Page 3 of The Warrior
My pounding heart told me I would need every ounce of that newfound strength and confidence when facing Magni. I had angered him in the past, but this time I had humiliated him, and hurt his pride. There wasn’t much worse you could do to an Nman, and my husband had every right to punish me. Still, I couldn’t bow my head to him. If I did, we would fall back into the unwanted roles of the domineering husband and the obedient wife. If my time in the Motherlands had taught me anything, it was that women were as powerful as men.
This would be my chance to redefine our relationship and show him what a strong woman I had become.
A small shake of the ground was followed by a low rumbling sound that made me look to the crowd of people. They seemed unaffected, so I stayed where I was. When the second more violent shake followed, chaos broke out. People were screaming and running in different directions as the earthquake continued.
Five women ran toward the tree line, and it made me wave for them to turn around. “Run for the drones,” I shouted while running toward them. Relief filled me when the woman closest to me changed her course.
The next minutes were a blur of losing my balance and falling to the ground. As a Northlander, I was taller and stronger than most Motlanders and it was in my blood to step up in a crisis situation. I got back up every time I fell and kept directing panicked people to the drones.
“Stop!” I shouted when a woman climbed a tree. “Get away from the tree.” My voice was overshadowed by the cracking sounds from the earth, the sirens from the border drones, and the screams of fear all around us.
Watching in horror, I saw trees fall in front of me, uprooted as if Mother Nature was spitting out used toothpicks.
I sprinted to the woman and imitated the most authoritarian man I knew when I shouted like Magni. “Get the fuck down from that tree, right now.”
Clinging to one of the lowest branches, the woman’s eyes were teary with fright. “I can’t,” she cried out. “I’m too scared.”
Using my strength and height, I helped her down but we weren’t quick enough. A large branch fell on top of us, scratching our hands and faces. She took the worst of it and suffered a violent nosebleed.
It wasn’t until the earthquake died down that I heard my name being shouted.
“Over here,” I called back.
A minute later Magni and Finn came into sight. Without words, Magni jumped over fallen tree trunks to get to me, and cleared away thick branches as if they were nothing but twigs. It was impossible not to appreciate the sight of my husband’s agility and strength. He was impressive and masculine compared to the feminine Motlander men that I’d been surrounded by these past six months.
When Magni squatted down in front of me, I jerked back a little, fighting my instinct to hug him fiercely and tell him how much I’d missed him.
“Are you okay – what happened to you?” His hands were all over me when he scanned me for injuries. “Are you hurt?” He was gentle when he lifted my hands.
No wonder he was so worried. My fingers were smeared in blood, but it wasn’t all my own. I didn’t have any severe injuries, just the shock from experiencing the chaos of the earthquake.
It was tempting to let Magni take over and keep me safe. But I was no longer that helpless woman he had known.
“I’m fine.” If I looked into Magni’s worried eyes, I would crack, so I focused on Finn instead. “I saw some women run for the trees and tried to warn them to stay clear. This woman was hit in her head.”
Finn was quick to take over and assist the bleeding woman, while Magni pulled me in for a tight hug.
“I’ve been so fucking worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” I whispered.Ahh, the smell of Magni filled my nostrils and had me thinking back to nights of passion between us. I lifted my hands to hug him back but stopped when he narrowed his eyes and ordered, “Now, promise me that you’ll never do something like that again.”
This was the Magni I knew. Bossy and always ordering me around. I steadied myself, hardening my jaw.
“Laura.” Magni gave my shoulders a shake. “Promise me!”
I kept quiet. With my lips pressed together, I refused to look at him. Any time now he would blow up in one of his temper tantrums. This time I wouldn’t give in. I was a free woman and no man would ever control me again!
Finn saved me by asking us to help him with the injured in the area. For a while we worked side by side with Finn giving orders. When he told Magni to carry a woman with a twisted ankle and her friend who had injured her knee in a fall, Magni hesitated and looked from the women to me and back again. “Are you sure you want me to touch you?” he asked the women in a skeptical tone.
According to the laws of the Northlands no man could touch a woman without the permission of her protector. With only around one hundred women to ten million men in the Northlands those laws were necessary to protect us females. These Motlander women however, were not used to rules like that, and the closest woman, who had short spiky hair, lit up.
“I would love to be carried by you.”
Magni’s frown lines deepened when his eyes fell to her shirt that said,Give me an Nman for every day of the week.
Still not touching her, he turned to me. “Laura, are you okay with me carrying these two women to their drones?”
Warmth spread inside of me that Magni would ask for my permission. It made me feel like an equal.
