Page 52 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

LYR

T he White Watch’s journey had taken its crew around the Southern Mortingale Sea, to Vashti, to begin a journey overland along the banks of the three lakes and through Hevel Forest to Attar. A long route, but the only way they could travel to Attar undetected.

Damon was sorry to leave his beloved ship in the hands of Opeth and Razelii, but there was no way to take a ship, especially a ship so closely bound to Damon, any nearer to the heart of Azuria.

Trysta and Lyr had been heartbroken to leave Opeth and Razelii. Lyr feels a deep pang of regret that he has spent so much of the past year in Damon’s bed and not spending time with his friends.

Opeth and Razelii had been with him in Blackstone Castle. The only people from his old life. People who knew what had been done to him. Who knew life under King Ramel and knew Jareleezi. They had made the same strange journey with him to Azuria.

But he has Trysta still. Trysta chose not to stay with the ship and return to Pluma-Ferris, although Lyr knows Damon suggested it. But her loyalty to Damon means she would not have found it a hard choice.

The journey overland is made more pleasant by Lukas’s abilities as a forager.

His years living as an outlaw mean he seems to always be able to find wild herbs and sweet berries in hedgerows.

He teaches Lyr how to make a rough, but functional, bow and a set of arrows from green wood and Lyr grows quite skilled at finding meat for their pot.

One night, in Vashti, Elric had gone out to Redstone alone to try and find out news from Attar. He had come back with his eyes shining, clearly he had discovered something truly thrilling.

Sitting on the floor of the old stable where they were staying for the night, like the outlaw vagabonds they were, Elric had announced, “I met some merchants from Attar. Apparently Tobi is the talk of the Rose Court.”

Damon frowns, “Tobi? Is he in Attar?”

“Far from it.” Elric shakes his head. “Although, he has left the Copperhead Circus.”

Lukas rolls his eyes. “Where has the little wretch gone?”

Lyr looks up from where he is tending the fire, cooking a stew of herbs and roots. Without Opeth, they take turns to play scullion. “Is there any chance the Beast Tamer went to Ceruleum to see his mother and received the letter? Could he be on his way to Attar?” he says.

Elric shakes his head, eyes still gleaming.

Trysta looks at him, grinning as she strokes Marko in her lap. “What is it? Where has the little wretch gone?” she says, echoing Lukas.

“He will be found,” says Damon, his low rumbling voice makes the hairs stand up on the back of Lyr’s neck. “He’s not the type to retire shyly.” He moves close to where Lyr is tending the pot on the fire and sits down behind him. He reaches out with a hand to play his fingers on Lyr’s shoulder.

Elric shakes his head. “Oh, I do wish I’d met him.”

Lyr catches Elric’s dancing eyes. “Why, what has he done?”

“I had to check this, because I thought the first person I spoke to might be mocking me with a wild tale, but it is apparently well known that Tobi Darekul was taken by the king of the Amber Forest. To be married to him. The Copperhead Circus strayed onto Ambolk land and the king demanded Tobi as payment. It’s like something from a tale. ”

“It sounds like the Gold Alyse story,” says Lukas. “Perhaps this Copperhead Circus invented it. To promote their shows.”

“Gold Alyse?” says Lyr. “What tale is that?”

“A maid who was snatched by the King of the Amber Forest fifty years ago,” says Damon.

Lukas laughs. “Do you not know it, Lyr? It is a famous tale in Azuria. The King of the Amber Forest was bewitched by the beauty of the fair daughter of the Duke of Northern Azuria and carried her off into the forest. He forced her to his bed, but it has a happy ending. Forest kings are excellent lovers.”

Lyr shivers, leaning back against Damon.

He tips his head up and looks at Damon’s face, biting his lip.

He thinks he would like to know this story.

He would like Damon to tell it to him. He would like to imagine himself a snatched Azurian maiden and Damon a demanding forest king.

His voice sounds thick, betraying himself when he says, “We don’t have that story, on Klish. ”

“It’s all fancy,” says Lukas. “Although the daughter of the Duke of Northern Azuria really was taken by the Ambolk. Nothing is really known of what happened to her, however. They probably simply killed her.”

“But if it is true. If this forest king took Tobi for his consort, does that mean that in the Amber Forest men can lie with men?” Lyr says

“That is why the story is so scandalous,” says Elric. “No one knew this before. Very little is known about the Amber Forest. The last person to travel into the forest and return was Sarelik Darek. Your ancestor, Bastard.”

