Page 93 of The Seducer
“Let’s not find out,” I muttered and nodded to a Motlander guard who was approaching the hybrid. “It’s best if you let me do the talking.”
Finn shrugged and opened the door so we could talk to the border patrol.
The man looked troubled and stressed as he came closer, but as soon as he recognized my tattoos his expression changed.
“May peace surround you,” I said but stayed in my seat because of my leg.
The man stood in the door opening, his eyes scanning us three passengers. “The same to you,” he said with strained politeness.
“My name is Athena, and this is Finn and Tristan. Would you be so kind as to let us pass into the Northlands?”
The man’s vest gave a constant beeping sound, and twice he hit a button, but it kept going off. “It’s a nightmare with all the alarms going off all the time,” he mumbled. “I need to see your permission to cross the border.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” I said with confidence. “I’m a priestess, and you can trust me when I say that you won’t get in trouble for letting us across. You may recognize Finn as one of the five representatives that visited us these past ten days.”
“Hi there.” Finn smiled. “Sorry about the wall collapsing and all.”
The man kept getting alarms and his wristband was alerting him about unauthorized drones approaching.
“We are under orders to stop all Motlander women from crossing over to the Northlands.”
“I understand,” I said in a calm voice. “But I’m sure you would agree that a priestess is no ordinary woman.”
Again, his eyes ran over Tristan, Finn, and me, and he frowned. “I would still need to see a form of permission to let you through.”
Placing my hand on his arm, I looked into his eyes. “Much of our country is in rubble, and our doctors are scrambling to heal the wounded people. I too was injured today, and Finn, who is a doctor, has kindly offered to heal me, and bring me back when I’m better. You’re not going to deny me a chance to get medical treatment, are you?”
The guard’s eyes flew to Finn.
“Look, it seems you have enough to do with stopping drones from crossing from the other side,” Finn said pragmatically, and when the guard’s eyes rested on Tristan, Finn added a lie: “My son was part of the official Northland committee that participated at the ceremony earlier; maybe you saw him standing next to me?”
“I wasn’t here,” the guard said and looked over his shoulder to where a colleague was shouting for him. “I’m coming,” he shouted back and with frustration written on his face he swung back and locked eyes with me. “You are certain that you’re crossing the border of your own free will, and that I will not get in trouble for letting you through?”
“You have my word,” I said with a solemn expression on my face. With the promise of a priestess, we were allowed to pass into the Northlands.
I remained silent on the rest of the short flight – not least because my leg was starting to hurt again. A throbbing sensation made me afraid of moving it, and the wound itself burned.
Twenty minutes later Finn took the hybrid down and pointed to an island. “That’s Victoria’s island. It’s where the school is.”
“It looks so pretty,” Tristan commented, while I bit back groans of pain.
“Let’s hope that no one got hurt here,” Finn mumbled when the hybrid slowly lowered to the ground next to a large building.
“I see them!” Tristan exclaimed with excitement. “Look, they’re all coming out to greet us.”
He was right – children and adults were coming out to see who was arriving.
Tristan leaned forward in his seat. “I don’t see Magni.”
As soon as the hybrid was parked, Finn got out, and right away he was surrounded by a whole bunch of children that came to hug him. It was obvious that he was popular with them and when Tristan followed, questions rained down on them from all sides.
While Finn was distracted, the pain in my leg intensified. I stood in the doorway of the drone, afraid to take the big step down. I tried supporting myself on my other leg. Cold sweat sprang from my forehead as I suppressed the urge to scream.
A woman with black curly hair stepped forward and with a voice full of concern she nodded her head to me. “Welcome, priestess, we are honored to have you with us.”
Finn turned around. “Athena, this is Kya, the teacher who runs this school with her husband Archer.”
My fingers clung to the side of the door to hold myself upright and Finn’s smile vanished as he stepped closer. “Are you okay?”
