by Elin Peer
“Look. You can’t punish him for doing the exact same thing as you did.”
Archer wrinkled his brow.
“You kissed me on the first day you met me!” I reminded him in a low whisper.
“But we’re grown-ups.”
“Who fell in love, Archer. Just like them.”
He sighed and looked down for a moment, his head spinning so fast I could almost hear it.
“I actually pity them,” I said. “In seven months, Solo turns fifteen and moves on to the next school. It will most likely be the last time they see each other.”
“Unless he gets chosen to represent the Northlands like Finn,” Archer said.
I angled my head. “That won’t happen until he’s at least twenty-one. Even then, you’re looking at a minimum of six years of separation. By then she’ll hardly remember him. I mean, she’s so young.”
Archer rubbed his forehead. “Now you have me feeling sorry for him too, but he broke our laws and should be punished.”
I crossed my arms and leaned against the door, whispering. “Don’t tell me you’re seriously going to be that big a hypocrite.”
He groaned.
“How can you judge a scared boy for being in love when he has committed no bigger crime than you have?”
Archer closed his eyes and I knew I had him.
“Fine,” he said. “But you better pray that Solo is a good actor. If he walks out there and tells everyone that he got away without a scratch…” Archer shook his head.
“I don’t believe in lies,” I said. “Why not make him do something more useful with his time than flirting with Willow? Maybe more cleaning chores, or make him tutor the younger students. He’s smart and an excellent fighter.”
“Where’s the punishment in tutoring?” Archer whispered with a frown.
“It’s called giving back to the community, and we’re trying to build his character, not break him. I’m sure you can be creative and think of something nonviolent.”
Archer narrowed his eyes and looked like he was biting his tongue. “Let’s get this over with so we can get back to celebrating our wedding day.”
When we opened the door, Solomon and Willow were still sitting in the chairs. They were leaning their heads together, but flew apart quickly.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Archer said. “You, Willow, are going to return to the party with Kya while Solo and I stay and get his punishment over with.”
“Please don’t hurt him,” Willow pleaded.
“Trust me, Solomon will survive the pain. He’s a tough young man, and Kya has argued that most of his punishment will be executed as tutoring and cleaning.”
“What?” Solomon scrunched up his face.
“We’re just making sure you’ll be too busy to fall into temptation again,” Archer said matter-of-factly and nodded for me to get Willow out of the room.
“Why is Solo the only one getting punished?” Willow cried when she and I got outside. “He didn’t do anything wrong.” Her gorgeous green eyes were wet and pleading.
“He’s being held to a different rule set than you, that’s why.”
Her shoulders were hunched.
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t kiss anymore,” I suggested. “You don’t want Solo to get in trouble again, do you?”
She shook her head, but I wondered how long the traumatic events of today would keep them apart. They were young, reckless, and in love. Undoubtedly, one of Mother Nature’s most potent cocktails.
CHAPTER 31
Creativity
Archer
Be creative. Kya’s words were taunting me, because looking at the young man in front of me, I didn’t feel creative at all. If Solomon came out of this room without a scratch it would be like giving a free pass to all the boys. Not to mention that Magni would definitely shit a sheep.
“Wait here,” I ordered, and went to find Shelly cleaning up in the kitchen.
“I need to talk to Shelly alone, you run outside now,” I told Tommy and Nicki, who were helping her.
Shelly met my eyes with a serious expression when I asked her: “If you were to come up with a punishment that would satisfy the Nmen’s need for justice and the Motlanders’ need for nonviolence, then what would you choose?”
“Community service,” she said and returned to her cleaning as if the puzzle had been solved and her job was done.
“I need something more painful.”
Shelly’s spine stiffened and she slowly turned to look at me again. “There are many sorts of pain,” she said. “You people are obsessed with the physical pain, as if that’s the worst that could happen to a person.”
“Huh?”
“There are people who can rise above physical pain and there are people whose mental pain manifests as physical pain although no one has laid a hand on them.”
“What are you saying?”
“That the biggest abuser is often people’s own mind.”
I impatiently shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “You’re speaking in riddles, Shelly. Just say what you mean, will you?”
“I’m talking about the pain of isolation, rejection, humiliation, loneliness, longing, grief…” She stopped and looked at me. “You need me to go on?”
“No, I think you’re onto something, I’m just not sure exactly how I can use that to punish Solo.”
Shelly’s shoulders sank. “That would be easy,” she said softly. “He’s all about pride and vanity.”
“And?”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe in punishments so you’ll have to figure it out for yourself. I agree with Kya that your ways of disciplining are ineffective and wrong. Instilling fear in a person is a sad imitation of respect, that’s all.”
“Spare me your lecture,” I said, a bit harsher than I meant it, and instantly softened my voice. “Look, Shelly, you saw Magni before. What Solo did constitutes a deathly offense in our country, and you might not agree with it but laws like that have been the only way of keeping our females safe. I need to come up with a punishment hard enough to set a dire example for the other boys,” I said and added, “Please help me find a nonviolent way of doing that.” Since she was still hesitating, I added. “We don’t want to upset Kya on her wedding day, do we?”