“He is still the last person,” says Damon. “If Tobi does not return.”

“You don’t think,” says Lyr, “that this has something to do with Vindar. That he has found a way to dispose of Tobi and then created this tale to cover up what he has done?”

Damon’s throat moves as he swallows. “Perhaps, but Perl told Lukas and the Lordling that one of us would meet Ur-Durik in the Amber Forest. Which makes me think it true that Tobi is there.” He sighs. “We may have to journey north. We cannot leave him to face this demon alone.”

Lyr tries to hide it but he can’t. North. North where Jareleezi has fled. He turns to look at Damon with his heart beating hard.

Damon puts a hand on Lyr’s face, and leans down to kiss him on the temple.

He does not say anything. He does not need to.

Lyr knows Damon shares his thoughts. Lyr can feel it then, something in the air.

Something that seems to mean that whatever they do and whatever Damon promises, something will take him north. Something will take him to Jareleezi.

It is fated. It cannot be undone.

That discovery had been several moons ago.

Now they are in Attar. They stand outside Sanglora.

Lyr never thought he’d ever see this place again.

He isn’t sure how he feels about it. This had been the place where he walked with Damon in the gardens, where Damon first took him in the grove on the Feast of Surrus. But this place now belongs to Inez.

“I will go in alone first,” Damon says. He’s wearing a heavy cloak but this still seems desperately risky. “If I do not return by the bell for evening prayers, get out of the city gates.”

“That’s reassuring,” says Elric to Marko — the usually excitable dog is sleeping in his arms.

“Is this a good idea,” says Trysta, with an amused glance at Elric. “You would return to Attar and stay in your own home.”

“It’s not my home,” Damon says. “No one would dream I would return here.”

“And you trust this Inez?” says Lukas. “You appear to have given her many reasons to wish you ill.”

“I would set my life in her hands,” says Damon.

Lyr swallows. He hates this. But he says nothing as Damon turns and walks towards the back entrance to Sanglora.

Trysta tips her head back to look at the towering size of the manor. “This was Damon’s,” she says. Then she looks at Lyr. “And he threw it all away.”

“For me,” Lyr says quietly. And no matter what Damon says, he can’t help wondering if Damon ever regrets it. If he misses this life and this manor and that is why he has brought them all back to Attar and decided they ought to stay here.

This beautiful life. Everything Damon had given his blood and body to build for himself and he gave it all up for Lyr. And now he’s in there. With Inez.

Elric moves closer to Lyr and puts an arm around him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Elric says.

“And don’t. He doesn’t regret it. Any of it.

Even what we saw done to him on the punishment scaffold.

I’ve seen how he looks at you. He’d step up on that scaffold and take those lashes for you all over again. ”

Lyr looks up into Elric’s sweetly shaped face. “I know,” he whispers, but his voice is shaky.

Elric kisses Lyr on the cheek. “Don’t even think about it. He looks at you like… Like the Bastard looks at me.”

Lukas scowls at Elric.

Elric leans closer to Lyr. “Well, not that look.”

“I should not be jealous of his wife,” Lyr says in a harsh whisper. “When I first came here I tried so hard not to be. I was already half in love with him and she is so beautiful.”

“I know she is,” says Elric. “I saw them wed.”

“Lordling,” Lukas says, “Damon is wed to Lyr.”

“I know that,” Elric says, turning to Lukas with a pout. “But that does not mean I did not see his wedding to Inez.”

Trysta, flanking Lyr on the opposite side from Elric, links her arm with Lyr’s, and says, “Let us not talk of Damon’s wedding to the beautiful wife he could not fuck.”

Lukas laughs.

Lyr looks at Trysta. He feels so sweetly relieved to be reminded of the truth of the matter.

Trysta looks at Lyr with her bright eyes dancing.

“I have known Damon a long time. I know his heart and I know his cock. We would sit in his tent and he would wipe blood off his sword, while telling me of his beautiful wife and how he could never give her a son because his cock would not permit him to cover her.”

“You’re right,” Lyr says. “I should stop. I should not mistrust Damon when all he has ever done is prove to me that I am his.”

“I’ll change the subject,” Elric hisses, turning to face Lukas. “When are you going to wed me, Bastard?”

“I will wed you if you can be silent until Damon returns,” Lukas says with the kind of smug tone that suggests he thinks there is little chance of Elric keeping quiet for more than a moment.

