bed like nothing happened.

He pulls his mouth off Harok’s and tries to twist away, but Harok is too strong. His hands on Tobi’s waist are like iron.

Tobi looks up at him. “No,” he says firmly in Ambolk. “I don’t want this. I will sleep...” He points to the door to his own chamber.

Harok’s eyes are still dark. His face looks different, changed. “No. Suskara, you kushir,” he says in a low growl. He leans in and kisses Tobi again.

Tobi keeps his mouth firmly closed, struggling until he manages to pull back enough to spit. “No. Irgorye beast,” he says, running out of Ambolk and saying in Artemian, “You’re a fucking demon.”

Harok looks at Tobi in shock. “Suskara?”

“You are cruel,” Tobi spits up at Harok in Artemian. He does not care to speak in Ambolk. Not now. He puts his hands on Harok’s wrists. “I cannot stop you if you force me,” he says. “but I will not let you pretend I am willing.” He stares into Harok’s eyes.

Harok looks at Tobi blankly.

He doesn’t understand. Tobi lifts his chin and says, “ Ei, Irgorye. Ei. Ei dekush .”

Harok’s grip on Tobi’s waist seems to soften at this. He looks angry, but there is something else in his eyes. Something like defeat.

“Suskara nothing,” Harok spits in Ambolk. “Suskara kushir. Obey Irgorye. Warm bed. Suck cock. Wear alit.”

“No,” Tobi snaps back. “No. You took me from home,” Tobi says in Ambolk. “I am good kushir. I obey. I warm bed. I open legs. You treat me bad.”

Harok says, “No treat bad. Kushir safe in Urynwud. Warm. Many food. Suskara free in halls. Beast free in halls. Ambolk lessons. Bed pleasure, Suskara scream.” In Artemian, he adds, “What Suskara want?”

This question seems to spark something inside Tobi .

He feels like he could cry.

What does he want?

He doesn’t know how to begin to explain what he wants.

To Harok or even to himself. He wants so many things.

He wants to be acknowledged by his father.

He wants his mother to know who he is. He wants to go back to that year he lived in the Rose Palace, when life was so, so sweet.

He wants to find a way back there so he can protect his mother from whatever happened to her.

But he cannot ask for any of that, so he says, “I want clothes. No alit. Clothes.”

“No,” Harok says. “No. Clothes for kushir is freedom. Kushir mine.”

“No,” Tobi snaps back. “I no…” he pauses, but the right word appears after a moment of thought, “possession.”

“You possession, yes,” Harok says back. “Kushir Irgo’s possession. Suskara mine.”

Tobi doesn’t even think. He slaps Harok’s face.

Harok grabs his wrist, eyes flashing a real danger that makes Tobi’s breath catch.

Will Harok hit him back? For a moment Tobi thinks he might.

The thought of that terrifies him. Harok is so strong.

He could kill him. He could likely kill him with a single hit.

But Tobi doesn’t back down. He doesn’t step back. “Not possession. Man. I am a man, just as you are,” Tobi says.

“A man? You think me beast. Am I a beast you would tame?”

Tobi swallows. “Ei,” he says. “Ei. I no tame you.”

Harok’s voice is low and husky. “No clothes,” he says. “What Suskara want? No clothes.”

Tobi’s mind races again. He says in Ambolk, “I want you sorry.” He learned the word for sorry in one of his first lessons from Lymok, thinking it would be useful for himself, not because he would want to hear Harok saying it to him. “ Oliki ,” he says. “ Irgorye oliki .”

“ Oliki ?” says Harok. “ Ai Irgo .”

Tobi shrugs. “I know you are Irgo,” he says in Artemian. “Say you are sorry.” He feels like he really might cry now. It’s all too much. The way Harok treats him when he is angry. Being humiliated in front of all the Solwen. Being called Harok’s possession. “Oliki,” he says again. “Irgo say oliki.”

“Go chamber,” Harok snaps in Ambolk. “Leave me now.” He points to the door that adjoins his chamber to Tobi’s small room. His face looks grey. He looks strange. No longer the fearful monster who forced Tobi to kiss him. But he still looks unlike the man Tobi has spent over a moon’s turn with.

When Tobi stays standing where he is, Harok simply says, “ Van, ” and points to the door that leads from Harok’s bed chamber into Tobi’s own.

“You really want me to go?” Tobi says in Artemian.

“ Sho ,” says Harok. “ Van .”

“As you wish, beast,” Tobi says, turning away and stalking across the room. He pauses at the doorway, but Harok only stares at him, saying nothing more.