The Mentor Read online

  “I can’t help it,” I told Magni. “I’m a kinesthetic person and touching comes naturally to me.”

  “Only your protecto–” Magni started for the umpteenth time, but I cut him off.

  “Yes, I’ve heard you, but I’ve decided those laws don’t apply to me. Women here in the Northlands might be okay with living in a bubble, but I’m not! I demand that you stop fussing over me and let me touch whomever I want to.”

  “You don’t mean that?” Magni said and put down the large pile of plates he’d been carrying.

  “Yes, I do. It’s natural to stroke a hand and give a hug and I don’t want to limit myself.”

  “Maybe in the Motherlands but here we do things differently,” Magni insisted. “How am I supposed to keep you safe if you go around touching men? They’ll think you want to marry them.”

  “I’m not going to touch all men, just you, Archer, and my other friends.”

  “What friends?” Archer asked and picked up the plates Magni had set down.

  I followed him to the long dining table with cutlery in my hands.

  “The friends I’ll meet while living here,” I said patiently and put down one fork and knife for every plate he placed along the long table. “You forget that I’m not one of your Nwomen waiting for a tournament to select my husband. I will never marry.”

  Magni stood watching us. “I know that,” he said and sat down on the table only to quickly get back up with a frown at the cracking sounds from it.

  “Magni, go get some glasses in the kitchen, will you?” I asked and continued in a louder voice so he could still hear me. “In the Motherlands men and women can be friends without any sexual undertones. Gender really means very little to us.”

  “Only because your men are more feminine than your women,” Archer said dryly.

  “That’s not true. And for your information sex between men and women does happen. I know several who tried it. We would just never monopolize a person like you do with your marriages. It’s impossibly old-fashioned.”

  “If it happens then tell me this: have you had sex with a man?” Archer’s brow furrowed.

  “You know we only have one man per fourteen women, right? And then take away the ones that aren’t interested in females. It’s not like there’s a bunch of willing men to choose from and besides, sex-bots are much more efficient and hygienic anyway.” I spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Is that so?” Archer’s frown had lessened. “Does that mean you were never tempted to have sex with a man?”

  I hesitated before I answered honestly. “Actually, I was a little tempted once.” I didn’t say that he was the man who had tempted me.

  Magni called out from the kitchen. “What was that?”

  “Kya was tempted to have sex once,” Archer half shouted and turned to me with his lips pursing. “Now you have me interested.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Magni came back into the dining room balancing two tall stacks of glasses.

  “Don’t drop them,” I warned. “And why can’t you just take a few at a time?”

  “Don’t worry about the glasses. Focus on what you were going to say.”

  I shook my head. “It’s really nothing. It was just a fantasy I had,” I lied.

  “I assume we’re talking about a sexual fantasy,” Magni clarified.

  “Yes, but it’s not relevant for this conversation. The point is that I’m not going to change who I am just because you don’t like me touching a man. And as for your argument, I’m sure Archer doesn’t think I want to marry him just because I pat his shoulder or arm.”

  Archer set down the last plate and turned to me. “I want to hear more about that fantasy of yours.”

  I was tired after days of working long hours and especially tired of the two of them constantly arguing. I had backed myself into a corner and needed something to throw them off.

  “Come on, what did you fantasize about?” Archer pushed me.

  “I could tell you,” I said, slowly trying to come up with something creative, “but it would probably upset you, so I’d rather not.”

  “Ha!” Magni shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “You can’t possibly shock us, unless it involves animals.” He scrunched up his face. “Does it?”

  I tilted my head. “Darn it, how did you know?” My laugh revealed that he wasn’t even close.

  “Just spit it out,” Archer insisted, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement.

  I yawned. “I’m too tired and I don’t want to offend you anyway.”

  “Offend us?” Magni wrinkled his nose. “What kind of twisted fantasy did you have?”

  “One that men like you could never fulfill anyway, so there’s no need to talk about it.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Archer puffed his chest and took a step closer to me. “We’re strong, virile, and have more stamina than those wimps you call men back home.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you do, but my fantasy is…” I sighed theatrically and waved a hand dismissively, trying to find a way out of the hole I had dug for myself. “Just forget it.”

  “Spit it out, woman,” Magni said impatiently.

  “All right, if you insist.” I looked from Magni to Archer and back again, desperately trying to come up with something, and when my lips started moving it was like seeing a drone fly straight into the side of a mountain. “I had this fantasy of being with two men at the same time.”

  Not for one second did I think they would buy into a lie that big, but clearly, I wasn’t the only naïve person in the room. It was hard not to laugh at the way Magni’s mouth fell open.

  Archer on the other hand just looked confused. “Why?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “And it’s not relevant anyway.”

  “And why the hell would that offend us?” Magni asked.

  “Maybe not offend you, but rather upset you that my fantasy was something no Nman could ever offer me.”

  “Why not?”

  I laughed. “From what I have seen, I think it’s pretty obvious that you Nmen are way too competitive and combative to work together. I imagine only men from the Motherlands would be able to offer a woman something like that.”

