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“A man? You think me beast. Am I a beast you would tame?”

Tobi swallows. “Ei,” he says. “Ei. I no tame you.”

Harok’s voice is low and husky. “No clothes,” he says. “What Suskara want? No clothes.”

Tobi’s mind races again. He says in Ambolk, “I want you sorry.” He learned the word for sorry in one of his first lessons from Lymok, thinking it would be useful for himself, not because he would want to hear Harok saying it to him. “Oliki,” he says. “Irgorye oliki.”

“Oliki?” says Harok. “Ai Irgo.”

Tobi shrugs. “I know you are Irgo,” he says in Artemian. “Say you are sorry.” He feels like he really might cry now. It’s all too much. The way Harok treats him when he is angry. Being humiliated in front of all the Solwen. Being called Harok’s possession. “Oliki,” he says again. “Irgo say oliki.”

“Go chamber,” Harok snaps in Ambolk. “Leave me now.” He points to the door that adjoins his chamber to Tobi’s small room. His face looks grey. He looks strange. No longer the fearful monster who forced Tobi to kiss him. But he still looks unlike the man Tobi has spent over a moon’s turn with.

When Tobi stays standing where he is, Harok simply says, “Van,” and points to the door that leads from Harok’s bed chamber into Tobi’s own.

“You really want me to go?” Tobi says in Artemian.

“Sho,” says Harok. “Van.”

“As you wish, beast,” Tobi says, turning away and stalking across the room. He pauses at the doorway, but Harok only stares at him, saying nothing more.

20

TOBI

In his own room, Tobi gets into bed sulkily. He doesn’t want to be here. He hadn’t sought out his boots to run away, just to have something to wear on his feet. Just to be comfortable.

Harok thought Tobi was wearing boots as a sign he wanted to leave. He didn’t mean that at all, but perhaps he does want to leave. Perhaps he should try. That would be a fine story for the Rose Court. Not only was he snatched by an Ambolk king and taken to their secret fortress, he escaped all by himself to tell the tale.

But he would need to go to the stables and collect Baby before finding a way to escape. And there are guards outside his door. Not Olladin, Cel, Ador and Lok, but the night guards, who would be even less likely to allow him to go wandering.

Tobi sleeps fitfully, stinging from all that has happened. He had been so excited to have Harok back, to share his bed again. But now, he thinks, being here will never feel sweet again.

The following morning, Tobi takes his time dressing in the alit he wore the day before and drinking bark tea by his fire.

He is doing so when Harok emerges through the door that joins their chambers. He looks drawn, as if he too has slept badly. He wears his chest harness and Tobi can see the bandage over the wound on his chest is stained with fresh blood.

“Kushir,” Harok says. He is holding something in his arms. A bundle of wool and fur.

As Tobi looks at him, Harok shakes the fabric out. “Cloak,” Harok says in Artemian.

Tobi takes it. This cloak is much bigger and longer than the one he had before. Is it one of Harok’s own cloaks? He thinks it must be. It is very fine. It will cover him far better. The fur around the collar is so soft and the main part of it is thick wool. Tobi knows wool is valuable in Urynwud. No sheep live in the forest. Wool has to be traded for gems and timber in Ceruleum. Tobi comes over, still sullen, and takes it from Harok.

As he wraps himself in it, Harok turns and leaves without another word. Tobi wonders if that was meant to be an apology.

Tobi doesn’t want to go down to the Sacred Hall to be stared at and gossiped about by Solwen who witnessed him kneeling before the firepit as Harok burnt his clothing. He doesn’t even want to see his guards who will be standing outside his door. Led by Olladin, who he had begun to consider an ally of sorts, his laughing friend who often beats him at arca, betrayed him to Harok in the Sacred Hall.

He walks over to the chamber’s small window. He knows it looks out on a small side courtyard at the back of Urynwud. It is a long way down. But he has acrobatic skills. He ought to be able to climb this wall. If he could get down the wall somehow, he would still have to get out of the gates. But perhaps if he waited until nightfall…

But he could climb down this wall, fetch Baby from the stables.

He’s pacing around, thinking, when there is a knock at his door.

He walks over and opens it to find Lymok standing there, flanked by Ador and Lok.

“You weren’t at the library, kushir,” Lymok says. “Are you unwell?”

From Lymok’s expression, Tobi is sure he knows exactly why Tobi is not at his lessons, but he simply says, “I am in no mood for learning Harok’s language today.”