Page 21 of The Ruler
“Run the school?”
“Yes, his name is Archer, and the boys from his learning facility are tougher and stronger than from any other schools.” Khan yawned loudly and arranged his pillows.
“Why should it be one of your men running the school? Why not one ofourteachers?”
He snorted, signaling that I was being ridiculous.
“I would suggest we find two tolerant and open-minded teachers to work together. If you want to nominate this Archer, I’ll meet with him and ask him questions to make sure he’s the right man for the job,” I said. “Obviously, you can do the same with the candidates that will be suggested from our side.”
“Fair enough, but how do you plan on getting a teacher and the children to come here in the first place?”
“I don’t know yet,” I answered honestly. “My first thought was that it should be a male teacher for safety reasons, but I think that defies the purpose. It needs to be a woman.”
“Hey, bring all the women you want to,” Khan chuckled. “But it’s better if we keep this project under the radar for now. Maybe even find a secluded area for them to conduct the experiment. Ten or fifteen girls in an all-boys school will be distracting. I want to give the children a completely different school where there’s no outside influence.”
“All right,” I nodded. “I agree.”
“And I want Archer to be the primary mentor.”
Pushing my jaw out, I said, “Do you mean to sabotage this project before it’s even begun?”
“No.”
“How can two teachers work side by side if one is above the other?”
He shrugged.
“They can’t!” I concluded. “Which is why they will share the responsibility.”
Khan chewed on his upper lip with a thoughtful expression before he spoke. “I’ll talk to Archer about it.”
“What if you didn’t?” I asked slowly. “We need to be strategic here.”
“I’m always strategic,” he claimed.
“Then how do you think he’ll react if he’s told to move from his current school to a secluded place to work with one class only, and on top of that, compromise with a female teacher on how to raise and train a combination of girls and boys?”
Khan huffed out air. “Yeah, that could be a hard one to sell, unless she’s young and willing to become his wife.”
“Not a chance!” I sputtered. “Thisisn’tan arranged marriage. We’ll select a teacher who is a professional and has years of experience.” I moved in my seat and pointed at him. “You’d better guarantee me that he’ll be a gentleman.”
That made Khan laugh.
“You know what I mean,” I said, realizing that expecting an Nman to be a gentleman might be a bit naïve. “I think the best thing would be to find the candidates we can both agree on and let them fall in love with the project, before we reveal the challenging part about their sharing the responsibility.”
Khan narrowed his eyes. “Sounds scheming to me, isn’t that against your fine ethical code?”
“No, we’re not lying,” I defended myself. “We’re just strategically choosing when to disclose the full scope of the project. They’ll be recruited to run a school with a mix of boys and girls. If they agree and meet each other, surely we can convince them to work together on the project.“
Khan shrugged. “I’m not concerned about that. Archer will do what I tell him to.”
“Well, in that case, all we have to do is convince a female, skilled teacher from the Motherlands to come live in the Northlands for at least three years as part of an experiment.” I sighed, knowing that I was hoping for a miracle. “Now that we agree on that, let’s discuss the curriculum.
Pearl
I was envious of Christina, who got to leave the Manor every day to work on the excavation that had brought her here in the first place.
A few times over the first three weeks, Khan allowed me to help her, but mostly I was forced to sit for hours in my golden cage.