Elric presses his lips tight together, looking at Lukas defiantly. At that moment, Damon comes out of the back of Sanglora.

Elric’s eyes go wide. He grins. “I accept your proposal, Bastard.”

But Lyr barely notices the bickering conversation that follows, because walking a step behind Damon, is Inez.

In the greying dusk, she looks almost exactly as he remembers her, but somehow more human.

As if his memories of her had built her up into something beyond.

She is beautiful. But she is simply a woman.

A woman with gold hair piled on her head and a fine gown that is a fall of pale blue fabric, fastened to a gold collar at her neck.

She glances at Lyr once, and looks away.

Damon says, “This is Inez. Mistress of Sanglora. She has agreed that we can stay here. At great risk to herself.”

Inez is standing beside Damon, letting him speak for her.

Lyr looks at Inez and says, “You would really take such a risk?”

Damon frowns, but Inez responds with a nod. “I understand the danger. Damon has done much to keep me safe.” But Lyr notices her eying the dog in Elric’ s arms as if she didn’t know they were bringing such an animal into her home along with a group of wanted men.

“You could lose Sanglora if you are discovered,” Lyr says. “You could lose everything.”

“Yes,” she pauses. “But I have this life in Sanglora because of Damon. And I understand there are greater things at stake here.”

So, Lyr thinks, Damon has told her about Ur-Durik or Vindar or perhaps all of it.

He wonders why she believed him. Did she want to believe him?

Does she want him here? Does she hope to be with him again?

Does she love him? Lyr is sure that Damon does not love Inez, but does Inez love Damon? What has he truly promised her?

He agreed to this. Lyr has to remind himself of that. Damon promised Lyr that if Lyr asked it of him, Damon would break his word to Doroth Zain and not return to Attar. But Attar is the only place where they know of anyone who can read Ur-Ambolk. And the safest place in Attar, is here, is Sanglora.

Inez says, “There is a secret room in the eaves of Sanglora, built to hide heretics during the Sidusiana.”

Lyr frowns. “The Sidusiana?”

“The battle the faith had a hundred years ago over which of the Artemian Sidu were Zai’s parents,” Elric says, smugly.

Inez nods. “There is a hidden entrance that leads to the secret rooms. You will be safe there and well hidden. But you must remain there. Any of you that would be recognised by the servants. I will bring you food daily, myself. There is a safe route in and out, but you must be cautious.”

“Especially you and I,” Damon says to Lukas.

“Your face might be known to half of Attar,” Lukas says, “but I left this city at fourteen. I am not so easily recognised.”

“I would be,” Elric says. “I am no criminal, unless I am wanted for sins of the body, but I am known in Attar.”

“Let us go inside,” Damon says, “once we are in the hidden rooms we can discuss further who can safely leave.”

Lyr walks with Damon, following Inez through the back entrance of Sanglora, past several familiar storerooms and down a long passageway.

At the end of it is a small doorway hidden by a curtain.

Through the door a narrow staircase leads up and up, eventually emerging into a wide low space that must be nestled in the eaves of the manor.

There are three small rooms leading off it.

Tiny chambers with low beds and little else.

“This will be cosy,” Elric says, then yelps as Lukas pulls him close.

“We will have to find a way to keep you quiet,” he says in a low snarl that sounds like it is more about seducing Elric than a practical consideration.

“We will not stay here long,” Damon says. “I will send word to Doroth Zain. We will bring him and the Hare here and discover what we need to know.”

Lukas turns. “That is not the only reason we are here. We are here to kill Selim.”

Inez goes pale. Lyr sees the white column of her throat move in shock. She looks at Damon with wide eyes. “No one said anything to me about killing Selim.”

“We are not here to kill Selim,” says Damon. “We are here to find out about Ur-Durik from Doroth Zain and the Hare.”

Lukas’s voice sounds loud in the low room. “Once again you would stop me killing the tyrant Emperor.” He steps towards Damon.

Damon squares up, “The person who stopped you killing Selim is the one you stick your cock into every night.”

Lyr glances at Elric.

“You cannot stop me doing what I need to do, Damon,” Lukas says, almost petulantly.

“I forbid it,” Damon says.

“You forbid it?” Lukas snaps back. “You are my brother, not my General.”

When Lyr sees Inez’s horror-struck expression. He does not think he envies her at all.