Shelly folded her arms around her midsection and looked down.
“Please,” I coaxed her again. “If it’s as easy as you say, just tell me; I’m coming up with a blank here.”
Shelly still didn’t look at me when she spoke softly. “If you want to humiliate and scare Solo, you…” She drew in a deep breath. “You could shave his head.”
Both my eyebrows shot up and my first reaction was that not even I could be that cruel. Solomon loved his gorgeous thick blond hair.
Shelly spoke quietly. “He’ll be afraid that Willow won’t find him attractive anymore, and it will definitely be a visible mark to the other boys that Solomon did something wrong.”
My eyes glazed over as I thought about the idea. “It’s definitely a way of setting an example. The other boys are going to be scared shitless that I would do that to them.” Nodding my head, I refocused and looked at her, but Shelly had turned her back on me as if she was ashamed of having vocalized such cruelty.
“Thank you. You’re a genius, you know that, right?”
She didn’t answer me.
Twenty minutes later, I walked outside with a brooding Solomon. Jaws dropped and gasps were heard when children and adults alike took in Solomon’s new appearance.
“What did you do to him?” Kya asked, visibly disturbed.
“I got creative like you told me to.”
I knew I’d done the right thing when Magni gave me a nod of recognition and addressed the boys. “Look at that, boys. Unless you wanna look as ridiculous as Solomon, you’d better not kiss the girls,” he barked.
Solomon walked over to sit against a tree, licking his wounds.
“Don’t look at me like that,”
I told Kya. “He got away without a scratch and Magni is satisfied. So what if his pride and vanity is hurt? Solo will get over it when his hair grows out again.”
“I suppose it’s better than hitting him,” Kya admitted before she got distracted by the sight of Boulder and Christina walking out of the woods with Raven between them. The three of them were holding hands.
“Aww.” Kya instantly softened and I took the chance to snake my arm around her waist and pull her close to me.
“They told her,” she breathed. “Look how blissfully happy they look.”
“If you hadn’t been so damn slow to realize that you loved me, we could have been the parents of Raven,” I whispered and kissed her.
After Boulder made the announcement to all the children that he and Christina had adopted Raven, we predictably got questions from some of them.
William wanted to know why only children from the Motherlands could have parents and I told him to go and raise that question with Pearl and Khan.
Mila came and asked Kya if she could get adopted too.
“You never know,” Kya told the girl and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’m sure that every adult would be proud to have a daughter like you.”
“Can I be your daughter?” Mila asked Kya with a shy smile.
“Yes,” I said resolutely, but Kya shook her head. “Archer and I have to treat all the children here the same. We love all of you so much, but I’m sure you can imagine how hard it would be for you if we adopted you. The other children would get jealous, don’t you think?”
Mila bit her lip and nodded. “I guess so.”
When she ran off, Pearl came over to talk to us. “I have to say that I’m surprised about you two. With all the bickering between you, I naïvely thought you didn’t like each other much.”
Kya laughed. “We didn’t. I truly thought Archer was the most stubborn and annoying man in this world.”
“Impossible.” Pearl laughed. “That would be Khan for sure.”
“Have you chosen the five men to represent the Northlands?” I asked Pearl.
“Well,” she breathed. “There’s Finn, of course, and Christina recommended one of the men who helped her on her archaeological digging site. His name is Bruce Lee and after meeting him, I agree that he should be included in the project.”
“That’s only two.”
“Yes, but I’m interviewing ten candidates tomorrow. They have all been recommended to me and described as intelligent, warm, and respectful men.”
“I’m not sure I would describe Finn as respectful.” Kya grinned. “His jokes can be pretty crude.”
“Well, I meant respectful by Nman standards,” Pearl corrected herself.
As the two women continued talking, I walked over to sit next to Finn, who lay alone on a patch of grass in the sun.
“If it isn’t the lucky groom,” he said and opened one eye to look at me. “I thought you would be busy consummating your marriage by now.”
“There’s still time,” I answered and stretched my legs in front of me.
Finn was using his hands as a pillow and squinted because of the sun. “I saw what you did to Solomon.”
“Uh-huh.”
“He will never forgive you for that.”
“Probably not, but at least I jumped in to protect him from Magni’s wrath. That’s more than I can say about you.”
“Hey, I think you’re forgetting something.” He propped himself up on his elbows. “I’m a doctor; my job is to fix the wounded people – not to get wounded myself.”
“Is that why you never fight in tournaments?” I asked. “You’re a good fighter, but I’ve never seen you participate.”
He tilted his head back and forth as if weighing evidence. “I wanted to fight for Laura, but when Magni said he would be in the tournament, I changed my mind.
“Because he’s your best friend?” I asked.
“That, and because with Magni being the best goddamn fighter and the second most important man in the country, it was a given that she would pick him,” he said matter-of-factly. “Turned out it was a good call, since Magni is now alone while I’m going to be swimming in women in a few days.”