  I was pleased with my rational argument and amused at the genius in painting a rosy image of what working together could actually get a man. And just to drive in the last nail in the coffin I added: “I also get the feeling you’d make it all about you while they are more mature and would make it about the woman.”

  “Hey, that's selfish! Why should it be all about you?” Archer objected.

  “Because it's my fantasy! You can be selfish in your dream too, you know.”

  Magni had regained his composure. “I didn’t see that one coming,” he said and swallowed hard. “You really want to be with two men at the same time?”

  I chuckled. “As I said, it was just a fantasy I had a long time ago.”

  “And if two guys were willing…” Archer trailed off but his heated cheeks told me there was an offer in those words and my belly instantly did a somersault. Again images of him and me together that first night did funny things to me.

  “It would have to wait until I’m back home,” I said and broke eye contact with Archer. “I wouldn’t dare do it here. I mean can you imagine two alpha males like yourself? They’d end up fighting before we even got to the fun part.”

  “You couldn’t handle two of my kind anyway,” Magni claimed and gave a lopsided grin. “Hell, you probably couldn’t even handle two of Archer’s type for that matter.”

  Archer whipped his gaze to Magni. “Fuck you! I’m not the one whose wife left me. Apparently, Laura wasn’t so impressed with your sex skills!”

  Magni’s body went rigid and the tension that emanated from him filled the room like a black haze of danger. The atmosphere had gone from playful fun to lethal in seconds, and when Archer responded to Magni’s narrowed eyes and low menacing growl by taking a fig
hting position, I had to interfere.

  “I told you it was a stupid idea to talk about it and this just proves my point,” I said. “All you Nmen do is fight. It’s primitive and stupid.”

  My provocation was strong enough to get their attention and my strategy worked; what better way to unite two enemies than to give them a shared target to channel their anger against. But just to be sure, I threw another insult at them. “You two can’t cooperate on anything. Least of all satisfying a woman.”

  Magni turned his attention on me. “I don’t know what your game is but even if I wasn’t already married, I wouldn’t share my woman. If you were mine, I’d kill any man who touched you.”

  “Hey, it wasn’t an offer,” I called after him when he walked out the door throwing a command over his shoulder.

  “Come on, I’m taking you back to Boulder’s house for the night. You’ve had enough fun messing with our heads.”

  Archer looked pissed too, but when I lifted my hand in a small wave and moved past him, he grabbed my wrist and whispered into my ear in a low gruff voice. “You might need two Momsiboys to satisfy you, but I guarantee I can do it singlehandedly if you let me.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I hurried to the drone without a word. Clearly my idea of fun had backfired. Nmen didn’t find sex a laughing matter, and I’d better remember that if I didn’t want to provoke another fight between these two highly lethal men.

  CHAPTER 5

  Marco and the Women

  Archer

  When Pearl returned from the Motherlands, she decided the solution to my and Kya’s not agreeing on anything, was to set up a school board with seven members: Khan, Pearl, Magni, Boulder, Christina, Kya, and me. All the women’s talk about democracy and sharing of power had me aging before my time. I was twenty-eight going on fifty after only days with all their “let’s talk about it” bullshit.

  Marco, my assistant, finally arrived four days later than planned. He was stunned when he learned that not only would we be teaching a selected group of Nboys but ten children from the Motherlands too. I wished I could have prepared him better but for safety reasons the whole project was secret.

  “But what does that mean?” he asked while he unpacked his bag and neatly placed his clothes in the closet.

  I sat on a chair in his room. Boulder had built an annex on the grounds that offered us teachers a bit of privacy away from the students when we weren’t on night duty. It was a simple structure with a long porch and six rooms side by side.

  “It means that we’ll be working with a few women from the Motherlands. Kya is the teacher and in a few hours her assistant, Shelly, will arrive with the first group of girls. Shelly is the older sister of one of the students and the daughter of a prominent council member.”

  “So, there’s four of us? You, me, Kya, and this Shelly?”

  “Actually, there’s more than that.” I rocked the chair back against the wall. “Magni, the brother of Lord Khan, is here too.”

  “He is?” Marco’s eyes grew big. He had been one of my best students when I started out mentoring eight years ago. That’s why when he showed an interest in becoming a mentor last summer after graduating from college, I’d gladly agreed to take him on as my assistant.

  “Magni is here because Lord Khan appointed him to protect the female teacher, Kya.”

  Marco nodded. “And Shelly, who is her protector then – is it you?”

  “No one. She’s only fifteen so it’s not necessary. We’ll all watch out for her.”

  Marco’s eyebrows flew up. “Fifteen, that’s young for an assistant.”

  “Yup, but apparently she’s some kind of genius.” I shrugged. “There’s also Christina and Pearl, who have volunteered to help when needed.”

  “Wow, sounds like there’s more mentors than students.” Marco whistled.

  “It’s just to begin with. Christina is an archeologist and she’s talking about digging up a part of the island that used to be a popular tourist destination. Pearl will be busy keeping an eye on Lord Khan, and Magni hopefully won’t be here long either. This is a secluded island, and once Lord Khan sees we have it under control and that Kya is not in danger from any of us, he’ll call off Magni, I hope.”

