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“I must have a word with King Gremlo, Queen Masa.” I say calmly.
She looks to the guards and then to my rear, and before she speaks, my uncle’s voice comes from inside. “Let him come in.”
The guards move but my mother doesn’t move immediately. I stand in front of her.
“Queen Masa, may I have a word with you?” Zod says behind me.
My mother gives me one last suspicious look before she exits, and the guards close the door behind me. I find my uncle in his wide throne. A memory of my father sitting on the very chair comes to me and I have to force my feelings down.
He doesn’t look up from the ghoul sculpture he is refining with his sculpting knife. It is a similar one to one he made me when I was a boy. It reminds me of when I was growing up and my father was alive, and he was my beloved uncle.
He was the best wood sculptor in our tribe and his skill was unparalleled. He designed a lot of the mountain and was with me and my father’s team when we built everything.
He looks so far from me now. So different even as he is still the same. The crown of bones he dons on his head surely looks like it doesn’t belong to him.
I am not surprised he took over, but I am surprised he is clinging to my crown. I never thought he had any intentions on the throne. He was always happy in his workshop and with his projects. He wasn’t even a keen soldier; he went because he was the King’s brother. But I guess power does corrupt.
“Do you plan on making me disappear with your stare, nephew, or you will say what you mean to say?” He doesn’t lift his head nor miss a beat as he slices little pieces of the wooden ghoul.
I don’t know why but words dissolve on my tongue, and I stare at him a little longer.
Silence settles longer between us.
“The day is slipping.” He says after a few minutes.
“I thought we were kin, uncle.” I say finally.
“Speak your mind, Igor.” He says, still with hyper focus on his ghoul.
“You have known me since birth, uncle. You were there when I skinned my first kill and in my first war. Why tempt my madness?”
To that he stops, and I see the slightest of stiffening, but he raises his head steadily, eyes hard and challenging like someone who knows they have the upper hand. He moves slowly and places the ghoul on the desk in front of him and he slowly leans back and settles in the power of the seat, like he is provoking me.
“Because I can.” He answers calmly, confidence oozing out of him.
“I could still challenge you.”
“But you won’t,” he says. And upon seeing the question on my face, he continues. “The human girl, she makes you soft. Zod told me how you allowed the humans to humiliate you for her.” He spits on the ground before he stands up. “You disgraced yourself and you expect me to hand you the crown? The crown of our ancestors?”
Shock and embarrassment wash over me in waves and waves.
The way my uncle is looking at me fills me with so many overlapping emotions, I have no idea which one to pay attention to. I knew Zod went a month before, but we didn’t discuss what he saw. And it is clear they knew everything, and they left me there to die at the hands of the humans.
“You aren’t worthy of leading this tribe anymore, Igor. And you should have stayed with the humans,” he says.
I clench my fists, stubbornness from deep within and my pride surfacing at just the right moment.
“You are wrong. My mate and my children don’t make me weak. They make me even stronger than I was. I accumulated wins in the human world, but I also admit to my losses. I accept my lowest points. But that doesn’t give you any rights to my throne.” My voice comes out with the rage I feel inside.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s doubtful. You are still just doing what benefits you and you care nothing about this tribe.”
“It is still mine. I will challenge you for it.” I state.
“Even if you did, and even if you won, you still won’t be accepted as King here. You ran from the humans with your tail between your legs and you think our people can still respect you?”
I take a step for him, my anger threatening to blind me. “They will bow to me.”
“And that right there is your problem. You say you are different, but look at you shaking, wanting to beat us all into submission. Have you truly learnt nothing?” He says calmly, too calmly. Then I see it. I see him, his intentions and my face contorts in a myriad of emotions and I have to steady my breath.
