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“If you do not obey me, kushir,” Lymok translates, “I will take you back to your people and put every man there to the sword.”

Harok nods at Tobi, waiting for a response.

Tobi nods, “Very well,” he says, looking at Harok with a sour expression. “I will wear what you wish.”

Lymok translates this and Harok’s brief reply of Ga. “Good.”

Harok says something else to Lymok and he responds in Ambolk before saying to Tobi, “I will see you at the anointing, kushir.” And he strides for the door, leaving Tobi and Harok alone.

Harok says nothing. He simply stands staring at Tobi. “So, my beast,” Tobi says, “are you just going to watch me while I get dressed?”

Harok waves a hand to show he does not understand and says something in Ambolk, which ends with the word, “Suskara.”

Tobi is sure this is a demand to hurry up and do as he has been told, so he drops the fur and picks up the alit. He stands naked in front of Harok as he pulls the tiny garment over his head. Harok only stares at him, betraying nothing. Tobi wonders if it pleases him to see that he is shaved. As Tobi’s head emerges from the top of the tiny garment, he says, “Why do you call me that? Suskara?”

“Kushir Suskara,” Harok says.

“I know I am. I am Suskara, but what does it mean?” he says, smoothing down the alit. It barely reaches the tops of his thighs.

Harok looks at Tobi.

Tobi points at Harok’s chest, “Irgo Harok,” he says. “Harok.” Then to himself, “Tobi. Kushir Tobi.”

Harok shakes his head. “Ei,” he says. Does that mean no? He steps closer to Tobi, closing the gap between them. “Suskara, Kushir Suskara,” he says softly. He touches the light hair on the left half of Tobi’s head and says, “Sus,” then the dark hair on the right, “Kara.”

Tobi nods. So Suskara is a description of his hair. Do ‘Sus’ and ‘Kara’ mean light and dark hair? Perhaps they just mean light and dark. He reaches up and puts a hand gently on Harok’s cheek. It feels strange. Harok has already touched him possessively many times, but this is the first time Tobi has touched Harok. His hand shakes a little and he finds his belly flips to make deliberate contact with Harok’s skin like this. “Sus?” he says quietly, then moves his hand up and covers Harok’s painted eyes, “Kara?”

Tobi moves his hand back. His mouth is a little dry. Harok smiles at him. It is strange to see him smile. He looks quite different.

“Sho,” Harok says, nodding his head. “Sus,” he repeats, then he claps his own big hand over Tobi’s eyes. “Kara.”

‘Sus’ and ‘Kara’. Light and dark. Two more Ambolk words. And the knowledge that the name Harok has been calling him means light and dark.

Tobi bites his lip. Harok’s hand is still over his eyes. He reaches for Harok’s fingers and peels them away. He is very sure he would not be able to do so if Harok was not allowing it. He looks into Harok’s blue eyes. The dark paint below them makes them look even deeper and brighter. Tobi feels like Harok is looking right into his soul. Suddenly it feels like the fact they do not speak each other’s languages is not a barrier at all. He feels like Harok sees him so purely and truly it takes his breath.

“Suskara,” Harok says again, low and soft.

“Harok,” Tobi says, thinking that perhaps Harok took him as kushir simply because he saw him and desired him. No more of a mystery than that.

Because Harok clearly desires him. Just the way he looks at Tobi contains enough desire that Tobi feels himself burning with it.

10

TOBI

Harok says, “Idi nal, Suskara.” And takes hold of Tobi by the wrist. It seems it is time to go. Tobi tries to make himself remember the phrase idi nal, but his heart is clanging too hard.

Harok takes Tobi out of the chamber and Tobi scampers to keep up. Harok’s long legs mean his paces are almost double the size of Tobi’s own.

As they leave the chamber, Tobi notices that there are guards on either side of his door. They fall in behind them. Four of them, marching a respectful distance behind.

Harok leads Tobi along a different route to the one Lymok took, down a long corridor to a different flight of curving stone steps with iron bannisters wreathed thickly in ivy.

Truly, Urynwud is a maze as complicated and confusing as the Rose Palace, where Tobi would find himself getting lost any time he was left to wander by himself.

Damon and Lukas had seemed to know every last turn of the vast palace in Attar. They once told him they had combined their knowledge. Damon’s of the grand formal hallways and Lukas’s of the backways and servants passages. And once they had all that, they had explored much more. The levels that descended far below. Tunnels that went right under the Sarelik Temple. Even a secret way down to the Gleam. Tobi explored with them on occasion, but he was never as fast or strong. And he didn’t see much point in scrambling through filthy passageways when there were fine parlours in the Rose Palace with silk-covered settles and velvet cushions and richly spiced food on gold and silver plates and exotic teas served in porcelain as thin and delicate as bird bones.

Harok leads Tobi down the stairs and along a corridor to a wide door of wood and iron and Tobi finds himself back in the large courtyard behind the Sacred Hall, approaching it from a different direction.