Durin glared at Tykar.
"Do you suppose you can do better, cousin?"
"Oh, yes. I can. And that's not an assumption."
"What do you expect? That I can't sit on the throne so that you can take possession of my kingdom and my wife?"
Tykar stood up and left his glass on the table, before approaching and standing very close to Durin, their noses almost touching.
"I want that, yes. But fairly, 'cousin'. I want you to have these two things, before I steal them from you, because right now, I'm the more likely Pharaoh than you are and I'm no coward. I don't kick dead dogs." Tykar said and left.
Durin looked at Mycon.
"We should raise snakes."
Mycon smiled reassuringly.
"Tykar doesn't want your job, Durin. You mustn't provoke him."
"I'm not afraid of him."
"You don't need to fear your brother. The greatest threat to you is your own attitude."
"Do you think Tykar won't try to do everything he can to take my kingdom?"
Mycon took a deep breath and stood up.
"Durin, there has never been a Duhin in our history who inherited this blood from his mother and father. Your brother is totally committed to his name. And he has never spoken of his rights. He's older than you, and has the purest blood..."
"He's a bastard."
"...he has always done the Great Pharaoh's bidding without question. You may not know it, but Tykar will follow you, because he loves you, but if he believes that you are not committed to our people, who are his priority, Tykar will not 'try' to take your kingdom, he will take possession of it and with the support of the people." Mycon said and left.
...
Yuki approached the balcony of her room and looking out into the garden, saw a man with a beard and completely white hair walking distractedly while looking at the flowers. She noticed that she hadn't seen anyone who looked like that before, and felt like talking to a stranger. She put on clothes similar to those of the young women in the harem and went out into the garden.
She approached the man and felt at ease when he gave her a friendly smile.
"You look worried." He said, frowning at the clouds as she approached him.
"Who are you? A Gumi?"
He smiled understandingly.
"That's not what you came here for. You don't want to know who I am."
Yuki felt her face burn with embarrassment. She knew she was a person with an expressive face and that always embarrassed her.
"I feel frustrated. I've never been to this place and yet... One day after arriving here, I already feel at home and not even on the island where I was brought up did I feel this way."
"Have you ever thought that it might be because your heart recognizes your home?"
"No. I'm not from this place."
"Why are you so sure of that?"
Yuki smiled.
"For a start? I haven't seen anywhere where less well-off people can live in this country. We must have covered the whole territory in an airplane, and all I've noticed is that everyone seems prosperous. I come from a poor family. What about your looks? You're all like the children of the same mother and father. You're all tall, have blue eyes and... You're blond. I'm not even five feet tall and my hair is black."
"One day flying over our country wouldn't allow you to see even a third of this kingdom. It's much bigger than you might think, and there are very poor people, yes. But they really aren't the majority in our kingdom. And as for our appearance, well, yes. We look alike, but not everyone follows the description that wife Ra gave. Look at Prince Tykar. He has brown eyes and black hair."
"But he's the same height as you." Yuki said, not wanting to say that she was wrong in her observations. "E... Durin told me strange things about him. He said that he wasn't born naturally and that he's his cousin and brother." Yuki said and turned puzzled to the old man. "Do you know who I am?"
He smiled.
"My Farida, everyone knows who you are. These clothes can't hide you. The next time you want to look like one of the women in the harem, hide your face. Only the family and Pharaoh himself can contemplate the beauty of his women. And I don't see anything strange about Tykar's conception, even though his mother isn't one of the young women on our list of possible mothers of Pharaoh's heirs. And Tykar probably wouldn't have survived if it hadn't been for his mother's kinship to the Great Pharaoh, because our laws can be cruel and condemn to death any child heir who isn't born in the palace. Tykar was spared because no more brothers were born to Durin. Generally, due to the large number of women at his disposal, a Pharaoh has many children, they are necessary for a... A task that you will learn about one day, if you stay here. But Durin's father wasn't blessed with many sons and before Durin and Tykar were born, the people were already worried about the future of the kingdom, with no heirs."
"Was Tykar's mother related to the Pharaoh?"
"She was the daughter of Pharaoh's younger brother."
"She must have been much younger than him. His people must have found that difficult to accept."
"No. She was exactly ten years younger than Pharaoh. That's not an unusual difference. Pharaoh's brother wasn't bound by the dictates of future Pharaohs and could lie with whomever he wanted, without waiting until he was twenty-one to experience the delights of a woman. Pharaoh's brother, at the age of fifteen, impregnated a woman from the Ice Island, and Tykar's mother was born from this relationship. The girl grew up within the confines of the palace, but she was never allowed inside, and the people never accepted her. She was the daughter of a foreigner. The daughter of our enemies. When the Great Pharaoh reached marriageable age at twenty-one, the girl was not yet eighteen, and he could not choose his own wife. He was forced to marry Durin's mother. And he stayed married to her for more than twenty years before she bore him a son. As I said, the people no longer believed that it was possible for our Pharaoh to bear any children, until he, who had never forgotten Tykar's mother, won her over and she became pregnant. This was considered unconventional, and therefore bizarre, but the Gumis were willing to accept that the child, whether male or female, would be heir to the throne, when Durin's mother, unaware of what was happening, also announced her pregnancy. Of course, after that, the Great Pharaoh, supported by the Gumis who came to believe that the absence of children was motivated by Pharaoh's displeasure, decreed the end of the mission of the coming Pharaohs to marry a woman who was not chosen by himself."
"Where are Durin and Tykar's mothers now?"
"They're..."
"Look!" Yuki interrupted him by pointing to the forest at the back of the palace.
Some men in blue clothes were coming out of the earth, as if sprouting from the ground, and circling the palace. She didn't feel afraid, but she knew that the presence of these people was threatening.
"Who are they?" She asked, turning to the old man when she noticed his silence.
He stared at her intently.
"What are you looking at, snowflake?"
"What do you mean, what? You're not seeing the..." She said and looked again at the same place, but all that was there was the palace garden. "But I saw..."
"I imagine you did."
She turned to the old man determined to get answers.
"Do you know why I see these things?"
"Wasn't that your first vision?"
"I sometimes see Durin's eyes turn into flames. And I couldn't tell if the other things I saw were dreams or daydreams."
He frowned and looked at where Yuki had dazzled the forest.
". What about the visions? I don't know how to explain them. Sometimes they're just memories of other lives, forgotten inside us and which can be useful in the present day, and sometimes they can be a vision of what's yet to come. Things that no eye has ever seen. A hope or... A warning."
Yuki pondered that answer. It didn't mean much, but it made sense.
"Durin says I'm an ice queen. What does that mean?"
"Have you ever seen a snowflake?"
"Of course I have." She replied impatiently.
"Imagine an ice storm. How many snowflakes could there be in that storm?"
"Many."
"Yes. Many, but a few don't fall apart with time, or with the approach of the sun. We call these few survivors ice queens."
Yuki laughed.
"I don't understand any of this."
"You'll understand when the time is right."
"Um. You were telling me about the mothers of Pharaoh's children."
"Yes, but Tykar is getting closer. I think you'd better talk to him now. Maybe some other time we'll finish this conversation?" He bowed and walked away.
Yuki watched Tykar approach her attentively. He was a beautiful man and she couldn't ignore that. She felt something unsettling when he was near her. She felt safe. And that could turn out to be a problem, since that feeling wasn't very common in her life.