21. Kian
KIAN
"I'll be with you in a moment," Turner said. "I'm summarizing what we discussed with Losham."
The others had left shortly after the call had ended, but Turner stayed, scribbling on his yellow pad.
"Take your time." Kian opened his laptop and started scrolling through his emails.
He frowned at one from Bowen. Why was the Guardian emailing him?
Curious, he opened it and scanned the contents.
The first page listed the reasons the Eight wanted to move to the village; the second listed what they were offering; the third had no heading, so he read it first.
"Take a look at this." He turned the laptop around and pushed it across the table.
Turner read it all the way through.
"That's a well-written document," he said. "The author is probably Petrov. He wrote it like a scientific paper."
"Probably." Kian pulled the laptop back toward him and looked at the third page again. "This all sounds perfectly reasonable, and it answers all my objections, but I still feel uneasy about letting them into the village."
"The lab part can be handled easily," Turner said, turning to a fresh page. "Provided William can make space. The problem is that William and his crew are not diligent about following the security protocol. They will have to do much better for this to work."
Turner was right. William's lab could be locked down tighter than Fort Knox, but with no real threats in the village, they were lax with protocols.
"William isn't going to be happy about locking things down because of the Eight."
"You can always section off an area for Petrov and Dimitri," Turner said. "Something with an automatic lockdown the moment any of the Eight set foot on that level. Shouldn't be too difficult to implement. The injections will have to happen in the clinic."
"I still don't like it." Kian pushed back from the table and stood.
"I hate treating them like this, but I'd hate it even more to take the risk of letting them into the village, knowing what they can do.
I've been postponing deciding their fate, but I can't do that anymore.
I also need to decide what to do with Navuh.
I can't keep him locked up forever in the keep's dungeon.
Well, I could, if not for Areana. My mother wants me to find a solution. "
He walked to the window and looked down at the café below.
"I can't kill him, I can't put him in stasis, and I can't release him."
Behind him, Turner chuckled. "Merging your two problems might be the perfect solution."
Kian turned around. "What do you mean?"
"Put the Eight in charge of Navuh," Turner said. "They are immune to his compulsion and have a built-in incentive to keep him from escaping. They are not going to kill him either, because they like and respect Areana."
"They pulled a prank on him, and Areana wasn't happy with them for it, but I loved it."
"Indeed." Turner tapped his pen on his yellow pad. "You can build a small enclosure outside the village proper to house Areana, Navuh, and the Eight."
Kian arched a brow. "In the same house?"
"That's an option. Or two neighboring houses. Or just a guard post where they would take turns guarding him. Not all eight are required to be there. Two at a time would do. Areana gets the nice house Annani wants her to have, the Eight get a job to do, and you get the best guard detail possible."
Kian returned to the conference table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
"The Eight want to live together, and that's not a preference; it's how they function.
We can't build anything big enough for eight, let alone eight with mates, which they'll one day have, and even if we manage to do that, their mates would not want to live in seclusion from the rest of the village or next to Navuh. "
Turner nodded. "They can live in separate houses that are connected somehow. Leave it to the architect to solve."
"Kalugal's house is big," Kian said. "He got away with it because most of it is built underground."
"You can have him build it," Turner suggested.
Kian chuckled. "You want Kalugal to build his father's prison."
"I want Kalugal to build his mother a house, and a guard house next to it, and pay for both."
"I like the way you think." Kian pulled out his phone and called his cousin.
Kalugal picked up on the second ring.
"How can I help you on this lovely Monday morning?"
"Turner and I came up with a plan to resolve the situation with your parents."
Kalugal listened as Kian laid out the idea. "Two structures," Kalugal said. "Separate or connected?"
"I haven't thought it through yet," Kian admitted. "What do you think?"
"I think connected by a passage but independent. My mother wouldn't like sharing a house with her mate's guards. She wouldn't have minded servants, but that's not the same."
"No, it's not."
There was a sigh. "To be honest, I don't want him anywhere near me. Not near my house, not near my wife, not near my son."
"I understand, and I feel the same way. I'll consult with Gavin about the location. Do you want to join the meeting?"
"Naturally. I'll talk to Lokan, not because he gets a vote, but because he needs to be informed."
"That's fair. And speaking of a vote, the council will need to vote on this. It's not something I can decide on my own. I'll make the calls first to see if we have enough votes to pass it. If we do, I'll schedule the call with the Eight and share the good news."
Kalugal snorted. "I'm not sure they'll view it as good news. Guarding a former despot isn't exactly a fulfilling job. I'm sure they have higher aspirations than that."
"Probably," Kian agreed. "But for now, that's the best I can offer them."