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Tobi thinks of Cel and the pretty kitchen maid he desires, who he knows Cel is flirting with quite determinedly now the mariandcards have foretold he will win her in a single turn of the moon.

Kushel Yaelin often watches Tobi when he is showing the cards to the Verilissia, but she never approaches Tobi or asks him to tell her own fortune.

Tobi notices over the passing days that Yaelin often watches him. He wonders why. He is her son’s kushir. But there is something in her expression that makes Tobi think she is more fascinated by him than that fact alone. When he sees her looking and catches her eye, she does not look away, she stares at Tobi with her soft blue-eyed gaze, until Tobi is the one to break it.

Each evening, after dinner, Harok takes Tobi to his bed, and as more days pass this way, Tobi finds himself looking forward to Harok’s bed more and more. Harok’s love making is exquisite. He attends Tobi’s body with his hands and mouth and magnificent cock. Delighting in his spend, seeming to enjoy Tobi’s pleasure more than his own. Always leaving Tobi deliciously sore and bruised from the rough love making of his dreams.

Slowly, but surely the wall between them from not sharing a common tongue begins to crumble as Tobi learns more Ambolk words and Harok even picks up one or two in Artemian.

Tobi learns that Baby is called a karrem. Although this is just a word meaning beast rather than a specific one for lykat. He does call Harok karrem the first chance he gets. Harok seems to find this quite amusing, praising him with sweet words, “Ga, garan, garasiana,” which Tobi knows are all ways of saying, ‘good boy’, calling Tobi karrem vas in return, ‘Beast Tamer’ before using his tongue on Tobi’s hole until Tobi is screaming for Harok’s cock inside him in a stammering mix of Ambolk and Artemian.

Harok learns a few words of Artemian too, although his vocabulary is quite limited to things he wishes to growl at Tobi or his desire to understand when Tobi’s begging lapses into Artemian in his desperation. Harok understands, “Please,” and “Master,” and “Fuck me.”

When Tobi begs to be fucked in Artemian, Harok growls back, “Suskara, open legs,” or “Suskara hole.” He responds to, “Harder,” both by fucking harder and sometimes by growling, “Sho, Suskara, fuck harder,” or “Ereyek fuck Suskara,” or even “Suskara more fuck?”

He also knows the word “cock,” although he seems to use it interchangeably with “magnificent cock,” which Tobi puts down to the fact that he uses the two words together often enough that Harok might be confused.

But it is a magnificent cock. A magnificent cock and some very skilled fingers and a tongue. And a mouth that kisses like Tobi’s own mouth is the air Harok needs to breathe.

And a man. A complicated, confusing man, a man who looks like he has stepped out of Tobi’s lewdest daydreams. A man whose moods change like the wind.

But if he is to be here, in this strange place, for some time until he is rescued by the Imperial Army, he decides that he is going to make the best of it just like he has made the best of many things.

And that best is to see how much pleasure he can have in Harok’s bed.

17

HAROK

Harok swings down from Embox after a day of riding. He leads her into the stables and hitches her halter to a post to begin the process of untacking, stroking her flank and softly cooing the words Suskara taught him as he does so. “Lalian ary juzu.”

He is unsure what they mean, but the calming effect the words have on beasts is quite astounding.

He removes Embox’s bridle and saddle, sets them aside and finds a brush to groom her. He prefers to do these jobs himself when it comes to his own mount.

He’s lost in his work, the long steady strokes of the brush making Embox’s coat shine, when a voice behind him says, “Harok, I must speak with you.”

Harok turns to see his mother in the stall doorway, her pinched face typically tight and unsmiling. “What is it, mother?” he says heavily. He is tired. He wants nothing more than to take care of Embox and retire to his chamber for a long bath before dinner.

“I have been watching that kushir,” Yaelin says, folding her arms over her thin chest. “And you. You have grown close to him. You’re teaching him Ambolk and letting him stroll around the halls with his beast. He behaves like a member of your council. I am concerned you have forgotten the reason I charged you to bring him here.”

Harok looks past his mother into the stables, but there is no one around. “Do you really think I have forgotten?” he says in a low tone. “That I ever could after twenty long years?”

Yaelin nods. “Then you know what that kushir is here for. And yet I see you with him on your lap, eating honey from your fingers. What are you doing with him?”

“What am I doing with him?” Harok turns back to Embox and continues grooming her. “Do you not remember what an Irgo does with a kushir?”

Yaelin’s voice is cold. “Do you think it is not clear to me how distracted you have become by that kushessa?”

“Do not call him that, mother.” Harok sets down the brush. He walks out of the stall and starts seeing to Embox’s water and feed.

Yaelin follows. “I will call him what he is. You have allowed that Azurian to tame you like he tames his beasts.” She waves her arm down the row of stalls towards Baby’s cage. It's empty. Harok knows Suskara has his beast with him in the library. “Is his body so sweet? Has it convinced you that taking pleasures from him is more important than his duty? Again your weakness betrays you. It was a mistake to make him kushir. You have him in your bed and it has made you lose sight of what must be done.”

“You were the one who said I ought to bed him.” Harok says, stamping back into Embox’s stall with a full pail and an armful of fresh hay.

“To connect with him, yes. It is required. But you were the one who decided to name him your kushir. He is not here to be your lover.” She emphasises the word like it's something distasteful, something shameful. “Have you forgotten the reason we need him?” Harok turns around and finds Yaelin is right behind him. She reaches up and touches the sigil on his chest. “You may have found you are enjoying him more than you imagined, and it is not surprising, but he is not for pleasure. He is for the ritual.”

“You think I do not think about the ritual everyday?” Harok snaps. But he feels the truth of her words burning. “I carry Demonica with me on my back in readiness. Do you really think I could lose sight of such things with your fucking mark carved upon me? I know what will happen to the kushir. But what does it matter if I enjoy him while we wait for him to be ready?”