Page 10 of The Ruler
“We know.” He smiled. “We just like to do things differently than you. But I’m two meters and Magni has ten centimeters on me. What are you?” He tilted his head. “Six feet seven?”
“I’m one meter and seventy-four centimeters.”
“Uh-huh.” He angled his head. “I trust your journey here was pleasant?”
My eyes flew to Magni, and a triangle shaped itself between my brows long enough for Khan to get a hint of what had happened between us. Slowly he turned to his brother and with a stern voice, he said one word. “Out.”
Magni tensed his jaw, narrowed his eyes, and stared Khan down for a second before he pivoted sharply, and left the room.
“My brother isn’t himself lately,” Khan apologized. “He misses his wife.”
I nodded and looked around. This office was very similar to the virtual room we had met in yesterday: the books along the wall, the chessboard on his desk.
Following my eyes, he asked. “Do you play?”
“Sometimes,” I said and continued investigating the room with my eyes. It was a mix of old and modern, and as expected, very masculine.
“Why don’t we play a game and get to know each other?” he suggested and with a small smile I accepted.
“I’m an avid chess player and the best there is in the Northlands.” He pointed to the game. “White goes first.”
“Thank you,” I said, took a seat and moved one of my pawns.
“Obviously, I’m hoping for a quick return of Laura and in that case your time with us will be limited,” he said, “but I’ll be happy to teach you chess while you’re here.”
I gave another polite smile and watched him move his pieces confidently and swiftly every time I had carefully moved mine. It was a wrong assumption on his part that I didn’t know this game as well as he did, and I mentally noted his arrogance as a weakness I could work with. Chess was my favorite game and one that I’d played often as a child. It had been a way for me to bond with two of the fathers in the family unit where I grew up. The two of them had played daily and patiently taught me until I had become too strong for them to beat. I had a gift for the complicated, an eye for strategy, and the ability to calculate my options and think ahead.
Just as we sat concentrated in silence, the door swung open and Christina burst in.
I knew Christina because I’d been the one who stated her case when she had volunteered to come here as an archeologist a few weeks back. She was an adventurous soul and the first female from the Motherlands to enter the Northlands for hundreds of years.
“Councilwoman Pearl,” Christina cried out and looked like she was about to sob. “What are you doing here?”
Khan made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat indicating that he didn’t appreciate the intrusion, but I quickly got up to greet Christina. “May peace surround you,” I said and looked into her eyes. She was worried and frightened but it was unclear to me if it was on my behalf or her own.
“What happened?” Boulder asked from the door. I recognized him as her bodyguard from a short vid report that Christina had sent to me last week.
Khan waved Boulder closer. “Pearl here offered herself in exchange for Athena.”
Boulder had hair to his jaw and a beard that was far too long and scruffy, but his eyes were a clear gray and shone with intelligence when he nodded.
“Would you mind if I talked to Pearl alone?” Christina asked Khan.
He arched a brow. “I suppose you could do that, but not until our game is over. It shouldn’t take too long. Chess is a man’s game, after all.”
CHAPTER 4
Curses and Punches
Khan
While Boulder escorted the women to the park. I stood with my fists on the table staring down at the chessboard.
How the hell did she do that? How could I have missed her bishop like that?
I went over the game in my head analyzing how I could have made that big a blunder. It pissed me off that I’d lost face to a Momsi. “Beginner’s luck,” she had said. I snorted in annoyance.
It was easy to underestimate her with her long blonde hair and large blue eyes, but this little lesson had made me suspect that she wasn’t the angel she looked to be.
