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And his question is answered when Harok bursts out laughing, loud and long, giant shoulders shaking.

Tobi looks at Lymok. “What did I say?” he asks.

Lymok presses his lips together before he says, “You said: Master fuck, Master cock, dark light hole.”

Harok is still laughing when he suddenly stands. The grove seems to react as one. People all around them still and turn to look at him. Harok removes his crown and places it on the table with a shout in Ambolk that sounds like a cry of triumph. The Ambolk cheer as Harok turns, bends and scoops Tobi up in his arms, lifting him like he is a bag of rags.

Tobi yelps as he is borne into the air.

11

TOBI

Tobi’s bare legs dangle as Harok carries him down from the dais. As they pass back under the canopy, all around them people cheer drunkenly. Tobi looks out at them, remembering the performer he is and gives them a look he hopes is an impression of trepidation and excitement. He is a reluctant kushir, snatched from his home to be wed to an Ambolk King. He is Gold Alyse in the bawdy play where she comes to delight in the pleasures of her savage lover’s bed.

The straps and buckles of the harness Harok wears on his upper body press against Tobi’s flank, through the flimsy alit. The hair on Harok’s chest tickles Tobi’s nose. Tobi feels strangely dreamy, like none of this is really happening. How did he ever end up here? Being carried to bed by a forest king? He feels like a dark dream is coming true.

Harok strides across the courtyard and into Urynwud with Tobi in his arms. He climbs the stairs back to the chamber where Tobi was bathed, but instead of taking that door, he takes the one next to it. The one Lymok said led to Harok’s own chamber.

This door opens into a much finer room. Far larger, with a fire blazing in a huge hearth and wide windows looking out on the dark forest and a bright, white, waxing Alios moon.

Tobi gets little more than a glimpse of it before he is tumbled down on the huge bed covered in soft black fur.

Tobi looks up. Harok stands over him. He looks so large. Like a great beast. Tobi swallows. He thinks of Harok’s formal titles: Demon Slayer, Unkillable Irgo. If demons were real, Tobi could believe Harok has slain one. And if there ever was a man who could not be killed, Harok could be that man.

Tobi watches as Harok’s hands move to the fastening of his cloak. He removes it and it drops from his body. His shoulders are revealed. Tobi had thought it was the fur trim of the cloak that made them look so broad, but without the cloak, they look just as imposing. As Tobi watches, Harok unfastens the buckles of his chest harness and tosses it aside. The harness did not conceal much of Harok’s body, but without it he looks so much more naked.

Tobi stares, mouth dry. Harok’s upper body is scarred in places. A long mark from a blade across his upper chest and left shoulder and another old gash on his right upper arm, healed to a faint silvery line. Harok takes off his gauntlets, giving Tobi a brief, hungry look, before starting on his breeches, unfastening them and shoving them down his thick thighs.

He removes his boots along with them and stands naked at the end of the bed. He looks like he could have been carved from a tree. Naked, he is extraordinarily beautiful. Tobi cannot tear his eyes from Harok’s cock. It’s halfway roused, large and magnificent in the tangle of dark hair at the meeting of Harok’s thighs.

At the sight of Harok’s desire, Tobi feels a great jolt of lust rushing through his body. Every part of him is desperate for that cock. He wants to touch it, to take it in his mouth. He wants it inside him. He can already imagine so vividly the waves of pleasure that would take him when that beautiful cock slides into his body. He wishes he had the words to beg for it.

Harok makes a low soft sound and crawls onto the bed, moving over Tobi, until his big naked body cages him. Tobi looks up and gasps as Harok lowers himself and claims Tobi’s mouth in a kiss.

Harok takes the kiss slowly. Like he has all the time in the world to lick over Tobi’s lips, drink down each gasp and moan and mew and meet each with a growl. He teases Tobi’s mouth open with a soft but insistent press of his tongue to the seam of Tobi’s lips, easing him open until Harok’s tongue can slip inside. Just the tip at first and then a little more, a little more until Tobi is squirming. Harok’s tongue explores Tobi’s mouth thoroughly then as Harok’s body presses down. Tobi can feel Harok’s naked skin touching him through the delicate lace of the alit. Just the tiniest scrap of fabric between their bodies.

When Harok breaks the kiss, Tobi looks up at him. There’s another mark on Harok’s body. On his left breast is a glyph of some kind. A strange intricate shape, inked black onto his skin. Tobi touches it with his fingers. It is slightly raised.

“What is this?” Tobi says.

Harok looks at him. Eyes narrow. He seems to understand. Perhaps Tobi’s questioning tone combined with his fingers running over the mark, make it clear what he is saying. Harok says softly, “Zoran, Suskara.”

Tobi looks at Harok. “I don’t understand you,” he says. Is Zoran what the glyph means?

Harok moves his hands over Tobi, pushing up the alit to Tobi’s waist, baring Tobi’s body. Tobi’s cock is roused, from the kissing. Harok’s hands stroke over Tobi’s thighs. “Sho?” Harok says. Clearly a question.

Is Harok asking if Tobi agrees to this?

Sho means yes. “Sho,” Tobi replies on a breath, wanting nothing more than to ensure Harok keeps touching him.

Harok’s eyes darken. With his other hand he takes hold of the neckline of Tobi’s alit and pulls hard, tearing it away. Tobi cries out in shock as the fabric rips and Tobi is suddenly naked. Is this what he agreed to?

Tobi’s body is slender and shaved of even the small amount of hair that usually covers it. The oil has softened and smoothed Tobi’s skin and given it a slight, delicate sheen.

Harok growls with pleasure and joins their mouths again. He teases Tobi’s mouth, more savagely this time, kissing, licking and nipping lightly at Tobi’s lips, until Tobi is frantic, and then thrusting his tongue deep. Tobi groans, trying to find a way to express to Harok his pleasure at rough treatment.

Harok’s body is heavy on Tobi’s, crushing him into the bed in a way that feels delicious and overwhelming. Harok’s warm skin is in full contact with Tobi’s own. Rubbing and grinding against Tobi. The hair on Harok’s body prickles at Tobi’s shaved skin. Tobi feels like he is as smooth and delicate as glass, as the fine porcelain in the parlour at the Rose Palace. Shaved and oiled for Harok’s pleasure as their bodies move together. They kiss and kiss and kiss.