Page 22

Lymok smiles. “Azurians only think they know what kush means. It might be a crude word there, but here it is not. And kushir is simply a word for a king’s consort. As kushwen is a word for a woman. It is not an insult. And to be a kushir is a great honour.”

“So am I to be his queen?”

Lymok purses his full lips. “Not exactly. What you call a queen, we would call a Kushel. Yaelin, Harok’s mother, is a Kushel. An Irgo will often name his kushir as Kushel if that kushir pleases him greatly. The kushir is usually granted such status to indicate that her son is the heir of the Irgo.”

Tobi cocks his head to one side. What a strange place this is. “So only a female kushir can become a Kushel? But a man can be a kushir?”

“I suppose it has oft been so. But it has long been known that Irgo Harok’s desires are only of the deep earth. So perhaps Harok will want a male kushir as his Kushel. He is Irgo. He may declare such if you please him well enough.”

“So, even without a son, a kushir could become a Kushel? But how would your succession work if a Kushel is male, where would the heir come from?”

Lymok looks a little bemused. “A king’s heir does not need to be born of his body. A king may choose any man to be his heir. I have oft wondered what happens in Azuria, if the king dies without leaving a male heir of his body. What would happen then, if he cannot simply name an heir from amongst his finest young warriors as we do?”

“There are rules,” Tobi says with a shrug. This seems a strange thing to explain. “Emperor Selim has no heir and is unmarried. He is devoted only to his God and will not father any sons. So my father is his heir. My father is the Emperor’s brother.”

Lymok smiles. “Just as mine was. So why are you not a prince in Azuria? If that is Azurian tradition?”

Tobi says, “I am bastard born. My father was not married to my mother.”

“Oh,” says Lymok. “I knew the Azurian law was that an heir must be of the father’s body, but I did not know the mother had to also be anointed Kushel. How does that work? Must the father declare the mother Kushel before the son is born? How does he know she will bear him an heir?”

“Er,” Tobi frowns back. This has never seemed so complex to him before. “He has to marry the woman and hope she gives him a son. In Azuria a man cannot lie with a woman he has not wed. Or he should not according to the Book of the Rules. Although a man can have more than one wife. If the first union is not fruitful. But, more usually, men only take one wife as Doroth Zain has declared such a practice against the will of Zai.”

“Zai, the God?”

“Yes. There is no other Zai as far as I am aware.” Tobi says lightly.

“Your God tells you who you should marry?” Lymok says this as if it is the strangest thing he has ever heard.

“I’m not sure if Zai is my God, but he would never allow a man to take another man to his bed.”

“Oh, yes,” Lymok says with a broad smile. “Someone told me this once but I wasn’t sure if it was true. So your God tells you who you can marry and who you have in your bed?”

Tobi nods. It does seem strange put like that.

Lymok looks quite impressed by this. “How does your God have time? Now Harok has slain Diazuul, the Solwen have returned to the worship of the Triple God who makes the sun rise and the trees change with the seasons. The Three in One give the forest life. They make mothers’ wombs quicken with babes. They have a whole world to maintain. I do not think our Gods would have time to get involved in our bed chambers. Even Diazuul had no such concerns. Why would Zai care about such things?”

“I do not know. I never paid much attention to the ways of Zai,” says Tobi.

This makes Lymok smile. “And now you will have no more need of him than we do of Diazuul. But I suppose that it makes sense that there would be laws about such desires if your heir must always be body born.”

“You suggest the Rose Court makes Zai’s laws, not Zai himself?” Tobi says with a smirk. Lymok is not the first person he has heard claim such a thing.

Lymok tips his head to one side. “I do not know why a God would concern himself with something like that, but I imagine the Rose Court would. Kings who do not desire women would have no heirs under your system.”

“That happened to my Uncle Markus. He was Selim’s older brother. He was exiled for having such desires.”

Lymok raises an eyebrow. “What do you call it in Azuria when a man only desires men? There is no word in my Azurian books, but if it is a crime there must be a word.”

“Oh, there are many,” says Tobi. “The faith call it sins of the body, but most people would call it being sly. The act itself is called luxoli, after the isle of Luxoria, where they say it was invented.”

At this Lymok spits out a laugh. “Such desires were invented?”

“Yes,” says Tobi, matching Lymok’s bright amused tone. “Because they were not part of Zai’s great plan for the world. Wicked men had to invent them.”

This makes Lymok laugh again. “You should tell Irgo Harok that. I am sure it would amuse him.”

The idea of amusing that beast of a man makes Tobi’s belly quiver. Perhaps that is what he ought to try and do. Amuse the Irgo. Perhaps that is what a kushir is for. He thinks of Harok’s weary, unsmiling face. “He doesn’t seem to smile much.”