Page 158 of The Warrior
Christina nodded. “That’s Raven for you, but Freya is strong too in her own way. Besides, I worry about Raven. She wants to be a police officer.”
“She would be great at it, don’t you think?” Pearl asked.
Christina bit her lip. “Being the first woman in the police force will be challenging. I don’t want her to deal with all that. It would be much easier if she chose a different profession.”
“I’ll bet being the first at it is part of why Raven wants to do it,” I said. “She has that strength to go first everywhere.”
Christina nodded. “Boulder and she train together every time she’s home. He says she’s become a strong fighter.”
“She’s very strong. I trained with her a few months back, and she might be only sixteen but she’s incredible.” I tilted my head. “Mila could learn a little from Raven. She can’t fight for shit.”
Kya placed a hand on my shoulder. “Mila is a lover, not a fighter. You should be proud of her.”
“I am.” I smiled at Kya and looked back at all the children playing with the schoolchildren and some of our men. “You do realize, Kya, that soon we’ll have enough children between us to fill your entire school, right?”
Pearl counted. “Boulder and Christina have three, Khan and I will have two soon. Finn and Athena have two and are working on number three, and Laura and Magni have the third coming. With your own two kids, that makes for around thirteen kids.”
Kya looked up at Khan and Boulder, who were talking behind us. “We’ll need to extend the school soon.”
“Why?”
We women laughed. “Because you men won’t stop breeding babies and we want our children to stay together.”
Athena raised a hand. “Not me. Finn and I are staying in the Motherlands.”
“Why? Wouldn’t you love your boys to go to this school?” Kya asked and threw her hands up. “Look at this place. It’s lush, tranquil, and it has amazing teachers. What’s not to like?”
Athena laughed. “I’d miss my job too much. But you’re right – this place is wonderful, which is why we come often.”
“What about Tristan, how is he doing?” Christina asked Athena.
Athena lit up. “Didn’t I tell you Tristan designed his first drone?”
We all made sounds of excitement. “Two years into his apprenticeship and he’s already designing a drone.” I whistled, impressed.
“I doubt he did it all by himself, but Mr. Wrestler is very pleased with him.” Athena was beaming with pride when a loud scream made us all look to the soccer field, where Mason had decided to combine sword fighting with soccer playing and was using his soft play-sword to fight off the other children for the ball.
“That’s unfair,” Freya shouted from the sidelines. “It’s against the rules.” With her hands on her hips she gave a pout of indignation and complained to Finn. “Mason should be dispolified.”
“It’s called disqualified, honey,” Pearl corrected her daughter.
“Hey, Freya, he’s your cousin. Show some loyalty,” Magni called to his niece.
Freya came stomping over. “Uncle Magni, Mason needs to learn the rules.”
Magni laughed. “He’s a rule-breaker like his father.” Squatting down, Magni waved Freya over and pulled her up on his lap. “One day you’ll be older and Mason is going to use all that feistiness to defend you against bad Nmen.”
“What bad Nmen?”
“The ones that want to take the power away from your dad and me. They are confused men who are fueled by petty anger. Mason will grow up to punish them and keep you safe.”
Freya looked like a wise old woman when she tilted her head. “People shouldn’t be punished for their anger. They will be punishedbytheir anger.”
One of Magni’s eyebrows rose up, and he sat Freya back down on the ground and stood to his full height looking at Khan. “That’s what you get from marrying a Councilwoman.”
Khan grinned. “I still have time to influence her.” His eyes found Mason and Aubri, who were on the ground in a fight over the sword again. “At least my nephew and niece are descended from two warriors; I trust that they’ll keep my chess player safe when the time comes.”
“You’re not thinking about changing the law and making Freya the next ruler, are you?” Magni asked in a low voice.
