Page 63 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

TOBI

L ymok steps close to Tobi and puts a hand on his waist. “It seems you are a rebellious kushir. I did not know you had this in you. You were always so sweetly submissive to your old Irgorye.” He smiles.

“But I know exactly what you need.” He turns to Harok, who is panting from pain, “You know what comes next, foul cousin. The Trial of the Trees. And I am not a cruel man. You will not suffer it alone. To reward him for giving us such entertainment, your kushir will be with you at the sacrifice stone.”

“No!” The guards holding Harok have to fight to restrain him as he struggles. “No, Lymok, you dog. Give him abieum, you die screaming.”

“I doubt that, Harok,” Lymok says smoothly, “Let us go.”

They are marched by torchlight into the dark zhilvar.

To where the sacrifice stone stands. Harok is barely on his feet, being dragged most of the way.

He is positioned with his back to the stone and the chains around his wrists are dragged up and attached to the ring at the stone’s top.

Harok screams as his weakened shoulder is pulled up into position, but Tobi notices he already seems to be healing from the wounds Baby gave him.

Harok's ability to recover from injury seems stronger than ever.

Diazuul is getting more powerful.

And why wouldn’t he, when Lymok is conducting a ceremony to venerate him?

More guards crouch on the ground, chaining Harok’s ankles to the rings at the bottom.

Harok fights his chains the entire time.

Lymok smiles when it is done. “Now the kushir. Tie him to the base.”

Tobi yells out as he is dragged forward.

Harok’s eyes are flashing dark. “No,” he snarls. “No, Lymok, you must not do this.”

Harok pulls at his chains, but the stone holds him. Tobi is placed on the ground at the foot of the sacrifice stone. Ropes are brought out and his wrists are tied behind him and attached to one of the iron bolts sunk into the stone’s base.

“Ah yes,” says Lymok. “A fitting place for a kushir.” He strolls closer and looks down at Tobi. “On your knees at the feet of your Ereyek.” He leans closer and whispers in Tobi’s ear. “Your Ereyek, for now .”

Tobi does not think Harok heard, but perhaps he guessed what Lymok says because as Lymok straightens, Harok jolts so hard in the chains that Lymok pulls back in alarm.

“Fuck you, Lymok,” Harok shouts. “I am your Irgo, named heir by Irgo Lal, my father. This is not the way of the Solwen.” He keeps going, a torrent of something in fast angry Ambolk that Tobi cannot quite follow, but seems to be a threat to kill Lymok in some brutal way.

Lymok takes a breath and, almost casually, backhands Harok around the face .

Harok splutters. As Lymok draws his hand back Tobi can see Harok’s cheekbone is split from the ring Lymok forced from Harok’s finger.

“The way of the Solwen was corrupted by you, Harok, you and your heresy. We were loyal to Diazuul for two hundred years ever since he helped us drive out the Azurians from Urynwud. Since you ended the tributes to him, the Solwen have known nothing but pain under your foul reign.”

Lymok turns. Tobi cannot look away from Harok’s bloody face. Lymok shouts something else to the crowd about the glory of Diazuul. He walks away from them, ranting on and on to the crowd.

Tobi hisses up at Harok, “What will they do? What is the Trial of the Trees? Will they just leave us here?”

Harok shakes his head. “No,” he says, his voice rough. “We will be given a drug. Abieum. It is made from the sap of a certain rare tree.”

“Abieum,” says Tobi. “I know it. We have it in Azuria. A yellow syrup that makes you see things that are not there. Mystics take it to speak with spirits. But why give us that? What is the reason?”

“Abieum is sacred to the triple God. Used in old rituals to bring Solwen closer to trees, beasts, earth. But its true purpose is twisted by Diazuul. It is part of the trials. Used to weaken the mind for Diazuul.”

Tobi thinks of his mother. Quietly, he says, “I have madness in my blood.”

“Suskara,” Harok responds, also speaking quietly in his low rumbling Ambolk. “When I am given abieum, Diazuul will take control of me. End me. You will be trapped here with Diazuul. You did not run, Suskara. I told you to run.”

Tobi swallows, but he says as calmly as he can. “I missed your heart. My fault. I could not kill you. I could not leave you. I will save you.”

Harok lets out a long heavy sigh. “No, Suskara. You cannot. And it is not your fault. Never your fault. My foolish actions and thirst for revenge caused this. I cursed myself and all the world.”

