Page 40 of The Warrior
I gave him a sideways glance. “You’re getting out of shape if running for an hour is hard on you.”
“This isn’t running. This is sprinting.”
I slowed down a little. “We’re almost there.”
Five minutes later we arrived back at the Gray Mansion and while I stretched a little, Khan stood with his head down and his hands on his knees. A cloud of warm moistness filled the cold air from his heavy breathing.
“Maybe you should take it easy. You’re getting older after all, and we don’t want you to have a heart attack,” I teased.
Last week Pearl had insisted on our celebrating Khan’s thirty-fifth birthday. Christina, Athena, Kya, and Pearl had shown us all how their traditional celebrations involved eating sweets, receiving gifts, and singing songs. We men played along, until we got to the singing part.
To us Nmen, singing involved being drunk. I knew some great crude songs, but they were best sung with beer in one hand and an arm flung around the neck of a friend.
Singing songs about peace and prosperity would hurt my testicles, so I drew a line. The rest of the men followed my example.
Khan looked up. “Did you just call me old? Fuck you.”
“You know I’ll do almost anything for you, brother, but fucking you isn’t on that list.”
Khan rolled his eyes and walked up the wide stone staircase. “You know what I meant.”
“You want to take a few rounds in the ring?” I asked him. “It’s been a while since we’ve been sparring.”
“I don’t have time today, and it’s a shame that you have energy for that.”
“Why?”
Khan straightened up. “Because the whole reason I suggested we should go running was that I wanted you to be tired and calm when I told you something that you might find upsetting.”
I let Khan walk inside before me. The house felt like a sauna compared to the outside temperature.
“What is it?”
Khan looked around the large foyer and pointed toward his office. “Let’s take this in private.”
My footsteps were heavy when I followed him. I didn’t need more bad news. I’d already sent Finn off this morning to live in the Motherlands and Laura still hadn’t come back. What I needed was some good news.
“Sit down.” Khan gestured to a chair in front of his desk and closed the door behind him. “There’s something I haven’t told you about the negotiations with the Motherlands.”
I followed him with my eyes when he sat down opposite me at the desk.
“You know I told you how the Motherlands were forced to accept our demand for equality on the Council within the next twenty years?”
“Yeah, you said it might happen in ten years if all goes well.”
“True, but you should know that the Council had a condition.”
“What condition?”
“When the Council reaches full equality, we in the Northlands must follow suit.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Pearl will be my co-ruler.”
Jerking back in my chair, I held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Is this for real?”
Khan had a serious expression on his face, his elbows resting on the side of his chair, and his hands folded in front of him.”