  “You don’t like Magni?”

  I didn’t answer that question, but said: “He’s going to be in charge of some of the fight training.”

  “I thought you loved to teach fighting.”

  “I do, and I’ll still be teaching the boys. Magni will focus on the students from the Motherlands.”

  “Do they know how to fight?” Marco asked, closed his closet, and shoved his bag under the bed.

  “Of course not.”

  A small chuckle escaped Marco. “That’s going to be interesting. I’ve only seen Magni once or twice but he never came across as a patient man, and teaching a class of first-time fighters will require a lot of patience.”

  “True, but he insists, so we’ll let him. Do me a favor,” I said. “Keep an eye on his training and let me know what you think, will you?”

  “Sure.” His dark curls were long enough to fall into his eyes and he pushed them back. I didn’t tease him about his sorry excuse for stubble.

  “Good. We have two hours before the first group of students arrive. In the meantime, I want to introduce you to everyone here. Especially Kya.” I paused and my next words tasted bitter. “By the way, just so you know: Kya is ranked the same as me.”

  “She’s what?” he asked, surprised.

  “I know. I’m not happy about it either, but because it’s an experiment one side of the border can’t overrule the other. We have to agree on everything.”

  “Is that even possible?” he asked

  “No. But so far we’ve agreed on the basic things and we’ll figure out the rest as we go.”

  Marco nodded his head and clapped his hands together. “Anything else I should know before we go out there?” He pointed to the door.

  “Yeah, I should probably warn you that the women…” I lowered my brow and thought about how to put it. “It’s not that they’re stupid, it’s just that they see the world completely differently from us and some of the things they say sound incredibly naïve and dumb. Try not to laugh, will you?”

  Marco scratched his arm and tilted his head. “Give me an example so I know what to expect.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you the worst one I’ve heard so far.” I straightened my back and blew out a long breath. “Gender isn’t important in the Motherlands. Not like here anyway.” I rubbed my forehead because just thinking about the major discussion we’d had over this thing gave me a headache. “They have this twisted idea that the children should shower as a group because it demystifies the differences between them. They want the children to feel comfortable with their bodies and they get really offended when we call them crazy for even suggesting shared showers. According to them we’re sexualizing children in an unhealthy way.”

  “That’s a joke, right?” Marco said.

  “I’m afraid not.” I exhaled noisily. “I talked to some of the other men about it and we think it’s because they grew up that way and never knew things could be different. It’s almost like they see themselves as gender neutral, and it’s fucking sad.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not something I would laugh about,” Marco pointed out.

  “No, but you get the idea, right? They say outrageous things.”

  “All right.” He nodded and looked to the door. “Shall we?”

  “Uh-huh.” We moved outside and were walking toward the school building when I gave my last warning. “Oh, and Marco. Don’t be surprised if they touch you. It doesn’t mean as much to them as it does to us.”

  Marco nodded but he still looked taken aback when both Pearl and Kya took his hands in a formal greeting.

  For someone who had never met a female before, Marco kept impressively cool when he stood surrounded by a whole group of them. The only time he looked nervous was when Kya patted
his arm. Marco’s eyes flew to Magni before he took a step back. Good move, I thought and smiled.

  Only a few hours after Marco’s arrival, the first group of students arrived. It was five girls, and as agreed upon, we men waited inside the school while the women greeted them. From the looks on the other men’s faces, I’d say we were all a bit awestruck when we watched through the windows.

  The first girl I noticed was Mila. I’d seen her picture and studied her back-story, but to see her in person blew me away. She was adorable and looked like an angel child with her long blond hair, blue eyes, and pretty features. And then when Pearl came to greet her, the little girl’s shy expression vanished for a smile that revealed dimples.

  “Is that the assistant?” Marco asked and pointed out the window to a girl that looked slightly older than the others.

  “Yeah, that must be Shelly,” I said and watched closely.

  “Huh, she doesn’t look like a genius. But then I’ve never met a genius before,” Marco muttered.

  “You’ve met me, haven’t you?” Lord Khan pointed out with a sly smile. He and Pearl had come up with the idea for the school and were both here to see everything went according to plan.

  “Yes, Lord, I apologize,” Marco said quickly and bowed his head.

  “Which one is the twin?” Magni asked.

  “The one talking to Isobel,” I said and pointed to a tall girl standing next to Pearl’s mom Isobel, the chairwoman of the council in the Motherlands who’d come to supervise too. “The girl’s name is Willow.”

  “And does Willow know she has a twin brother?” he asked.

  “Kya says she does.”

  “But does she know he’s coming tomorrow?” Magni asked.

  “I don’t think so,” I answered and creased my eyebrows closely together. “She doesn’t look like a twelve-year-old, does she?” Willow could have easily been fifteen with her curvy body.

  “I like her.” Khan grinned and crossed his arms. “She’s going to get a lot of attention from the boys when she grows older.”

  “Not much older,” Marco muttered in a solemn voice and gave me a concerned look. “She’s too beautiful.”