“Pearl still needs to find the last three men for the project,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s going to be hard for her.” He chuckled. “But that’s what she gets for picking me first. I told her she’ll have to lower her expectations and that she won’t find anyone as charming and amazing as me.”
“And what’s the plan when you get to the Motherlands?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said and was back to being serious; he rubbed his forehead. “I think that if I hadn’t already been to the Motherlands I would’ve said that my plan was to find as many women I could and to plant my seed and have some fun.”
“But?”
“But my plan has changed.” I couldn’t remember ever seeing Finn so serious, except the time when he treated William’s burn wound. “Remember I told you how Athena cursed me?”
“Yeah.”
Finn squirmed a little and picked up some grass that he broke into small pieces. “I know it’s hard to believe, but she was so angry with me, and the way she sneered when she cursed me…” He shuddered. “I swear her eyes were on fire and she was chanting in a different language and all.”
“What language would that be?”
“I don’t know, some kind of dead language, I suppose. It was creepy.”
“But if you didn’t understand what she was saying, then how do you know that she was cursing you for sure?”
“Because I felt it, man, it was like she was inside my head.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you saying? You knew what she was saying in that foreign language because she was inside your mind?”
Finn frowned at me. “No, of course not, that’s just crazy talk. I knew because I asked her what the fuck she was saying.”
“Ahh, and she translated?”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded slowly.
Leaning my head closer, I asked curiously: “Tell me what she cursed you with.”
“She damned me to never find satisfaction with a woman.”
I thought about it. “What does that even mean?”
“It means that I can’t fucking come,” he muttered and looked down.
Both my eyebrows lowered in disbelief. “You can’t orgasm?”
“No, I can’t. I slept with five women in the Motherlands and I couldn’t come with any of them.”
“Fuck, that sucks,” I said with sympathy before I really understood his words. “Wait, you slept with five women?”
A slow grin grew on his face. “I’m good at seducing women.”
“Five women,” I repeated in awe. “I’ve never known a man who has slept with five women.”
Squaring his shoulders, Finn smiled smugly. “That number is going to grow significantly once I go back there.”
“I can’t even imagine,” I muttered, still taken aback by the unfairness of one man sleeping with five women when we had hundreds of thousands of men who had never slept with a single one.
“But first, I’m going to find Athena and make her lift the curse,” he announced determinedly.
“And how do you plan to do that? I thought you were going to have a mediator attached to you.” Shaking my head, I continued. “I doubt they’re letting you get anywhere near Athena, and who can blame them? The poor woman is probably traumatized from her time being kidnapped and held hostage here in the Northlands.
Finn snorted loudly. “You clearly haven’t met Athena. I doubt anything or anyone could truly traumatize her. That woman was something else.”
“But they’re still not going to let you get near her.”
With a sly smile and his index finger tapping at his temple, Finn said: “I already thought of that.” He looked around and lowered his voice to a secret whisper. “I lied to Pearl, telling her how incredibly sorry I am for my role in holding Athena hostage, a
nd how I really want to ask for Athena’s forgiveness.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Surely Pearl is too smart to fall for that crap.”
Finn chuckled. “You would think that, but you know how naïve the Momsies are. They want to think that we are fundamentally good people.”
“Aren’t we?”
He smacked the back of his hand into my shoulder. “No, we’re the fucking men of the North. We do what it takes to get what we want.”
I laughed. “I’m not sure I follow, but even if you get to Athena, how do you know she’s going to be willing to talk to you?”
“Come on, the woman is a priestess. I bet she believes in forgiveness and acceptance and all that spiritual shit.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight: your plan is to find Athena and apologize to her in a way that makes her like you enough to lift the curse?”
“I can be persuasive.” He winked.
“Hmm, don’t take this the wrong way, Finn, but I really hope you have a backup plan.”
Finn frowned at me. “Now you’re just being negative.”
“No, I really hope you succeed, I’m just not sure Athena is going to welcome you with open arms.”
He got up. “I guess there’s only one way to find out, and when I leave here in a few days, you can be damn sure I’m going straight to find the little pretty witch.”
“What witch?” I turned to see Magni walking toward us.
“The one you kidnapped,” Finn said.
“Ah, okay.” Magni squatted down next to me. “You’re never going to believe what just happened to me,” he said in a low rumble.
“What?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you saw Solo and Willow together again.”
“No, I doubt the fuckster will repeat that offense after your harsh punishment.”
His comment made me raise my eyebrows, because compared to his threat of death, a shaved head seemed mild. “Okay, so what happened then?”
“Mila asked me to be her father.” Magni shook his head and broke into a genuine smile.
“Are you serious?” Finn asked with his mouth open.
“Yes, and at first I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there staring at her dumbfounded.” Magni threw his hands up. “You should’ve seen the little angel. I think she thought I didn’t want her or something because her lips drooped down so sadly.”