Tobi looks across to where Lymok is still ranting to his crowds, while something is happening around a small fire. A man amongst them is wearing a dark red robe. A Blood Priest. Mereli told Tobi once that the first Exceli were the Blood Priests. One of them, it seems, has retaken his old mantle.

Slowly Harok says, “Diazuul is readying himself. I can feel his thoughts. He taunts me. He tells me he could easily break these chains that hold me if I only let him take control. He is telling me how sweet it will be to become a demon and kill them all. I am sorry, Suskara. I fear what he will do to you when he has control of me.”

Tobi shakes his head. His heart hurts. “Diazuul cannot control you. You fought him for many years. You fight him now. You are strong Irgo.”

“I am not strong enough,” Harok growls. “Not for this.”

Neither of them speak for a while. Tobi wonders how long it truly takes to prepare Abieum, or perhaps this wait is merely part of the torture.

Eventually, a cry goes up from the crowd Lymok is ranting to. The Blood Priest lifts a brass bowl high in the air. It catches the firelight, glowing bright orange.

The Blood Priest turns and walks towards Tobi and Harok. Lymok follows and the crowd draws nearer.

The Blood Priest is making a slow incantation in an Ambolk sweet sing-song. Tobi can understand it easily. “ Trial of Beast, Trial of Tree, Trial of Earth. The three Old Gods of the Ambolk. Bow before our one true God. The Great Diazuul. Protector of the Solwen. ”

He leans over Harok and lifts a wooden stick from the brass bowl.

The stick drips with a strange syrup. Tobi might have heard of abieum before but he has never seen it.

It was far too expensive a substance for the likes of him.

Looking at the syrup dripping from the wooden stick, it’s eerie.

It is gold in colour but seems to glitter with other hues in a strange, queasily-swirling motion.

Harok fights when they try to give him the sap.

He refuses to open his mouth. The Blood Priest mutters something.

A guard steps forward from the crowd. He hits Harok in the belly with the hilt of his sword with a savagery that makes Tobi cry out. Harok grunts in pain. But still he does not open his mouth.

Idly, Lymok says, “Hit the kushessa.”

The guard hits Tobi, not with the sword hilt, but with his hand. A lazy punch to the jaw. It’s not a hard hit, but it knocks his head back into the stone behind him and makes him grunt with shock.

Harok makes a rough snarling sound, but he opens his mouth immediately. Lymok chuckles. “Your loyalty to your kushir is sweet.”

The stick coated in Abieum is forced roughly between Harok’s lips. He gags and splutters, panting as it is drawn out.

Tobi knows he is next and finds himself struggling but his ropes are tight and firm. The Blood Priest bends down. He puts a cool hand on Tobi’s jaw, holding his head in place.

“No,” Harok booms from above them. Tobi can’t see him. “Not him. Let the kushir go.”

There’s a wet thump. One of the guards hits Harok again. Tobi hears him groaning .

Lymok looms closer behind the priest. Tobi notices that Lymok still has Demonica in his belt. Tobi finds himself staring again at the glittering, lilac-coloured blade.

“Let me do this one,” Lymok says to the priest, flashing a nasty smile in Harok’s direction. The priest offers the brass bowl to Lymok. Lymok takes the stick, dripping with the sticky coloured syrup.

The priest forces Tobi’s mouth open with the grip he has on Tobi’s chin, as Lymok leans even closer to press the stick deep into Tobi’s mouth.

Tobi chokes. The sap tastes bitter and the stick is rough and splintery. Tobi feels his stomach roll as the stick is shoved so deep in his mouth he is forced to swallow.

Lymok pulls the stick back and the priest presses Tobi’s lips closed, holding them shut for a moment to force Tobi to swallow it all.

Lymok gives Tobi another satisfied smile before stepping back and turning. He announces something in Ambolk. Tobi feels too overwhelmed to work out what the words mean. The Solwen cheer. The party begins to retreat from the clearing accompanied by the sounds of drums, gongs and bells.

Tobi can still taste the bitterness. He spits onto the ground, then looks up at Harok chained above him.

Harok is staring back. His eyes seem to burn into Tobi’s.

Tobi twitches in the ropes. Everything seems unreal.

He can feel the abieum pounding through his blood, taking over every part of his body.

The Solwen get further and further away.

Tobi feels strange. He can’t hear drums anymore.

The Solwen took most of the torches with them.

Only two still burn, some distance away.

The clearing is dark. How far away is the dawn?

As Tobi watches he seems to see colours in the pitch dark sky.

Swirling colours, like grease mixed with water. He knows this is not the dawn.